Has anyone REALLY street raced? (pics)

That was GREAT video. But, they looked and sounded American to me. And it looked like 1/8 mile street racing. A definate 1st for me

 

I still race here and there, but now a days you have to be carefull not to get caught. Cops really don't mess with me, I guess its because I drive a muscle car. Not that much action anymore but I do get the ocational rice burner that wants to give me there money.
Here it is 1966 chevelle pure american muscle....

 

That featured some local guys to me. 1/8th mile is predominately the street scene around these parts for the bigger racers. It's "safer" and easier to find some good spots. There should be some good videos for next year with that bunch of guys, lots of upgrading going on over winter. They are American too.

 

I did quite a bit. But I had a real close call that set me straight.

 

The night of July 12, 2007 at around 10:30 p.m. CST, I was pulled over for drag racing a Toyota Supra down Route 14 in Crystal Lake, IL. The officer was very, very angry with me and said that he had the whole thing on video and was going to arrest and charge me with reckless driving ($10,000+ fine) and impound my ’31 Ford coupe (Oh NOooo). He called me a “punk kid” and instructed me to “wipe that smile” off my face”. (Believe me, I am no longer a "kid" and I was not smiling).

He then checked my driving record (no traffic violations in over 20 years) and my age (60). After that he nicely asked me if I ever went to Joliet. I thought he meant Joliet prison (in Illinois) so I answered yes…almost...42 years ago in 1964 when I was 17 and charged in Buffalo Grove, Illinois for loitering during "Buffalo Grove Days". My Dad refused to come bail me out of the BG jail in the middle of the night and the BG police told him they did not have “overnight accommodations”.

<OThe officer said no, he meant Joliet Drag strip. I said oh...and then no but told him I planned to get the coupe timed at Byron (Illinois) drag strip later that summer. He then said that my coupe was a very nice car and stuck his hand in my window to shake my hand after handing me a speeding ticket. I then asked him what speed he had charged me with. He said with doing 60 in a 40 ($75). But then he asked me if I knew how fast I was really going. I answered no as I cannot look at the speedometer when I am driving that fast.

It was a lucky break for me that night.

<OBy the way...I beat the Toyota Supra by at least 6 car lengths.

<O

 

Yep...In Fort Worth every Fri-Sat night from about 75 to when it finally started to die out in 79 or so. The best place was Trinity Blvd, behind Bell helecopter. Also ran out by Miller Brewery and later Mark 4 Parkway. Ran a 68 GTO and later a 69 Mach 1 (and others).

Trinity Blvd was down in the river bottoms and was rough asphalt and dark as pitch, but was wide and four lanes. The only parking was on the gravel shoulder...so if you had the right lane you were racing mere inches from all the cars parked on the shoulder. The best thing was if you were on that road you were a street racer because the road basically went no where (back then), so there was not a bunch of pass trough traffic. Cops pretty much left us alone because it was so far out in the sticks.

Some trailered cars were always out there, but mostly fairly stock muscle cars. A 13 second car would have been a fairly big dog back then. I remember a 69 Camaro and V8 Vega Station wagon with Reher Morrison stickers that flat flew. Also there was Grabber Blue Henry J with a 428 FE w/ 2 fours that was also very fast.

Would love to hear from any DFWers that ran Trinity Blvd back in the day.

 

What was that article from?

 

Drag Racing magazine...Dec 68.

 

Thanks, I hope I have that one

 

Not a magazine car, but this one was definitely a street racer.....don't tell my dad, he never knew

 

Was going through some old photos the other night and came across these.
Pics of my Charger from @ 1996 in all her street race GLORY....
It was in DuPont etching primer...the ugly yellowie stuff.....

The 440 was basically stock internally, except a small, Purple Shaft cam. Had a Team G intake with one of BG's first 750 DP's, and headers.....oh, and a NOS Cheater set at @ 175....
But, I was running a full tilt full manual, reverse pattern 727 with a 3800 stall, 4.10's in the 8 3/4 with 285/60-15 McCreary's.....



Right before heading out for a night on the town....

 

I had the baddest 318 powered, peg legged single exhuast 1968 Plymouth Satellite in S.F.
every 4 door econo box feared me.

I could do high 45's with a strong tail wind.

 

nice rides and cool article about big willie and the street racers.Man looked like they would take over a few city blocks at once when they raced.I wonder what the residents would say or think about that.Me personally I would have loved to be around the starting line rather than the ending in case things got a little squirley...

 

>>>Let's see your Badboys here.>>>

Berlin Turnpike 1979-1982



Al in CT

 

Lots of guys from Ventura area street-raced--here and in the Valley. I started about 1969 till about 1975.
We used Edison Road in Oxnard and Olivas Park Drive in Ventura. I liked Olivas best--better road,but dead-ended into farmer's fields--cops would come down on us without lights--then BAM!--LIGHT UP THE NIGHT!I got real good at haulin ass thru those fields! Hard to believe,but one of my cars was a 67 Chevy van--had a six--then a hot 350/350 turbo--always ran over a hundred--and trying to stop with those tiny 9 in. drum brakes--butt-pucker baby! Had a 58 Chevy wagon with a 409 / dual quads too--then later a 63 Corvair--front motor--straight axle gasser style--some times a small-block-----sometimes a big block. A good friend had a 65 Fury--we did a 440 police motor swap ---we did it on a date night!! The girls got pissed off--but the car got done and raced it the next night.

 

No pics but during high school i had a 1979 vette that i bored and stroked to a 383. Im a Sonoma county native and grew up 5 mins outside of Petaluma where American Graffiti was filmed. I ran against a guy in a 70 chevelle with a big block on Frates rd which is the same rd that they filmed the final race on. he missed a shift and i got the win. that was the most memorable race for me. outside of that i spent my time stomping out guys in Hondas that wouldn"t shut up.

 

Forgot all about Trinity. Went over there once, about '77 or '78. I remember some cars on trailers and it was freezin' cold....always was freezin' cold middle of the night street racing in the winter.

Over in Dallas it was Emerald, Manana, California Crossing, LBJ before they opened up the extension. Went over to Pleasant Grove a few times. Cruising Forest was fun but no serious racing there. This was all '75 to about '82. There were a few hard core cars, low 10's probably, but mostly 12-13 sec streeters.

Lots of fun nights.

 

I did a bit of it with my first car a '55 Ford Club Sedan with a warmed over 292 and 3spd on the column.. nothing fancy but it gave the punk junk crowd a fit and the occasional 5.0 Mustang.
Hwy 19 in St. Pete and hwy 33 in Polk Co. were the usual spots. Tho I didn't go looking for any 'action' every POS import with a spoiler liked to do their best attempt at showing off, reckon because I had loud exhaust and it had a decent sound to it(car sounded better than it looked) they felt compelled to jump bad.
I wish I was around back when all the stories above took place... Sounds like a very exciting time.

 

It was REALLY real enough for me..late 60s in San Antonio on a stretch of road we called "Little Green Valley" Starcrest off of Wetmore Rd..maybe a little over a mile of straight smooth two-lane blacktop..matches would be laid down in school and we'd meet out there..I had my lime-green 327 three-speed 55 Chevy two-door sedan, completely de-chromed with slotted mags in front and 8" cheaters in back, 13 second car, jacked up in back with cheesy traction bars..on weekend nights the action was smokin. Thomas Bros. speed shop would trailer a car out there, Edgar Boecks 57 "The Fugitive" Dean Fishers yellow 55 "The Lemon".. my buddy Bruce and I got a race 421 Pontiac from Thomas Bros. Tempest(they were putting in a Hemi) and put it in his dark green 64 LeMans with a straight axle..Come on guys! I can't be the only one that was there for this shit..no pictures, Hell, I was lucky enough to have a TV set...

 

Any L.A. guys ever run Riverside drive?? south end of Glendale.. early 70's I had a 55 chevy de-stroked 327 t10 poncho rear with the spiders welded.. man... I was sure that puppy was an 11 second car.. Irwindale raceway.. one of those "girls get in free" deals.. I thought Hmmmmmm GIRLS!! what the hell!!... My best run was 13:20 at 98 mph or so... I thought... what the hell???

 

do you remember meeting at York Field over on santa fe springs rd on saturday nites ?

 

Not a street race in the true sense but about 10 years ago I was in the gold coast here in OZ where theres lots of ricer action at night.( like roaches, they only come out after dark) .I was driving my 63 Fury hardtop when some clown in a Mitsu turbo thing comes up my inside at the lights in an attempt at getting in front me before the lane merge.
I waited until he was moving then punched low on the phone and nailed it,by the time I punched 2nd I had passed him and my tires were well lit up . At the next lights I pulled up with a cloud of smoke comming past me..ha ha . The mitsubishi driver pulled up behind and was trying to read what the name of the car was..I got the jump on him again as he tried to read what the badge said in another cloud of tire smoke...feels good to drive an old car .

 

Groucho, yeah man I know what you mean, Not this shit that the ricer's and 11:00 News call street racing, "THE REAL STUFF" maybe someone will have some pic's of the Westside cars, Bimbo, School Teacher, Durocko's Vette, Gene Conway's Nova's, 7 Up Larry's Chev's, Heckle & Jeckles Fairlane, Tarkus's Mustang, Tayco "KID" V-bug, Corvette Eddy's Nova wagon, I will check my attic for pic's but in those days it wasn't about cameras and bullshit, it was about racing...

Remember my post: L.A. Street Racing Archive ? I was hoping that some of the people would have responded............

 

We raced here in wichita from the early 70's to the late 80's setting up a race while on Douglas and in later years Seneca and West streets. I had a 65 dodge short bed truck with a 340/auto. The city clamped down on the "dragging" and basically anyplace car guy gathered for a while. In the late 90's after I started the dyno shop. I found that there were quite afew 500 rwhp plus cars in town and the hang out places. Even went to some late night grudge races at a couple of spots. I have a 75 dodge truck now 440/auto that has an apetite for rice. The kids sure look sour when they waste some squeeze and get beat by a ratty dodge with an old man driving. Especially if the dog is with me. Ive got a really plain 67 four door belvidere 1 that I may give the 440 from a 71 chrysler 300 for a driver.

 

Used to street race myself back in the day.

 

Now, after all that "Late model" street racing & before any drag strips were heard of, let me take you back to "Yesteryear" 1946-1950. It all took place in the Inglewood area of So. Cal. & in the days if the cops saw 2 pipes under the rear bumper, it was an automatic ticket! The whole So. Bay towns then were a virtual hot bed of varied cars from coupes to roadsters & custom convertibles, but Inglewood seemed to be THE place to congegate Friday & Sat. nites. Our old auto shop teacher (Just out of the Marines WWII) was very instrumental in helping guys making their cars go lots faster, since the BIG event then was to make the trip to the "Lakes" to determine just who did have the fastest cars! Just about every Sat. late nite, either at the "Wich Stand" drive in, "Sallys", or "Pat Mars" up on the hill,(by the golf course), all the hot dogs would start appearing to "choose off" each other & then the racing fans would head West on Manchester blvd. to a mile past Sepulveda blvd. where Lincoln blvd. ran at an angle back to Sepulveda, at that time it was all agriculture & bean fields, (Westchester was just beginning). This particular strip of 2 lane black top was just perfect for "Street Racing" back then, the concern for cops was high on all the participants mind as a car at each end of the "course" was equipt with the famous "Appelton" spotlights, & if any "FUZZ" cruised by too close, there was an immediate flashing of lights, warning all spectators & racers to "Split". (One of those nights I almost got stuck in the bean field loose dirt when the "signal" flashed!) Most of the hot dog racers were running Ford 3/8 X3/8 hot flat heads, but, an occasional GMC 6 cyl. with a WAYNE head would show up & give a close race. Of course all kinds of speed secrets were being developed at that time, & one particular feeling was that if you ran with lights OFF, it would make a hotter spark for the ignition!!!----But, that was proven just a spoof! Harman/Collins--Spaulding---Wico units provided all the poop for battery ignitions from then on.
So, yes, Street Racing HAS been around for quite a while!-------------Don

 

Used to street race after school.

 

I raced a lot in D.C. and all around Northern VA. That was some good action till all the lame movies ruined it for us. It turned into a cruisin spot and got real unsafe. Did it for about 8 years.