It was around '76 and my daily driver was a '75 Chevy Monza. It had a 350/auto but for some reason, it came from the factory with 262 emblems. Anyway, one saturday night at the street races, there was a '67 El Camino with a 396. I asked him if he would give me 3 rolling from behind. He wanted to look at the motor which was bone stock. I popped the hood but covered the factory 350 sticker (which was on the radiator support) with my hand. I explained it was a 262 V8. He agreed to the race on Woodman and Saticoy. We lined up with me 3 cars behind the starting line. I took off and passed him at about 35 mph before he took off. At that time, no one had seen a rolling start from behind. I put so many cars on the El Camino before he got rolling, it was impossible for him to catch up. I had seen the El Camino running at Irwindale and knew in advance it was a mid 14 second car. Later, I tried the rolling from behind with a pretty quick '65 Mustang (low 12's) and I was driving a stock '72 Chevelle. I got soundly spanked.......
heres what happened to a friend of mine,,i rode in his car a few times when it was a POS and then he got it all fixed up and this happened http://www.10news.com/news/2342719/detail.html
Cars rolling from behind can be very advantagous. Back in the 80's, a few of us used to test during the week at LACR. One time, Bottle Bob put his 85 Vette that ran maybe 14.80's if I remember, ONE car behind the staging lights. It made a FULL SECOND (approx. 7 car lengths) difference on a car that doesn't launch very well!!! On a street race car that leaves hard, it would be more, or possibly the equivalent of 10 cars for the one.
I didn't read the whole story, but it sounds like vehicular stupidity may have been involved. When we street raced, many yrs ago, we raced in the wee hours of the morning, in industrial areas, with no intersecting side streets, and policed ourselves pretty well. There would NOT be a race if a single spectator parked on the side of the street the race was to occur for example............
This has to be the best answer ever given to a cop. A buddy of mine Hal Hannemann and I were racing in front of South Hills HS in West Covina, Ca. Me in my 63 Dodge, Hal in his 67 GTX. Going down Cameron 60 was fast enough for the neighborhood. But Hals GTX was way faster than my dodge. In the mean time we had pasts a 68 nova, not knowing that it had plain cloths cops inside. Well we turn on Lark Ellen and the 68 nova crosses over the double yellow line with one of the guys pointing at Hal. Hal gasses it. By that time a West Covina cop was in the process of pulling me over. Well it wasn't long before they had us pulled over. The cops seperated us and questioned me, asking me what I thought about getting a ticket. I said that I wouldn't like it much. Then the officer asked me if it would be better if he told my dad, I said that I would rather have the ticket. Well the cops seemed to think that we weren't bad kids, and ask each other what should be done with us. They decide to let us go, what a relief. The cop asked Hal "Why didn't you pull over when we crossed the yellow line to stop you" Well here has got to be the best line ever told a cop. Hal says " I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO RACE". And we still didn't get a ticket. True story. We must have horseshoes where the sun don't shine
vehicular stupidity for sure,it was only around 7pm,,the story i heard was he and his buddy were on their way to the "illegal races" that take place at nite in the industrial park,but the decided to do what they did and two people died and 1 was severly hurt,,its sad when things like that happen...............
________________________________________________________________ I've always heard the war stories about the connecting highways.....it was just a few years before my car life began. I heard everything from daily drivers to top fuel.......Must have been great. Places like that, you tell stories to the croud of the last 20 years or so and they'll look at you like you're from another planet. There is nothing out there to copare to today. I did my time at BK on Hempstead Tpke, RT 231 Deer Park, Wm Floyd Pkwy, Nicholls Rd Centereach, and a nice local spot in Central Islip...Allwood Ave. That got out of hand after a year, and cruising up and down Sunrise Hwy looking for a run. I did more street racing than on the track........for about 15 years, that's all that mattered. Hell I forgot about 150th st........great times
________________________________________________________________ I do believe you'd get shot today for pulling something like that. I remember the tricks of old......street racing was more for fun/bragging rights, little bit of cash......... today it's some peoples livelyhood.......races in the thousands of dollars are common place. It's a serious business today. The haggling is still the same..... a race that might take somewhere from 7 sec to 11 sec might take months of haggling to set up.
There is a story I heard about, many years ago with a race between 2 friends, Bill & Larry.....Larry had an Anglia like yours, but didn't look like much, with a slightly warmed over 283 w/4 speed and Bill had a 56 Chevy 210 w/ a blueprinted 427...... it took Bill all he had to run down that lil Anglia at the top. He was embarrassed...........but between friends....it didn't matter. They built quite a few little cars with big motor conversions on the side before going into business together. They were a great team....they opened Racemasters formerly Kooks Custom Headers way bck in early 70's. They built the first set of prototype headers for Motion Performance for their big block vega conversion..........ahhh can't forget Crooked Hill Rd..............testing grounds just around the corner from the shop............put my time in there, blew 2 motors there too.. fun fun fun
OK, this is pretty O/T but we are talking about street racing right? It's 1983, and we're on our way to a holiday at the beach. I'm driving my wife's 1978 Ford Escort 4 door sedan, a lovely bright yellow, 'girlie car' if ever there was one. Deb's in the passenger seat, our 18 month old daughter Alicia is safely strapped into her car seat in the back, and she's up to her armpits in pillows and clothes for our holiday. On the roofracks on the car is her big portable wooden cot and mattress, and my surfboard is strapped down on top of it. We're the classic young family in the little budget car off on holidays, yes? We stop at a set of lights on a major highway. 3 lanes wide, I'm in the middle lane. On our right a Sigma Scorpion pulls up. Nice car, 2.6 litre 4 cylinder, but cursed with a pretty heavy body. On our left, an Alfa Romeo coupe slides up, and the driver inches forward, peering over our hood to get a glimpse of the Sigma driver for a race. The Alfa driver's got driving gloves and a cap on, all very boy-racer, yes? Deb's Escort is actually a bit of a sleeper. They usually came out of the factory with a 1.3 or 1.6 litre engine, but hers has the 2 litre overhead cam 4 from the US Ford Pinto in it. There are no badges on it anywhere to indicate what's under the hood. The lights go green, the Alfa takes off, and I boot it too. The poor Scorpion's lost in the dust somewhere behind, as we go neck and neck. The Alfa's a manual, and the driver is revving the guts out of it through the gears, trying to keep up with the auto Escort, which I'm driving one handed and very casually. Deb's looking straight at the Alfa driver, who's right beside her, and as he goes all red in the face, she starts laughing at him! We get up past 75 and I decide to take my foot off, I've got a precious cargo on board after all. The Alfa screams off into the distance, and we drop back to the speed limit and cruise on. A couple of blocks further up the road we pass the Alfa, sitting at the gutter, there's steam belching out from under the hood and a huge puddlle of oil rapidly forming under the engine bay. I started behaving myself after that. Cheers, Glen. Oh yeah, girlie car, right?
My dad had a red '75 Monza 2+2 with a late '60s 350 4-bbl and a 4-speed. He bought it in the early '80s and sold it in the early '90s when I was a kid. Since then, we've (between me and him) had Camaros, Firebirds, Chevelles, Cutlasses, Mustangs... and he still misses his Monza! I really don't remember the car at all, but he still enjoys telling me of how I would stand on the passenger seat, one hand on the old man's shoulder, the other holding my chocolate milk.. and after leaving two nice patches of black rubber down main street, smoke billowing behind us, as giddy as could be I kept yelling "do it again!".
1968, after the prom, we decided to cruise down to the beach. My buddy has a '68 442 and I'm driving a '67 Camaro. My buddy is beating everything that pulls up next to him, so I worm my way around traffic so that I am next to him at a light. The light turns green and I drop the hammer. 350, 4 speed with 4:56's and I leave him in the dust. The next light, there's LAPD behind me. I get lit up and pulled over. The cop asks, "What was that about?", while I'm standing there in a tux. I tell the cop that an Olds 442 was beating everybody. I just had to show him up. The cop laughs and gives me a ticket for loud exhaust. Boy, was I lucky.
Back in the mid 70s cruising in my friends 69 nova SS 350 LT1 4 speed fastest dam car I ever drove we come up on a black 69 camaro ss and the guy is wearing a english style driving hat. He rolls down his window and sort of a english accent and ask if we would like to race? Hell Ya so we head to a local two lane blacktop, the first run we tied the second run was the nova. Fast forwad 34 years I now sell jewerly part time and in comes Lynn I reconize him and I ask him if he still has that black camaro SS, he replies how did you know I had that car I said I raced you back in the seventies in a SS nova he says ya and it was blue he also remembered the loss. Great times in that car!
Bill,Larry is on here as lkrodder and i cant get him to post anything about the good ol days.I still talk to him frequently and worked many times with him at his bayshore shop.Glad to here you are back in town,call pickles some time and stop by the shop.Gary
We had a 1/2 mile or so long road with no cross streets on the north side of town called Columbus Parkway. We would race there just about every Saturday night. Rumor had it that they started to run there in the late '60's One night in the early eighties we had run about 6 pairs of cars with no hassles when a guy pulls up at the starting line with a '68 Riviera lowrider. He starts hitting his hydraulics, hopping and showin off. There was a car parked about 200 yards west of us on the side of the connector ramp to I-80 that had been there since we started running and we all just figured it was somebody broken down. All of a sudden the lites come on, it was a cop! He comes flying up and pulls the Riviera over, jumps out of the car, thanks us for giving him a good show (over an hours worth) and procedes to write the guy in the Riviera a ticket for impeding traffic or something like that. This same cop, we called him Mikey, would later pull thru when we were all parked and ask us, why dont you guys go out and race, we need something to do...then procede to squeal a tire as he left. Too bad the other cops in town werent as cool! They put in an Auto Mall out there, with a bunch of cross streets...you could just barely make out the painted finish line (complete with the words "Rock & Roll") right up until they repaved the road about 10 years ago. I still get the urge to go thru the gears every time I go by there, but my CDL stops me! Good times!
I'm loving all those old stories guys. I finally got the stones to ask my secretive pops about his past, turns out he used to race a 69' Torino with a 428 along with my uncles 69' Z-28 out in the valley during the mid 70's-early 80's. I have been in the scene for about 6 years and had no idea of his past adventures in the very same areas, what a trip. Well here is one of mine. A few years ago a few of my friends had their borderline race cars out looking for a run in the valley. We end up at Tommy's Burger on Roscoe negotiating a run between a built motor stripped out Honda on nitrous vs. my bone stock Z-28 (2000) on Nitto drags radials. We go back and forth and end up agreeing to a run heads up on Canoga and Plummer (empty industrial area). Well here's where the story takes a twist to good ol' fashioned payback. AFTER the race is locked up we catch the honda boys replacing injectors, colder plugs, bigger pills, tires for slicks, etc. It was agreed as-is race heads up btw. So we go back and forth for about an hour, when my buddy josh gets a bright idea and says "stall em for 15 more mins, then agree and meet me at --- on the way to the track." So that's what I did. Turns out he rigged a quickie n2o unit to slap on my car in under 4mins to even the score . We get out to the track and this unit does not even have a WOT switch so another one of my friends has to ride along to open the bottle before i hit the hammer. Well we successfully hide the bottle under a sweater, and line up. The flagger does his business and we are off, of course the honda gets me off the line its on slicks and weighs close to nothing. He is out an easy 10 cars by the top of first. Well i hit second, hit the button and hold on for dear life, i'm pulling like there is no tomorrow. By the top of second I am passing his door, I again need to let off the button to slap 3rd which slows my pull. We are coming up on the finish REALLY fast now it's nearly 500ft away, get back on the button and leap past the poor little Honda by a car and a half just before the finish. I must have been going 10mph+ faster than him as we went past the line. All hell broke lose as the mob of 50+ people cried foul and want to see under the hood. Well i play possum and limp it around the corner and call my buddy on the cell saying the trans took a dump and i had to get home before it completely failed. Well after much argument they reluctantly paid up. A week later the same Honda had an even bigger motor with a HUGE turbo, guess we pissed him off. The sad thing is it was SLOWER then the old set-up, it was a completely mis-matched set-up.
I wanted to say i love all the stories they are great. And would like to ask if anyone raced in Iowa around the des moines area in the late sixties to early seventies.
Groucho, That was a good time man!! Man, my photography skills are better then I thought!! Jimmy White
Some one mentioned a guy that had two identical appearing cars,I had this trick pulled on me once in Springfield Missouri once.We had traveled up there for a weekend of street racing and strip joints( my two favorite activitys back then!) We were sitting a speed shops parking lot shooting the bull on a friday night and this guy pulls in with a yenko chevelle says he's looking for a race we tell each other all about our cars(lie)and it's agreed that he gets 2 cars with me set back and he gets the go.Well on the way out there he flags me down and says he fouled a plug or two and could we do it later that night? I say sure,He rolls up about an hour os so later ready to race.Soething just kept nagging me about his car till i finally said i wanted to look his car over again. Well he started acting funny and wanted to just race cause we had already agreed to it,When he finally got mad and left a local guy came over and said good call as he has two cars that are twins cept one of them had spray. Sometimes you are alot better off if you just trust your instincts,Then again he had no idea my 442 was packing a hidden system of it's own and about 300 more ponys then he was told so who knows what would have happened
kirban 2 cents worth I got 2 stories....here is the shorter one of the two. Its the early 1970s....I am attending the national Studebaker convention in South Bend, IN (home of the Stude). I buy a ex California Lark race car. A plain jane rubber floor mats 2 door sedan. Whit with green vinyl bench seat 4 speed....it is fitted with a 1957 Pontiac rear. (can't member the gear ratio). Under the hood is the holy grail in the studebaker world avanti engine with the R3 heads and DUAL QUADS with a custom made tube feeding both with a supercharger. I get the car home and do what is needed to register the car for the street...install windshield wipers full exhuast with quiet Midas mufflers with tail pipes tucked under the rear bumper. I get black rims with the stude dog dish hubcaps.... Member early 1970s....I live in NE PA....where GM and Ford rein supreme....street racers back then are not familar with the whine a supercharger makes and a Studebaker Lark is like a joke in most peoples eyes. I have always loved the sleeper effect and this car was the most fun I had back then from any traffic lite....a shear blast....no one suspected what this little lite wieight Lark would do from a dead start... It was fun.... denniskirban@yahoo.com
kirban 2 cents worth Next story....In 1991 I was very fortunate with my ties to GM to make a deal and purchase from GMC one of the 2 GMC Syclones that GMC used for all the magazine testing....my truck was actually the cover truck on car & driver. I went to GMC headquarters to pick it up...(Saw checks on the desk from Clint Eastwood and Tom Cruise who also got new Syclones... If you are not familar with them....they had a 4.3 V6 turbocharged liquid intercooled all wheel drive platform on a S10 truck...sold for around $25 grand....trans was rite out of a Corvette with the Corvette valve body...shifted hard and had tremendous traction. The ZR1 Corvette had juust come out so I got my tag to read ZRl KLR....gave the truck to my wife to drive as an every day vehicle. This truck being a test vehicle was probably slightly modified to take abuse from magazine writers as all 4 tires had the edges worn. So, one Sunday my wife and I went out to breakfast on the way home I pass the old air base near our house and notice a bunch of cars running a obstacle course. All foreign cars. They had cones set up and were clocking the cars for times etc.... We stop and I watch them for awhile and the I ask the guy in charge could I run my truck to see how it would do? Guy says sure.... Most of these cars were prepped cars and some of them were Porsches.... Prior to this I had never run an obstacle course.... First 2-3 timesaround the track I took my time.... The 4th time I turn it up.....as I come back from making the run some of the guys came over and wanted to see this little black truck closer...they noticed it had wide tires but nothing stood out in their eyes as to what they were seeing. By the time I made my last run I had beaten everyones time but one guy in a Porsche.... After that run they insisted I had to show them what powered what they thought was a regular S10 truck.... It was a fun sunday to say the least.... Laying rubber may seem like fun but when you got a vehicle that simply plants and goes that is impressive..... true story.....I am well known in turbo regal circles and this truck was supposed to be GMCs answer or follow up to the Grand National. Truck suffered several downfalls....release of the truck happened the same week in Jan of 1991 that the war started under the First Bush.....plus the $25 grand price tag did not help since a regular S10 version was about 12 grand. denniskirban@yahoo.com Again its the element of surprise that gives you the edge......
My 442 was a sleeper as much as it could be quit exhaust rattle can primer but had mini tubs so 10.5 M&H's would fit,At least till i got the wild hair and built the 540 for it! Then it was hard to hide the rumble and the tires would break loose when you hit the spray so it got a backhalf and bigger slicks,Man i miss racing nay have to get back into it soon the bug keeps biting harder and harder
Heres one of my stories...I never raced on the open streets, only industrial after most of CAs dragstrips shut down, until this story. So about 6 years or so ago this kid who I went to school with buys a modified CRX. He loves to talk, mainly about how my Challenger i had at the time was a tank. I ran into him several times after I graduated and he gave me the talk but wouldnt follow me to our "dragstrip". I knew the previous owner of his car, who was the only import owner i knew who was really a gearhead, dad was a muscle car guy etc. anywho...I knew what the CRX would run. One night Im drivin home and hang a left to get gas so i wont have to in the morning. Its 2am and Im beat tired. Im waitin for the light to turn and hear what sounds like a weedwhacker pull up next to me, CRX boy I look over at him and he and his buddy both have huge grins on there face. they throw a couple revs and i blip mine a bit. The light turns green and they go, I dont, just idle it to the next light. Next light turns and they go, I dont, just cruise to the next light. I finally rolled my window down, as soon as I did he asked if I was gonna wuss out again, G rated version, I told him I was letting him practice his launches and we'd go on green. Like I said I knew what his car would do so at this point i wasnt worried about traction so I tached her up on her 3000 stall and the engine torquing and pinion snubber raised the car a couple inches. The look on his face was priceless! Light turns green, I make mashed potatoes outta my tires and continue to smoke them until 3rd gear (3spd auto). Im pulling as I do. My Challenger hooks in 3rd and i bury it til around 6k RPM, maxed out. I back out of it, hit the brakes and let him catch up As soon as I flip him the bird, I see flashing lights in my rearview. I pull over as does the CRX and the officer decides to approach me first. First thing he asks me is "whatcha got in there" i told him 440, he says "Thatll do it". He then tells "so im sitting behind a gas station filling out paperwork" this was the gas station at the light we started at "when I hear some rice rocket reving, soon as i look up I see smoke BILLOWING out the back of a purple Dodge so i figured Id see what yal were up to" Several minutes later he writes me a ticket for exhibition and sends me on my way. As IM leaving the parking lot we pulled into, I get out on the street, having to go up then turn around and head back by, and see CRX boy and his friend both in cuffs, heads on the hood. Seeing as how both officers were busy, I hit my Dixie Horn and hazed the tires up the street. I never saw the CRX again
hahahaha yeah. he pulled us over and asked what we were doing, i told him we came to check out the cars, he told me to step out of the car. There i could see my quarter panel covered in rubber and smoke still seaping out the trunk hahahaha. He gave me a 40 min lecture on how my Challenger was a POS then let us go. And he told my buddy Travis, in the back seat, to get his fat ass over and put on his seatbelt, he could buy a microwave with that ticket hahahaha
1965 texas, crusing my 63 ford 390, 4 speed 3 duces, rich boy with new vette, he wants to run for $100, me, ain't got $20, tell him go to drive in to find a race, a guy got a falcon, they bet, guy goes gets his little Hurbert Platt 427 injected AF/x , shows up with car on ramp truck, they never raced don't know if McNeely collected his $100 or not
Sorry Groucho I tried down loading a picture of my fathers Anglia that went with Big Block Bills story, thought I did and just came across the link and saw no picture I was involved in the late 60's early 70's street racing on long island my father and his partner had a speed shop and friday nights was hang out night, and we use to run up on crooked hill road or we would go to 231 or hempstead turnpike or 110 in Huntington if we wanted to see big money runs we would go to connecting highway or fountain ave or 150 th street by Kennedy airport by the late 70's cops started really clamping down 80's wasn't terrible but by the 90's the cops were closing down all the hang outs and it was harder to find a place to pull off a run [Big Block Bill if you go to dog427435's pictures you will see my father's Anglia and an injected 67 nova they built that's Bill Boer next to the nova against the wall and a few of the other cars from there Ralph's Mobil nomad Jacks 55 with Church on the front fender because that's where he told his wife he was going on Sunday's so he wouldn't be lying] if I could figure out how to upload pictures I would
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