Ocala, Florida: Big Daddy Don Garlits Museum Of Drag Racing

A car museum for people who usually don't like car museums, because dragsters aren't really cars -- they're horizontal missiles with wheels. Out front: a monument of a flipping dragster, and an A-7 jet that raced Big Daddy's car.

The museum displays a couple of Texaco manual fuel pumps outside. Besides the automotive collection, there is an old Coke (bottle) machine, a Wurlitzer bubble jukebox, and some vintage slot machines.

On the emergency-exit door at the back of the museum is an official-looking "SPEED LIMIT 300" sign. Funny.

Still an awesome attraction. Plan on about $15 a head. You can totally see "Big Daddy" here when he is not working in his garage.

Evidence of inspired visitors leaving the Garlits Museum of Drag Racing: massive peel-outs and burnt rubber trails in the parking lot.

Now for sale in the gift shop: spark plugs, motor castings, and racing slicks signed by Don. The tires go for over $200, so the spark plugs at $5 apiece -- each in a baggy -- are a relative bargain. Also for $5 are signed "Don Garlits for Congress" brochures (He lost.) Museum of Drag Racing stock certificates sell for $50 apiece. A new Drag Racing Hall Of Fame Memorial stands out by the road. Atop the concrete base is a live-size bronze replica of the dragster Big Daddy flipped over and crashed in the early 1980s. Don Garlits emerged unscathed. The dragster is frozen nose up, in mid-flip.