Who crused Central in the late 60's in Phoenix az

I remember going thru the McDonalds on Indain school rd south to Mcdowell, and trun around ar the libary and head back to McDonalds...Sometimes park across from park central. and watch the car go by. when the gas 29.9 a gallon

 

Yep....did that in '68 with occasional stops at Der Weinerschnitzel.

Gold '59 Pontiac Bonneville Safari wagon with Appliance chrome wheels and a dragster push bumper on the front.

 

Me Me Me !! 54 Chevy,27 T Roadster PU flattie, 66 & 68 Impala's ,68 Vette ,57 Sportster + a few more. AH ! the GOOODDDD old days. And can we ever forget the "Rainbow Bar" just south of Thomas and the Car Hop's at Bob's ,spent lot's of time and money at both places.

 

OOOhhhh the memories!

Indian School to McDowell. Der Weiner. McDonalds, racing on 3rd Ave.


jerry

 

Hey forgot about Bobs Big boy and the car hops. I had a White on Coral 59 Impala, chrome wheels and with a 45rpm record player, and a reverb....was there every Friday and Saturday night.

 

I cruised Central in '63 and '64. I was stationed at Williams AFB in Chandler. A buddy from CA had a dark green '58 Delray 2 door. Baby moons and rings. Hot 301 inch and three on the tree.We always ended up at Bob's Big Boy at the end of the night. Oh yeah, no AC back then either. Drank a lot of Coors to keep cool. haha

 

I was there from 1966 I had a 40 Ford Coup that had previously been campainged by Allan Knutsen as a Gasser, he beat Johnny Loper several times. Then I had the 55 Chevy, then in 1970 I returned from the Coasty Guards with the T-bucket thatI built while working for John Loper.

The other pictures are of buddies who also ran Central. Anyone recognize these?

 

Was there in 1965, was around Christmas time, had a 65 Chevelle. Was staying at a friends house, on leave from Kirtland AFB NM. Nothing like this in Westchester NY at that time.

 

Hey van's rod shop! Two things - Is there a chance that your Forty might have stayed in the Phoenix area? There was one that could have been a dead ringer for sale in the valley earlier this year. Is there a chance that your name is Craig, and that I met you at the Puyallup good guys gig about four years ago or so?

 

Yep, and yer the guy who sells insurance? Your story about your ride was cool how you found it and all. You should share that one! I put a new front frame work under the car since you saw it. Rides and sits nicer now. Is your profile picture an old one? Seems like it the front clip was green or something.

 

Not to hi-jack this thread, but I'm thinkin maybe one of you guys might remember my Pop's OT 'vette. It was a '63 or '64, pearl white w/some kind of blue design on the sides. He sold it, at my mothers request when they found out she was pregnant with me. Pop has told me a couple of stories about running around on Central in the late 70's and has been wondering for the last 31 years what ever happended to it. I know its an OT car but I'd sure like to re-unite my old man with his ride, even though its probably worth more then my house these days.

Edit: Mom sent me this pic just now... She did mention that the front fenders were widend/modified and it had "big hot as shit calf burning side pipes" on it.

 

Oh and the 40. Yes it stayed in Phoenix. Rick Stewart's friend or cousin or ? bought it. It was red and had blue plexi windows in it.

 

I first came to Phoenix in '70 I was here about a week and still had Illinois plates on my '57 Chevy 210 2 door cruisin' down Central and heard a car honkin' by me looked over and a chick mooned me! butt and beaver pressed up aginst the window Dang! talk about a distracted driver! Anybody make the Cruise on Central yesterday with some pics to post.

 

Ya mon, our gals knew what wuz up even back then. I think I know who she was, she had a burgundy 67 Mustang.

 

Somehow I didn't pay much attention to the car

 

More pics and stories please. I'll eat up anything you got about rodding in the valley. By the way, vrs, did you mean Ricks cousin Chuck? I have an old car show trophy of his that was put on by the Slicks of Phoenix? Also, that T w/the 426 must have been a scary ride.



My related thread: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=341996&highlight=phx+hist

 

Um sorry, I'm not sure what you're refering to -

 

Knutsens '40. You said it went to Rick Stewart or his cousin.

 

I was there in 63-64 I had a Yellow 55 Chevy.Got a red lite ticket on central. Spent a lot of time at McGoos,sp and cruising Central. Ended up living in Phx from 77 to 87 working at Airesearch ,now Honeywell. Returned to Il and worked for Garrett aviation ,now retired but still working on a 48 Ford 1/2 ton I got from an antique Ford place on West Mc Dowell. I worked in the engine shop,we may have some names in common that we remember.PM me your Ph # and we`ll chat.

 

I cruzed Central , also Main street in Mesa too . Tried to cruz Metro center but that got old quick and was shut down just as fast. There was also a brief time people cruzed Tempe's Mill Ave , which was also quickly shut down .

Spent many a weekend at beeline Dragway and Manzi too .

I was part of a group called the concerned Cruisers who tried to hold on to cruising downtown Mesa and Main street .When that closed too the pavillions became standard park and walk fare .

Central Was the best , stops at the carnation ice cream plant and restaurant for a shake and Micky D's for some fries .

Sometimes after work " Legend City " some of us would go down for some laps and fun on central .

 

Spent many weekends on Central in this 57 Chevy a 51 Chevy pannel truck Hippy Wagon in 1967 and 1968. We parked by the shoe store jut south of Thomas.Loved Bob's Big Boy!
Also cruised Central in 1963 in a Blue chopped 1932 ford with an Olds that engine my friend ( Charley Lazear, anyone remember Lazear Chevron in Scotsdale at Indian School and Hayden?) had. I was 14 at the time. John

 

Hey, what happened to this thread? There's got to be more old Central cruizers still out there - I hope there is anyhow - HELLOOOOO!!!

 

Okay, heres a couple of cars I remember. There was a guy who had a Henry J body on some kinda frame with an Olds engine and no floor or firewall. Engine was amidship. Pretty wild old ride. There was a T bucket with a Poncho or Olds sitting up high like a gasser. Seems it had a home made tunnle ram on it. It sure looked bad ass. I heard he stuffed it into the side of an old ladies car at Central and Missouri when she ran a red light. There used to be a chick with a 57 Ford that she said she built - coulda been true - I used to hang out at the junk yards up in SunnySlop. Some pretty cool old rods were always coming and going - lookin fer partz.

 

Got any pictures of the 55?

 

I'd love to contribute more, but mine are all from, shall we say an "O/T era". We're talking '79 to this afternoon... See, it's no small accident I live 12 doors off Central just south of Thomas!

 

Que es O/T era?

 

Hey Van, any chance you remember a willys pickup truck at ran at Bee Line in the early to Mid 60's. The name was "The Bush Master" also known as the Speed Engineering Co. willys.

 

... Not just O/T era, but kinda taboo O/T cars too! But good cruising escapades none the less. See, my "early release" from loving home of my parents 16, (my own doing, by the way) Put my early hot rodding adventures in jepordy.Like going from being able to spend everything I made on my '39 to having to pay rent... And power, and water, and... So to economize a bit, I did what several others of my generation did here in the West and bought a bug. Owned it 2 1/2 hours before it was lowered and had a loud exhaust system and such. A couple of weeks later and I was at the Central ave Mcdonalds meeting new friends, some of which I still hang with today. Back in those days, we all kind of opperated as an extended family with Central as our main H.Q. On any given night, fun could erupt at any time. There were expeditions down to South Phoenix to hang with the lowriders. Attending impromtue drags on the side streets and just generally being "out there".

As money got better for all of us, The cars got progresively bigger engines and went faster and faster, and by the late eighties I was wheeling as a daily driver a '63 bug that was a solid low 12s kinda car. That was with the big blue bottle that filled the passenger floorwell shut off. Funny thing, at that time still you could cruise through the Virginia street Burger King (where all the muscle cars hung out) in a bug and damn near everybody would take the bait and race... I mean, it's ONLY one of those, how bad can it be? Many found out too! With all this new found "second income" rattling in my jeans, the next step was finding a more permanent location that my Tempe apartment - How about downtown Phoenix?! To this day I live twelve doors off of Central.
The truly nice by product of this whole deal back in the day was: Go to the end of the street, take a right, go two blocks, take a left, set up race, short drive to a somewhat darker area, run car hard, collect money, be home before the police helicopters were flying over with the car quietly ticking away it's heat in the back yard garage. The perfect hot rodder's existance!

So one quicky from the bad old days. I did my usual ( see above), but this was as my car was becoming very well known. No takers on this night. Oh, well, let's have some fun. A great be product of super light weight cars with tons of H.P. in the tail is absolutely killer wheelies damn near any time you want. And I still have a pile of comp headers behind the shop that served their last days as wheelie bars! a younger freind of mine at the time was at A.S.U. and was in a film making class, and was doing a "documentary" on street racing. Since no luck was had in that field that evening, as things wound down we decided that he would film me carrying the front wheels across the intersection at Central and Thomas. I let him off with his video camera, and turned back to head north. Rolled up to the light right as it turned red, so I had a minute to make this spectacular. Yellow blinked on the opposing lanes, no cops to be seen, R's came way up, green lit, little slicks bit, nose came up, and we're off! By the second crosswalk it was shift time, second was nailed hard... That's when the transaxle case decided to become two distinctly different pieces. Front end slammed down hard, the engine dropped, I the left axle stopped and suddenly I was headed south with a comet of differential scrap following! Damn lucky it was about 1:00 am! Breaking big things doing stupid stuff is good for the soul.

 

Sorry, not exactly - got a picture?

 

So, is street racin' a thing of the past in Phnx? The last time I was in Phnx there was no sign of life on Central. I did find a few pockets of gearheads her and there one group was at a shopping center somewhere like 35th and Peoria? or somewhere like that. And of course the big thing out in Scottsdale.