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

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I live in Brisbane Australia these days and yes,we get our cars confiscated too! 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. .
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 .

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....
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
Mad days ,but i survived.