As someone who spent 25 years in the museum business -- and who also
knows as well as anyone that there is both a Good Don and a Bad Don -- I
feel that I must speak up on behalf of the work Garlits has done at his
museum: not only building a collection that is light-years ahead of any
other, but also the restoration work he has done in his own shop. Yes, I
understand that you can walk through the museum and see that (say) the
spindles on such-and-such a car aren't correct, or that the butterfly or
wheels on such-and such a car aren't original. But, by and large, Garlits
has addressed a multiplicity of restoration projects and problems with
absolutely the right instincts.
Some cars merit full-blown restoration, some are better off with just
cosmetic work, some ought to remain pretty much as is when received (people
who restore their own race cars have a lamentable if understandable tendency
to go overboard). But anyone who thinks that the workmanship and attention
to detail on full-blown restorations is in any way deficient ought to hang
around there, as I have, when something is given the treatment.
For starts, the museum has complete runs of just about every drag-racing
periodical that ever existed (that's why I was hanging around), so this
maximizes chances of finding the proper photographic references. Garlits
also has stockpiled a huge cache of parts and pieces, about 50-years-worth,
so this maximizes his chances of finding proper replacements when components
are missing. The people he has doing bodywork and paint are always
first-class, and I'd rate the general quality of care and craftsmanship as
up to most of anything I ever saw done at the Smithsonian.
Most important, though -- as Cole [Coonce] notes -- Garlits beat everyone to
the punch, and, given the increasing scarcity of truly historic cars, I'm
quite certain that nobody will ever be able to match his collection of
original drag-racing machinery. Sure, you can build replicas from scratch,
or starting from a box of miscellaneous components that are said to be
original, but that's another matter altogether.
Bob Post
Robert Post is a curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of American
History and the author of the excellent High Performance, The Culture and
Technology of Drag Racing 1950 – 1990. He wrote this letter in
response to some minor criticisms of some of Don's restorations. bp