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I didn't do a lot of street racing due to the fact my muscle car was a '62 Dodge Dart auto. with a 361. Not very competitive but had a great back seat...

Actually, a 361 Dart given some careful "tweaks" & with some careful "hunting" could've been a fun, competitive ride, even in NYC--- and that's what was fun about streetracing. My Dad's 318-powered stationwagon or my buddy with the OHC 6-cyl GTO (he blew-up the 389) was all part of the scene and we had FUN. Getting suckerd in & beaten by an SD421 or detained by the cops for having a possible stolen car (see previous posts) were all part of growing up in a place like NYC. Having friends like John D'Andrea with his Gremlin or getting "schooled" in the local speedshop are things most young guys now will never know. How many kids today will get to ride in a P/S built in their Dad's garage (remember this WAS the early days of P/S) or go for a ride in one on the street? Or have a much older friend show you something he just learned in AutoShop class? (do they still have them? ).
You wanna hear stories? How about the time my friend got thrown out of Machine Shop class for building a gun instead of working on a set of heads? or bringing in your car to Auto Shop for a semester -long project of re-painting it? This was when school was actually "cool" & the teachers liked their job & the kids. My first Mopar "project" was my teacher's '68 383 Charger that needed some basic work.
No, the stories are out there and they are fun, exciting, worth re-telling & those of us from back then are happy, grateful & proud we lived in that time---actually some of us are surprised we lived through some of the stuff!

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Whoa, H-Cop a 361 in a 62' dart IS nothing to SNEER
AT!! It can and will dust off quite a bit of machinery, even today with the modern technology.
So, because it wasn't a musclecar DOES NOT omit
you from the street scene!! I seen 361 Chargers
which RAN like scalded cats!! Embarrassed some
bigger, notable motors too, with that combo!! It's
all about the RIGHT PARTS MATCHUP and Volumetic
Efficiency. One question though: Who would be silly enough to BUILD a gun in school when it was
practically dirt cheap to get one!! Never will understand human nature! Anyway, GREAT post!!

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I don't get the Sunday Times, or any newspaper anymore - for a reason. This thread is MUCH BETTER. I didn't have half the fun others here had so it's great to read about it all.

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With ya!

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And I remember an acquaintance of ours that had a dark blue 4 door 66 Coronet Hemi 4 speed car that took quite a bit of money from the unsuspecting challenger. Car had steelies and small hub caps and no badging. Looked like something my Grandma would have driven. Now before some of you "purists" say it could not have been a factory built hemi 4 speed car due to it's color it really doesn't make any difference if it was or wasn't as the car was still very cool, very fast and very unsuspecting. Guy's name was Joe and if I remember correctly he worked as an engineer for Chrysler. He might have had access to some things the common street racer did not.

Speaking of Grandma, my Dad used to rebuild wrecked cars for a hobby and had 2 very good friends that owned a body shop/salvage yard. Bought my second Mopar from them; a 67 belvedere 273 car. These guys (Zores Body Shop) were also tied into the State of Indiana somehow and got all of the retired or wrecked State Police cars. In 1965 a trooper wrecked his patrol car, a 65 Plymouth, and Zores got it. Grandma was in need of a newer car so Dad bought it, did the body work and gave it to Grandma. She had no idea what she had but the car was cool and fast. Still had the side spot light, steelies and small caps. I always enjoyed the ride with Grandma even though she drove it like a little old lady but in hind sight she was a little old lady. My youngest brother ended up with the car when Grandma could no longer drive which was very frustrating to me as he wasn't, and still isn't, a car guy.

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M-G, I was weaned in the Max-Wedge, Race/Street
HEMI era. I always have love for a HEMI (never owned one though), but was raised up around big blocks. My uncle OWNED two 300's (letter series).
A 59' and then a 63'. Both had the 413 motor. The
59' had the two fours as well as the 63 did. But
the ram-induction is what sold me. The sound was
awesome as the car accelerated from 50 to 100 mph. It left a big impression on an 7 year old kid, who didn't know squat about any cars. !n about 3
more years, I was collecting Mopar HOT WHEELS and
tuning into the National NHRA Circuits and and then the streets, when the musclecar wars were going on! Learned quite a bit, but still learning,
even today!! Thanks to the racers and other enthusiasts, I would not know as much about MOPARS
on my own, as I do now!! And that is what it's all about to be a MOPAR enthusiast!!

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Whoa, H-Cop a 361 in a 62' dart IS nothing to SNEER
AT!! It can and will dust off quite a bit of machinery, even today with the modern technology.
So, because it wasn't a musclecar DOES NOT omit
you from the street scene!! I seen 361 Chargers
which RAN like scalded cats!! Embarrassed some
bigger, notable motors too, with that combo!! It's
all about the RIGHT PARTS MATCHUP and Volumetic
Efficiency. One question though: Who would be silly enough to BUILD a gun in school when it was
practically dirt cheap to get one!! Never will understand human nature! Anyway, GREAT post!!

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Actually it was me that had the dart. I was 16 years old at the time and made very little money working at a gas station after school and on the weekends. In the summer I was working 60 hours a week and was being paid $15.00 for my services. You do the math, I was working for the experience only I didn't know it. My only engine modifiation was having the heads milled, I thought that would greatly increased my compression and give me a real race car. Also installed a high pinion snubber that touched the body at all times. The 1-2 shift was very cool and oh yes I forgot about having the transmission line pressure increased. Back then I didn't have the money to do anything competitive but still had a ton of fun on the weekends.
We raced in my buddies car; a 67 R/T 440 4 speed car. Now that was extremely nice. He had all the money and cool toys. I got his leftovers.

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Were some pretty cool leftovers!!

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The "gunsmith" wasn't the shapest tool in the drawer.
Anyway, while I did race Chevys for quite awhile I was alwys fond of Mopar stuff--- just didn't have many friends that ran 'em. I did have a friend with a 340 Dart though, and it was impressive. He'd take on most any big-block Brand-X car and I never saw him lose by more than half a length, if at all. My friends had a variety of cars, so you can't really say we were "brand-blind". Looking back I can recall chevys, a '67 Galaxie, a GTO, AMC, Dodge & Plymouth,a Mercury, even a Buick. A good friend of mine at the time even beat me (pretty badly ) in his '68 4-4-2 when I had my big-block 'vette (highly overrated, IMO). With so many diferent cars it was almost necessary to stop by my friend's speedshop just to get his "take" on what to do with a particular car. Of course like many he was partial to Chevys but he did sponsor a few other cars so it was interesting to learn the differences.
I remember him doing some engine work in his shop's backroom for his streetracer. The motor was the spare 496 for the shop's A/MP Camaro and the factory aluminum heads were hogged out to within an inch of their life. That thing, hooked up to a clutch-turbo in a '66 Chevy Impala was impressive. It was the first "sleeper" I had ever seen up close & actually it wasn't a whole lot different, mechanically, than the Camaro. They did a few tricks to it, but compared to today's Stock Eliminator cars except for the engine & trans it wasn't much different. Given this was the early 70s though you could say the car WAS pretty trick. I'd love to find one & do a repo of the car .

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I'd bet it would be AWESOME, my friend!! Today's
tech on the engine and a UPDATED clutch-turbo setup behind it!! Super street, my man!! Or a
poor-man's Comp Eliminator. Still a winning combo
in my book!!

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The Impala was just one of his shop's "sponsored" streetracers. For such a small shop he had a '66 Chevelle, a '69 Nova, A RamAir V Firebird and (I think) an A990 car--to say nothing of the customer's he helped along the way. I'm willing to bet if you actually listed all the customer's his shop actually had a hand in encouraging streetracing it would be damn extensive.
I'll be back in NYC next week & I'll think I'll try to find him. I know he's in Flushing, Ny. somewhere nt far from College Point. Anyone know/remember Larry Chin?

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Name is familiar. Was he from the Flushing area?
College point had a lot of garages, especially off
23rd Av. So did the west side of Flushing, from
College Point Blvd. to Linden Pl.

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For those that may know (knew?) him & are curious----yesterday I stumble onto a shop & here's this guy with all kinds of hot rod/Mopar stuff in his office---a really nice guy, he helped me find an address I was looking for.
While talking to him I noticed he has a N.Y. license plate with the word "Brooklyn" on it. His name is "Rob" & we started talking & it seems that a while back he had this old Caddi on nitrous that he used to streetrace. I didn't ask him any specifics about his set-up, but he had some great pics of it on his walls. We BS for about a half-hour & in that time it was like I was back home again! . He remembered the Mutt Bros., the usual haunts in Brooklyn & even some of the cars that, coincidentally we would both see running the local areas. He wasn't too familiar with Queens but did remember alot of the streets we ran on there & he even mentioned he knew a few "transplanted" NYers out here that missed the "good 'ol days" . Of course we lamented how things just aren't the same anymore but being older now we'd like to have fun like we used to.
The point is, this streetracing stuff never gets out of your blood & if you look hard enough there are STILL a few diehards from the past. BTW, he showed me some of his projects in his shop & I must say I was impressed . It's good to know there's another Mopar shop around here......

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Welcome back to N.Y.
Yes H-Cop, the diehards are still around!! Lee is one of many to this testimony!! I did some times
but DARED NOT to climb in the ring with the "heavyweights". A little too shallow in the pockets and not enough "heat" under the hood. I just "donated" (for the cause) and took notes (learned what I could). Period.
BTW, that Caddy, was it a 68-69 model (4 door)maybe teal or turquiose in color?

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Go ahead and share a few...we ain't got nottin better to do. Hey, that was poetic and I wasn't even trying.

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