Ah Fountain Ave, home for so many legends. best
races were when the landfill was open at the end
by what is known now as Spring Creek Park. As
far as Columbia Street the roadway by now if it not collapsed, it is fenced off. Especially by the
waterfront inland. Great races were at both of them.

Great thread I grew up in the Boro Park/Fort Hamilton Parkway area of Brooklyn before moving way down south to Montgomery in late 1973. I was too young to have been there in person but my folks used to take me to a small amusement park just down from the Big Bow Wow on Cross Bay Boulevard (iirc) summer weekends. My 'racing' was done H/O scale at Buzz-A-Rama on Church Avenue which is still in operation on weekends

In 1975 the cruising went on nightly up and down Atlanta Highway. The leos knew most of the racers and as long as the actual races took place in low traffic areas, there wasn't much hassle. The big hangout was the Krystal. The impressive rides included a sweet black Anglia and later a just as beautifully done black 65 Falcon Sprint owned by Lonnie F. and a string of cars owned by Mike C. Mike had a red, white, and blue Javelin with zoomies (anyone remember those?) followed by a white 69 Camaro running a 355 chevy with 6.13 gears For a time there were several v-8 Vegas and Pintos and even a 401 Gremlin. There were also plenty of GTOs including one Judge, Mustangs including a High Country Special and many Camaros. I don't recall too many Mopars and although i drove a 73 Rallye Challenger, I was mostly a spectator - hey, a 318-4bbl can only speak so loud My only race was against a 71 350 4-bbl Cutlass Supreme. I lost by half a car length, we were caught, and i wound up going to court for a drag-racing ticket. On sundays some of us would head to a home made dragstrip 6th street which was a dead end street with only one house on it, or to Montgomery International Raceway. MIR has been recently renovated and still holds round track races; for drag racing Montgomery Motorsports Park is the place. I've been told by that across from Gunter AFS the remains of Capitol City Dragway still remain as it was THE place to race during the sixties and early seventies but i've yet to hike over to check it out. I have some pictures from 6th street that i'll post when i find them.

During 1978 i moved away from home for the first time and lived in Birmingham where Roebuck Parkway became my cruising location, again hanging out at the Krystal in Center Point. I worked at Roebuck Chrysler-Plymouth and saw many cool Mopars come by in between the usual warranty work. There was a larger variety of vehicles including a blown hemi powered T-bucket, a sweet yellow 70 Boss 302, and a fellow i worked with who had a Black 69 Z-28 with a cross-ram. Racing would take place on I-59 heading southbound towards exit 134 (Roebuck Parkway). There were plenty of Mopars - and local dragstrips - in the Birmingham area but by 1979 i was back in Montgomery.

Russ

Full Metal, I finally did catch up with Hemmings
article on NYC Street racing. That was the race
that I was refering to, but they may have ran
on the eastbound (new constuction at the time)
Nassau Expressway just east of the Van Wyck North
Spur (from airport). The roadway was separated
from traffic by jersey barriers for a while.
However, I still didn't find out the outcome of
the run.

I am not sure if this is connected in any way or that it was the actual guys as many races have happened with these kinds of cars in the past, A guy who lived in my building by the name of Jimmy Dimeo had a very quick Road Runner/GTX that one night raced against a Black L78 375 HP Big Block Nova for pink slips.(Real Pinks) and still has the Nova to this day as a race car. The road Runner/GTX was totaled in an accident under the FDR drive.

Well I used to own a '69 Chrysler 300 convert.
T7 Bronze/black top-guts with a 440-727 combo,stock short block,509 d.c.cam,stock heads,aftermarket intake/carb/headers and 8 3/4 rear with 3.91's...and about 4,400 lbs!
I used to race alot in the Mt.Clemens area back in the mid-late 80's....there was an industrial section of shops off of Groesbeck/Hall Roads, and all the good muscle cars would hang out there, including a burgundy Hemi Roadrunner (which still goes by the name of Rat Poison to this day).We would race off of a two lane wide freeway on ramp to I-94 which was about a mile long it seemed. Anyway, one night I was hanging out in the parking lot with a few friends around 1am or so on a Friday night, and this guy with a nearly new '86 Buick Grand National walks up and says "what am I doing here with that "big barge" and a few other comments about my 300,saying this is no place for that kinda car!So I say if you wanna race me just say the word, or get the @#*& out of my face...he says sure lets go for it...50 bones...I say meet me at the on ramp, of course half the crowd follows us over to the spot. My friends get out of my 300 and wait on the shoulder with the other onlookers, the Buick and I line up at the start of the on-ramp and somebody from the crowd flags us...I put the column shifter into first and rev up against the converter...the Buick is up on his converter as well.The flagger motions if we are ready to go, I give a quick wave and were really revving the motors by now.
Well the flagger drops his arms and both of us leave at the exact same time,even though my tires are slipping the whole way off the start..I hit 2nd gear and we are still dead even, I'm thinking this clown might have an edge on me, but as I shift into Drive the "big barge" is passing up the black Buick about 2/3 of the way down the on-ramp! I'm in the zone and have the gas just glued to the floor doing around 95-98 mph and the Buick is by now about half a car length behind me! I get to the freeway first and win handily over the loudmouth in the Grand National. We both make our way back to the shops and he gets out walks over with my money and with a very disgusted look on his face hands me the cash and says "what the @#%* do you have under the hood"? I tell him just a basic 440 nothin fancy...he walks away, gets in his car and does a burnout in the parking lot before he disapears...my buddy's are amazed that I beat a turbo Buick, but I said it was close all the way till top end, and the 440 came through as usual for me! BTW,I took the 300 to Milan Dragway not too long after this and it ran a best of 14.19@ 99mph... All with full exhaust and street tires on a 85 degree day!

For a time there were several v-8 Vegas and Pintos and even a 401 Gremlin.

The Gremlin you speak of was my friend's. It's pictured in the Hemming's article and for awhile had the top end off his friend's S/S AMX. John was apparently friends with Vinnie Vitar ( a local race trans shop for you non-NYers) and seemed to have unlimited access to his shop. Last I heard John bought & still has his friend's S/S AMX--don't know about the Gremlin. The nice thing for him was, he lived real close to 150th street, so running there was literally just turning the corner & setting up a race. One of the Pinto you mention could very well have been mine as my M.O. was to take my girlfriend out on a date, come home then spend the rest of the night prowling around like an idiot, just looking for trouble. . I avoided Nassau County as much as possible as the cops there had a reputation for not cutting anyone any slack.
And as for the "Detroit vs. N.Y" debate, the hard-core really didn't care where they raced, so long as the money was good enough.

Did any of you ever race the original Silver Bullet from Chicago,I think? That car seemed to have some street racing history.

I remember the last time I raced and acted invincible, I took My girlfriend out to eat at the local burger joint, she had also brought her best friend Judy along. Anyway, we were eating and a guy came over and joined us.
Well, MY girlfriend started paying attention to this guy instead of Me..so I looked over at Judy and asked her, if she wanted to go for a drive.
We got up and left together.
Anyway, I had this old Dodge pickup 1971 4x4 4 speed, with a 440 in it.
Nothing really special and certainly not a race vehicle by any means, although it did have headers a Holley street dominator intake and a .509 cam, with a holley 780 carb.
Anyhow, as we left, this guy comes out with my girlfriend, and they both get into his Olds cutless, I have no idea what it had in it.
So they are going to follow us everywhere right?
Well, we head out to the freeway and this guy tries to pass us, all the while they both are pointing and laughing at Me and Judy...
I punch the throttle and take off leaving them WAY behind, as soon as they start to catch up I turn off my lights so they cant see us anymore.
There was an on-ramp coming up, where cars enter the freeway, on the right side. Instead of us going another 5 miles to the next exit, I get the idea to just go down this onramp, in the wrong direction, lights off, to lose them for good! Well, in the dark, its kind of hard to judge speed...and its going to be about a 180 degree turn. Olus I didnt want them to see any brake lights.
We took that corner sliding sideways and shot up the bank on the other side of the onramp and back down to the on-ramp heading in the direction, we wanted to go, Judy is hanging on for dear life, not saying a word!
After we knew we were all in one piece, we both looked at each other and started laughing !
We went back to the burger joint to wait for My girlfriend and that guy. Some 20 minutes later, they showed up wondering how the heck we lost them! We never told them.
The next day, I went out to look at the rubber skid marks and seen that when we took off up the bank, off the road, we went perfectly between a sign post and a steel reflector post. Like a big upside down "U" shape. We didnt even see them!
I never have turned a car or truck that hard ever again and at such a speed. Not on dry pavement anyway !
Not really a street racing story, but still they were wild times! One of many.

I'm ready for all comers right now here on 150th. Engine idling, cops paid off, vexed off and on the convertor, but broke.LOL

It's funny, remember when the bad lands and times were crazy and things were great.
Now things are bad and times are even crazier. Go figure.

Those Chrysler 300's were great!
My Dad had a brand new 1970 Chrysler 300
Dark green hardtop. Theres nothing like a long open stretch of highway, with that thing humming along at 120 or so.
He would be singin "Ghost riders in the sky"
Id be in the back seat, looking up at the moon and clouds, falling asleep..
brings a tear to my eye!

went to HS in new york, had a classmate take me to all the hot spots in NYC... man those were good times. after HS and 4 yrs in service to uncle sam, i moved back to florida. had a 73 charger, 340 tunnel-ram w/ 2 660 center squirters, alot of converter and alot o rear gear(learned from my NYC days, lol). lots of stop light drags,quite a few money runs, lost a time or 2,but for the most part, way too much fun.. BTW, the charger ran 11.90's at gainesville before i parted it out. swiss cheesin and rust had taken its toll.... sad but true....

Good stories especially the staten island stuff. Anyone from staten island remember dave english?

He had a whole lot of cars, but i remember a black 1968 cuda 383 formula s and a 1967 chevelle (don't know what color it was then but it's blue now.

The car had a siezed 396 with nitrous when he first got it, and he got it from his father who was a nyc cop. Its history before that is unknown to me. It also had a m22 iirc. Did you know anyone that hung around body masters?

Hey, I got another "goodie" here. Any of you
remember the "Captain America" Camaro (68' I
think). It had some small blocks and a big block
in it. It ran very hard in it's
day.

Hey, that sound like Jimmy Addison's ride. I
could be wrong, I thought he was a Detroit runner.
Please correct me if I am, this is too good a bit
of history to mess up on.
A LOT of people got dusted off by that
car.