Just read the April 2014 edition that came in the mail the other day, and it was a great read.
Im sure many of you know a lot about the history and development of the elephant, but check it out if you can. There are articles about the whole Daytona/Petty effort, and an interview with the lead designer who is long since retired, living in the Seattle area, and has never owned a hemi car!
Among lots of other tidbits I never knew, the writer interviewed Garlits in a Waffle House booth, and he said two things that really give you insight into his whole Big Daddy persona.
First, during the interview Garlits asks the writer if he knew what a .45 pistol was, and the guy says no, and then he pulls it out and proceeds to tell him why its his absolute favorite pistol, and the guy asks why, and Garlits says, "because they dont make a .46!"
Second, when they are discussing memories of the first 426 hemis he ever raced, and he supposedly had some of the first the factory delivered (not long after Petty's), he described how he called it the elephant, and how he preferred his older 392's, because they were quicker than the new 426's, until the night he was actually thinking of quitting, and he decided to run the 426, but set advance to 40 degrees, almost intending to blow it up on purpose (his 392's couldnt take more than about 34 degrees). He set a new world record with it that night at 214 mph. Then, he tells his crew to go to 50 degrees, and they think he's nuts, but he goes out again and hits 219!
