Well I graduated in '83 - had my 1st car a '70 SuperBee 383 4spd, N96,B5- nice car for $200 (seized orig eng) anyway- I screwed together a 68 383 with a Hemi grind cam, headers and 391's. Growing up in semi rural Pennsylvania (Harrisburg/Hershey/Reading) there was always cruising going on. Favorate in HBG was "The Circuit" along the Susquehanna river. 3 lanes of nothing but fun chicks,smathering of fast car and beaters.
One evening in July- I see a few of my motor head buddies. My car has NEVER been driven all through high school due to limited funds. So, naturally all my buddies "rag" me that it's a boat amchor and will never see the st. This was revenge night.
My foster brother was with me and always enjoyed cruising but usually to try to pickup chicks. So, we see my buddy Bill who is into anything BUT Mopar. He hops in the back and off we go. We drive around and theres some hot iron out. A wicked sounding 70 Torino Convertible, Yellow 70 442, A gorgeous 69 B5 SuperBee w/ 440.

So,Bill as usual is shooting his mouth off and is railing on me to race the guy in the Bee. After about 1/2Hr we see another friend who has a NICE 69 SS 396 4spd Chevelle. He can't believe how nice my Bee looks and sounds. We take off again and get next to the Bee again. I finally say to Bill-"If I race this guy ,are you gonna SHUT UP?!"
Me and the guy exchange - of all things - pleasantries about each others cars instead of the usual "chest beating" We agree to race across the Harvey Taylor bridge. This spans about 1 mile across the river.
We couldn't line up next to one another due to a late model Nova was in his lane. The Nova turns off and now we decide to do a 10MPH "kickdown" as we called it. I'm in 1st and doin 10. We take off and I'm ripping gears, I'm at the top of 3rd winding out and I see in the corner of my eye a fender coming up. I keep it floored and nail forth gear. I gain a little but he top ends me. We let up and roll down our windows ad both yell- "That was a hell of a race!" I look up and see red and blues behind me... My brother mutters " I'm gonna kick your *** if we get busted. Bill yells "Take OFF!!" So ,I nail 2nd gear and floor it. The other Bee nails it too.
I hve no clue where I'm going 'cause we usually never go across the river for much of anything. Bill says- "take the cloverleaf." I look down were doing 65 on the brakes, the sign says 35 for the curve - you do the math.. We MADE it around the curve no problem..except I always worn 3" racing lap belts, my bother however wasn't. He's basically in my lap with me squished up against the door trying to steer around the curve! We go over the overpass, shut off the lights,push in the clutch and coast. The Cop ( IN THE UNDERCOVER NOVA!) stops the other guy n the curve. Bro tells me " He's coming after us" I hit the lights ,grab second and off we go...
We're flying down this road that I've never been on except 2 months ago for our Prom. I see a sign that has a large T on in and tell the guys to hold on. Now anyone that ever owned a B-body with manual drum brakes knows what that's like. I lock up the brakes and am already consigned to the fact that theres NO WAY we're stopping in time. I steer to the left, the engine stalls, -no power steering now, Everything was in slo mo at that point, a red Eldorado is barrelling from the right, I put it into 2nd and pop the clutch, it catches and all I hear is horn and squealing.
We never got hit.
I take the 1st road to the right and the caddy follows me. I get to another intersection- I put my right turn signal on fake right and go left- he turns right.
We park. I'm shaking. We start walking back to get Bill's truck. He see some guy that he raced in a sweet 70 SS Nova. We finally convince the guy to give us a ride (he already had 4 people in). We get back in Bill's truck and driver the same exact route back to the car. At the clover leaf there's 2 state police in the grass with their light on. We get to the T. Well, there's a gas station there. He stops for gas and I get out. I ask the guys that work there if they've seen any cops. They all look at each other and then at me and say "Were you the guy that just went through the stop sign?" Yes. Man, I don't know how you made it! Yeah, neither do we. We get directions back home, pick the car up and neversaw a cop. M
My brother never told out parents about that night. I finally spilled the beans about 14 years later.
I went bacck the following Summer when I was home on leave from the Army. EVERYONE was checking me and the Bee out- including the police.
I never went back since with the Bee. I found out years later from Bill that the other guy lost his license for a year,and a $500 fine.
The reason that everyone was checking me out was the reputation of a Blue Super Bee- street racing and out running the police....Never even knew it.
Looking back- I should have died that night and my two friends with me. I feel very Blessed that I was spared. Do I condone it- Absolutely not. Will kids still do stupid things...always.
All my buddies had nothing to say after that.
We still talk about that night almost 30 years later...
Thanks for letting we waste 15 minutes of your life!