Thats a great story. I'd be very impressed that people remembered you, even if it's by your car!
Thats a great story. I'd be very impressed that people remembered you, even if it's by your car!
Here's a complete book - in four parts - on street racing and building cars with old tech back in the day.
If you like that one I have another that looks at building cars for legal drag racing back in the day.
Go here for the first one:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...e+Red+Roadster
If you like that one, let me know and I'll post the adress for parts 2-3-4.
It was a lot like Rat said inthe 50's and 60's when I grew up to the present age haha. Street racing was big but you gatta remember a fast car back then had a tough time making a 14 QM time. No tires mainly.
big memory of a car we built in HS. 53 Ford with 56 Olds motor 3sp od. 4.11 gears traction bars, mild cam, 4 2 bl 94's , and a trick dual point dist that I made. It would go 6000 easy (a lot back then). It was a real killer and would do credit to todays burnout crowd.
Three Guys from Mpls with another Ford hotrod heard about us and came up 150 miles just to find out how fast it was. back then there was a great rumor trail as there were the college guys travling. anyhow they showed up at the drive in. All of us in car club jackets, white socks, Elvis styles etc. Braging...whoa the BS flew haha. finally push came to shove and we went down to the local street dragway.
The usual flag guy. Can you imagin we carried handkerchiefs..not to blow our noses on.haha. And away we went. It was a good race side by side. I don't know how fast we went as the spedo was long gone on the peg. we ran 4 times with an even split. About 1/2 car lenght. Then the cops came and we all split. Nobody got caught and we all met at the drive in. Funny thing it was like old friends afterwards at the drive in. No flip offs or any of that.
The really funny thing was about 5 years later we were sitting in a pub in Mpls after a carclub meeting having a brew and these 3 guys set down next to us. we were laughing and telling about the "old days" and one of these guys leans over says hey 'ain't you the guy from up north with the 53 Ford we raced a few years ago??" Holy crap talk about a blast. We closed that place up buying each other brews and BS ing.
Anyway that's how it was.
Here is how it is today.
I'm tooling along about 40 in my Dodge CTD dually enjoying a nice fall day about 60 or so and I see this big black Dodge dually just like mine comming up on my left. I'm thinking ..nice truck. I got my windows down and start to wave at him as he gets near to me. Suddenly I hear the roar of the DCTD winding up. I instantly know what is happening...Before I can get the window up his soot pipe is along side me blowing black smoke like it was right out of hades. By the time he got past me there was so much smoke it was like an eclipse of the sun. I couldn't even see the road. The @#$ sooted me but good. I thought we were kinda like a band of brothers...ya know live and let live. Ya know I was trying to be cool and wave at him and recognize a nice truck and the @!#$ erases me.
So if you got a black Dodge dually in Mn look out.. the viglantee is loose and looking for revenge. haha
bentwings
No, here's how it is today....at least in So. Calif.......you get caught street racing, not only do you get a ticket, your car is impounded....confiscated....taken away for good! However, if your a spectator at a street race, you'll have your car impounded....confiscated...taken away for good! I agree that street racing is dangerous, but what really gauls me is that we have closeby Pomona Drag Strip, a beautiful strip used for NHRA meets twice a year. They used to be open one weekend a month for street racers to pay $10 and race. They had alot of participants so we expected them to expand their weekend track time, however, due to residential complaints about noise, they totally eliminated their street racing program. Where do street racers go? Calif. Speedway has a 1/4 mile strip. When I went out there, they wouldn't let me race as I didn't have headlights (this was during the day!). They said my car had to be street legal, although they allow you to race with slicks, cars with no hoods, etc. We have L.A.C.R. (Palmdale) which is a ways away and they are building a new strip in Banning, but both are about 60 miles away. Also, these strips get so crowded, you're lucky to get 2 runs in while being there for 8-10 hours.
Just my $.02.
Ron
Ok Brent you asked for it! In 1967 me and my big brother Kevin,both put our front wheels on the line and haven't stopped Racing each other yet! Me on my big wheel and him on his bike.
He won that one, but hasn't won much since we converted to
engine power! Of course I was only 4. HE! HE! My brother did have a fast 76 Trans Am with a 400 in it. I Remember one night
he did this great burn out, Why even the cop that stopped us for peper spraying his car with gravel thought that it was a good burn out. See the Cop was sitting behind my 16 year old brother at the light. GOOD TIMES.
~ Vegas ~
A little before my time also but in the 70's I gave the Local Cops fits when I took the 428 CobrJet ,4v out of my 69 shelby GT500 and installed a custom built Holman-Moody 427 Ford ,Tunnel port Dual-Quad,side oiler,14.5 to 1 pop ups,Nascar Crank & Rods. one of a Kind Holman-moody 2x4 intake,cross between a MR & Tunnel port intake,
Experimental 697.solid lift cam. with a ford 4-Speed Crash Box & 4.86 Ring & Pinion ,31 spline Detroit locker. . Remember the old take-a-part 2 3/8" tube "JARDANE" headers???
That was before the TUBBING DAYS & what I did was I installed 2- Grabrial High-Jackers on each side,put some air in the shocks, Bolted on the 16" wide M&H Racemasters,with Traction compound. Lake wood Bell Housing,2-disk Clutch plate,
I got all of these parts when a local
Ford dealer,Clem Smalley Ford,Muskogee,Okla. Good Friend of BOB TASCA. Bob GAVE Clem a 681/2 Mustang Fastback Drag car to race and after he Quit Drag Racing, I got the Parts for $2000.00 Cash back in 1972.
103 Texaco Blue & AVE Gas.
Those were the Days!!!!!!
Texaco Blue was 29Cents a Gal.
I live in Brisbane Australia these days and yes,we get our cars confiscated too!:CRY: for losing traction....I.E. burnouts...
But when i was but a youth living in Auckland -New zealand,it was on for young and old, i ran a "56 Chev with an early 375HP 327 ,three on the tree..This's 1973 and you could count the muncies in NZ on both hands,it was serious fun to go out at night and blow the doors of all and sundry,especially things like triumph tr5's and fords.
In Auckland in those far off days there was a long street called Beumont st,right close to the heart of the city.On any given Friday or saturday night there could be up to a thousand people watching ,racing or just posing.:D .
I lost interest in the chev and bought a '39 std coupe,this dog was actually a dirt track stock car,which the guy who sold it to me had removed all the roll bars fitted fenders and drove on the street.
Just the thing for a young blood with more testosterone than brains.
With it's hot merc flattie i actually beat the '56 i had just sold.
I was running a '36 gearbox witth almost no synchros but it changed real quick so i often blew away OHV's.
Until the night i took on a porsche powered beetle,spat the gearbox out on the road trying to keep up .
:LOL:
For those in L.A. who know kiwi Squeek Bell you might want ask him about the night he turned up in Auckland with a "rough" '56.He promptly blew the doors off a guy who just happened to hold a 1/4 mile record .This was with a 283 running triples,a real low buck affair.
This was after he uncorked his headers in the middle of Aucklands main street,Queen st,and drove down through the busy late night traffic....:LOL:
And then there was a mate who bought a 327 chev and then bought a '62 chev from a wrecker to put it in,and proceeded to scare the shit out of anyone who rode with him.
You see the engine was "sprint car " race engine,magneto,12-1 comp and all!!!!!
that thing rumbled and idled like the monster it was,revved to nine grand and howled like a demented wolf.
Just the sound of it idling would scare off most .if not all opposition.
We did a huge "demo' along the auckland water front one night and got pulled up at the next lights by a cop ....on foot:p
Mad days ,but i survived.
I am a person who I guess is open minded to anything mechanical new or old. I wanted to post this message in regards to a comment that i read regerding us kids and our honda's. Do any of you close minded hot rodders even know were some of us kids get our ideas and past from? thats right you! but some of you are too stupid and stuck in your old ways to realize this. for this i pitty you. and just to set the record straight i have one of those honda's but i also have a 23 t bucket. and another thing that burns me is to all you check writing hot rodders (or turn key hot rodders) i built both of MY cars. and also another thing, those honda's are the hot rods of the future. accept the fact and start showing some respect because there aren't many guys my age that can find a nice deuce coupe to build on the side our wallets won't allow it, so thats why we bulid the honda's. i hope my comments don't fall on deaf ears. thanks
Hey whatever man, building a hot car is building a hot car. Just remember, there is no replacement for displacement.
I am a young fella compared to most of the guys on here, but back in my earlier days, I race a friend of mine on I-95 between Pittsfield and Newport Maine. I had a 442 Olds, and my friend had a old caddie. The Olds had a broken speedo, so I don't have any idea how fast we went, but it is a seven mile streatch, and I finished it in just over 3 mins. quick math says average of 120 MPH, but we started from a standstill. I left him at the line, and didn't see him until the last 2 miles. I beat the caddie, but if we had another 1/4 mile to go, he would have passed me. That big old boat could really move once you got her turned up.
Quote:
Originally posted by fattroy
I am a person who I guess is open minded to anything mechanical new or old. I wanted to post this message in regards to a comment that i read regerding us kids and our honda's. Do any of you close minded hot rodders even know were some of us kids get our ideas and past from? thats right you! but some of you are too stupid and stuck in your old ways to realize this. for this i pitty you. and just to set the record straight i have one of those honda's but i also have a 23 t bucket. and another thing that burns me is to all you check writing hot rodders (or turn key hot rodders) i built both of MY cars. and also another thing, those honda's are the hot rods of the future. accept the fact and start showing some respect because there aren't many guys my age that can find a nice deuce coupe to build on the side our wallets won't allow it, so thats why we bulid the honda's. i hope my comments don't fall on deaf ears. thanks
So . . . what all do you have to do to build a Honda?
C9x, here is a story from your old stomping grounds that is the typical Honda build
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=56823
Hey, this IS Club Hot Rod, right??? I'm sure all the nice little boys and girls with ricers have their site, too.......Hondas are not the Hot Rods of the future, they are the retro ricers of the future. We've allready survived the oil emabargo, smogger motors, 5 mph bumpers, and countlesss attempts at government intervention. When all the smoke clears on the ricers vs hot rodders BS, people will still be building deuce coupes with big motors.
Don't even think for a minute that this could ever be replaced by a ricer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A ricer is still a ricer no matter how much soy sauce you use. Style, just where is the styleQuote:
Originally posted by Dave Severson
Hey, this IS Club Hot Rod, right??? I'm sure all the nice little boys and girls with ricers have their site, too.......Hondas are not the Hot Rods of the future, they are the retro ricers of the future. We've allready survived the oil emabargo, smogger motors, 5 mph bumpers, and countlesss attempts at government intervention. When all the smoke clears on the ricers vs hot rodders BS, people will still be building deuce coupes with big motors.
Oh yeah, and I am closed minded. I joined Club Hot Rod because I like hot rods. If I liked ricers, I would have joined Club Ricer!!!!
Way back in 69, my best friend Steve had a 67 Vette with 427. To this day it remains the fastest car I have ever been in. One night we left the burger stand and a black 66 Chevelle rumbled up beside us. Steve and the other driver gave a mutual nod and within a few busy residentual blocks we were roaring around 100 mph. We both glanced back to see where the Chevelle was, but it was right at the rear quarter panel. Steve had a look of being half mad and half worried. At the next stop light both drivers agreed to a place just out of town, next to one of the Wichita aircraft plants. It was about 1:30 AM. On the way we somehow picked up a regular entourage of friends and on lookers.
After arriving at the drag site, one guy agreed to drive his car down to the far end and act as judge. Another served as flagger.
I exited the vet for weight reduction, and soon they were off in a blue smoke.
We couldnt see how the last portion of the race went, but when the cars returned Steve was wild eyed. "Guys got some bad motor! He must have rear gears too. I cant get enough traction, jump in."
This "drag strip" was without intersections, except down at the end, which was a T. It was a two lane street. The last half of the run was down hill, and the point at which the judge was located wasnt that far from the T, so there was heavy braking required after the finish line.
We launched on the second run. It felt like a launch. About 3/4 way through, with clinched teeth I looked over at the Chevelle, and it was a 1/2 car lenght ahead. At about that point, the guy who was the judge, for some unknown reason, decided to reposition his car and did a U turn in front of the racers. He misjudged how fast they were going.
Talk about some hard braking going on, it seemed like both cars were working at staying in their lanes as they slowed down.
But they did. The Judge came really close to being bruised up.
There wasnt a third run. By now plant workers were beginning to leave their shift. If there had been, I think the Chevelle would have won.
Never saw that black car again. I think he came from out of town to blow some locals away.
:) :)
Interstate 95 thru Richmond opened in 1961. Back in the early sixties any of you from the north that were headed south for vacation, could have been held up briefly while a drag race took place. 200 or more people would stand on the Bryan Park overpass which was desiginated as finish line. Several cars would stop on 95 blocking all lanes long enough for several cars 2 by 2 to race. Some real good races were held there for several years if you could dodge the cops. One of those times I wasnt sucessful and lost my permit for 6 months. If you tried that today,you could easily have a 200 car pileup.
One of my friends with a bad 55 chevy was suckered into a race with a 4 dr plymouth with 4 men in it. Pea shooters,blackwall tires and all.They told him it wasnt necessary for any of then to get out of the car for weight. The race was for 50 bucks and back then that was a lot of money. The Plymouth ran away and left him so bad that he tried to jumb the divider and get away . They caught him anyway . By then he was glad to pay the 50 to save him from a bad butt kicking.
This is another time that this old guy can say, dont do as I do ,do as I say do, because I have done some real dumb stuff and You shouldn't go there.:LOL: :LOL:
rice makes me vomit:LOL: and anytime ya eat it ya seem to have to go to john every 10 minutes:whacked: :LOL: :LOL: