Thread: Anyone have any stories of street racing back in the 50's & 60's?

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i have a story my dad told me alot, my dad and all the teenagers used to drag race on a beach in the bay area my dad was racing his wihte 34 ford coup it had some kind of merc flathead all hoped up with part he custom mad u could'nt buy them like u can now, but any way i gess he was pretty fast with that old 34 ford ,guys would come from l.a. and some from nv. to race him. my dad said he would all ways blow ther door off. but one time back at the beach some old guy would apper out of no where with a flat black vett, bumpers and all. and that old man left my dads 34 in the dust. and vanish . they called him the phatom i gess he made the newspapers in the bay area , but never found out who it was

Just for some perspective I can retell a situation where prior to 1950 the cars on the street were nowhere near as quick as today and in fact in the next village just over the hill from my boyhood home there was a guy who would sucker-bait some rodder into betting that he could beat his car in a one block race ON FOOT! His usual bet was $50 which was a lot of money in those days and I believe he collected three times before the word got around that he was fast. I also saw him run a kickoff back for a touchdown against our team so he was pretty quick. Of course a human dash runner is not that fast, but can reach top speed in only a few feet while while a car is just getting up to speed in a one block length. I never had access to really fast cars in the '50s. I had a few fast rides in my cousin's '50 Merc which seemed awesome and I rode to work at age 15 with a crazy driver whose job was to pick up waitresses and busboys like me from all over and take them to/from from a Howard Johnson restaurant. He wanted to drag that GMC van against everything so over lunch hour one day he stopped into a machine shop and had the head milled 0.080" and put back together in a little over an hour. It wasn't fast but he ran it ragged after he delivered most of the folks and the van was empty except for him and me. Believe me it was a real shock when I first encountered a new '55 Chevy 265 V8 alongside my '47 Ford with just a 0.030" overbore and it was clear that the OHV engine revolution had begun!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

my uncle tom used to street race a 65 black corvette on some road on the end of a air port in detroit i like listenind to him talk bout the good old days i wish i was born back then....

Here in Tacoma area we did a lot of street racing.........I used to tear up 6th Avenue in my Vette and a 66 GTO and a 68 GTO......right in front of Busch's Drive In......but times were different then.........when we raced there were maybe 20 cars out and about after midnight on a friday or saturday........now if ya tried it .......it would be like racing during rush hour.........it was a simpler time and lots less traffic. Had some interesting races against some 409 Chevys and one cool Studebaker with a 409 and wheel well exit headers and 6 Webers.....wow those were the days.

Its times like this i miss the cutlass. As per a referance to "80s V8 cars just trying to get more power" Ive been there. 82 Olds cutlass supreme. Went 260,307,403. All great motors in their own respect. the 260 will rev to the moon if you can keep it oiled, bump the compression on a 307 and put in a decent cam and itll shock you, and the 403 will easily pass 300HP with minimal investment. Like exhaust, 72 350 heads, and a good 4 barrel. thats it. Met many a rice with that car. However, street racing is more dangerous now than when you were going back in the 50s. Cars are more powerfull, kids are stupider and driving with power steering and brakes has made us less aware of the car. A lot of kids buy cars like camaros, Cutlasses and GS and dont even try the car out before they go racing. a simple turn on the steering box can make the vehicle respond so much better. And as for the police, cops are not hot rodders anymore. Most of them drive accords when the job is done. So good luck getting sympathy from them!

From the sixties- we used to race on a service rd. that ran parallel with the x-way. In the Cadillac area it was the Boone rd. Or up in Manton.

On the west side it was "Lake County Dragway". An informal gathering on Sundays. Timed with a stopwatch and headlights on the finish line. An old rd. back in the Michigan woods.

When I was in college it was Hall st. In StLouis Mo. They used to run full blown drag cars down there. This was late sixties.

We got busted in a C/Gas 57 Corvette on a closed (unopened new x-way) rd. in Missouri. It was February and no tracks were open. Cops let us go!

Back in Michigan, In the Flint area it was (and still is) St. John street. Then the famous gatherings at the Small Mall in the eighties, Car Craft even had an article about it. Racing on the North End, up by Ternsteadt plant.

Then there was Sunday street racing up near M-13 and the Saginaw county line. Cops used to bust it up about every other week. Their famous line was " We know you haven't been racing here because we don't see any tire marks on the pavement". (actually the road looked like the staging lanes at any strip!).

Originally posted by Brent Mills


Thanks! [/B]

Yes...........

Humm ... Street Racing?? I'm much too young to have been doing that in the 50's or 60's. even the 70's I wasnt old enough to drive till the late 80's. And I DIDNT race my supra on the not yet opened hwy 3127 just south of D'ville or on hwy 30 north of Gonzales. My dad wouldnt let me get a muscle car cauze he knew what i'd do with it. Probably the same thing he did with his 65 mustang. RACE !!!! Not saying that i did street race the supera, but supposing i did, (wink) it was fast enough to take some bragging rights and SUPRAize a few unsuspecting guys. My best friend had a 79 trans am that was really quick. his "baby" was an old pontiac catalina 2+2 w/ a 421. it was primer grey and was one of the fastest cars around at that time. oh ... and we didnt street race those either .... he,he,he ... if we would have ... it would have been just for bragging rights or to see who was buying the beer for the next party. even so ... things are still different from that short time ago. We never had to worry much about guns or anyone even thinking stupid things like that. not long ago I was talking to my friend and the last time he was out street racing a couple guys got into an argument and out came the guns.... next thing ... bullets were flying. luckily they both sucked at shooting and noone was hit. He hasnt gone back since.... much safer at the track.... after that... the police really cracked down on them after that. before ... it wasnt a big deal ... small town ... and they figured ... we werent bothering anyone... and staying out of REAL trouble.... the road was in the middle of nowhere and led further into the middle of nowhere, so there was no traffic at all... so they would harass us only when they were bored.... and even then, noone ever got ticketed... they would even race aginst us in their cruiser every once in a while... and well ... thats my story of umm ... NOT street racing....

Here the cruise was The Esplanade, from the old Arctic Circle on the north end (or the Dairy Queen if the AC manager had called the cops about the turn-arounds in the lot), to the Chevron on the south end, after Esplanade turned into Broadway. Left, left, and head back up on Main until it turned back into Esplanade by the college.

The lights were set for 28 MPH, and they were right on at that. If you held 28, you could make the round trip without a stop except at the ends. Or at 56 MPH.

Downtown is old buildings 3-4 stories, and three lanes of traffic - one way streets. The cars, particularly if you had turn-down pipes underneath, just echoed off the buildings and it sounded like thunder.

Downtown there's a light every block, so it was mostly show off, burnouts, and get set up for the run north on the Esplanade, where it's two long blocks between lights. That's where the racing was really done.

My friend with the Camaro and the '56 Chevy pickup was somewhat notorious, since he didn't seem to be afraid of getting stopped at all. He'd pick his mark, and off they'd go. Usually for bragging rights between guys who knew each other, as said earlier. $20 or so for a grudge race. More if the other guy was a pain. The Camaro was pretty vicious. He couldn't quite beat the Shelby, but I had 101 ci on him, and pretty similar otherwise (headers, jetted up Holley, etc.). He had a bigger cam for the engine, and the Edelbrock Torker manifold, but the CJ cast iron intake wasn't bad.

The Camaro was noticeable for its header spit - the loud tick-tick-tick of the exhaust being pulled into the tubes. It also had nearly useless turbo mufflers and turn-downs in front of the back axle. It was deafening inside, and sounded great anywhere around. The Shelby had the big-block rumble, but that 327 snarled.

The pickup was the really funny one, though. He had a 'Vette 350 in front of a car three-speed. Light and overpowered. A four speed would have been nice, but the three-speed was cheap, and the truck was still fast. Another local guy had a green '68 Camaro with the spoiler and a name painted on the back of the spoiler. The guy with the pickup baited him into a race on the Esplanade, and just smoked him. This was while the truck was two-tone calf manure yellow and primer red. Nobody expected it to be fast.

After the truck was painted and looked like a hot rod, he'd go bait the Euro- and early Japanese crowd (this was about 1978). He raced a couple of guys in a VW Sirocco, which they thought was fast. They wanted to race for some money, but could only scrape up about five bucks between them. We went out by the airport to a marked quarter, he ran off and left them, and we took their money, bought a couple of six-packs of beer, and all of us sat and drank 'em and talked. More placid times.

We had a Mexican friend named Luis. He had a '70 Z28. A couple of other Mexican kids in a '67 Impala with a 427 tormented Luis into a race in his Z, an he just left 'em. Next night we were out in the Shelby. Same kids, same Impala, pulled up alongside and tried to get us to race. Luis yelled over, reminded them of the Camaro, and told them the Shelby was quite a bit faster. They turned of at the next opportunity.

We had the trailered cars, too, and they were interesting. We'd also uncap the headers and try to avoid the cops for a few laps. That could be interesting.

Lots of stories. Lately, if I have the Shelby out, it's just to go to a show-and-shine at Big Al's or some such. I'll get the rice rocket boys wanting to race, but I just let them go. It's their turn. Some of the current cars are pretty good, but even the guys with the lesser cars should have some fun. Still, you don't see the numbers. We'd have a hundred or more cars out on Friday and Saturday nights. Could have been nearer 200 - it's a long cruise. Now you'll see a couple of dozen on a good night. They race further out of town, to avoid the cops, but still get raided. Probably just as well. The road is a narrow one between rice fields (poetic on the nights the Acuras and Toyotas are out in force), and it looks like a disaster waiting to happen.

What I miss are the organized bracket races. The airport at Oroville used to have races one Sunday afternoon a month, and it was cheap. Safer than drag racing in front of the hospital, and nursing homes, and college housing. Nothing like that now. I heard Lion's Drag Strip in SoCal mentioned earlier. I grew up near that, and the engines on weekend nights were like music. All gone. Fremont Drag Strip gone. Not much place to race but on the streets, and that's a shame.

Keep 'em safe!

While not exactly street racing, this thread jogged my memory of a funny story during a sad time....
I used to work after high school at a service station to pay for gas money, date money, condoms, etc
When I used to go home (in my '61 Stude Hawk) about 10pm, I had a stop sign about 4 blocks from my street that I had to turn at. Seemed natural enough that a 4 block hammer down run was just what I needed to clean off the spark plugs before putting it to bed .
Never thought to much about it...
Fast forward about 15 years.....
A very close friend of mine was a paramedic/intructor at a local volunteer fire department. He was tragically burned in a training accident and died after a couple weeks. Awful.
So, I was attending the funeral services, and there were a gazillion firefighters, and police departments there. Since I was part of the proceedings I was up there with the local department and stood next to one of my hometown's police officers.
We were making some small talk about this or that....
He casually mentions to me....
"So, do you still have that red Studebaker?"
My hair stood on end... I barely knew this guy (name recognition only)..
I said "Well, yes I do"
He laughs and said "We used to set our watches by when you came home... You'd run 'er through the gears, and go home...every night at the same time"....
Nuthin' happens in a small town that the police guys don't knw about
Jeff

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