Mike Garland, AKA Model Magic, has been one of the top drag racing photographers and modelers in the Midwest for many years. Mike creates and hosts events at a scale version of the Vallco Drag Racing Game. You may have seen Bret Kepner's story about Mike's setup in SS&DI some years ago. One of the cars in the game has been our very own Draglist U.S. Rat fuel funny car, complete with 481 inches of John Rodeck's best under the floppy part! Mike races it along with several other "real" and "imaginary" funny cars in his game.

Mike also owns his own Rat-powered alky funny car (a REAL one – the ex Nick Boninfante Raybestos car) that has been bouncing between hitting the strip or going on the block, depending on Mike's sanity level and money supply. A few months ago, Mike called and said that he was going for it, and asked if he could name the car the Draglist U.S. Rat. Of course, I said, "AWESOME!" Mike then modeled these renditions of the paint job that would adorn not only the model car, but also the actual Draglist U.S. Rat flopper.

I was going to hold off on the big world premiere of this awesome match race funny car, but I got a call from Mike tonight that told me I should spill the beans about the car while I still could. Seems Mike's had a generous offer to buy the funny car and has decided to take the guy up on it. Selling the ex fuel flopper will being in enough money for a new computer and the latest in digital photography gizmos that modern drag photographers need to stay competitive in that field.

So... have a look at what might have been the Draglist.com U.S. Rat! If you scroll up and down the screen real fast (blending all the photos), you might see the blur that we were gonna be! Seriously, congrats to Mike on the sale and thanks for even considering putting us on the strip. Who knows? Perhaps one day the Draglist U.S. Rat will hit the strips. In the meantime, it will race on in Mike Garland's basement, in the Match Race Madness Computer Game, and maybe even on NitroSim.com one day soon...