I'd post some more of my street racing stories from back in the day but I'm out. I guess I could make something up that sounds interesting....like racing my dad's '57 Plymouth 318 c.i. station wagon against a '69 Hemi Road Runner and only getting beat by a fender. However, I had a 1,000 foot head start.

Too bad some of the guys from Unlawfls Race don't post some of their stories but I guess they are above posting stories in the General section. Or maybe they aren't old enough to have raced back then.

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

From my Dad and buddies Dads that raced on the street back then, I assume anything that ran 12's (that could hook) was deemed the best.

My buddies dad had a 70 396SS Nova with a worked 427 in it that ran 12.40's at the track. he said the man to beat was a "Red 413 cube push button Dodge" and IIRC he did to claim the title.

The Dodge was stock though..maybe headers or something.

I have another true account of street racing in my cuda 440 also.
I had parked my demon 340 gss in my dad's back yard because I needed a new clutch, and was mostly driving my 70'cuda 440 around as my daily driver.
It has a stock 440 four barrel with 3.23 gears and 727.
It is a true cuda 440, and I had been getting into a few street races and it ran respectable for having 3.23's in the rear.
I had let my dad drive it all the way from Ann Arbor to Lansing, Mi and back once and he came home with a big grin on his face and simply said that my car ran really strong and left it at that!

I was out on a saturday morning with my brother (he has an original 68' hemi charger, then and now) And we had the window's down the get some air as my cuda did not have a/c.
I was in the right lane at a stoplight just off of the U of M campus and a dark blue 71 gto 455 pulled up next to us.
As we went thru the downtown stoplights and was each heading west I heard him shift and realized he was a 4 speed.
At the main street stoplight and jackson rd. interchange he made it known he wanted to race me and as my brother and I checked and seen no cop's I told my brother I was going for it.
The light changed and I was gone and the gto was with me all thru 1st, but as I bumped my shifter into second and I started to pull a fender and then slapping my car into third I was still ahead and he was a ways behind me.
We got caught at the light before the interstate and he gave me a thumbs up and turned away and we went the opposite direction and when we got home was still talking about it as we walked in the house.
My dad asked who did we race and we told him about the "dark blue 71 gto with the white 455 decals on it"
Dad laughed and described the car better than we had, and then he told us about the day he borrowed my car to go to Lansing and back...
I recalled how he said on the way back he meet this "dark blue gto 455" on the interstate and that they both got into some "really spirited driving" and dad described how the gto was trying to keep up with dad in my cuda and he was tired of seeing the gto in his mirrors, so he stomped on it and opened my 440 up and let it build speed and he remembered going thru 120 mph with ease and that dad soon had my cuda's speedometer pegged and was figuring he was really going about 155 mph or so..
He said that several times the gto would try to pass him up when dad slowed down, But that the gto just did not have the motor to be doing this speed and my cuda did.
So in his eyes he was impressed with how my cuda handled at speed up high and that he had just beat this gto several times at freeway speeds..
We was each certain it was the same car as we never seen another in the area that looked the same as this one.
I seen it at the A&W getting a rootbeer with my girlfriend, and noticed his was as stock as my cuda was and he asked ,"if it was me on the interstate driving that day?" and I had to tell him that it was my dad that day.
Grant Eaton 386-561-1181

Great stuff! I especily like hearing about young guys gettin' beat by the older guys. Amazing they somehow equate "older" with being lexx capable when somehow 40+ or so really ain't that old for a car guy.

Wanna meet me some late evening on the street of your choice? BTW...bring lots of money..at least $50.00

Back in the day (early 70's for you young people!!!) I had a '68 RR with a 383 w/440 heads, and 4 spd (early model w/Hurst shifter). Lots of street racing in it....until insurance renewal...O.K. said the salesman, "it's a RR, 4 spd, you're young, single, so you pay the max premium" Crap says I, too much $, can't afford it, so along comes my bud, and said..."I'll trade you for my '64 Plymouth Savoy, I'm tired of it now, my wife wants a newer car, and insurance is cheap". It was a 2 dr sedan, V-8, autobox, at least that's what I told the insurance company! I reality it was a 440cu in, balanced & blueprinted, an Art Carr autotrans, w/4.11 gears.
What a car! Way faster than the RR, even on a bad day!!!!! Lots of good steet racing after the swap! So, there's my old street racing story.

Mid 70's, Rochester, MN and I take young # 1 son out for a ride through town in my 56 Chevy with a hot 331 and 4 speed. He's probably 4 years old at the time. The 331 was out of the front engine dragster I'd run for a couple years so it was healthy enough.

Minding my own business, stopped at a red light and 2 kids in a Camaro pull up next to me and immediately start revving the engine, hollering at me to race. I'm trying to be a responsible parent and ignore them. #1 son yells 'race them Dad!' as the light changes. I unload the 56 and am making short work of beating them as we roar by two city squad cars parked in a 7-11 lot.

Before the cops are even out of the lot I've made a quick right turn, turned off the lights and made another turn into an alley heading back in the direction we'd come from. I managed to make it home driving alleys all the way back. Son kept asking me what I was doing. I kept saying "you can't tell Mom". Of course once we did get home you can imagine what the 1st thing that came out his mouth was. I got 'the look' and 'the lecture'.

Son talked about the experience for many months. I let him drive the same car for his high school prom when he was old enough. When he brought it back it was missing a front baby moon hubcap. Of course he had no idea how that happened.

I'm fine with this thread drying up and blowing away. Let's here some war stories from the here and now!

---

Sit back & learn, young 'un-----
Last Summer a friend of mine (66 yrs old) takes out his '55 Chevy "just because".
Now this '55 is like millions of others--multi-colored primer, ripped up bench seat, some interior panels missing, really not much to look at------- EXCEPT----------- he's running a an all-aluminum Donovan 434 cu.in smallblock, AFR heads, 15:1 compression & a roller camthat "OH, about .700 or so." he says.
So some young kid pullls alonside him & statrs playing with him in his 80s Mustang. My friend tries to ignmore him & does a pretty good job until they get stuck at the same light. The young guy has all he can stand & flat-out challanges him right there. My friend, being an "A"-type personality, figures enough is enough and proceeds to school him in a little respect for old cars & old guys---it wasn't even a race! The kid pulls up alongside him, asks him what he has & all he would say was: "A smallblock." The kid turnede off the street & I'm sure is trying to figure out just what kind of small block, in a "brick" of a car with an old geezer driving could spank him that hard.
The point is, don't assuming just 'cause it's old, it's worthless.........

Okay, so 49 ain't exactly "young" and I aplogize.
I think the point of the thread was to re-tell (again & again & again ) the things that made us just what we are & produced our oultlook on things automotive.
But you have to admit things are alot different now. Streetracing nowadays is more expensive all the way around, too risky and the punishments too great to warrant it. Not that we're too affraid to race a 4-figure (or more) musclecar but nowadays there's just too much to lose. Also for many, these stories are the closest thing some will ever come to strrtracing as it was & some would say, should be.

100%. But if you go back to the OP the thread is about sharing our stories with the young pups that weren't even a twinkle in the eye of their father when this street racing was going on back in the 60's & 70's. I loved to listen to my dad's stories of being chased by the police thru a golf course in their model T and many more stories followed along the same line. Those mental pictures are great and if some of the young folks can have a smile on their face our stories are well worth our memories.
My oldest daughter still remembers watering the street in front of our house so I could do a burnout in my friends '62 Nova, 454 with 538 gears. She smiles every time it's discussed and of course so do I.
If you have some stories to share please do so as life is short and we all need to smile and remember those fun days of "letting it all hang out".

Well, this may be a little long, and not exactly a "race" story, but typical, I think< of what most teenagers went through.
I was 16 at the time & prior to that my Dad let me "fix up" (a verrrrry loose term) his '62 Savoy SW. I posted one of my exploits in that, but at 16 my Dad thought I had earned enough money & the "right" to buy my own car. At the time I was looking REAL hard at a '61 Falcon with a 392 Hemi. This was my dream car---smallcar, big motor, classic Gasser look (including a straight front axle)all for $800. My Dad would have none of it though and since hewould have the Bill of Sale (I was under 18,remember) he kinda called the shots. What he & my Uncle found was a '55 Chevy 2-dr post car, 327/4spd, with "fuelie"heads, a Duntov "30-30"cam, overall a nice car. "Take it or leave it!", he said, so I bought it. All for $500.
Now I still had visions of "Gasser" in my head so the poor car got gutted, its quarters opened up & the nice, glasspack muffler system discarded for "Purple Hornies" hooked straight to the headers. The car ran no better, was loud as Hell & just not as "complete" as when I had picked it up. My Dad was madder than Hell & refused to help with any car project I had after that. Looking back, he had actually done me a favor and if I knew then what I know now I would have NEVER parted with that car. I eventually traded it off for a proper (?) '55 Chevy Gasser that, with its straight axle, went everywhere BUT straight...........

I love reading these stories. I got a book a few years ago as a gift called muscle car confidential. My favorite parts were the stories about the connecting. I have a 1969 Dart GT that my pops bought for me in 96 (I was 12). Its been a work in progress ever since. Had a stock 318/904/7 1/4. when I was 18 I maxed out 4 credit cards and built a 360/727/ 8 3/4. Love reading these stories and would like to say there's no better motivation! Thanks

Video of the dart doing a burnout before street racing a 6.1 hemi 300c. (got him by 4 car lengths)
1969 Dart GT warming up the tires

I've been in NYC the past week & it's far different than back in the day. There's no way I'd run a car where we once did and, sadly, I didn't see a single classic musclecar roaming the streets, even during the weekend.
Stretracing had its own protocol, as mostmknew & even prepping too out just for a night of watching/betting on the cars meant you had a wad of bills in your pocket, usually you left your girlfriend at home & with any luck you knew where the "good" cars were running. That was part of the purpose of the locsal speed shop. All the neighborhoods had them & they were the "town square" when it came to learning new stuff, who had the latest set-ups & where guys were running. Sadly places like Jeg's & Summit have pretty much eliminated these shops.
Here in NYC I was happy to see there were still a handful of places still around. I didn't have a chance to stop in but I'd like to think they still do what they always did.

S&K in Rockville Center still simmers with street chat. I always over hear the gossip.
The Garages are still simmering, but with empty talk of when how....