I probably alrady posted on this thread but just incase I missed it. I out ran some guys a few times over the years and some other fellas out ran me a time or two. It was pretty spectacular by all accounts and I am the king.
1967, I lived on Vanowen St., Canoga Park...a block from Ralph's market. Had a white '54 Ford Coupe with a 336" Y Block, had a few quick $20 races with mild Chevys... went cruising and found some street racers running, reminded me of my old San Jose days on Trimble Rd., Montague Expressway, IBM, 10th Street, and Coffin Road... My 426 Dodge and 409 were distant memories, from 1963... These 'Valley guys' were fast.
Back when I was a young kid in the late 60's early 70's my neighborhood was loaded with hopped up muscle cars. One of my favorites was an immaculate 1971 SS 454 Chevelle owned by a friend of my dads named Ron that lived across the street from us. Bright red w/white stripes & interior, an M-22 that you could hear a block away and Cragars all the way around with N50's in back and skinnys in front. After much discussion between my young friends and I, we agreed amoungst ourselves that if a 350 Camaro was faster than a 327 car, then a 396 car was even faster and on and on. So, we all agreed that nothing could beat a 454 Chevelle. Several months later I had a chance to take a ride in the Chevelle out to see a farmer that our familys knew. That evening on the way home we're on Rt.202 around Flemington when a beautiful, mean sounding metallic blue 55 Chevy with Cragars on it pulls along side us and starts bouncing his front end. We both slow down and start off on a roll. As both cars start powershifting through the gears I'm watching in disbelief as the 55 just walks away from us. I'm yelling "get on it" as the 55 actually got out so far ahead of us that he slowed down and made a right turn off the highway before we even got there. Now riding along in a state of shock I ask Ron "how could we lose, you got a 454". And he proceeded to explain that the car with the biggest motor ain't always the fastest. Ah, to be young. That was my first hot rod reality check. But I'll never forget those cars or that first race.
Back in the early 80's me and my buddies all had muscle cars that we used to race in the local industrial park. Not for money, just for bragging rights a few times a week. Our cars were nothing real wild, usually just headers, Edelbrock intakes and a big Holley. I was riding a 70 Dodge Charger with a 440 & torqueflite and one of my close buds had a 69 Roadrunner convertible, also with a 440 & torqueflite. One night we were standing around in a parking lot patting ourselves on the backs after spanking a few of our other friends Pontiacs and Mopars. As we're standing there we see a black 70ish Camaro we never saw before coming down the street slow. As he comes to a stop everybody hears the radical idle and sees the Motion Performance stripe down the side of the car. That was it. We had never seen a Motion car outside of a magazine before and I can tell you the shit talking stopped right quick. After a bit of hemmin' & hawin' he realized we weren't gonna race and took off. That car woke us out of our "big fish in the small pond" mindset quick and we never saw him again. And of course we went right back to racing each other.
my buddy always had hot street car, and would street race it on a long road that was off the highway. i had a new motorcycle, so i would mark off the 1/4 mile and shine my headlights across the street for the finish line. (i know, looking back, its kind of stupid). so, he would almost always win, and the other guy would want to race again but would want a few cars head start. so my buddy would always tell me to go a little bit further than a 1/4 mile so he would have time to catch the other guy..... i know, we were cheating, but those were the days.... leonard
Ha, when I was a youg'un, an old lady who was a friend of the family show up. She had a '66 Pontiac Gran Prix with a 421 and auto. I was looking at the "boat" and she saids, "Take it for a ride" as she throws me the keys. I headed for the nearest freeway ramp and nailed it from a 25 mph roll. The tires immediately broke loose, smoking them through 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear. I finally got out of it so the tires would hook. I was so impressed, it was the fastest car I had ever been in for that time. I had a '49 Chevy 3100, bone stock.........
I've just spent the last 4-5 evenings reading almost all this thread, alot of great stories, there's gotta be a film in here, so many characters and cars. Unfortunatly i'm too young tho 45, to have been in any of this, oh, and in the U.K, but after reading this stuff, i can't switch off thinking about it. Great stories, thanks for taking the time to post.
Roy and Marv went in partners on a '64 Chevelle. It was white with a black vinyl top, 396 and 4 speed with a 10,000 rpm nitrous unit. The rear wheelwells are cut square to accommodate the 33" tall slicks. They are going up against a '75 Nova (red with a black vinyl top) running an LS-7 on slicks. I believe the owner worked at Bahr Chevrolet. The race is on Woodman and Saticoy. I recall the Nova getting 4 car lengths. The Chevelle does a burnout and stages. The Nova does a burnout but his radiator pukes. The Nova stages anyway. When the hands drop, the Nova moves about a car length when the Chevelle flies by. Roy owned the Chevelle but it was Marv's motor and nitrous unit.
These street racing threads are really interesting to me. Growing up "back in the day," thats how it was. There were no NSRA, HAMB, or Goodguys car shows in those days. We cruised drive in restaurants, diners, hamburger joints and ice cream stands looking for chicks and street racing. American Graffiti was not a figment of some ones imagination. Thats how it was. Too bad cruising as we knew it just doesn't exist anymore. I feel sorry for you young guns who never experienced the cruising and street racing. The geezers in lawn chairs with new Corvettes at todays cruises never happened back back in the day. Rodding in those days was not a Geezer activity. It was all young guys showing off their cars.
Rick: That '75 Nova was almost a brand new car back in those days. It was a rectangular port 454 LS6. I know because I bought the engine out of Scott Loveras' '75 Nova (the owner), and had him install it in my Brown '68 Vette. He worked for Rancho Chevrolet in Reseda as a heavy line mechanic and the installation was calculated in the price. And then years later YOU bought that same Vette. Funny how people and cars kind of crossed paths and were interconneted. Another tid-bit. Dean Stark (the owner of the Blown GTO in the first Street Race Story that started this thread), was the service writer for the same Rancho Chevrolet at the time Scott installed the 454. Small world, eh.
This sent to me in a PM The last time we went out went down like this. We started at the Langley A&W (last drive-in restaurant left in BC, gone now.) Hung around for a couple hours, nothing, no takers, mostly cruisers. Finally, we decided to go to one of the local "hot spots" and just park and wait to see if anyone showed up. So we drove out to Latimore road, and waited down by the gravel pit. Around 11:30, three turbo regals show up, I knew one of them from the track, silver 11 second car. So we ask them if any of them want to try their luck, no money, just for shits and giggles. Guy in the silver car says no way. We offer lengths and the move, no dice. Christ, cmon, its just for fun. No takers. We stand around and watch while the buicks race each other, Bob makes a single in the Impala just to break the monotony. The buicks leave, we sit there, talking about the old days, and really questioning if we even wanna do this crap anymore. Hour later, a couple guys on bikes show up, we run a guy on a GSX-R 750 Suzuki, Impala wins by 2 on the brakes, I figure bike is probably running mid-high 11s. Closest thing we have had to a serious race in about a month. About 1am, some young kids show up in a 350 chevelle, I'd guess a 15 second car. We figure "what the hell, last kick at the can" Run him heads up. We head home, really feeling pretty depressed, its like the end of a REALLY big part of our lives. Bob and I have known each other since the late seventies, at that time he was from Surrey, I was from Maple Ridge, friendly rivals from opposite sides of the river all through our twenties, teamed up and pooled our resources in our thirties, figured at that time, between the two of us we had better than 50 years of street racing experience, and it was like time had passed us by. Alot of the guys we raced with had moved on, still racing but strictly at the track, couple were racing boats, ect.some had quit entirely. We had finally built a car that was pretty well capable of handling any and all N/A comers, and there was no-one left to race. We were both in our early 40s, Bob was married, I was living with someone, the women were bitching about the late nights, sometimes we would break shit on the street pay a big tow bill, and miss CPSA race dates because of it. Better than half the time, we would go out, and end up going home at 2 am without even having had a serious race. That was the last time either of us went out. After the A&W was torn down, it went over to the Java Hut. I went over there once or twice with my Falcon, but no-one was racing, there were fast cars there, but they were the same guys that were at the track for the friday night street car digs, and they would rather run there. Shortly after that, I cracked a cylinder wall in my Falcon, it sits in storage now, motor out. Eventually, I'll put it back together, I have another block, but I'll just run it at the track, and occasionally I'll go out at 11 or 12 at night, when the streets are empty, and hammer on it on the street around here, just a crazy old geezer living in the past. I guess somewhere some other old guy like me will be laying in bed with the window open, sit up and think, "Man, thats a nasty sounding FE some guy is hammering on" and think about the old days. From what I hear, now the Java Hut scene is dead as well. The local A&Ws all have a "cruise night" but thats EXACTLY what it is, there are really no street racers left around here.
Hey Bob and Groucho, Did you guys know Jim and Jeff Taibi? I've emailed Bob a few times back and forth last year bout the past but forgot about them. My friend/roomate had one of the ex Taibis 67/8 4 speed camaros, and I had several bugs that I could not get Bob to race me with... Good old days.
I posted this over at the LA Street Racing archive thread, but maybe this might be a better place. I'm hoping to stir some street racing memories to share: Here's one from the era. This AMX was out of Northridge, and made quite a few night runs. Anyone remember going up against it?
Hey Groucho & Bob, Do you remember Lorenzo, had a 76 white Nova big block with a dominator sticking out of the hood. It was white with red on the bottom. He was a darked skinned Philipino guy, everyone thought he was black. He raced bikes in the mid to late 80's
In 1956 I turned 16, the big day was finally here, My mother let me skip school a half day and took me to get my drivers license. On the way home she dropped me of at Ed's Mobil where I worked pumping gas. I also had my car there, a 40 ford 2 door that I bought for 50 bucks (a nice one too) I had bought it a month before and had been working on it at the station (new brakes tune up etc.) After getting off work I went home, cleaned up and was headed for my girlfriends about 7 miles away, my first trip in my own car. Having to pass the gas station again, I thought I would get a couple more bucks worth of gas. Jim Ruttman was there who also worked there and I went to high school with. He came from a racing family (brother Troy won Indy in 1952). After gassing up Jim says "you want to run that Ford?" I say "sure", Jim had a 49 Plymouth coupe. So we line up in front of the gas station with all the guys that hung around there looking on and one flagging, off we went. In first I had him by about 2 foot when I speed shifted to second, It squealed in second!!!! I was so proud!!!, but only for a second, I looked up and there was a Police car sitting on the side street. Well.. he took us both home and told our parents he wouldn't write us up, as long as they took us off the road for 30 days. I had a gas Southwind heater in that car and burned a couple tanks of gas sitting there idling, playing the radio and running that heater for the next 30 days. (in the driveway)
Last fall: Finally get the car running proper after a summer of mechanical errors (Grenaded transmission, broken valve spring, clogged radiator... frustrating little problems that kept me from drivin' it). Start a new job at an auto shop; just a part time gig hangin out washing/moving cars around the lot. One of the mechanics there has a 31 ford sedan, full fendered, hoodsides, patina'd body... just kind of a hotrod. Quiet quiet car, not one you'd expect to be up to any mischief. However we start BS'n at work and decide that our two little cars would probably be a pretty good matchup. He's runnin a 305 with some circle track cast-off heads and a 4 barrel. Trans is an auto and the rear end is a 4.10 geared unit. It's got coil overs and a 4 link in the rear, traditional beam in front. I'm runnin the wagon; 283, 454 lift cam, powerpak heads and probably more carb than it needs. This year i switched to an auto with a 3500 stall (that stalls at more like 3 behind my motor ha!), and a 3.73 posi setup in the rear with some cal-trac bars. So we decide to meet at a gas station and go to the "Bloomington international raceway" which is our nickname for a little street we have hidden away that we run on fairly frequently in the summer. I show up, he's already there with one of his buddies in a bagged 60 f100 pickup. A couple other spectators show up, so we head to the strip and get things ready. We pull into the spectators lot and agree on running heads up with a flagman. We pull out of the lot, do the U turn, and get lined up. Each car tests the pavement a bit with a couple dry hops. Its a cool night, but 190hp isn't tough to hook up so we're ready. Flagman is out, bumpers are lined up. I put it up on the converter (to the flagmans surprise) and get ready to go. the A is up on as much of the converter as it can be... Arms come down, pedals get matted, we're off. The A is right next to me from the armdrop. This is a surprise to me as my car usually out-hooks anyone (like i said, 190 horse isn't much to stick to the ground). My foot gets pressed harder to the boards, assuring the throttle is wide open. At this point we're nearing the top of 1st and he's still right next to me. Not good I'm thinking... I let it wind 1st out and click it into 2nd. Trans shifts quickly and with purpose, which nets me about a fender. I'm slowly moving out on the A. 2nd gear puts his door at my rear tire, 6,000 rpms comes and goes, click into 3rd and finally start putting some distance on the little A. Keep the hammer down enough to know that I'm drivin away on the big end and start to shut it down. We run a couple more times that night for fun, from a roll he gets a jump on me but i still wind him in ontop. Fun stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkrGpm0kf78 if anyone wants video documentation of the aforementioned story.
One night a buddy of mine & myself (he owned the car I built it and drove it) Were out looking for a race, We pulled in to a AM/PM a spot were we would meet sometimes to race And about 6 bike were hanging out there. We got out and wen't into the store, when we came out one of them says, hey you race that car? Of course we say, yes we do. How about a bike? Whatca got? I have a kawasaki KZ 650. I think to myself I used to have one shouldn't be to tuff. He ask what I have for a motor and I say 283. hehehe it's really a 355. I end up getting 1 car flag start. We go and get the race off. Flag comes down he comes right up to my side and we stay there through 1st gear. I say to my self oh ya you are done! hit second gear he is still there, shift 3rd still havn't pulled on him. Outcome TIE. After the race we walked up to each other and said that is not a 650,and that is not a 283 and just laughed. We ended up good friends after that. It had a GPZ 750 in it. In fact I ended up owning it for about 2 or 3 year then sold it back to him.
Any St. Louis guys have any stories of Hall Street? It was before my time but according to some the older guys, the cops would leave them alone on Friday and Saturday nights. Then people started trailering cars in, then peoples started bringing fuel cars and diggers. The cops would supposedly open the fire hydrants to wet the streets down so the trucks could get through (industrial trucking/wharehouse district), but put an end to the street racing there. In the 70's it was Earth City and after the cruise nights at Chuck-A-Burger to Goodfellow or Skinker Parkway. Good times. Good times
Ever hear of Wayne Arteaga from SL, he had a blown Hernry J in the 50s and was a Photographer in SL, I was stationed in the army with his brother. Sadly he has since passed on. Here's some of his photo's.. http://gassermadness.com/arteaga/
I remember in the mid 80's Hot rod or Car craft doing a story on street racing. There was a red and black, tubbed, tube chassis Anglia with a tunnel rammed LS-7 on spray. They called themselves the "Whittier boys" Do Groucho or Bottle Bob remember that one? It looked deadly fast and really well engineered for the time.
He was way before my time, but all of the places around St. Charles (Smart Field, MAR and Parks Airport, Alton) I remember growing up. Sadly MAR and Alton strip are gone. I heard a rumor that Gateway was closing. I wonder if MonsterFlake, Bill Bierman or King chassis have any tales from the Gateway.
The last time I went street racing I wound up with a slug from a .45 in my right 1/4 panel. Guess he didn't wanna race.
The Jalopy Journal
