Technical Legend or a Myth Or a Crack Pot. Tell a Story.

Remember seeing a 64 Impala go up in flames and burn to the ground on Telegraph in early 80’s. We used to cruise that all the time.

 

Anyone remember the "Suddenly" '57 Plymouth Savoy?? When it was built, with one purpose in mind, and that being Daytona, it had an experimental 400ci hemi. It was flat tow'd behind Ray Brocks' Mom's '54 Olds from SoCal to Fla. It ran some pretty outrageous numbers, like in the 170's. It was on a Sunday, and the tech guy said he could not confirm it to be a record, as there was no fuel tech available, and pump gas had to be used. Seems Wally was a pretty good friend of Bill France Sr, so he called Bill at home and told him of the situation. Bill was there Johnny-on-the-spot..... The Moon tank was where the passenger seat would normally be, and Bill opened the door and spun off the big cap. Looking in he said "Looks like pump gas". Then he leaned down and took a sniff... "Smells like pump gas"... Then he stuck a finger in the tank and put it to his tongue. "Tastes like pump gas, hells bells, boys, that's a damned record"..... As told to me personally by my good friend Ray Brock, may he be busy building hot rod chariots in the heavens !!!!

 

Had a buddy that would take his F-100 to where we used to street drag
It had a hydraulic PTO driven lift on the bed
He would line up for a race and engage the PTO for the race... lifting the bed as he drove down the track
His version of a 'wheel stand'
We've all been dorks at one time or another but he was pretty much all the time....and it was still funny everytime we saw him do it...

 

Remember Junior Achievement? Had one of their projects, a hand heald spotlight that plugged into a cigarette lighter socket, the sealed beam held into a plunger with a bike grip on a short handle. We were getting sick of the onlookers fuckin up a good race. "Bob, I'm gonna hang back about 10 or 15 min, tell the boys don't run away when they see the spotlight." Cops would come by. shine the spotlight, everybody would scatter. Sometimes the red and blues too but usually not. "Just make sure it's me!" I roll in, huge crowd, too many. I plugged it in and swept over the crowd and they all scattered except a few. Got off our races and went back up I-96 to the White Castle to laugh about it. Anyone remember that spot? We called it Carnavales.

Our street race days were near legendary.

 

I heard this story a few times. Then A guy was telling me it was true. He gets a call while he was at work. There`s a 69Dodge Charger (fill in the blank) at U-Pull-It being stripped. It`s a 100% restored show winner. A gal won it in a divorce settlement. He must have pissed her off bad. He spent years restoring this car back to original with all the correct go fast goddies. She told the U pull it guys she wanted to sell it to them to be scrapped. They didn`t want to see this happen. She said she`d go elsewhere if not. They wanted to sell it to get her more money. NOPE. I want to sit and watch this thing get dismantled. So as the guy entered the South U pull it yard, just as you climb the hill where the old little office was. People were completely stripping this car apart. You could hardly get close to see the action there were so many people watching. And the lady was sitting in a chair watching all this happen. Smiling.

 

One my buds I worked with backin the 70s had a 69 Chevelle project, beautiful deep red color. It was in her dad's shop.
One day bud had a boy on his place bushoggin & his wife came out on the porch & told bud "Not to let them cut over there, I got flowers planted"
He told tractor dude to go ahead anyway. Wife came out & loaded kids up in her 69 Buick Skylark & left.
Later bud found out she'd took the kids over to her dad's shop & let the boys beat the livin hell outta that Chevelle with hammers, Big Ones!
When he found out about it later on he gave the car to the boy that had been doing the paint & body for him!
Don't *&$! with a woman's Flowers!

 

That also describes Longview Washington's industrial way ,we're everyone raced in my early years , as I did then take the bridge back home to the Oregon side...one night I was hanging out there waiting to make a run ,I was in my 27 T roadster ,427 Ford dual 4's, and the cops raided the place right as the 2 cars ahead of me launched ,every one scattered and I managed to get around them and over the bridge without getting caught, yellow car with open headers ...it wasn't easy, but my mufflers were still in the bushes were I stashed them after removing for the race....well Monday when I went to work ,in Washington , I stopped by the spot and grabbed them.
Well when the weekend rolled around I was back in Washington cruise n the Commerce Blvd when a cop makes his way up to me and turns on his lights I pull over , he asked for the usual stuff ....then tells me that I can't drive the car in Washington because they have a fender law there, the car still had Washington plates on I had not got the Oregon plates yet it was built and registered in Washington state before I got it ...and I often drove it back and forth to work with no problem , even getting some waves and thumbs up from cops while doing so, then the cop hands me my stuff and says it's time to get back to your side of the bridge...what ..I say back to him..take it home and don't come back until it's got fenders he says...so I fire it up wait for traffic to give me some space and I kind of nail it making a u turn and headed towards the bridge and a few block from the bridge I look over and there he is parked against the curb and as I pass by he blips his over head lights for a second pulls out behind and follows me up and over the bridge and once on the Oregon side he whips a u turn and returns to his side .
I figured he was one of the cops that showed up when the races got raided and saw me get away .
Monday come around again and off to work I went ,in Washington state , in my 27 T...with no fenders still and never did, even meeting a cop across from me at a intersection , never a problem .

 

Man that thing would haul ,loud too!Can you say power to weight ratio?

 

A lady that had lived next door had a new old man. He was a Snap On salesman for many years. Had a large collection of old tools and boxes taken in as trade ins. He left the behind with his ex when they split. Told her he would be back to get them some day. He finally had a large garage & called her up saying he would be by to get them out of her way. She replied " All that crap is gone, I had to pay some guy to haul it off."

 

That tale was reported in Philly when I was a pump jockey

 

That was three of the top old time bullshit tales , rolled into one!!

 

Guy once showed me a pair of '55 Chevy 2 doors. Identical cars with cut wheel wells and in primer.
Identical interiors,mag wheels.stickers on the windows. One had a healthy small block the other a nasty thumping big block.
Claimed he would roll into towns in his area looking for a race with the SB then say he had to go home and uncork the headers and put on slicks.
He would go home and come back with the BB car and kick butt.
I was dubious as all the tows in his driving radius were 700 people or less so word would spread quickly and if you can't tell the difference between the music of a SB and a BB you must be hard of hearing.

 

Back in the early 70s, self serving gas stations didn't exist around here. Every station had at least one pump jockey to pump gas for customers. The gas station I worked at was one of the largest volume gas stations in our town, we always had 2 guys working at nights. I worked the closing shift every night except Sunday evenings for the first 3 years I worked there.
The stuff I witnessed on those Friday and Saturday evenings was eye opening, to say the least, especially for this midwestern teenager! There was a wide verity of things that happened. Fast cars, (some with freshly broken parts), drunken demonstrations of people's inability to handle boos (the guy that did the great burnout but lost it and crashed into the wall across the street from the station was funny). There was even "R" rated nudity on several occasions. Some nudity was intentional (a few many time repeat players), some was accidental (like the young lady with the 2 year old that grabbed the strap of her halter top as he fell back onto the seat while I was washing her windshield, I still remember 50 years later), some you couldn't tell which side of it they fell on, some you didn't care what the reason was (like the lady that got out of the car to use the ladies rest room I was about to lock up holding her top together, and pulling up her pants, another 50 YO memory), and some you really would rather have not seen for any reason!

Working those Friday and Saturday evenings was always an experience! I did it for 3 years before I became a full time day mechanic there. I trained a lot of new guys (it was always guys that worked at the gas stations) during those years working the evening shift. It was always fun watching those new kid's get those first "new" experiences.

 

Just what, exactly, do they fertilize those avocado trees out there with?

 

I don’t know if it’s considers a myth or just BS,,but in HS, a classmate was always bragging on his brothers ‘55 or ‘56 GMC PU, how his brother could “pay the bills “ with it.
One day I spotted a GMC and my class mate walking towards it after school, I made a Uturn, parked behind him, me and my Bud got out to drum up a race.
So I went to the drivers side, window was down, an said something along the lines “your bother says this truck is pretty quick “.
The fella was in his early 20’s, started to let the “kid” (me) know real life about racing.
So I asked him if he wanted to run for 10 bucks or something like that.
He looked in his rear view mirror, saw my ‘57 PU, never even asked what I had in it, nothing.
I told him I could probably gather up some friends to pitch in and make it worth it to him.
Then it started.
“I have an issue with this engine right now”. Etc. Went on to tell me about some ways he built it for a high revving SBC, etc, all the good stuff.
Then told me he “just had a clutch issue the other day”. Seems it didn’t engage and spun the motor to 12 grand.
Now I’m looking in from the drivers side, right on top of his steering column is a 6k pep boys special tach.
As me and my Bud got into my truck I told him about it, was a great laugh for a couple of teens for awhile.

 

Coolness with attitude & shades…From the book So Cal THUNDER


Hello,

LEGEND OR A MYTH OR A CRACK POT. TELL A STORY. How about a person who has gone through plenty of drag racing in his long career... a legend, some of it must be a myth, and later on in drag racing history, I am sure people thought he was a crackpot… so, yes all three…

When my brother started going to high school, he used to come home with stories about cruising, hot rods and drag racing. The whole Bixby Knolls area was a hot bed of teenage life and hot rods. Stories about those that were older and in a different class at our high school to those that were working at the local speed shop, Reath Automotive and Joe Mailliard’s Engineering Shops. Some just had the coolness to go with the legend status.

The shops did not stop those stories as they knew it led to more business. Sometimes, they stoked the stories and that made them even better and for a good laugh, too. Missed shifts, speed shift ability and shutting down early to showcase the red brake light winner were all a part of happenings spread down through the drive-in restaurant parking lots in Bixby Knolls. There were specifically two of the more popular spots. There were some others hamburger stands, but they were not the place to hang out at the time.

If any teenager went to the local high school, then the cruising from the school activities down the main drag went right to the Bixby Knolls restaurant drive-in parking lot for better food and hot rod lore.

Jnaki

Fast and with scallops to boot, on a early 57 Chevy sedan... A Bixby Knolls/Cherry Avenue legend...

After hearing all of those stories of the nights in Bixby Knolls and then being able to go to Lion’s Dragstrip, all made it worthwhile. The drags opened my eyes and the lore just kept getting bigger than life. When we met Tom McEwen at Lion’s Dragstrip, it was intimidating. He had a “rep” to maintain and he did have that swagger.

But then we found out that he had a normal little speed shop near our house on the Westside of Long Beach. It was called Speed Engineering, a lettering known from the side of Junior Thompson’s 41 Studebaker.

At the time, everyone who did not know Tom McEwen or Junior Thompson thought the Studebaker came from Thompson’s garage. But it was instrumental to the Westside of Long Beach shop created by Ronnie LeGrand and Tom McEwen.
Original film from 1959 Lion's Dragstrip, original sound from September 1959 in Detroit U.S. Nationals.

Then, after the high school hot rod/drag race years, we moved on to the rest of our adventures. But, back in Bixby Knolls, a couple of friends from our Jr. H.S. and H.S. teenage years of hot rods and cruising teamed up with Tom McEwen and started setting records in the AA/FD classes. Two local high school guys with 7 years apart, getting together to create a memorable race car team from Bixby Knolls. (along with our old friend, Doug Fisher… 348 Ford Sedan Delivery)

Jerry Bivens class of 1962 + Doug Fisher class of 61 + Tom McEwen class of 1955


Tom McEwen 1967 30 Years old

 

Your story brought up some memories when I worked for a large gas station/towing/repair/AAA enterprise. Usually I only worked there in the bad weather snow plowing/jumping the no starts, paid me cash, very good deal for me. On a service call, flat tire on telephone truck, I attempted to lift back, ripped the bumper off the truck, phone man laughed and threw it in the ditch, then I took the big floor jack off truck and changed the tire. On a no start, the rule was 3 short squirts in carb with air cleaner off, jump it 2X and if no start, offer to tow into the shop or collect the $15. A very pretty young lady pleaded with me for more attempts, so I sprayed several more times/start attempts and pow, backfires, some minor flash burns to my face and broke the carb. Hooked it up for the tow, dropped her off at work, return to shop and drop it off, back on road for many for more hours, calls, returning to shop the car was inside for thawing and George (owner) calls me over and states, John, looks like more than 3 squirts and 2x to me, my answer was yes it was, he never chewed me out, asked me if I learned anything, my answer was yes, that was it, I figured I would have to pay for carb out of my cash for the day, he paid me in full, I worked for him several winters, A very good man and I did in fact learn several things from him, on occasion with my employees and kids years later I would think how would George handle this, I was never as patient as him. Out plowing I clipped a cinder box in an alley, truck spun sideways 90 deg to alley, ended up between opposing garages with plow front to door and boom touching opposing garage above door. Shit how am I going to get the truck out of this ? I called George, explained what happened and suggested bringing the big truck. He shows up, shakes his head, never bitched, had me go to the home owner and ask to open their garage door, now we had a little room to work with and got it out only damage was a broken shear pin for plow, back at shop, he again asked me if I learned something, my answer was yes. I did use that question more than once with my kids when they did stupid kid stuff, pretty effective I believe. "George" One of the many good people I've met in my life's journey.

 

I too worked at several service stations, while going to school! Learned a lot, saw a lot! I always tried to get the hood open and would wash the windshield very clean when there was a pretty women in the car!
Good time and great memories!



Bones

 

That reminded me of all the excuses I heard , back in the day, when I wanted to race! Seemed like there was always something wrong with the other guys car! Lol But, I still got to race a lot, won some lost some….but always had fun! Miss those days!






Bones

 

Back in our day, Mini skirts, Woo Hoo ! I disliked the window washing but those girls did get a very clean windshield. I worked only a few overnight shifts and the amazing things I saw after bar closing time, X-rated stuff for sure, nobody cared as they needed gas to get home and party. LOL Another short story, I was a paperboy for 4 years 12-16 and apparently back in the 60's women thought young boys were blind or shy because they would come to the door nearly naked, bath towels, robe open and one 20 something always drunk or high kept grabbing my crotch, scared me some at first, I got over that also. LOL Another quicky, I tended bar on saturday nights for a friend(a bar owner)in a bind, typical kids bar. 60's Wild is an understatement, again things I saw Xrated I believe these experiences got me out off my shell, I was very shy and a quiet guy, Not so much as an adult and nobody believes me when I say that I was a quiet shy guy in my youth. LOL

 

Sounds like me, also, wicarnut! I was shy guy when I was younger, around girls! Not so much around a bunch of kids! When I tell my current wife that, she doesn’t believe me! Apparently I have come out of my shell?





Bones

 

Hope this story is not too recent but if it had not happened to me I would call it BS. In 2016 I was at an estate sale of a guy I knew who had old car parts. It was cold and wet and the sale didn't have much I wanted. I had bought a couple flathead parts and was headed back to my truck with them. Unbeknown to me an old guy I didn't know had been watching me and was following me to my truck. He approached me at my truck and asked if I liked flathead Ford parts. I asked him if he had some to sell and he hands me a list of 30-40 flathead speed parts. He said he started collecting them when he was 20 years old when his uncle gave him the 59AB engine out of his stock car. (which he still had) According to him he bought flathead speed parts for years and stored them under his bed at his parents farmhouse. The guy is now 73 and had never done anything with any of it. He now wants to sell them all to one guy and saw I was buying some flathead parts at the auction so that is why he approached me. So I ask if I can actually see all the stuff on his list and he says he will get it all out from the house (still owned his parent's farmhouse) and put it all in his tractor shed and call me. He does that and I do go look at it and I bought it all! Check the pictures.

 

Hell, at 61 with 3 kids, I’m still shy

 

Wow, what an incredible find.