70's 80's Steet Racing Pictures (DeFeo where are you?)

A sampling of the flavors of CI. For Mopar heads, the core of Mopar Action is connected to CI (by way of Hi-Po Mopar Scnieder Publishing - Cliff Gromer, Brunt Bros, DeFeo, Jim Koscs, Bill Erdman; I think Defeo and Niel Van Oppre were on the ground floor of one of the 5.0 mags)

New car test reports often involved street racing



This probably was not tongue & cheek.


Grass Roots racing coverage



Words of Wisdom


For the sophisticated audience, only...

 

glad your still with us Mr defeo lol

 

So to paraphrase Sam Clements, "Rumours of your demise are greatly exaggerated?" Man, I am embarrassed! I had heard or read somewhere after the Hot Rod article on you losing your nitro cherry, that you had died.DOH!

 

The two main hot spots around here were Viking Way, and Superport road. There was a lot of action in Langley too, but not quite as hard-core. Street racing is really dead around Greater Vancouver now, and has been for about a decade. The eighties were pretty hot and heavy though.

 

How did you guys race much with all the rain and curvey roads. Dry nights must of been like a sailor on shore leave in the Philippines.

 

On ... No

Nitro ... Intro



... Guess I'm the only one that found that clever . Ah well, not the first time .

 

It's happened to me a few times over the years. For some reason, when I drop out of sight for more than a couple of months, people just seem to assume I'm dead...which kinda sucks, because when I finally do take the big dirt nap, nobody's gonna notice.

 

Clever?...uh, no. Try fucking BRILLIANT! You sir, have set the wit bar at a now unattainable level, and I can assure you that each and every one of us is very, very impressed.

 

More Brotherhoon Int'l

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Tony, remember reading your stuff as a kid too! How bout posting some pics of your old cars. Would love to see some Mopars done right!!

 

Mr DeFeo;glad you're still around and contributing to the ongoing madness. Another old fan of CI here;do you realize what a corrupting influence you(and the rest of your editorial staff) were on the "yoots" of America? I hope so,and thank you for that influence!

Now we need more NYC/NJ street race stories. PLEASE?!?!?

 

I remember the 5.0 articles, they were great, thanks Tony. I ordered an '85 GT in September of '84 and it didn't come in untill February. the dealer offered me '85's with '84 engines (because the roller engines weren't ready yet) and great deals on SVOs and Turbo Tbirds but I wanted a stripped down GT. I remember the salesman couldn't figure out why I did I didn't want power windows or a T top (or any other options other than a 3.08 rear). I think I paid 10,500 for mine.
The first weekend at Westhampton It ran an embaressing 15.0 at around 100mph (it may have gotten into the 14s) but so did the 3 others.

 

Matt, I'd love to do that...but I don't have any. I've never saved any of my old stuff...pics or even magazines. What's been posted so far in this thread is a lot more than I actually have in my possession. If I did have pics, it would be of a bunch of ratty, dented cars with big engines...and a couple of Fuelers thrown in for good measure.

 

Al, I've seen your name pop up on a bunch of threads, and thought you were Al Kirschenbaum...but I guess you're not! Are you familiar with his stuff?...legendary Mopar guy from the distant past.
I'll be more than happy to supply you with more NYC Street Racing stories just as soon as I can get back up there and do some racing...but it's gonna take a little time. Got a couple of projects that need to get finished first.

 

I think mine came in right at about 10,500 as well...but it was an LX which was about a grand cheaper than the GT in 87. What's really amazing is that next year it will be 25 years...a quarter century!!! since I ran that thing...swear it seems like week. I had a guy contact me about a month ago who is on a mission to find and restore that car. A few years ago it turned up someplace in Pennsylvania. It had been gutted, caged, turned into a race car, and then stripped and left behind a garage. Guy who is looking for it said if he can find a vin tag and a taillight, he'd do it from the ground up. He seemed pretty serious about the whole thing, and I'd really like to see that car in one piece again. It's amazing how many people remember that thing.

 

Thanks,Tony. I've met the other "Al K" years ago at a Mopar Nats;good guy. One of my Mopar inspirations from long ago.

Got any Tennessee street-racing stories?

 

You say it like that is a bad thing???

 

I coudn't imagine doing that with the amount of traffic, I grew up in Topeka KS and there was alot of street racing in the 80's but we always went to the end of Topeka Blvd over to the Catepillar plant usually at night with no traffic. A hard hitter back then was Mike Crow, I see he is still beating the same old 73 cuda 25-30 years later he is at about 2:45 on this vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFAcNg9xQW8

 

Mr. DeFeo... you, sir, need to write a book! Man, do I miss the days of "Cars illustrated" and "MuscleCars". Great entertaining articles on how to powershift, the '70 GTX mega-low-buck build, etc, etc. We need mags like that today!

 

This is one hell of a story!!!

 

Around here (Nashville area) there isn't much going on. Ricers doing the occasional thing, and a little bit of grudge running at the local 1/8th mile strips.
I did seriously think about building a Mopar 4 popper to run with the Rice guys, but the whole deal just does not turn me on enough to dedicate any of my meager resources to that sort of thing. Ironic is that the place they meet is a parking lot directly across from my Coffeehouse here in Murfreesboro. I can look out the front window and watch their whole scene. Now if one of these kids was to ask me to get involved with their car...and he seemed serious enough, I would probably jump right in. Just hasn't happened yet.

 

Why would I write a book...I'm not done yet! Here's an even better idea. Keep an eye on the obits, and when I actually do kick it, YOU write the book.

 

You don't have to be done to write a book! You gotta lot of guys that love your writing style and I am damn sure you have some great stories. A true car guy through-and-through. That is missing in all of the rags today. Sure, Car Craft tries (sometimes) to do the grass-roots builds, but it's pretty easy to see they are getting parts thrown to them from the major advertisers. Something tells me you NY guys never had that luxury, and that's what made it so damn cool... it was REAL, man!

 

I myself never got shit. I managed to score a Six Pack set-up, and some goofy ignition system that never worked right, but that's about it...paid for everything else out of my pocket.
True story...We made so little producing those mags, that I used to deliver pizza at night...very often with test cars complete with Manufacturer tags, just so I'd have extra cash to go racing with. It was a hard life.
But here's the thing. I don't wake up in the morning and think of myself as a famous automotive journalist. I never did. The writing was a byproduct of my lifestyle. It got me into more places and let me meet more people than I would have been able to by any other means. That's why I did it. I'm a Hot Rodder first, Mechanic second...Writer is a very distant third.

 

I know exactly what you mean. I was born about 30 years to late to see the mopar glory days. Now it's seems that the guys who are buying them don't know that they were designed to be launched not trailered and driven 5 feet to a spot then endlessly buffed. I understand the worry about wrecking a rare car but take the chance and launch it at a strip at least a few times.

 

Don't worry Tone, I'll post some more CI pics to bring back bad flashbacks.

 

Yeah...I'm pretty ok with leavin that stuff back there, but post if you must.

 

Hi,I was wondering if anyone would post other articles of tony,like project 12.99 for $1,299.I too,liked tonys articles in CI.post them if you got them..Like to see them if possible.

 

Tony, You may consider journalism as your third priority, but in my opinion you are one of the best automotive writers that has ever been published. I can't tell you how many times I read the article "From Buick with Balls" about the Turbo T Type. Glad to hear you're still writing. And not dead, either.

 

WOW, THATS SO COOL

thats me in my 11 sec 69 road runner staging a mock street race for the photo op

thats defeo starting us

im guessing pic was taken about 1987ish