We did our share of street racing as kids but it was at night in an almost abandoned industrial park. Lots of stuff we did then we wouldn't do now but man, that is some real jackassery there in the middle of a neighborhood in broad daylight.
That’s my old car clubs picnic. Brian Michaels 68 chevelle against Mark Kulis’s 68 Road Runner. We used to have a picnic at Eggars Woods there every Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day. Complete with burnout contests. Believe it or not the cops used to completely leave us alone. They would stop by and check out the cars and maybe have a beer or 2 and a hot dog. But we also helped them out a few times. 3 times when The Jewels we hung out at every Wednesday night was being robbed we caught the guys, and many other things. The good old days!
That was a really cool video. I was thinking myself,,,,,Man,,,that’s in a neighborhood ! ,,,,that’s crazy . But then I remembered that line from the Untouchables. Kevin Costner said,,,,” Yeah,,,,well you’re not from Chicago ! “ Tommy
Haven’t done that since 1980 on the streets or black tops, cars were just too damn fast, as far as I was concerned.
We rarely did any street racing in our area. But on those holidays we kind of cut loose. The cops knew we were a decent bunch and could have caused much more grief for them. So they would kind of look the other way on those holidays. All the neighbors would watch our shenagins. The road was 4 lanes wide and long. It’s is actually a lot safer than the camera shows. The fun we had and the good relationships we had with the Indiana and Chicago cops back then was great. Never will be like that again. I hope Mike puts up more of the videos.
I remember reading a story about some clown driving fast in a neighborhood and a guy threw a driveshaft at the guy and it actually flew in the car and killed him. we had a marked quarter mile in the industrial area that surrounded Fremont Dragstrip where we raced late at night. so no, having a dragstrip in the city does not stop street racing.
When US30 was open that was where we raced at. But it closed in 84 and we had nowhere to go. None of us had trailers to go to Union Grove. Hell most of us were still driving our cars daily still.
Stoplight to stoplight in the downtown area, usually after 9pm. All the businesses in the downtown area closed at 5pm except the two gas stations at the ends of the well light downtown area. The only people there were us. The local Police station was also at the end of the downtown area, if we got to rowdy, the cruisers would come out. Our downtown area had a one way street going east (Main Street) that ended a block before the railroad tracks. Traffic made the left turn (on to Liberty Ave) for one block, then you made another left turn to go west (on Stephenson Street), or you could turn right and cross the tracks on the way out of town (or IL Rt 75). One of the gas stations was on the south east corner of Liberty and Stephenson. At that point Stephenson turned into a one way street going west. There were 4 traffic lights on Stephenson, 3 cross streets (which also had matching traffic lights on Main), Each of those lights were 2 blocks between, and then the one for the US 20 passing through town (which also crossed Main). Going west on Stephenson, there was one more traffic light, at Walnut. Walnut was also where the police station was. Walnut would have been the 1st traffic light on Main. after the Walnut light, it was 6 blocks until the end of the downtown area (at Locust St), and Stephenson returned to a two way street. If you were in the right lane, you went straight, (that 2nd gas station was conveniently placed there, if you were not going to fast to swig in). if you were in the left lane you had to turn left. In a short block heading south (on Locust), you had the option to make the left turn back on to main, or you could go straight if you were in the right lane. That right lane had a double merge, first was the traffic traveling east on Stephenson joining that right lane, the the traffic that was heading north on locust making the turn onto Main. After 7PM, there was pretty limited traffic in the downtown area. Those traffic lights were timed pretty good, on main, if you left the light at US20, when it turned green, you could hit the next 3 green, unless you needed to be on the brakes hard for the upcoming left turn. It wasn't hard to have a clear street in front of you, from 20 to the end of Main. Once on Main, there was 6 blocks to the US 20 traffic light, then 2 blocks between the next 3 before you had to turn left. Lots of short race opportunity for the kids, mostly driving cars set up for cruising. The serious guys came out after curfew when the kids went home, to play. Friday and Sat evenings one could see some pretty hot cars, set up for hard short runs, with really good brakes.
I don’t know how the hell Moriarty does it but he is good at digging up my past. In the 20 years we were together we did not collect a single ticket. On the holidays or Wednesday night cruises. And some mights we had almost 100 cars.
A little snippet of Portlands' hot rod history. 1954: Formation of the Multnomah Hot Rod Council which included 28 Portland area hot rod clubs. ... Terry Schrunk, mayor of Portland and 44 area hot rod clubs. Portland Mayor Terry Shrunk on Hot Rodding - 1955 "When there were far fewer people around, far fewer laws and regulations, when the legal speed limit was 75 mph, when gas was cheap, when driving was a pleasure, if you owned a hot machine you could point the grill down an empty road and go!" Full article Here: https://flatoutpress.blogspot.com/2013/06/portland-mayor-terry-shrunk-on-hot.html
The Jalopy Journal
