History Learn me, midwesterners

Maybe it's just me but I notice a lot of rodders on here from my neck of the woods in Wisconsin, Illinois, midwestern area. Sadly, I didn't get to grow up in the era most of you did. Some of you probably have underwear older than me. I grew up on tales of dad's chevelle in the Kenosha area and his memories of "scoopin the loop". My mom even had some stories though mostly about how my dad was arrested for drag racing and stalked the court reporter outside the courtroom eventually convincing her to marry him. What was the Midwestern hotrod scene like back in the day? I always envision west coast but there seems to be a lot of Midwestern folks on here.

 

The Midwest would not be my choice but someone has to live there.

Gary

 

LOL that's just plain mean man.

I was actually not privy to the Midwest rod n custom scene until the '70s. So I am probably not much help. I do know that cruising or as we called it where I was at in high school runnin' the guy was pretty much the same anywhere. Hormones out of control and trying to prove it.

I have seen early cars built around here (late 40s through the '60s) and they pretty much resembled hot rods from both coasts, some mega channel and others suspension drop. Same basic engine and transmission choices, well here in KC the LaSalle tranny was king behind anything with a real motor.

 

It wasn’t a poll but thanks though

 

As a young guy of only 55, I can't comment much on "back in the day," but there was a good cruising scene in Madison, WI in the 70s-80s. Before they made the buss lanes on the square (around the Capitol), there was plenty of stoplight racing. I was only old enough to ride along on some of those trips in the back seat of a Mustang fastback. East Washington Ave was the place to do it in the 80s. And, I could drive then. Plenty of cars, cruising, racing, B.S.ing, a little open intoxicants, some police, etc. My '64 El Camino shortbox stepside (yeah, you read that right) was a P.O.S., but drew a crowd. They had a "Street Machine Nationals" I think in 1980 & maybe '83? After dark, East Wash became the place to be. You would get stopped by the people on the side of the street, right where they had poured the bleach. Even my '65 Ford Custom 500 4 door could make a little smoke from 1 snow tire. Too many squirrels racing & crashing into parked cars, put an end to all of it, if I remember correctly.

 

Tell us about it, do you have any old pics of it you could post?

 

I grew up in Minneapolis and did my drag racing stop light to stop light on Lake Street in the 1960's. We would go from Porkies drive in by Lake Calhoun to Porkies High Lake. Jockeying for position to get next to the guy we wanted to race at the next light.