History Your wildest street cars..

@kmrumedy Great sounding engine great looking ride...Talk about instant RPM!!!!!

 

Before we turned it into a race car...

 

Should be fine, excited about the possibility of getting it back, it now has a new, updated chassis and full cage, still street driven, currently has a big block Chevy, 540 Dart block, Brodix heads, +600 HO, cool!!

 

Taking my monster to a show tomorrow if weather holds, scare some people and make babies cry

 

Holy crap!

 

M

 

Mine were all OT.

 

And set off a bunch of parked car alarms.

 

My old 57 chevy was fun but I really got more attention with this chopped 50 ford. I swapped my trusty 41 Pontiac coupe for the car already chopped in primer and the next owner painted it black with the green seaweed flames. Even in primer it got a lotta attention...pretty wild. 350/350/chevy

 

May 21, 2017 follow up on my (off topic) street driven funny car I built in 1971. This car was discovered a few months ago with the original buyer, he's had it for 38 years, tonight I bought it back, it will be delivered to me in July. This is truly an amazing story, can't believe it's coming back home to me!!! I'd like to give thanks to my friend Chris Ito, a nationally known automotive / hotrod designer, who tracked down this car! This is a current picture of the car I built 46 years ago, taken last month, the bottom picture is early 1970's.

 

Congrats Craig! How cool is that? Street machine nationals, Minnesota state fair grounds, July 14-16.

 

Now that thing could really get the adrenaline pumping!!!!!!!!!! Enjoy

 

Hi Chuck, maybe next year, the owner is keeping his BB Chevy and tranny, everything else is mine. Now looking for a BB, crate motors seem so cheap, never bought a crate motor, sure makes things a lot easier then what we did years ago. I'm really excited about getting this back, gonna be such a fun project, knock the 80's paint and stuff off it, taking it back the way it was in the early 70's.

 

My Junk. 432 Hemi, 4 speed. Don't drive it every day, but it gets a bunch of miles a month

 

I have a buddy that owns one of those, in that bright green.

It's a monster, for sure.

 

Here's mine

 

^^^^ it's crazy...in person better.

 

Slightly OT '68 Firebird. It was originally a 6 cylinder car, but some PO had swapped in a 400. I yanked it and installed a stroker 455 I built from a Hotrod Magazine PAW advertisement kit I ordered through the mail IIRC, it was a 467ish?? (4.25 stroke and .030 bore, IIRC), 2x4bbl low rise that stayed tucked under the hood, TH400, and several assorted rearends that I kept breaking. Stripped-to-the-bone interior, gray primer, stock Pontiac rally wheels (rears widened), 10.5" M/T streets. It was very sleeper-y except you could hear and feel it coming.

There were 5-6 of us who were "the ones to beat" in town until a couple of them fell into some cash (probably something nefarious) and started one-upping each other with bigger and badder engines... and then the blowers appeared, and the rest of us poor folk were out of the top tier for good.

During some hard times, I decided to paint and sell. I snagged a bunch of leftover quarts of paint from the shed at a body shop I worked at, mixed them together, and gave it a quick squirt... ugh... it turned out a mediocre tomato red. I sold the car, and moved on. About 18 months later, DPS contacted me about "[my] abandoned car" being in impound. I did a little investigation and learned that the buyer never transferred the title... so DPS decided it was still mine. I had 30 days to pick it up (and pay all the impound fees). I had the money, but couldn't find anyone who would let me store it (it had some minor body damage and was non-operational). So... the clock expired and it was crushed.

Not a single pic survived... but I built a Revell model kit of it a decade or so ago. It's probably being crushed by books in a box somewhere in the attic.

Memory lane story over.

 

There has been quite a few over the top cars built for the street especially back in the "street freak" days. One of the most outrageous examples was Steve Groupe's Moody Blues Opel GT funny car. It ran a Chrysler hemi, blown and injected on alcohol. This was way before electronic fuel injection and engine management systems. The car had a fiberglass lift up body and room for a passenger. If you Google "Moody Blues Opel GT" there will be pictures. He eventually morfed the chassis into a street driven fuel altered that was as impressive the Opel. The quality of the build was unbelievable, everything was done right. Back in the early days of the "Real" street machine Nationals I cruised with him and Howard Kaye's blown and injected big block '58 Corvette to Porky's drive in. My mild Mercury Comet was not in the same league as those two wild rides. I see that Steve is a member here but has not been active since 2012.
I have photos of these two cars, if interested I can post them.

 

Mine was an OT sleeper. After the first week of cruising, the secret was out.

 

post away jim. was the opel a local car to us? I have never heard about it if it was.

 

Brian,
I will dig out the photos tonight. Steve was from Ohio, the car was on the cover of Hot Rod at least once, Howard's Corvette was on the cover twice. I believe that Gray Baskerville or Bud Lang shot the pictures. Until I post the pictures that I took here is a link to an article showing the car.
http://www.dragzine.com/news/own-your-own-street-driven-funny-car/

 

OKAY!
I found the pictures! I took these pictures at least 40 years ago.
Attached are two photos of three images each, I scanned them and they turned out black and white but the pictures I have are color. The Moody Blues car was street driven and ran on alcohol, I followed it in my Comet and the fumes were so bad I could not see! The Vette ran mechanical fuel injection on the BB Chevy, and a clutch turbo trans, I rode in it and it was a monster! Very cool stuff!
Brian: I have the pics and more I will show them to you the next time we see each other.
Jim

 

If i remember the story correctly howard went to union grove and bought the engine right at the track from a guy racing a funny car. He brought it home and put it in the vette. Soon after that it was on the street. Is this how it went?

 

I believe that was just a story that developed because no one had injection on the street back then. Howard had an altered at one time but I think it ran an Olds or some other GM engine.
The last time I saw the blown big block it was laying on the floor of his shop in SoCal, he had sold the car to a restorer and pulled the drivetrain. So now some high dollar Vette guy has an "all original" '58 Vette that has "never been modified"!

 

I drive the snot outta this on the street...had it out today in fact....

 

@redlineracer42

HaHaHa.... That's cool. I'll bet it's fun pulling a wheelie when the traffic light turns green

 

Redline -that's a statement that stands on it's own. Gettin' it done!

 

jim it was before my time but do you have a pic of the cammer powered dragster that ran around Kenosha? I never saw the car in person.