Farewell to the 'Rat
By Bill Pratt
Photos and models by Mike Garland

The Draglist U.S. Rat woulda looked like this.... boo hoo. Photo and model by Mike Garland
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.

This photo might be as close as we get to seeing the
Draglist U.S. Rat funny car on the strip.
Photo by Mike Garland
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.

Here's the top view of the planned, but now doomed,
Draglist U.S. Rat.
Photo and model by Mike Garland
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.

The pure Chevy powered Draglist U.S. Rat was getting ready to rock. Photo by Mike Garland
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...
Bill Pratt