Who cruised Van Nuys Bl in the 70's?

Funny! If I keep peddelin, my computer will keep workin, or so they tell me. Thinking about riding my chopper down there just to help bring your property value down! Trying to get back to where I posted the pic's so I can post more. You won't believe the pic's I have. Call me or something unless your voice hasnt changed yet!!!

 

John, do you remember this? It's Harlen (Super Jew) flagging Bob Linderholm in the Camaro against Frank's Willys at Sepulveda and Plummer in the mid 70's

 

my '60 for sale, my house on 3 acres in the country

 

I'd LOVE to see them. Anything from B of A street racing days?

 

I have a better shot just let me figger out how to work this frickin thing! Yeah, Sunny took the picture and "lil" Bob owned the car that night (that's lil bob standing next to the Camaro), Linderholm bought it the next morning and ran Frank Sunday night and beat Frank that nite but not this night. And did you forget what Mauvin (Not Marvin, from new yowk (Not york)'s car, the Hilman, what was it named???? Lil Helion. 428 Cobra jet (but most thought it was a 390, wasn't. I'm looking for Super Jew, Harlan Brown. Can you find him for me? And Max, that owned the flawless '70 Chevelle, SS, 454 Silver w/black rally stripes. Lived on the other side of the freeway from me.

 

Haven't seen Max in about 10 yrs. Moved to bakersfield. I remember racing Max leaving Burbank & Balboa one night, and we both got busted. Mauvin's cah had a 500" Lincoln I thought. Last I heard, Harlen worked @ Lyons Auto Parts in Saugus. That's 10 yr old info. I used to talk to Harlen when he ran the "tree" at Terminal Island Drag Strip when I raced there in the 90's before it closed. I talked to Big Willie the other day, and he's still trying to reopen that strip.

 

I have a better shot just let me figger out how to work this frickin thing! Yeah, Sunny took the picture and "lil" Bob owned the car that night (that's lil bob standing next to the Camaro), Linderholm bought it the next morning and ran Frank Sunday night and beat Frank that nite but not this night. And did you forget what Mauvin (Not Marvin, from new yowk (Not york)'s car, the Hilman, what was it named???? Lil Helion. 428 Cobra jet (but most thought it was a 390, wasn't. I'm looking for Super Jew, Harlan Brown. Can you find him for me? And Max, that owned the flawless '70 Chevelle, SS, 454 Silver w/black rally stripes. Lived on the other side of the freeway from me.

 

You look a touch older than you did last time I saw you THIRTY YEARS AGO. Did you read post #156?

 

Hey, it's "Gotcha". Someone on here has your old '37 Chevy Gasser. Don't remember who, but look under the "Gasser" threads. Marvins Lil Hellion burned up in a garage fire.

Go to www.gassermadness.com under lost and found. Someone was looking for history on your old gasser.

 

btt

 

Been there and can't seem to locate the shop. Defunked? GOT'CHA

 

Small world, I went to Reseda and Taft hs

 

Son, tag me at gotchassspeed@yahoo.com, we'll talk and give you some pic's that your dad might recognize. Peace. GOT'CHA!

 

I remember Marvin, and the Hellion, he was really a one of a kind character. I raced him one night in my '68 Brown Vette. I got him to give me a couple of cars. We lined up, the starter's hands went down and that damn Hellion was instantaneously at my door handle. As he's driving by me, I'm thinking, Oh shit, I'm toast. But when I short shifted to second was hooked-up and layed on the button he stopped pulling away. Button off, power shift to third, back on button. I surprisingly start reeling him in. On the big end I'm out accelerating him, I get off the button and am SLOOOOLY overtaking him on the motor. I'm trying to time it so I'll be 1/2 to 1 car ahead at the end. And actually for once it works, and I win by about 1/2 a car length.
So we turn around and go back to the start, finances change hands, and we start BSing. I tell him man you almost had me. "It's only fair that I give you a chance to get your money back, what if we go heads up?" "No way Bob, if we went heads up you'd still win by 1/2 a car." I say "OK, OK, what if I give you one car?" He says yeah let's try that. I ask: "For the same money?" He says: "Yeah, yeah."
So we line up again, same situation as before, except I have to lay on the button almost all the way through third to come even with him. I win by half a car again.
To make a long story short we raced twice more. On the last race I believe I gave him 4 cars, and had to use the juice almost the whole run but won by a car. Poor Marvin, I was starting to feel sorry for the guy since he was getting so frustrated. "Bob, you've been sandbagging me." I reply: "Sandbagging? What's that?" He says: "I'm going to work on the car and we'll do this again." I said: "I said, man if your car gets any quicker there's no way I could beat you." He says: "That's the idea."
A fun night was had by all.

--
BottleBob
http://home.earthlink.net/~bottlbob

 

It's so refreshing to hear someone else call it the "juice", or "squeezin". I cringe when some calls it NOS. Sounds like short for nostril

 

Oh my God, I remember all of those places. My cruising started in the late '50's and went on into the early '60's. Talk about nostalgia. Do any of you SFV cruisers remember a used car lot on Van Nuys Blvd. called "Andy Andrews Used Cars"? It was close to the Van Nuys Bobs, on the opposite side of the street. Andy Andrews was the first sponsor of Dick Landy, when Landy was racing a red '61 Ford Galaxie at San Fernando Drag Strip.

The Wichstand. Was that Inglewood? Why do I remember that place as being near the intersection of Sepulveda and Overland, or something like that? Damn, it's been a long time.

 

Hey Groucho and BottleBob, wait till I write what happened the night I raced Compton's "Wildman", the night "Screwy Louie" crashed on Arleta racing Jim Sedan's Mint G.T.O. (a race I started), or the race between my '69 Dart, "Orange Sunshine", the second car to ever have the Squeeze, and it's race against a '66 Vette on Saticoy in the industrial park near Lankershim, where I lost and never found my carb, lost my hood, and still blew that frickin Vette in the weeds using only two gears before the lean condition/bad nitrous solinoid toasted the engine. Got stories? You frickin beat I do, WITH BACKUP!!!! If you remember, GOT'CHA does not lie, don't believe in it. White lies are fine tho'!

 

For the record. Mr. Goms (Got'Cha), Bottle Bob, and our own Gassersgarage were some of the faster guys at the Van Nuys street races when I first started going in the mid 70's. Got'cha took off for greener pastures up north, Gassersgarage' new vocation took him a 180 from what we did, and I, proudly, in addition to racing many different cars for years, was asked to maintain Bottle Bob's personal street race cars for a while at his clandestine(sp?) shop called Bottle Works. BIG FUN

 

Didn't cruise Van Nuys. Cruised the Main in Walnut Creek in the 70's cruised Castro valley Blvd. 1st street in San Jose and 1st street in Livermore.

It was for some stupid reason the high riders (gasser types) vs the low riders. My first girlfriend had a lowered '64 Impala. I had a '70 LS6 Chevelle My friends had a 66 GTO, a 68 Camaro, a 68 RT Charger, and of all things a "351 C 73 Mustang Grande. We raced on Alcosta Blvd in San Ramon. A desserted 4 lane that had no cars on it. Other nights we went to the Rocky Horror Picture Show midnight movie. Nothing was so serious but going fast.... We had a car club called the double pumpers.... Even then the double entranda was then the norm.....
So after it all I now have a "low rider" I did always like the low long look. Still do. Cruising was great.... Even the rivalrys were not that bad. A cool car was a cool car. So.... a tip of the beer to all who cruised the main streets of America.

 

Another Marvin story with Roy Washington thrown in. Marvin and Roy teamed together and came out with a white '64 Chevelle with a black vinyl roof. The quarter panels were hacked out to fit 12" slicks. The front rims were black painted steelies and the rears were black painted off-road wheels. The car ran a 396 with a 10,000 rpm unit, 4 speed with 4:56 gears.

The race was against a red '75 Nova with an LS7. The owner worked at Baer Chevrolet (I believe) and hung around the Max and Howard. The Nova was on slicks and both cars uncocked at Woodman and Saticoy. The Chevelle was giving up 4 cars. After their burnouts, both cars staged. When the hands dropped, the Nova got about a car length before the Chevelle drove by.

Only race I ever saw Marvin win. The Nova had punked during it's burnouts and drove through it's own puddle on launch losing traction.

 

Hey Bottle Bob! Welcome aboard! It's me, Rick.

Anyone remember Boyd with the mustard yellow Vega? I wonder how fast that car really was. I saw him at Irwindale running brackets. He dialed a 12:0. I asked him how he got the car to slow down consistantly to run brackets. He laughed and said he disconnected the secondaries so he would run on a two barrel.

 

Gassersgarage had a green 64(?) Chevelle with a badass rat and 4-speed w/Verti-Gate shifter. Put a nitrous plate on it that raised the carb just enough to where the hood wouldn't shut with the air cleaner on it. Well, he shows up one night (in the 70's) with a fucking hole cut in the hood to clear one of those generic 14" air cleaners that looked like it was cut by a Lazar! No shit. That chrome air cleaner stuck out of that hood without so much as enough room to slide a piece of paper between the hood and air cleaner. I stared at that hole like it was magic EVERY time I saw it.

 

Boyd had an early white Nova that ran high 10's with a small block, small tire and no nitrous back then. I believe one of the 1st 406's maybe. But, he was FAST, real fast

 

Hey - I gotta tell ya guys - just spent the last hour and a half reading the Van Nuys Bl. posts and it really brought back some memories - Grew up in P.C.,went to Monroe H.S. and spent many of my Wed.,Fri.,Sat. nights on the Bl. Either in my '47 Ford Woody,'64 Pont. or my '67 Chev - the 64 & 67 were of the lowrider style.Went from S.F. Bobs to V.N. Bobs to June Ellens back to the "Office" to A&W then off to Reseda, put many of miles on during the week ends in the 60's - And the under pass under the V.N. airport was great for twice pipes with pencil tips or upswept fish tales on the bike. Great thread

 

Before that motor, he came out with it looking bone stock. Popped the hood and you saw a greasy, grungy 283, cast iron manifold and a 2 barrel with the stock air cleaner. He chose off a '69 bbc Chevelle heads up. The Chevelle backed down. I asked him what it was. He said it was an LT-1 short block with ported heads. The intake was off a a 400, bigger runners. Ram horns exhaust and a 500 cfm 2 barrel. That was a sweet sleeper.

The kid with the Chevelle couldn't figure why Boyd wanted heads up so he got scared.

 

Baher Chevrolet, that would be Monk, Got several stories about Monk, the king of "Say what"! The two buick specials, one towing the other, the race one had big block chev w/dual tunnel ram, but was 2 seconds SLOWER THAN THE TOW CAR!!!!!!!! Pure genius Monk!!! He'd get you to race his tow car AND MAKE YOU GIVE HIM CARS!!!! Your the man Monk! Peace GOT'CHA!

 

Hey Rick, hows it hangin'

That damn Boyd, he was my nemesis. He'd zap me virtually every time we raced. On our last race I thought I had enough squeeze pumping in the motor to do the job. Boy was *I* mistaken. It had SO MUCH juice that when I first hit the button it vaporized the side electrodes off of every spark plug in the motor. The only thing that kept the engine running was that the MSD was able to jump the gap between the center electrode and the threaded portion of the plugs. It also had a problem with nitrous backfiring through the carb, and with the openended L-88 hood I had - flames would shoot out through the front AND rear of the hood, lighting up the whole street.

Supposedly Boyd had toggle switches for multiple units. Like he'd take off with a small unit, switch off the small unit, then shift, and switch on the big unit, then shift again, and switch on the small unit to go along with the big unit.

That boy must have really been busy during a race, probably could have used a certified co-pilot. LOL

He was a cool dude though. I believe he's the one who turned me on to Caldwell Yellow Dots. Too bad he stopped coming out before I got the '67 Vette and built the Frankensqueeze unit.

--
BottleBob
http://home.earthlink.net/~bottlbob

 

Cruised down to Van Nuys " One Time" in 78 or so.
I was 16 living in Maricopa told Mom & Dad I was driving to Taft to go cruising. We had heard of the "Big City" Street Racing and headed south in the 55 Chevy over the GrapeVine to Van Nuys. Followed the racers out to what I seem to remember was San Fernado Rd. Where an overpass crossed.? I remember the lights from the over pass lighting up under the hood for guys setting the timing etc on their cars.
There was two Yamaha RD 400's who took off from the start line riding wheelies, their Head lites were shining straight up and a guy in a VW Bug sitting on side of the " track" did not see them coming due to the lights pointing straight up. He whipped out in a U turn across their lanes and the slammed into him!!!
About that time was when I was thinking about what I would do if the 55 was to break down 100 miles from home
So we headed home before the Cops showed up!!

 

Not only the squeeze button, he was running a switch pitch converter which he had to toggle on and off. That's how he was able to hook up on G78 tires. I heard he got into slot car racing, but that was a long time ago.

 

Hey John!!
This is Dave Larsen You striped my 67 fastback in i think like 71 72 and i would hang out at your house and watch you work. I lived 2 blocks away on the other side of the free way. Raced some from the old BOA days had a RACE? jacket
And Loved your old 40 and the Fastang and the dart. So are you still striping? Was work better up there or just needed to get out of town. It's funny i was a kid of 17 or 18 last time i saw you. now i am 52 and a Grandfather broke down plumber looking to retire in 8 years. I just finshed a 32 coupe and was thinking i WISH i could get you to strip it. To funny. well good to see you. Hope the Family is all well.
Dave