I have a whole bunch of memories doing street racing "back in the day"... and this is my favorite.
In 1978 I was still in high school and just got my first mopar, A B3 blue, 4 speed factory dodge demon 340 gss.
It had a few problems and my dad helped me rebuild the stock thermoquad and he helped me do a tune up.
I was one of only a few mopars that cruised on the weekends in greeley , colorado back then and I drove it as my second car, and still drove my demon to school sometimes also, and had my 70 cuda 440 as well that was a stock 440 with 3.23's for gears.
But I mostly rode to school with a friend that had a 72' gran torino sport gt with a 351 4 barrel cleveland motor.
I had alot of crap given to me about my car being a mopar and looking like it was faster then it actually went because my car had the hood scoop and hood tach, etc..
The main culprit was a guy named bill martinez that had a 70's nova ss with a small blocs.
I knew that he had headers and traction bars and that he always taunted me to race him sometime..
His best freind has a chevelle super sport with a 454 and as luck would have it I ended up sitting next to bill and his buddy at a stop light..
I had my window down and he teased me and his buddy rev'ed his engine, and the other's behind us where watching.. So it was put up or shut up you could say.
I had raced my demon a few times by myself so far, Just getting used to it as I had stock 3.91's for gears and headers and a pinion stubber and was running on new bf goodrich belted t/a's ( non radial) I had learned not to just dump the clutch at wot, as I would just spin the tires easy, but if I dumped it at say only 3500 to 4000 and then stomped on it, my car launched better.
the light changed and I gave it hell and surprisingly I was side my side with the chevelle going thru 1st and about halfway thru second gear I started pulling on him by a fender and going into third I was about a car length ahead of him and as I shifted into 4th gear I just kept pulling.
It started on 23rd avenue and the next stoplight at 11th turned red and I was the first to it and was sitting at it idleing when they pulled up next to me and bill suddenly did not have much to say, but this was the street most of us used to turn around and go back to the strip and as he followed me I knew he wanted to go at it again from a 30mph punch.
I anticipated it and even though my rpms where up because of my having 3.91's in my rear I ignored the temptation to out it into second.
Side by side we was as it was two lanes going both ways and I told him to just nail it and I would just go also..
He nailed his throttle and I floored it and started shifting and right away I was back out in front again and pulling hard from him.
We got stopped at the light again at 23rd and he refused to pull up next to me now.. I went down to the K Mart parking lot and pulled in and several others that had watched the race followed and I heard then that "at the track the chevelle was running 12.90's"
I thought it was a nice looking chevelle and could'nt believe I had just beat it two times in a row.
As the night went by I seen bill martinez in his own car now and he pulled in and some of his buddies wanted us to race now.
I siimply asked "Was he any faster than the chevelle ?"
I heard his car was not faster or quicker and after that bill never teased about racing my mopar again.
When I got back home from being in the army I took my old demon back out on the town and ran into bill once again and found out he had sold the nova, to by a 1978 pontiac trans am that he was driving now and he asked me "What I had done to make my car go so fast that night?"
I ended up telling him about who "Mr Norm" was and showing the blower to him under the hood of my gss demon, and he just looked at my car in amazement and said he had never seen another one like it and thought I had switched the motors and just had left the 340 badges on it to fool everyone!
I told him that the entire car was stock as it had left the dealership and he just shook his head and I closed my hood and put the pins back in..
Later that summer I ended up going out to the drag strip and entered it in the friday nite 'test and tune" and seen the same chevelle racing also and he was running 12.40's now.
He watched me run and I watched him..
My first pass with the demon rolling on a used set of 28"x9.00x15's, I ran a 12.03 at 104 mph
My buddies told me he just shook his head in disbelief and most of the guys there knew that we had raced each other and that he was pissed off that his big block 70 chevelle couldnt beat me !!
Out on the street in town he never would pull up next to me again and always just watched me when I cruised by him and his buddies...
Grant Eaton 386-561-1181