Some of your "heavy hitters" DO stay away from the
video crowd. Nothing personal, just their way of being super incognito.

I sure would stay clear of videos with super tricks to keep 'em thinking cause every one now has a camera.
The streets will never be the same.

I had a 1968 Fleetwood Brougham back in the mideighties. I bought it from the original owner with about 60K miles on it. Loved the car.

Drove it for a year or so when the cam gear plastic teeth exited the gear at about 75 mph. Valves hit pistons when the chain slipped and pretty much made a mess out of the sweet factory 472 engine.

A buddy had a slew of late 60s and early 70s Cadillacs. I contacted him and told him of my dilemma. He said he had just the thing to cure my problem and showed me a wrecked '70 ElDorado with - as I recall - about 18K miles.

In 1970, Cadillac's ElDorado debuted its only HP version of their 500 CID engine [that's 8.2 liter, for those who speak metric]. It made 400 HP with 550 Ft Lbs torque. Had 10: 1 compression and a 4.3 X 4.3 bore X stroke. It was a beast. It went in my Fleetwood.

My best friend had a 68 Buick GS 400. He and I wound up side by side, one day shortly after the engine swap, as I was headed home. We were first at a traffic light. I rolled the window down and said "let's see what they'll do!" When the light turned green, that Caddy really surprised both of us. I, thereafter, had lots of fun with it. 'Nuff said.

Windy city, early 80s...

Back of the yards.. The "stock" pick up handled the Big Chrysler..

". All in all, TRUE streetracing HAS gone underground!!

---

I'm glad this thread hasn't died. Has anyone resurrected their old strretracer? I'd love to find my Pinto from back then but my guess is it's long-gone by now. That car would actually be a pretty good one, still, as it had alot of work in it. Couple it with a stroker smallblock & I'd be back in action! .
I remember when I brought it to New Mexico when I moved. My Lt. called me into the office, said he saw me cruising the main street in it & thought it wasn't "inappropriate" for a police officer to be involved in such "criminal" activity. There were 3 or 4 good cars in the town at the time, but no one really wanted to run me . Truth was (I thought) they actually had a good chance of beating me. Last I heard, years ago, the car was in Carlsbad, N.M........

From time to time I will do a dealer trade run for one of the local Chrysler dealers here in Indy. Last week they asked if I could go to Cincinnati on a trade. Sure, no problem as I wasn't real busy. Since my wife is now retired I asked her to ride along and of course she said okay.

We're heading out Interstate 74 towards Cincinnati and as we go under the Franklin Road overpass I point to the bridge and say "there it is". She said "there what is?" I said the finish line. "The finish line? What are you talking about?." By that time we were 1/4 mile down the road and I pointed to the Intersate sign on the other side of the road and said "there it is". She says "there what is?" I told her that was the starting line. "The starting line?" So I explained to her that back in the late 60's this is where we did most of our street racing. She wasn't in my life at that point in time. So she looks over and says...oh.

So we do the vehicle trade and are heading back on the same interstate. As we are approaching the "race track from yesteryear" she says " if the conditions were right you'd do it again wouldn't you?" All I could do was look at her and smile.

A lot of great memories on Interstate 74.

Going to the old places somehow seems a little sad. Last year I had the privilege of meeting "fullmetaljacket" in NY & we BS'd about some old places & cars. The next day I wandered over to Connecting, Utopia Pkwy, Francis Lewis Blvd, among other places & although I could distinctly rememebr the cars, the BSing we did there, even some of the old speed shops nearby I couldn't imagine doing the same things nowadays-and that seemed a shame. Today's gearheads will never know the speed shop stories, the cruising & streetracing we did,alot of times just for fun, or the affordibility (compared to now) of it all.
Still, as I told "FMJ", when my Dart's done I'm taking it back to Connecting for one final pass...........

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!

Actually it was more like 30 minutes of my time....I'm a slow reader. Just kidding and great racing story other than the part that could have been fatal. Had a couple of those myself and also feel blessed to be alive.
I now live out on a county road and have no idea if or where the kids are racing today but I'm sure they're doing it somewhere other than the track.

two lane -

thanks for sharing that story. it's good to see this thread back on page 1.

Now we just need some more stories. Too bad some of the guys over on Unlawfls Race Only don't contribute. I'm sure some of them have some pretty good tales to tell.

I have another "quick " one to tell..
Back in '88 I still had my '70 Bee as my only ride. I just got married in June and my new bride didn't dig my Bee. Said it scared her, yeah, whatever. She comes up with an idea to buy another car for me as a late wedding present from her. We end up driving home in a 72 340 4spd Lemon twist Demon for $1600. we moved into our own place in rural Hamburg PA and settle in. I make friend's with the next door neighbor who bleeds Chevy. You guys/ gals know how friendships go like that..
Here's the story of ONE particular evening.
New wife and I are coming home from visiting my Mom in town. I'm on 12th street in Reading which is 2 lanes running one way. Pull up to a stop sign and hear this roar and tires screech waaay behind us. I look up and see a 68/69 Chevelle and a 69 Camaro coming up sideways (burning rubber) toward me. The Camaro lines up- I look over and see 396 on the fender..I think "we're dead." I look at my wife and she says "go for it!" I rev it up and Nail it. I have 323's in it so I know that I only need to make one shift to the next stop sign and I can red line at 65 MPH or so. I LEAVE this guy spinning his wheels and wait for him at the stop sign. He has a hot looking blonde with him (but so did I) and she's looking uncomfortable. He rev's it up even higher (noticeably surprised and p*ssed) I let her rip again- same game plan/ same result. Now when he lines up I thought he was gonna throw a rod for how high hes reving it..His girls shaking her head no at this ...I floor it and take off and let him seeing taillights again. he turned off and never saw him again. Camaro #1 down for the night.
Later that night me and my Chevy buddies (can you say that in the same sentence?) go out for some cruising on 5th st highway outside of Temple PA. 2 lane in - 2 lane out. FUN. Pat (my neighbor ) has a very nice 68 Camaro- original 327 w/ turbo 350 and 410 gears, Rallye green white stripe. he tells me that he's gonna dust me. OK....
We line up heading out of town. It's 2 lanes at the traffic light and roughly a bit more than 1/4 mile turns into 1 lane- whoever wins GETS the lane. he yells 1.2.3. Floor it! I nail it and grab 3 gears ahead. I got 3/4 of a car on him as I shift into 4th. I barely hold him off as the lane ends. he can't believe it. We're running again. No problem Bro. Pack your lunch. we do it again and the same thing. I beat him TWICE!! camaro #2 for the evening. and the excuses come out later... Gotta hit the hay for now. I have one more for the night to tell...

In the intrswt of hoping to revive this thread....

I recall once in the 70s being over by JFK airport to watch a high-dollar race. Landy's transporter was there with, I beleive his Colt to run someone for BIG dollars-anyone remember who he was running against? I thought it was "Brooklyn Heavy" but not really sure.
I was fortunate last Nov. to be at the PRI show in Orlando & spoke to a well-known P/S driver of that era. When asked about HIS involvment with that sort of stuff, he hesitated, grinned & said:"oh, I'm sure some of us (professionals) got involved in some of that stuff. _I_ sure don't know much about it!" Kind of hard to believe when I've seen his name on cars back then........

.....and I thought this thread was dead. Thanks for contributing more stories.

Looking through all 14 ( !)pages of this thread got me to thinking----- I can reall on time (sorry if it's a re-post, I didn't see it) I had built a 396-powered '65 Goat for a friend. The car was complete but I told him he HAD TO havve a scattershield before he actually raced. Anyway, after a couple of weeks he calls me & says he put the finishing touches on the car & would I like to go for a test-drive with him. I meet him at his house, we go up to Francis Lewis Blvd. & proceed to beat on the car a bit. OOOOOOOOOOH it ran well--too well actually, as on the 3rd launch there's this huge "bang" & my feet get catapaulted off the floorboards. He pulls the car over, crawls under it & starts cursing over blowing the clutch & breaking U-joints. Then he gats REAL worked up as he now says his bellhousing is in 3 pieces! I jump out, crawl underneath & sure enough, he had never installed a scattershield! . I start cursing & swearing at him over it, asking him WHY he didn't bother getting one.
"My Dad wouldn't give me the money!" was his (lame) excuse so while waiting for his Dad to flat-tow us home, I continued "lecturing" him on his stupidity.
In the end, Dad anted up the money for not just the shield but better headers & a tunnelram ! That was a cool car but coming from money he eventually got himself a gorgeous LS6 Chevelle. THAT was a special car!

I guess I'm the only one that wants to keep this going???