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Anybody here old enough to have witnessed the million dollar race between the Ronald Lyles crew with their Hemidart against some guys from NJ with a rat motored camaro?

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I remember the stakes being in the vicinity of
nearly quarter of a million dollars. And they
raced two or three times. Check my math, on this!!

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You are correct as two good friends of mine were there on different occasions for the reruns.
The Dart won best out of a couple or so because even though the Camaro was set on Kill, they never had as good a driver as the Hemi Dart.
Must have been Sox behind the Hemi's wheel.LOL.
All due respect.
They supposedly ran about three times all together.
My friend was part of the Camaro's side bets because he was good friends himself with the previous owner.

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The Dart didn't leave out of the hole with the
Camaro, one race, but once it cleared its' throat,
it sang pretty hard on the big end, walking by
the Camaro.

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Yeah, I remember Scotty and his Buick's.
He had a whole clan of admirers that built fast Buick's, mostly Wildcats and 225's.

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Wicked Wildcats, 430's on juice!!
You were asking for trouble messin with them!!

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If you're talking about a little yellow Gremlin, John D'Andrea is still around, still lives near 150th and has a 10-sec. AMX he plays with when he's not working for Scott Schafiroff. His AMX was posted in Car Craft's "Reader's Rides some months back. As for the Gremlin itself, years ago Iasked him about it & all he said was that it was sold sometime in the late 70s/early 80s

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The "red/white/blue" AMX, I have seen before,IF it
is the same one we're talking about. Out in L.I.
Runs darn GOOD. That Gremlin "surprised"
some people, when I saw it in action. Both are good examples of AMC muscle!!

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I thinkk we ARE talking about the same guy! John was the first guy I knew that had an auto trans for racing--made me a big believer in them.I'll be going back there in Sept., & hope to see him, it's been a long time. I know some AMC fans here & would like to get some ideas & opinions from him.

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When Mopar "adopted" AMC, Mopar never realized that they had such a TOUGH little step-brother running in the streets and on the strip. AMC as few fans they had then, has grown quite larger
today!!

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I think newer technology & an abundence of specialized parts have made AMCs a worthwhile build. In talking with a friend who's an AMC fanatic I learned how to build a 427 AMC with the same bore/stroke ratio as a big-block Chevy. Talk about a sleeper! Couple that shortblock with a set of Indy's AMC race heads (Hell use their alum too!), throw it in a Gremlin or Pacer & clean-up! Between the rev potential & the breathe-ability of the heads EASY 9-sec. street runs are possible.

Since it's been so long ago, anyone want to divulge the set-ups they ran in their cars back then? I think alot would be surprised how mild some of the stuff really was compared to today

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with ya H-Cop. It's the age of "old school basics" with "new school technology"!! The
concept is time proven. That 427 sleeper is just a peek at what is to come on the streets and strips. The cars back then were very hard running in their day, but take the same buildup, exploit it with today's technology and you can run a second to two faster!!

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No Northern VA, DC areas stories???

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Yeah they used to meet at the bus lot off 495 @ Fort Washington/Oxen Hill and block off 295 near the DC line.
I never raced there but had a 69 Bee
and my friends cars, 68 RR, a T/A and a 69 1/2.
We used to race down at Hyde Airport in Clinton.
Ah the good old days..
Here is my Bee from the mid 70's

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Since we're talking about AMCs & streetracing-----one night John had his Gremlin out when I stumbled on him. We were on Utopia Parkway when I pulled alongside in my tubbed, SBC-powered Pinto. My car had a big solid lifter cam in it, quite a bit of compression, "fuelie" heads and a 40lb. flywheel hooked to an M21 trans in front of 4:30 gears. He had just gotten his new converter from Vitar Engr. and we were both anxious to see how our "mini-cars" (popular term back then) would do. When the light went green John jumped ahead, probably a car length or so as I let the clutch fly & went after him. Catching up wasn't a problem but keeping ahead, I have to admit, took a little bit of effort. We went through this ritual about three times as I recall, each run being about the same.
Though I did beat him, I have to admit he made a real believer out of me in regards to automatics for racing. His car was so much more consistent & easier on the driveline than mine I find it kind of hard to justify using a stick except they're so much fun......

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Ah, Utopia Parkway, not a bad stretch of road to run back then, still had that good concrete surface up till almost 5 years ago in some spots!
That runnin' Gremilin might have been pulling the "sandbag game" on you! If you can catch him from the light and gain a car length that quick,
but struggle to keep ahead, it's a ruse! Something is a little off, if it's just almost
every run. Chances of two cars being so closely matched is few but never impossible. So, the other
theory is that, his consistency is what kept him
at the level he was running at. Vitar Engineering
great converters and trannys, back in the day!!