Technical Legend or a Myth Or a Crack Pot. Tell a Story.

The guy on here always talking about 900 hp Y blocks.

 

Y not?

 

You know how it is old race cars get faster the longer the story is told, there's a similarity to women there some where. Old girlfriends got faster, I don't think that's it.

 

Early 70s I had a black '64 'vette with a 327/ 4 speed. Had no idea what it had in the 327 but it was fast.
There was a guy from the next town over that had a 65 GTO....one of those pale yellow jobs with a black vinyl top. He was whuppin up on everybody with that car but refused to open the hood.
Well, one night he came to town to race and a whole gang of us crossed the river to the Washington side where there was a really long straight stretch perfect for racing. The GTO guy beat Sonny's 55 nomad, Fisher's 340 duster and a few more . It was my turn but before we could get lined up, the cops were coming! They turned on their lights and sirens a good 3 miles from us and we scampered across the bridge into Oregon. Never got to race the mystery GTO but later heard it had a 427 Chevy motor in it.

 

That's a great story!

 

I never went there but that sounds like Alcoa (Vancouver), heard stories through my high school years, 70-72 about it.

 

I guess, I have to tell a few about my friend John! He was my closest friend,in distance, from the ranch growing up, just over 3/4 mile! We were in the same grade in school, but John was three years older than me.
We were at a friends house in Oktaha and John showed up in his Dads 1958 Ford pickup with a Y-block. He got ready to leave and flooded it, so my friend Randy told John to “ hold it on the floor” ! Well, John did…that truck started…..and John still held it on the floor, despite us hollering at him! Well, that old Y-block wound up and up…..till the clutch exploded! Luckily most of the parts went down, saving John’s feet, but some went into Randy’s Mom’s house and garage! Scared the Hell out of us! Those of you that have seen it, know what I’m talking about!
The next day at school,John told us that he knew that clutch was getting ready to blow…..because he felt it building up pressure when he came off the hill we both lived on, that day!


This is only one of many stories I lived growing up in rural Oklahoma!






Bones

 

Nope, Denny. I lived in The Dalles and the GTO guy was from Wasco.

 

In my very young working days I ran three steel foundry furnances on the graveyard shift. My helper had a pretty hot Cuda and was always spoutin' off about it bein' so fast that he could leave his place five minutes after shift started and clock in on time. Funny thing was, that on the days he missed work I always clocked in five minutes late....

 

I believe we've all heard the story of the cute car girl that the deal was " If you beat me, you can eat me", Well.... I went to high school with her. 1964, My avatar was the fastest car in my high school, my only defeat from a fellow high schooler came from Bonnie driving her Dad's hopped up 57 Corvette, she rowed the gears as good as anybody, we dated for a short time, her Dad was the coolest guy ever, he liked me more than she did AND she was a sweety that in fact did taste good. She dumped me as I did not fit into her future plans she told me much to her Dad's disappointment he told me. I stopped at his shop house for some years. Hmmm......Another legend ? I raced Midgets and Wing Sprint cars for many years (21) and like All Old Racers, "The Older we get, the Faster we were" AND "I am a Legend in My Mind" LOL

 

So... what was in the bag?

Could be... both Harrison Ford and Jesus were carpenters as a first career

 

Once got a speeding ticket in West Texas for going 100 mph in a snowstorm.
Didn't realize the Texas State Patrol was behind me until I stopped for gas in
Amarillo. Sent the local Justice of the Peace two $100.00 money orders with only
the number of the ticket included. The ticket never appeared on my record.
Twenty years later the money orders were returned to me with no note,
uncashed. True story or not.
E.

 

I love the bullshit stories with this content.....
The passenger can't reach out and grab the cash , but the driver can upshift into 3rd.

 

As I'm sure many of you have, Often heard of the girl with "if you can beat me you can eat me" lettered on the car but never saw it myself!

 

My luck, I’d win, she’d get out of the car and look just like me

 

More than one bullshitter told me he did the burning dog shit on the porch trick. Of course, the ''victims'' fell for it each time.

 

I once worked with a guy, he was the bosses 19 year old son. He was the guy that just rubbed you wrong every chance he got & enjoyed it. .... A total ass.
Nobody liked him, he was just the owners son & you put up with his bragging & superior attitude or find another job.

His dad helps him out to buy his first new car. This was 1979. He picked a trans am with every hot rod box checked. Black, gold pin striping, T-tops, 4spd manual, hot motor, custom wheels.

It took a few months to be delivered I had to hear how bad ass he was because he had such a great car ... every day. .... I was so sick of it .... Finally the day came it was delivered, he picked it up at lunch time & it was Friday. We worked the rest of the day ... it really was a cool car sitting in the parking lot.

I came to work Monday, He totaled it Friday night. From Puyallup to Tacoma is River road.
He had less then 100 miles on the car, he hit a concrete barrier @100+ mph.
Thank God he had minor injuries, the battery was shoved into the core support.

Naturally it was fully insured since it was financed.
The insurance company would only replace it with the cheapest T/A available.
It was white, no T-top .... smallest motor , auto transmission .... the interior was cloth & some sort of plaid rose/grey combo, hub caps .... perfect Grandma's car.

The end of the story, I would almost have to laugh at the guy as he got into his Grandma car while he was making monthly payments for his "Hot Rod"
He really did get humble & turned into a very decent person going through this life lesson.

 

Somewhere along life's highway I took a job in a family owned Porsche/VW independant shop.
It was in Sacramento, fun place, 1970. The service mgr. was a practical joker, one day a hip dude drove in with a VW bus, '68 with 21 windows...Said his clutch wouldn't go all the way down, he had driven it in from Reno.
Svc. Mgr Dave drives it in on the floor, parks it diagonally, grabs a creeper, goes under.
Some noise, he's pulling on something up over the tranny...Then he slings this thing (looked like a pair of tan pants?)
across the floor, it coiled up and started rattling... Big western diamondback rattler!
I was 10 feet from it, but Big Richard scooped it up with the big flat shovel and tossed it out the back door.
The watch dog got it.
I was shook up, everybody laughed, the hip dude left, no charge.
Inside that week, I went across the street for lunch, I was doing an engine in the unit room. When I returned, I opened the deep upper drawer in my rollaway, and saw something moving...it was brown and tan...SNAKE!
I slammed the drawer shut, and everybody was laughing silly.
I thought it was the rattler...it was a gopher snake the svc Mgr had seen and caught. Ha ha!
Sooo... We had a roll of Packard 440 spark plug cable we used for VW ignition cable. I unrolled about 10 feet of it, put an end on and stripped the other end 6".
Ran the wire from Dave's VW coil to the passenger door, inside and under the loose driver seat cover.
Dave got in it after work, turned the key, and almost jumped through the roof! He looked surprised...Then, before we could laugh, he did it again! 3 seconds each. Now he gets out, and is kinda growling and laughing.
"Oh, ho, ho..." he said. I just knew there would be more to follow...

 

More More More!!!

 

Was work`in on a 40 Ford Business coupe last year. A guy comes in and says a kid had a business coupe years ago when he went to high school. A real ladies man. He got hooked up with a gal who was over energized. They would go out to the coupe during lunch time and climb in the trunk area and go at it. I guess this happened in the evening too. Everyday. So eventually the guy ends up in the hospital for being physically and mentally drained. In the end he breaks up with her.

 

Hey these are some Great Stories!
I have time for a Jeep story.
I got my 1st Jeep when I was 14. Given to me by a WW2 vet. I was Jeep Krazy back them days & I was Overly Thanking this man for giving me this Jeep. He finally wrangled his hand back from my grasp & said while rubbing his arm "Boy, don't be in such a Hurry to Thank me, you aint Never had a Jeep before, you don't Know Nothin about Jeeps".
"What about Jeeps" I asked.
"Jeeps is Parculiar Critters, them babys will run Perfect as long you headed away from the house. But as soon you turn that steerin wheel & start for home, one of two things is apt to happen. It's either gonna Quit Runnin or somthin Real Important gonna Fall Offa it".
Ahhh, what's an Old Man Know, right?
So me & two buds took off to recover this Gifted Jeep, an M38. It was backed into the woodline at a cornfield next to an old GMC pickup. 1st thing we noticed the right front spring was Missing! They was a Persimmon tree blown over close by & we had a bow saw in the back of my bud's dad's 70 Datsun- henceforth known as the "Tow Vehicle". So we sawed a block outta that tree & wedged it up under that Jeep & off for home we took! 2nd thing we noticed that Jeep didn't have no Brakes! Solution to that problem was to keep the tow vehicle going Faster than the Jeep! Problem Solved! I was steering the Jeep & thought we were gonna be OK when the right rear Axle, Tire & Hub assy ran outta the axle housing & took a whole row of Mailboxes down! So there we were in Vancleave Mississippi, dusk dark, no lights, on the ground. Them coonasses that belonged to them mailboxes lived down in a hollar & had come out on their porches to try & see what was goin on up in the road. Solution to the problem was to drag the Jeep around 180 degrees, lift the rear up & set it's bumperettes onto the tow vehicle bumper & use our shirts & belts to tie them together. I steered it home Backwards in the dark but we made it!
That was my 1st Jeep adventure & every other subsequent Jeep Adventure has been much the same..
When I get time I tell yall about the time my grand daddy shot up his 49 GMC with his 1911s!

 

Was working on a 64 Ford. A guy comes in and asks if he can open the door and look. Yes. So he is looking at the door panel and see`s where the crank handle is. He says, that must have been what I hit my head on. Back years ago when he was in school. He was in a very bad wreck and spent two weeks in a coma. He`s a very strange dude who never spends any money. He has 2 oil filters for each of his vehicles. One of them is always upside down on his workbench draining. He does like the Ala Cart as he two models of it. One of them is put together and one is sealed in the box. He loves telling the story of how he sold a mustang to a kid. They put mudflaps on it with Yosemite Sam on them that said Kick Ass. KKICK ASS.

 

About chevy57dude's mention of a bag of burning shit on the front step, I watched my older brother do this to our asshole neighbor across the street. But before he lit the bag on fire he rubbed some on the door handle. He lit the bag on fire rang the door bell and took off running around the corner of the house. The neighbor came out, stomped the fire out and used cuss words that made Ralphie's Dad look like a saint. When he turned around to open the door I thought he was having a stroke . About then I should sneak in our back door .

 

"Snakes! Why is it always snakes?" (credit Indiana Jones)

 

I gotta call bullshit on this one... what high school kid can't handle being "drained" twice a day? That's the kind of stuff dreams are made of.

 

It might of been 3 or 4 times a day. I know a 67 year old guy that has a younger girl friend that they have a very active getting it on life. After 7 years, all his hair fell out. Everywhere. I think his body can`t keep up. He`s a car guy too.

 

Now I'm calling bullshit. 3 or 4 times a day ??? You would have worn the skin off it by day three............

 

The story was 50 years old when told.

 

A memory/dream/or ? from a Midget race car flip deal, back in the day, not my first or last. I hooked a rut, barrel rolls, then end for end, then lights out, I was higher than the beer stand I was told, junked the car, knocked me silly, in/out of it and woke up in the hospital on an x-ray table. In my mind I truly believe this happened, A beautiful young nurse came over and lifted my gown and checked me out, when done I asked her, see anything you like, her reply, I just wanted to see if it was true, I guess not in your case. LOL The myth/story is, open wheel racers have huge brass balls, not necessarily a fact as today several young women are getting the job done, not so much back in my day. One of my many racing stories and I'm sticking to it.

 

Street race story that many who were there that night on Telegraph Rd can vouch for. There was a guy who had one of newer Vettes of the time. My weapon of choice, non-HAMB, was powered by a 468 BBC RHS crate motor and a 150HP Super Power Shot. I wanted a race. He tipped open the front clip (yeah that new) and was showing off the new electronic NOS system he had. His girl was beautiful, bored, sitting in the passenger seat. He was under a big light in the lot, and slowly drawing more and more of a crowd. She was wearing a 1pc turquois blue pullover dress, nice and tight. As he babbles away to the crowd she's doing something with her nails or whatever, bored. Had one leg up and crossed a bit, light shining in revealing "the promised land" in full view. Yeah, she was freestylin that night, he thought the onlookers were impressed with electronics and paid no attention to what got our attention. Logic says she knew what she was doing and when she shifted in her seat less interest was expressed in this white Vette.

He wouldn't race for money, "...I mean let's go just for fun." He kept saying. No thanks. A while later another race was set up on Grand River headed east (you locals know what was up back then). While out to watch and try for a race he got to me again, "c'mon 1 race." and I caved. He wanted a roll, I said leave when you're ready. Watching over I looked at her, winked, and he took off. Of course it was no contest but I didn't want to beat him too bad, got off the juice in 2nd and just barely took him by a fender. "That was so close! I wanna go again!" "Ok, last time, slower roll." As I watched she's looking over again, I mouthed "bye bye" he goes, I held the juice all the way thru. Covered him by at least 2 or 3.

Promised land indeed, I'd be surprised if anyone local to Motown and Telegraph Rd street racing doesn't remember the white ZR1 guy, and his girl.