Brooklyn, NY Infamous Street Racers Back in the Day

Wow, I remember Wetsons!

Staten Island used to have South Avenue, next to the South Shore Expressway. Thursday night was race night after the big cruise in at the Masters Shopping Plaza on Hylan Blvd. 1/4 mile markings were spray painted on the road, and there was some serious money changing hands, even 25 years ago. Every now and then the cops would show up with a couple of pumper trucks from the fire department and spray down the road, just like they did in Newark. South Avenue was one way in and one way out with no bisecting roads, so when the cops raided, no one could get out without passing them. They wrote tickets like they were going out of style!

 

heavys 69 orange camaro got crushed,,i know that for a fact

 

white castle on arlington ave in the bronx was another big"street race" hangout! but no respectful Brooklynite with leave the borough to go to "da bronx"
JimV

 

Absolutely!! Forgedaboudit.

 

fuckin hey!!
JimV

 

both of these Heavy cars were purchased from Billy the Kid Stepp Dayton Ohio (RIP) Very trick cars prepped by S&M

 

I took my Tempest down to Fountain Ave a couple of times in the 70s. Didn't run the big boys though but cars in my range. I was working in Bed-Sty at the time and living at my Uncle's place to save some money cause I was getting married soon and hauling back and forth was a pain in the ass and costly.

 

Are you saying Heavy was in the process of building a Mustang II Pro Stocker (switching from a Dodge to a Ford a la Herb McCandless) before his run in with the Feds?


(Grump's old Camaro)

Pete

 

I've got that issue. Without going through my vast collection of vintage car magazines to find it, I'll have to take an educated guess and say it is Super Street Cars - September 1970. Or it is Hot Cars same month/year? There's a black & white 4-dr. Mercury Montego police car being drag tested on the cover. Either way, it's from the same publisher (Phil Engeldrum).

Make me a generous offer (plus postage) and it's YOURS.

Pete

 

Hey Norman..it's Pete. Long time no see; nor buy. I hope all's well.

Pete

 

This "mountain man" stole your property! If he had any class, he would've handed you a ten dollar bill to replace the tape. I know his 'type' too well--and how to deal with 'them'; you don't, that's why you punked-out.

Nothing personal, my friend...I just detest bullies.

Pete

 

Pete

 

New York had it going on....Thanks for the info....They had some Heavy Hitters runnin'.....I would of love to experienced Brooklyn back in it's hey day.

 

Not this day...

 

Yeah, really smart. All that wheelstander has to do is get out of shape a bit and crash, or worse yet, run into someone, and the driver will end-up getting arrested, put in jail, and odds are while there, his ass will get worked-over (if you know what I mean).

I don't know about you but I've got much, much better things to do with my time and money than going to court and spending it on a lawyer.

These aren't the old street racing days in the 1960s & 1970s or even back in the 1980s. The fines and/or jail sentences are draconian!

"Ha..ha..ha"...dumb-asses (in the video).

Pete

 

Can you put a year on that? Last I seen/heard/read about Heavy was the 1974 drag racing season.

Pete

 

Here are some even earlier shots of Heavy I found on another forum:



This is the ex-Bill Grumpy Jenkins 1970 Winternationals and Gatornationals-winning Pro Stock car.




This is the ex-Butch Leal-owned California Flash Camaro.










The Jimi Hendrix of 4-speed drivers, Ronnie "The Boss" Sox with Rufus "Brooklyn Heavy" Boyd.
That's Dyno Don Nicholson in the right lane. Whose primered Duster is that in the left?

 

A couple photos of Heavy's 1966/67 Chevelle at Island Dragway, Great Meadows, NJ circa 1971.

 

Me an a few friends used to make it to Grady's in the late 60's.A few guys that hung out there got a reputation for not paying the agreed on money if they lost.So we stopped racing there being that a few guys can't argue the point with 20 guys.
Newark NJ,the route 21 northbound lanes near the Dreamboat lounge was also popular for a few years.Mostly street driven high 12 second muscle cars would be the fastest.I ran there and made good money by picking my races carefully.
I made it out to the connecting Hiway but when I was there the police were all over the place.

 

I only ran across this thread today - Way Cool

Here is a thread I posted on another board with a bunch of articles about NY street racing!




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Reading all these posting about street racing back in the day, Brooklyn Heavy, Ron Lyles / Mutt Bros., etc. - brings back a lot of memories. We made the NY circuit - Connecting Highway, 150th St., Cross Bay Blvd., Clearview Expressway, Fountain Ave, the service road off the LIE and just about any stop light with a couple of blocks of clear road ahead.
It was a different world - the penalties weren't so severe - the consequences so life altering.
The Fire Dept. would come to Connecting Hwy. and spray down the roadway from above when the cops had enough. It went on every weekend and most weeknights, for the most part it was tolerated.
The Cops would sit in the Diner parking lot on Lefferts Blvd. and watch the cars go by with open exhaust and slicks making the 2 plus mile turn around after racing down South Conduit to 150th Street.
Race cars with a quick coat of paint disguising what they really were, were commonplace. I remember seeing an altered wheelbase Mustang with a fresh coat of orange paint, looking for takers in Brooklyn one night.
I could tell / listen to these stories all day - a quarter million dollar race in '68 - you decide - it sounds good either way!

 

One night I received a jay walking ticket for watching the races on Connecting Hwy. from the street above. The cop said "You can't walk all the way across - so your jay walking"
To further break balls it was an appearance ticket which you had to go to LeFrak City to pay in person. But all the racers got away!

 

The first article was from Cars Illustrated - sorry I'd don't know the issue, it was ripped out of the mag years ago.
The second was from Machine Racer winter of '81.
The third's from Street Freaks issue #1 from '82.
The fourth was Car Craft 9/72.
The last was Car Craft 8/71.

 

This article was posted by Jan Suhr from Sweden -




When I saw the first post in this thread I remembered that I have some old magazines with NY street racing articles. Today I found one of them, but I know I have others.

This one is from the Feb 1974 issue of Chevy Power Magazine.

Enjoy


















Jan

 

What a great thread! It kinda reminds me of Two-Lane Blacktop. Why doesn't anyone get organized today like these guys were back then? I guess when streets are blocked off cops tend to take notice today.