It is unlikely that anyone I street raced with will ever be on this board. I could say anything I guess but the guys I raced were sure enough Hard-core backwoods racers. In my small town I was the one to beat but they were ALL the same family. I always had to question whether they were gonna race me with a carload of people. Once I had to demand they take the small kids and babies out of the car before I would race. They always ran Chevelles. One would steer and one would shift. I always beat them, always 3 out of 5 runs, and every week they would show up with "something for me". We had no good pavement to run on. My camaro was 350, solid Crower cam,muncie,4:10 rear and I sucked at shifting. I would short-shift to 2nd then shift at 6500 thu 3rd. They saw how slow I was off the line so they would MOVE the start line everytime we ran. This was back in the early to mid 80's. Sadly 2 of the guys died ( in later years) during single high speed runs with carloads of people. Both times rumour had it that the ignition key was turned off by one of the passengers! The adrenaline rush then was much stronger than the rush I had during my bracket racing years. In my area now there are some seriously fast street cars but I don't frequent their races unless they are at the local strip. I don't have a fast street car now but when the kids finish college then maybe?................. peace
Ah Top Hats. That brought me a smile. We left that place in a buddys 57 Ford one night in an alcoholic haze and he fell out the door. And he was drivin'. Dont know how we didnt die that night. Did 99% of my street racing on Telegraph. The one I remember best was in my 63 Ford. In 68 I was putting together a 8v 406 4sp when I got my draft notice. I only had a couple weeks before I had to go so I just hashed it together so I could have some fun. One night coming up Telegraph I stopped at Northline and a new GTO and BB Chevelle (both uncapped) were ligthin' the fires waiting for the light to change. I'm thinking "I'm game", if I get caught I'll just tell the cop my draft status. The light turns green and we were off. It was just like Detroit Dragway when they used to run 4 abreast. We were even in 1st gear. I pulled a 1/2 a car when I shifted to 2nd then slowly pulled away from them. When we stopped at the next light at Goddard they were both yellin' at each other, pointing at me. I went off to the Marines with a smile on my face.
I don't have much, back in the 80's my dad raced his junkyard 351C powered 55' Ford against his friend's 66' Mustang with a really hyped up 289.They raced under some bydocks under I-95 that are about a 1/4 mile from overpass to overpass in each direction. They both took off from a start and Jimmy (The guy in the Mustang) left early, and although he won, he refused to race the other direction. Another time my dad raced a guy in a 440 Challenger under the lights on Telegraph Rd., He ended up winning and at the next light the guy demanded to see what engine the car had in it. My dad opened the hood and told him it's a 351 Cleveland, but the guy in the Challenger swore it was a 428...lol And finally, My dad and my cousin Tommy went out in the 55' and pulled up next to a Camaro (Not sure what year). They blew the guy away. The next light the guy in the Camaro said "Hey man, this is my sister's car!" The before my dad could reply, my cousin Tommy replied "That's what they all say!"
People still race Hall street. But now it's just a bunch of ricers, and dumbasses getting in fights for no reason.
In Texas in '92 we took out my buddy's 70 Chevelle in Austin. It was blue with primer spots and had a velocity stack through the hood. It was a 383 with nitrous, drum brakes, and rock hard tires. FWIW it did around a 12.8 on the motor and high 11's on the bottle. Anyway we went out somewhere in BFE to race. We go up against a guy with a built late 80's mustang notchback. It's been lightened, etc, with a nitrous bottle behind the front seat. Well the new cam my friend put in the chevelle didn't like the nitrous much, so we didn't use it, so we went motor to motor. The guy makes a big production over disconnecting the nitrous bottle. Naturally we run and lose by a car length or two. Then the next race with a 70s vette and some other poor sob and the sheriff was waiting for them at the end and hit the rollers and got them both. Everybody hauled ass out of there and we got out, thank god. It wasn't till years later I realized he'd hidden another nitrous bottle somewhere and put one over on us. Good for him. We were just racing for fun, no money, although I saw some cars trailered in that wouldn't run for less than a bet in the 100s. I think I posted that story already. Oh well. Must be getting old!!!! heh
This thread is great i have spent almost all my 12 HR. shift reading it! BottleBob great stories!!!! When i get time I am going to tell a few from the southern MS-AL area. I would loved to have been able to come to Califorina when I was first street racing (Turned 15 in 1990) You guys really made my day with these stories. Thank You!
I might be mistaken, but I think that the 10.20's was without the spray. supposedly was a low 9 high 8 car when it mattered.
I had a '75 Chevy Monza that came with a 350/350, it was bone stock. However, the car came from the dealer with 262 emblems. I was spectating at Woodman and Saticoy when the urge hit. I asked a guy with a '66 big block El Camino, if he would give me 3 from behind. I explained that my car had a 262 V8 and freeway flyer gears so I needed the 3 from behind. At the time, no one had heard of car lengths from behind. The guy asked to see the motor because he never saw a 262 so I popped the hood, but put my hand over the specification tag on the radiator support (the tag said 350). So I got 3 from behind. With the 350, the Monza would smoke the tires through 1st and 2nd, but I eased it out a car length, then stood on it. At the 1/8 mile mark, I was probably 10 cars a head. By the 1/4 mile, he made up 7 cars and I won by 3.
In the early to mid 70's Villard Ave. on the north side of Milwaukee was a pretty active place, neighborhood was still good. A good number stout muscle cars were sure to be found on weekends and even during the week on hot summer nights. My SS Chevelle was a trailered bracket car so that left the street business to my 61 true blue C-10 Chevy pickup, complete with cab high color match cap, chrome reverse wheels with 'baldy' hub caps and LOUD glass pack exhaust. I crafted 73 454 between the frame rails, and as they were boxed on the 61 was a close fit. Had to slice and dice new Corvette cast iron manifolds to get the exhaust out of the engine room. Now this model truck had bell housing rear engine mount, sorta like the tri fives so the trans just hung out the bell with no rear mount, which was handy as I blew up a lot of 4 speeds over the years. The clutch was a stock 11" Vette piece and the stock 61 juice clutch set up was retained. Had a Olds leaner bench seat, a Sun Super tach on the column and a Hurst comp plus of course. The shifter angle was perfect for the 2/3 shift, could put all your body weight into that one. I could usually mess up a 350hp 396 stick Chevelle until middle of 3rd gear, never got beat by any 383 Mopars, didn't look to tangle with 440s or Hemis of course. Old truck worked good off the line, left @ 5500 the rear suspension on that type of Chevy truck was the standard on Nascar for a long time and the front had tortion bars. However in time I got weary of the fast moving fuel gage and 'upgraded' to 74 C-10 w/rat, T-400 and AC, put a camper on that one. There was the time I got into a top end run with a pissed off bitch tow truck driver on the I road down south with that truck AND the camper, if she woulda got next to me it would have been rubbing, but that's another story.
Bottle Bob, Groucho and the other Valley Guys, I have spent the last two weeks reading the thirty pages of stories written on this forum. As someone who grew up in Reseda and who's dad operated an auto parts store on Van Nuys Blvd. I can tell you, your all full of S***. Actually the stories you told were for the most part true and for some of them you should have changed the names to protect the innocent but it's too late for that. You probably won't remember me but I was there a generation before you. I ran with Monk, Dennis, Mike and the ever crazy Coocher. In fact my shop was next door to Coocher's and Monks was at the other end of the complex. Yes, it was the one behind Busch Gardens. In fact maybe I will tell the story of the New Years night that I was getting lucky and waiting on a call from Screwy Louie to tell me where to meet him to drive his car. It was the night he decided he could drive the car and Fat Ron paid the price. I mean what was he thinking? We didn't call him Screwy Louie without cause. I was a hired gun and drove some bad ass cars back them. As time permits I will try and fill in the blanks from about 1962 to 1980 when I got tired of the "Commercialization" of drag racing and left the sport. I witnessed over 500 street races in the day and learned a lot. Did some street racing myself but mostly watched as I couldn't afford to get caught. So for now I want to say Hi and tell you to please continue telling the stories that were a part of the greatest time in the history of the Hot Rod.
Thanks to all of you for bringing back those great and sometimes horrendous memories of life on the street. I've got lots of the street race stories form here in north NJ. One for now will tell of the first ticket(s) that I got at 17. I had met with a bunch of car guys when I was 14. All I could think of was finally getting to build my own street car. Comes 17 and I save enough money to buy my friends 55 Chevy, Belair hdtp. He kept it pritine, but it was a 265 4bbl PG. After about a year I had enough money to start doing it over. I bought a crate 327 fuelly and put in the first Stick Hydro from Tarantola in my area. This was 1962/63. had a set of quads on an Edelbrock manifold, and 4:56's. The hydro would link up instantly and leap away from most anybody, because of the 3000 stall speed. This was waaaay before the bottle days around here. The only problem was that 2nd to 3rd drop in revs when it shifted. That's the background. I brought it around to the car hop we hung around and ran a number of races, made some money. I had some guys in knew in high school who put together a 55 4 dr sedan with a done over 409 in it, 4 speed. It finally came down on a Friday night we were going to go at it. I hated bringing crowds around when we raced as it always brought the cops out. Could't help it this night there was about 30+ cars following us over to Port Newark, which was the old docks area, desolated and no one there on a Friday night. The guy with me is much older, he owned the garage where we put the car together and was reknowned as a great driver. He wanted to go along on the race with me when we ran. The plan was to have everybody stay up near the finish line back away from the road, and one guy have his lights across the road to show where the finish was. I also told them if anyone sees the cops to flash their lights and we could just pull off into the weeds until the cops left. We go down the end of the road, open up the headers, already had the tires on., and get ready to go. We're looking for any sign of problems but it's clear. We're even up start and go on three, I go out about 6 cars on him in first gear, hydos were great for that, do 2nd and then 3rd, and he pulls up to my door, we're going for 4the when I see in front of us a counth cop pulled across the road talking to all of the people gathered to watch this. I'm in the outside land and the 409 is in the inside lane. The cop is dead in front of both of us, so I jump on the brakes to let him get in front of me to clear the cop car and jump on it again. We get up to a split in the road about a mile away, he goes right, I go left. This is still a pitch dark road with lots of RR tracks, twists and turns and I'm on slicks. Finally get to an overpass, no cops in sight turn over it and say to my friend, looks lkike we're clear. Come over the overpass and my heart stopped, there were three cop cars and a semi across the road waiting for us. They are checking license and regisrtaion on all of the cars passing this way The only funny part of this, is we're sitting in line to inch up to the cop asking for ID with the pipes open, rumping motor, and slicks and he says we're just looking for some kids racing down here can I see your ID. By that time the original cop showed up and they escorted us to the headquarters for about two hours where they wrote out two tickets, couldn't get all the charges on one, a total of 37 seperate charges. Didn't impound the car just let me go home with the tickets. Cost a chunk for that one and curtailed my driving for three months. Welcome to the perils of street racing.
So Groucho is gone, and Bob hasn't been heard from in awhile. I guess things always come to an end, just like the events they were telling us about...
I like these threads and although I have some pretty cool street race stories I have a pretty funny one that I think is worthy of mention. I was in the Rio Grand valley in the '80s visiting a friend and renewing a visa. This friend had what he thought was a hot 71 camaro (or camero ). We are rolling though Mc Allen Texas and this real country lookin' fellow older than us ( about my age now) from S Carolina rolls up at a stop light in this rattled looking '69 or so Suburban. He drawls over, " Hey ya wanna run thet (sic) turkey." My friend just point up the road and the light turn green and it was on. We were pulling him about halfway across the intersection then all at once this old truck goes screamin by. Sounded like a swarm of bees. We caught up with him at Whatta Burger and my friend demands to look under the hood. The old guy just grins and says, "Its just got a stock chevy in it." Yea stock like in NASCAR stock, I guess he was a crew chief for one of the race teams and was just off on an adventure.
Exwestracer: Yeah, Groucho was banned, and I kinda drained my meat hard-drive of accurately recallable memories. I think Groucho is currently selling some HAMB related name tags on EBAY though. http://www.ebay.com/itm/130637768965 If the address doesn't post unchanged, you can search for HAMB on EBAY and get to it. -- BottleBob http://home.earthlink.net/~bottlbob
7. And also you said something that I was mad because you had messed with the family(As far as I know my family is my wifeand kids) and called you parents, people that know me, know I don’t have that sissy type of attitude to call your mommy and daddy . No need for mommy and daddy, just post it on the HAMB. Drama, popcorn anyone?
I see no drama, some people take racing very seriously weather it be done on the street or the track. The point of the story is lots of lies and bulls#%t was written by Enzo the only thruth is they beat Carlos's white tow car with a hidden nitrous unit.
I like the drama! That is what street racing and the bragging afterwards is all about. If you are going to talk the talk, you better be able to walk the walk.
I lived in Philly at the time.Had a 57 vette,did a lot of street racing.One night raced this tri power Pontiac. But before I raced I let my girlfriend out and my buddy for weight reasons. Beat the Pontiac as the cops came. You guessed it had to go back and pick up my girl friend. Guess who got a ticket?
One of you old SoCal troublemakers must remember the chicken coops at the end of Gale Ave. Or The Fool (Cliff) Or Jugs & Jaws... Good times. Except in Compton - I stayed out of that part of it. B.
reminds me of the night we were in South Park,near Pittsburgh..was a cool car scene for alot of years till the cops ruined the fun. I had my 396 '68 Chevelle and my buddy had his '69 Firebird with a 455 Stage 1 Buick stuffed in..we were just hanging out yelling at girls riding by when a red '68 SS Camaro rode by all wound up acting badass..called him out,he pulled in and dropped off his passengers and the guy I was with in the firebird left his passenger Scott and the 2 cars went down the end of the park,turned around and stopped..it was almost dark they line up and we saw 2 sets of headlights bouncing and they start coming down towards us wide open. I look up and here comes a County cop minding his own business cruising past. they both saw him same time and you heard the 2 cars lift for a second and the Firebird goes flat to the floor past us. funny as hell when Scott turned toward me and said "Dan,can I have a ride home?" he knew that Pontiac was gone..lol,dumb kid in the camaro pulls in the lot to pick up his buddie's and of course the cop busted his ass good. halfway back to Carnegie we see a burgundy Olds 98 and it was the owner of the firebird driving his Mom's car...he made it home,changed cars and was coming back. cop never saw what color his car was he hit it so fast and we got away with that one..lol
AMEN to that! A Buddy and I ,used to run in an Industrial park with some friends.(10 to 20 people max)Someone always had a scanner! Fast forward a few years: We had heard that some people were running at the old spot, so we decided to go see what was going on! So we are standing there for a while commenting on the hoards of people... when this kid says to my buddy"Cool you got a Scanner"! We could not fathom that a group of well over 50 people, on a late Sat. evening(still daylight)Nobody had a Scanner! Street Racing is just that! It Is NOT Drag Racing. Never will be. It is for sure one thing, STUPID
I use to run in Compton, way before all this gang nonsense. The great thing about those guys is there was no whining if they lost. They would pay up and ask for a re-match.
Last time I saw screwy Louie he could barely push the clutch in on the 68 roadrunner. He sold most of his stuff shortly afterwards. Hello World Famous JoeSimi! Joe will drag your ass anywhere.
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