Ha, ha, the rumor on the street was it was an LS-7. Ever since then, I liked '75 Novas. It had a great look to it. There was a gal around the So Bay that had a yellow '77 Nova. The license plate said "Bad Baby". Heard she street raced in Camarillo. Once, Dean came into the BofA in the GTO. I tried to get him to race but he said he had fuel pump problems. Do you recall the 3 barrel that was on the Vette when you got it?
Rick: "Rumor on the street"? You'd be surprised at all the "rumors" that got back to me about my own cars. Ah yes, the infamous 950 CFM Three Barrel. I kept it on there for the longest time, since I thought at the time that since 950 CFM is obviously more than 850 CFM, that I was getting more performance. Unfortunatly it was a vacuum seconday carb - which don't seem to work as consistent with heavy nitrous units as mechanical seconday carbs do.
I know this is off topic and most wouldn't admit being smoked by it, but does anyone near Orange County remember a Kawasaki Green 67 bug driven by Mark Voegtly from Gene Berg?
Can't remember the exact year, but once from Woodman and Saticoy everybody went to the Winchells, on Roscoe & Woodman. Eddie Alverez had his 69 Yellow Z and was trying to get some lengths from Lorenzo. It started to get heated. He owned a shop on Reseda called S&L auto just down the street from West Coast cylinder head. Steve Lyon's had a shop across from his, and they would yell at each other but Steve would never put up,or shut up for that matter.
By the mid 80's Bob and I were both on our way out. Street racing in the Valley was held on multiple nights, instead of just Saturday. Therefore the "hunger" wasn't there any more. The mindset was...if I don't race tonight (Tues.)...there's always Thurs Friday Sat, and Sunday....or back to Tuesday. It became bullshit. When it was ONLY Saturday night, you were very hungry
I think Alvarez had that Camaro in the late 70's. There's other posts about Steve Lyons. We used to call him Bandini Mountain....from a fertilizer commercial that was popular back then, indicating that Steve was just so fucking full of shit all the time
He used to send Pictures to his brother when we were in Germany and he was building the Henry J. Cool hotrod for the 50s.. I still have an 8x10 of this one.
Oldfield and Tetzlaff may race on Sherman Way Dr. Edwin Janss, general manager of the Janss Investment Company, who recently bought a 120-horsepower racing Fiat, and Eddie Maier, president of the Maier Brewing Company, who has an exact duplicate of this car, have decided on a race to be held some time before the Santa Monica racing date to decide the supremacy of their cars. Teddy Tetzlaff will pilot Dr. Janss' car, which has been christened the "Owensmouth Baby," and Barney Oldfield will drive Mr. Meier's "Select Kid." The time and place have not yet been definitely decided. Sherman Way, through the Van Nuys-Lankershim lands, is being considered. A side bet of $2,500 has been wagered on the result. (April 26, 1912) - Daily News
Every so often I come back to this thread - usually after looking over my old street racer Dart sitting in the shop with no motor. Street racing is pretty much dead in toronto. You have to go out of town for anything serious.
I have bad news, that new "street racing" law in ontario has pretty much killed it completely in southern ontario. At least the serious stuff. you still see the ricers being annoying during the daylight hours though. Cambridge's scene is pretty much dead.
If you know where to go, there are still money races and fast cars. They just aren't in toronto anymore. Fast and Bicurious Ricers killed it...
Cool Thread! I Havent been on this board in awhile. I was reading thru this thread, some cool stories. I will have to elaborate a bit on that night with my gto, not one of my better street racing nights....lol It was a slow night and I raced Rick's Olds with my GTO. A the time my goat ran mid 13's. The race as I recall was close, but Rick won, dont remember by how much. After we slowed down, I flipped a u-turn in front of the bar that was at the end of the street. I had a friend riding with me that I had dropped off at the start and I needed to go pick him up. I was kinda a squirrel back in those days, so hammering it wasnt a big surprise to me. To my surprise a drunk lady in a Pontiac Bonnevile pulled out of the bar, right in front of me, I tried to miss her, but it was too late and my goat handled like a truck anyway. I side swiped her car, it crunched the fender of my gto pretty good and broke the ball joint. There were cops sitting on the side street near the bar, waiting for drunks to leave to give dui tickets. They got a little more then they bargained for. The cops lit me up and as they approached the car, the younger cop said "dang, its a girl"......The older cop gave me quite the lecture.....I got arrested for felony reckless driving, my car got impounded...so on an so forth......I was only 17....so my mom had to come bail me out of van nuys jail.....it was a crappy night for sure......I lost my license...etc...but it the end...after it was all over I went back to street racing....Once street racing is in your blood it is hard to remove, a addiction for sure.....
I will tell a tale of Lee and I taking my Nova to St Louis to street race. year 1994-95: Lee and I moved to Missouri and bought the dragstrip near Springfield. We met alot of cool gearheads from St Louis, one was Lee's cousin. He begged us to bring my nova up to their local hang out to street race and we agreed. We had one stipulation, dont tell anyone were coming, we wanted it to be a surprise, kinda get a feel for the place before we bite off a chunk...... Lee and I roll into the hangout, which was at a self serv coin car wash, not sure where, St Charles or St Peters something like that, with my nova on a open trailer, towed by my work van. We had planned to park on a side street and unload the nova, but this place was packed, like 500+ people and all the side street were full of parked cars. We were trying to see why all the people were there, till we realized we were the main attraction, so much for it being a surprise......lol About 500 people crowded around the nova on the trailer, and Im thinking this was a really bad idea......lol......Im going to end up racing the fastest car here for sure...... Most everyone laughed at the show car, blown small block on 8" volkswagon slicks, with stock suspension. One guy with a 70-71 nova stepped up, he wanted to race heads up, small tire, small block on juice, said it ran 9's, had small tail pipes to the bumper, it didnt look like much, but we guessed he was a local hero. He had a big group with him. My nova ran mid 10's, that was it, but it would mph like a big dog with the blower, 135-137 @ lacr. The race was set for $500, at the time a chunk of change for me. We went to the first street and it was in a neighborhood, I said no way, this street sux, about that time the cops rolled up, so onto the next street. We drive all over the dang place trying to find a street, cops, crowds, cow poop on the street and it was getting late. The last street we rolled up to was out off of A highway by the GM Plant. It was a great street, except for the shut down had a pretty sharp bend in it. Around 2am, We unload the nova and go to starting line. We had 2 rules, neutral person holds the money at the finish line and calls the race, and of course "a chase is a race". We line the cars up and do our burnouts. I do this crazy 8 grand burnout and lee puts vht down. This guy in the nova's eyes were as big as saucers when I did this crazy, blower screaming burnout. He does a small burnout and were ready. The flag man does the normal point, point, up down and I am gone, about 5 cars on the hit. I shift into 2nd and look back, the guy moves about 20 feet and stops. I slow the car down and turn around, the guy is screaming I jumped, I really didnt leave early, my car just gated him that bad. So we argue for a hour about how a chases is a race, and they refuse to pay......Its me/lee and about 490 of them. Im like F....it I'll race this guy again just to embarass him in front of his friends........nothing like getting beat by a girl in front of all your friends......lol...I think we made it double or nothing......something like that..... Lee said "this is a bad idea, the tires on the nova are cooked, I doubt if it will hook again".......Well......as normal, Lee was right.....We line up, I do a smaller burnout and stage the car we leave and this time the guy in the nova jumps out in front.....and I smoked the tires real bad.....Im like oh, crap, this cant be happening......I remember Lee telling me to get the thing in high gear on the the street as fast as I can if it hits the tires bad.....so I bang 2nd and I start to make up some ground but Im all over my lane......I bang third and Im closing the gap fast but.....I gotta get this thing going straight so I can pass this guy, I was about curb to curb with this thing......I blow past this guy in high gear about a 100 feet from the finish line....and I win!!!.....I was hauling some major booty at that point......now I need to stop this thing before that big curve at the end of the road.....I reel it in but my nova was a handful....the most ill handling car I ever owned.....I made the turn and got it stopped, and went back for my money....Lee is still on the starting line, so I go pick him up.....and now these guys dont want to pay....it was a big drama, but in the end they paid........
Mary is it? That was an everloving GREAT story. I felt like I was almost there. Do you have any more where that one came from, perhaps even longer?
Hi Bob, Thanks! Yeah thats me....Mary We used to live in the 'valley'. Was part of the valley street race subculture, moved away to live our dream of owning a track.....now back in socal....low desert, with the snowbirds........ Ive got alot of tales......I will post them up as I can.....gotta dust off the ol brain hard drive......lol
Here is one I posted on the LA Street race thread, that I edited a bit. Early 80's Van Nuys Blvd: I used to work nights at West Castle Burgers next to Super Shops. I would drive my gto to work and as it got dark move it from the back of the lot out front to the end spot near the blvd, everyone always wondered how I got the prime parking spot.....lol..... I wanted to have a prime spot to watch the cruising. At that time, The faster cars hung out at Super Shops. There was also Jack in the Box next door to. Everyone kinda had there own place to hang out. One night there was a few races going together on Raymer. Tom Petty with the grey nova says "all the girls have to stay here and the guys will all go race on Raymer". I normally was left to hang out with the girls but I wanted to race my car. I asked Tom's girlfriend " do you know where they go?" She said Yes, So I loaded all the girls in my gto and drove out to Raymer, I guess back then girls werent allowed to go out to the race spots...... The guys were all pissed I brought their girlfriends out to the races... I ran my gto a few times, not many girls street racing back then. It ran mid/high 13's all motor, not fast by todays standards but it was fun for then.
One night out at Raymer......I race a friend of mine, in his 70-71 Trans Am 455 HO, it would be a very rare car today....Unfortuantly, it met the wash/train bridge at the end of the road......by that turn down past the finish line..... We asked his girlfriend to go down and mark off the finish line, he told her what driveway to turnaround in and park on the opposite side of the street with her park lights on. She went about 400' past where she should have and made the track way too long for raymer. We line up, do burnouts, and stage. I think I gave him the move, and the T/A hits the tires pretty hard, starts to spin. I hook dead up and was gone. He chases me down. Im starting to think to myself this a awful long way to her park lights on raymer and I start to back off....Im ahead at this point......My friend in the T/A goes blowing past me....im thinking, no no this is going to be bad.......I see the dust cloud and here the big crunching noise. I drive my car down to the end quickly to where the dust cloud was and thinking my friend is dead.....He survived the crash...He went head on at about 100 mph into a concrete wall....the engine was about in the front seat, it was a miracle he made it......At that point the details were sketchy.....I remember calling a friend with a tow truck......the girlfriend got a major ass chewing for marking the finish too long....and I had to drive my friend back and forth to work for about a month..........it all worked out in the end......
Mary: Yeah, I know all about the short shut off on Raymer. See my own story concerning THAT in post #164 in this thread. LOL
HMMMM, I wonder why Tom Petty didn't want the girls on Raymer?. Back then, there were so many great streets to race on before the over population of the Valley, I never understood why people raced Raymer. Lousy street, dark if I recall, lousy shutdown area, and, doesn't Raymer put one of the cars into on-coming traffic (only one lane in each direction)?
Yeah it was a short two lane road. i never liked it either. i always liked the 4 lane wide roads. there were plenty to chose from back then.
yeah....no girls at the street races......lol.... raymer was one of the worst streets, i stopped racing there after that.....it was close to VN Blvd....was the only attraction i could see, and Ed Pink's Shop........
That Anglia used to run at OCIR on wednsday and friday nights and it was bad ass. It ran 10.20's as I remember with mufflers.
Pretty slow for an LS-7 on spray in a tiny car! In the 70's, Jim Branham had a 70 Nova with an LS-7 without spray running 10.70's at Terminal Island. We'd flat tow that fucker 50 miles each way behind my 70 Toronado with a rental hitch that clamped to my back bumper. How do you say HOOPTY?
The Jalopy Journal
