History Your wildest street cars..

My 57 looked pretty mild...bought it with a 283, 4 speed and I built a 12&1/2 to one 331, Crane 310 degree cam, headers and purple hornie header mufflers. That sucker was fast & LOUD! I once had a belly full of bud and did a burn out over a speed bump and actually snapped the axle housing in half! Should have installed a 57 Poncho rear but I was getting married and sold the car..bought a 69 Olds Royale coupe...yawn!

 

So you are the crazy dude that owned this 57 Saw it many times and heard the scuttlebutt around town about it and not many people even figured they stood a chance against it LOL.

What I wouldn't give for a Scarpelli's hot dog with michagan sauce right now and curly fries

 

What you had was an Olds Ram Rod (labeled or not). A famed (& rare) giant killer of the era. A good friend had one, new. Made havoc of most of (if not all) the King's men. A street racers's dream. Big guns might reel 'em in, in the quarter. But for the most part, on the street, them was some tuff contenders.

 

Funny you say that as this is the only photo I have of this car, lost a whole packet of photos of it in the late 70's.
Actually wish someone could bring some life back to it in color, I really thought it was a good looking car.

 

Damn...Now your making my mouth water

 

Loudbang,
They are still open. Went there in the fall with my wife while we were out roaming around the northwest corner, it's my favorite area of the state.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

Yea but it would take me a 30 plane trip to get there now from where I am I did make a stop there the last time I was in CONUS about 6 years ago.

And a stop at Busters drive-in in Bristol on Rt 6 just about as good michigans and BIRCH BEER but they close like labor day and re-open about Memorial day.

 

He edited you leaf spring setup out.

 

I didn't even catch that one, those were Dodge Coronet springs that the previous owner had installed. Had a mishap when I did the first launch test in the driveway, apparently the u-bolts holding the rearend housing had not been adequately tightened and the rearend rotated and spit the driveshaft out into the driveway. After the carnage was cleaned up the next order of business was to build a driveshaft loop, glad that didn't happen at the track.

In the 64/65 Chevelle drag car photo thread, I posted this story of my first pass at the dragstrip.
Not so funny story: previous owner had installed Porsche reclining bucket seats, did not know that the catch was a little dicey, first pass ever(PIR) do my burnout--launch--second gear, holey shit I'm looking at the headliner(at night), pull myself up find first gear, continue on. Not what you would call a great first experience at the drag strip. Note to self-- change shorts, fix seat.
Needless to say kid goes home glad to not have to replace any sheet metal.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/64-65-chevelle-drag-cars-photo-thread.587496/page-7

 

Here's one colored up...Looked blue in the original photo so that's what I made it. If it was some other color I can fix it...

 

Moose
Not that I expect anyone to be able to recreate my memory of it but that is really a bit brighter than I recall. That blue sure does make it "pop" though.
The other thing that set it apart was the gold wheels which was a poor kids way of pretending they were Halibrands.
Was hoping to not lose the original features, but make it clearer and a little less grainy without a lot of work.
Thanks.

 

OK...One last rendition...

 

Very cool.
Thanks Moose.

 

When I was in high school one of my buddys had a 38 ford pickup, 302 set back 10%, 4 speed, 9 inch. For a couple summers he was not beat on the street. I never did find out what all was done to that 302, he would never let anyone know. It was a show quality truck, and super fast, he ran her all the time. Then after he graduated the engine and trans were pulled and the truck was sold as a roller, went to NY somewhere.

 

Don't know how fast it really is but @Rand Man your coupe sounds like a bad mother fucker! Think if you rolled up on me i wouldn't want to run em I'd just want to giggle at how rad it is

 

Exwife destroyed all my pics. I started with a 68 nova, 327, 4 spd. Had a 70 after that, then a 70 450 HP 454 chevelle, 2 barracudas, after I returned to chevy with a 70 chevelle, 396 4 spd, first dragstrip pass, 13.26. Blowed that engine and built a 427 that run pump gas and would run 11.50's right off the street. I kept breaking the 12 bolt, so I sold the body and built a 68 camaro. With the same engine, super unleaded and 104 octane booster it went 10.33.

 

Built this thing from scratch for next to nothing. The 4.56 gears got the 283 moving pretty good. Got sunburned bad a few times.

 

Mike
There wasn't a badder car on the road at that time than an LS-6 Chevelle.
At 17, I drove a nearly new one, a 4 speed version, but only a few miles to help an older neighbor retrieve his girlfriends' wrecked car.
If given that opportunity again, I'd be far less cautious.

 

I think it's the one I have now
1991 S-10 with a 468 BB, 4 link 9 inch Ford
B&M Hydro

 

These days you'd have to take out a bank loan to build it

 

When I got back from Nam I bought a built 66 GTO that was running in the mid 10's. It was my death wish car. Drove it everyday for a couple years. Damn I miss that car. I had a 66 GTO conv. After that but it was never the same.


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Some great stuff being posted here...Keep em coming!!!!

 

Heck, I'm still at it at 50 yrs old ! My well documented small block, full spool Henry J build here on the HAMB seen it turn into a low 11 second car. I'm currently looking for solid 10 second time slips in its rebuild with the new chassis and big block.
Then there's this crazy truck I finally got on the road with its blown 540, full manual valve body and no sense of traction. Crazy is alive and well over here !

 

Now that's music to my ears!!!!!

 

Did that sedan ever get finished? I really dig where its headed!

 

Thanks for the mention of the Model A Tim. I used to have a '57 Chevy. That 327 probably made more power with a more modern induction, but the A feels a lot faster. Goes to show a bit about power to weight ratio. It is quick and fun, but really doesn't match some of the cars listed here.


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I have had a long list of hot street cars over the years. all but one has been mopar powered. I had a real hot 64 plymouth sport fury that got so carried away i had to take it off the street. It ended up running 9.5 at the track. I built a hot four speed 66 sattelite for my wife right after we got married out of some real good parts i had laying around. When my son was old enough to get out of junior dragsters and into a big car we found a 69 super bee shell and built it into a street terror. He wanted a bee like he grew up riding around in. Its built with a 500 inch indy cylinder head engine. We like four speed cars so its got a slick shifted 18 spline hemi box in it. We put dana 60s in everything so the bee has one also. He recently took the six pack off and put on a f.a.s.t. efi unit on it. Now its almost too much. I still build some crazy stuff my latest project is well documented on the hamb. Its under rebuilding after the crash. Basically i took my 31 chrysler coupe and turned it into a nitro burning street driven fuel altered. Its gone well into the eightes on easy passes. It also has competed on drag week several times. Before anyone calls b.s. visit the site and see for yourself. Our goal is to go deep into the sevens. Everything goes faster with nitro including street cars.

 

Well, that's just fuckin NUTS! I love it.

 

You can make a car fast on the drag strip, but it costs a lot of money. You can make a car fast street light to street light, and it just takes the right combination of parts, and the knowledge of how to drive it to accomplish the goal of the minute.

I had a pretty fast street car in the late 70s/early 80s. It grew quite a reputation for a few years. There was no way it was ever going to make a run down the quarter mile though.
I had a lot of fun, broke a lot of parts, and made a lot of guys unhappy with my little 318, 4 speed, in that 70 Road Runner. It was one of those cars where you really had to pay attention when you drove it, or it would kick your butt quickly.

I pulled the motor & trans, and sold off the body to pay the closing costs when we bought our house in the country. It was fun then, but I don't really miss it! Later cars were less edgy, and turned out to be more fun more often. Gene

 

After I just got out of the USMC and was looking for a car spotted a used 69 ford Torino Super CobraJet that looked interesting but I was really looking for a Mustang Cobrajet but a smart salesman said lets take it for a ride. That was all it took. Slowed to a crawl and nailed it from a slow roll and my god tire smoke and engine noise that sounded like a top fueler and a salesman with a pale face and eyeballs rolled back in his head from FEAR.

Before he could get pissed off I said "I will take it" kept it for 20 years. Still wish I had it.