History Where was the "Paradise Road" in your town?

Rt. 183, Stockbridge Flats heading west to West Stockbridge. There is about a mile of flat, straight road with wide shoulders. Back before I wad old enough to drive, there was a quarter mile marked out with highway department paint, with start and finish painted as well. The two yutes who marked it out even used one of those rolling measurement wheels that just happen to be in highway department garages. Oh and the highway department was located out there just by chance, right near where the start line was.

And the yutes had access because one was related to someone highly placed in the highway department. The other went on to become a town police officer.

It lasted for as long as the paint holds up. There was no houses out there, and I think that there's only a couple now. I believe my brother was in hs with them.

 

For one summer in the late seventies on the near south side of Indianapolis it was Interstate 65. As Interstate 65 was being cut through Indianapolis the finished north bound portion ended at Keystone Ave. But north of Keystone was nothing but new blacktop with no guardrails or fencing to slow down enterprising hoodlums.

Entrance to our temporary dragstrip was around the barricades at the Keystone to north bound 65 on ramp. With no fence along the highway exiting was anyplace you dared. Multiple side streets had been cut to make room for the highway so we had many choices for a getaway if any red lights were seen. Onlookers lined the guardrail of the Troy Ave. bridge looking down at us as we drove under our finish line.

After the run most would end up behind the White Castle between Madison Ave. and East St. in an unlit gravel parking lot.

 

Ditto on Front street in rhe '60s. Also sections of Delaware Av.
'The Greater NE', as it was known, had roads made before there was development.
One of the popular one was Decator road.
Guy's often Gathered at Big Boy's Cottman and Boulevard, then ran on out to the open roads.
Same deal SW of Philly when development was sparse.
Guys would collect at Scotty's burgers then run Springfield rd.
No way that would work today.
We also liked to go for topend competition, when they first opened the Media bypass.
RT1, no one used it at night. We could wind it up to the Max

 

Even the Fast and Furious wannabes need a place to perform. You should see the street in front of our local burger joint after the annual car show. tires are shown no mercy. Traffic has to stop to allow the smoke to clear before they can drive past.

 

Not really a drag strip, more of a "see how well your brakes work" at the end. In a Melbourne Australia suburb (Pascoe vale I think)_, there was a road which resembled the down slope of a roller coaster, about a half mile from top to bottom, but the fun part was at the very bottom was a railway line that was raised above the road level by a couple of feet, with the rails being sunk down at the road surface, and a 90 degree bend at the end of the road. The idea was to go fanging down the hill, get airborne over the rail line, then negotiate the 90 degree bend without ending up in the vacant lot at the end of the road. The bonus was if you made it through the vacant lot, you ended up on the Tullamarine freeway. You would stand on the brakes while the car was airborne, so when you hit the tarmac, it would sound like a 747 landing!

 

Kansas City had a bunch, but on the SE side of town we had a stretch called The Raytown Flats. Raytown Road was a long, long road and there was a section that was in a valley that was more than a mile long, very flat, and very rural. Unfortunately they built a lake (Longview) which flooded the Flats, shutting it down. Fortunately they built an Interstate cutoff (I-470) a few miles north of that with a particularly nice concrete bridge and a sign that the builders happened to place exactly 1320 feet from the edge of the slab. Three lanes, no traffic at 1AM, no neighbors to call the police.

Other folk will have to comment on Front Street, US-69, Kansas Ave., US-40, and other spots...

 

Lower River Road out by Vancouver Lake.

 

When I was in high school in the late 60's/early 70's some pals would go up there and they always called it Alcoa.

 

Inbound Rt. 50 in Maryland, headed toward D.C., big green sign, Cheverly Exit...1/4 mile. WOW! It's like they are inviting us to race. Linem' up at that sign and race to the Cheverly exit. As many as 6 or 7 pairs lined up at 1am on a Friday night with a guy continually flagging them off. Traffic was not a concern back then late '60's.

 

Milwaukee Wisconsin area, 60's into the early 70's had many different street race venues. It was BIG, But then the fatalities happened and the police got real serious about shutting it down. I like many "retired" from participating, ending with a night in a holding pen, judge in the AM, suspended license, fines, jail time threat. Thanks to my years, age 16-20 of driving like an Ass I could not buy car insurance till I was 25 as it was more than my house payment. What fun it was and the memories/stories I have. Now 76 And on occasion I still will Get On It for that "Tickle" my inner Ass still alive and well. LOL.

 

This is the Google maps image I just pulled up and seems it is still the place…. Anyway, just north of town on Hwy 77 and has been that same spot since the 50’s as best I know (or at least that is the rumor I have heard).

 

Grew up on the west side of Detroit so my go to road was Telegraph rd. Plenty of empty parking lots, drive in hang outs and you knew where to look for the hidden cop cars. Of course we had the legendary Woodward Ave. but I didn't spend a lot of time there. The Eastside had Gratiot Ave but I never cruised there. The only time we cruised Gratiot was when we went to Gratiot Auto Supply for hot rod parts. The thing all 3 roads had in common was they were 3 lane divided highways. Made it a bit "safer" if you got into it.

 

I was driving this....289/ C-4 so I wasn't doing much racing..

 

still VERY fast cars running on front street

 

For a town of 36,000 in north Iowa we had plenty of locations to run, 35th Street a narrow uphill run that I didn’t like on the south end of town, the Sugar Beat Road or the Spring Park Road on the north end. Both were county road B20 but were divided by highway 65 north. The Sugar Beat was the best road in the 70s and probably still is, it was the flattest and was marked off for the quarter and still is if you know what to look for. It also didn’t have the topical narrow deep ditch's that other county roads had.
The closest time I saw anyone get busted for racing was when two of our locals decided they were going to meet up at the Spring Park Road, one trailered his car parking the truck and trailer about an eighth mile off Spring Park Road on a gravel road the other guy had driven his car to the park and changed his tires and dropped off his glass packs. So the guy who towed decided he was going to make a pass or ten because the other guy made a hit and dumped his battery over making sparks and killing the car. In the meantime the farmer came home and must not have cared for the the car ripping up and down the highway in front of his place or maybe it was the hundred or so cars parked in his field and along the road. I don’t know but trailer guy had enough and started loading up when a dozen cruisers arrived and started hassling everybody except the guy with the trailer who just drove away. The poor guy that was stuck on the side of the road got every ticket those cops could think of and took the blame for the other guy making all the pass’s in front of the farmers house, we got a ticket for not parking 18” off the pavement. I think I was pretty much done street racing by then our cars were getting to fast for the narrow roads and deep ditch's and I had never given a thought to running eighth mile on the street.

 

Commented before that the So. Omaha R.R. Avenue & Gilmore happened to be the last stop light in Douglas Co. & while most of the pairing up was happenstance we could watch the events from our front porch.

 

Pyramid Highway at the cattle guard. Great view to see any cars coming - unless the highway patrol was hiding out!

 

Thats OK Don. I only have a 305 in the 56. I went after one of the fastest cars (one of my friends) in the area with it. Just got to negotiate a handicap. I lost anyhow but it was still some of the most fun I had in the previous 20 yrs. The 5 speed helped but the one legger hurt me. A dana and a better motor inbound soon.

 

Outside of St. Johns, MI on Dewitt Rd. For years there was a 1/4 mile marked off there. For the record, my parents Chevy Impala could run a blistering 70 MPH in the quarter mile.

 

Yep, same spot. Frenchman's Bar was right there for parking and tuning.

 

Dulles Airport Access Road (before the Dulles Toll Road).

 

John Deere Rd, Dubuque, IA. Marked 1/4 mile for many years.

 

Now that I've had time (50 years) to recall those halcyon days of my misspent youth.......
I remember my pals talking about a guy from the Couv. that ran a Roadrunner that had a chrome plated rearend housing, they called him "Chrome Eddie".
High school geeks that didn't know a hemi from a hernia were easily impressed I guess!

 

Chrome impresses everyone.

 

In Yreka, back in the sixties, was Oberlin Road. South end of town, two miles east, and over a small hill, was a marked quarter mile. It was a two lane road and you could see a long ways in either direction. It was a good, pretty safe place to go.

 

Eugene, Oregon 1960...Airport Road, Crow Road, Beacon Drive...

and for close to 1 year Interstate 5 was not opened yet but supported the "Midnight Nationals"
....'run what ya brung'... starting at Harlow Rd Overhead and 1/4 mile toward Beltline Rd Exit.

A major bust happened at the Midnight Nationals one night when the State Police arrived in force.
The whole gang ended up in court for conducting a speed contest on a State Roadway...
Well, thank goodness one of the offenders happened to be the son of the Contractor building the Freeway and Bridges. Seems he had not been paid yet for the job and his Lawyer claimed the State had no ownership yet and it could be deemed Private Property until the State settled accounts.
Case Dismissed and All walked....very softly....

 

In my high school days, the hot setup was to paint your differential cover Chevy orange. My T Bucket carries on that tradition. Lol

 

there were several spots on the island were we used to go including right in front of the high school were there was a flat/straight street that was between 1/8-1/4 mile but after that it made a sharp left turn with lots of trees on the right. Then there was the Main Street though town that ran by Nathan’s famous #2. But when guys got serious it was down to the beach on the south shore, Ocean Parkway was a 15 mile long flat and straight two lane road (each side) that ran on a strip of land between the Ocean and the bay. The most memorable race I can remember was a friend of mine 69 396 Chevelle puffing blue smoke from the tail pipes from extreme abuse and the brandy new Mach 1 and it’s (for weeks) bragging owner. Down to the beach and that Chevelle smoked that Mach 1 so bad he turned tail and ran. The problem with that road was there was limited escape routes. We did our racing down at the west end when the cops showed up you had to escape to the east end 15 miles away then back up onto the main portion of the island and 15 miles back west to get home