Re: Street Racing in the 60's & 70's - Tell them your story
[Re: hemicop]
#506640
12/28/13 06:22 PM
12/28/13 06:22 PM
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,141 Phoenix,Az.
hemicop
super stock
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super stock
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,141
Phoenix,Az.
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BACK TO THE STORIES---------- SO one night I'm sitting at the World's Fair Marina and a guy comes in with a BEAUTIFUL triple black '70 Hemi 'cuda on a trailer. This is a big-tire car & looked like it could easily be a nice S/S car. A real young guy (17 or so) gets out of the tow car & simply walks away & melts into the crowd. People start crawling all over the car----still no one owns up to owning the car. After a short time the cops show up & start chasing everyone out until there's just this 'cuda & a handful of cars. The cop starts yelling: "Who owns this car, gentlemen?!?! I'll tow it off, I really don't care!" he's shouting like this several times, then finally this kid shows up doesn't say anything & gets in the tow car & drives off. Now what strikes weird about all this is, as far as I know, no one set up a race, the cop didn't do or say anything more to the owner & I never saw the car again either there or at any of the surrounding NY/NJ tracks. Rumor had it the kid's big brother built the car so maybe the brother took it & actualy used it somewhere.
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Re: Street Racing in the 60's & 70's - Tell them your story
[Re: Pacnorthcuda]
#506642
12/28/13 07:42 PM
12/28/13 07:42 PM
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,141 Phoenix,Az.
hemicop
super stock
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super stock
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,141
Phoenix,Az.
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Kind of a streetracing story........... An older friend of mine back then had a real nice '69 Nova big-block car. For its time it was a nice street/strip car somewhere in the 11-second range. Now back then many of us didn't know as much as we thought (or should have) so it was unuasl for the engine mods to far outpower the rest of the car. My friend had partially welded his axle tubes to the centersection & thought a rosette weld & some beads along the ouside would suffice---WRONG! he's running slicks & a 4-spd, goes to launch it one time & the car looks like its doing everything it's supposed to---slicks wrinkle, front-end lifts, then-------- BANG! we go running to see what's up. Well it seems the car squatted a bit too much , the welds broke & he spun the centersection putting right through the floorboards! . Sadly, after that the car was pretty much a street-only car & he built a milder motor for it......
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Re: Street Racing in the 60's & 70's - Tell them your story
[Re: rth]
#506644
12/29/13 04:10 PM
12/29/13 04:10 PM
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,680 Buford, GA
I_bleed_MOPAR
master
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master
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,680
Buford, GA
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Very nice, hemicop. Too many to list but one I backed away from. Friend of mine with a pretty hot '68 Firebird and I (I'm in my '65 Valiant 340/727) were headed to a local cruise spot (circa '71-2). We jump on I-285 (3 lanes wide at that time) and my friend spots a '71 RR in the middle lane. He catches the guy and I ease up on the other side. As I'm coming alongside I notice the callouts on the hood- "HEMI". I slowed down and I'm guessing my buddy noticed the callouts also as he slowed back down also.
'71 Charger 383/727 '17 Challenger SXT (Wifeys car )
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Re: Street Racing in the 60's & 70's - Tell them your story
[Re: I_bleed_MOPAR]
#506645
12/30/13 01:06 PM
12/30/13 01:06 PM
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,141 Phoenix,Az.
hemicop
super stock
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super stock
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,141
Phoenix,Az.
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A Hemi was about the only car I'd readily back-down from ----- I just figured them as unbeatable, pretty much. I remember one night driving my '67 big-block 'vette & a white '69 or so 'vette pulls up beside me. I'm out on Long Island somewhere & the roads are kind of twisty so I wasn't too sure about all this. The light goes green, he gets the jump on my & I go after him. Reeling him in wasn't tough at all but as the road starts getting curvy he stays in it & I'll be damned if if I'm gonna lose (yeah, stupid, I know. WEll, I guess he wasn't as sure of the whole thing either as we got to the apex of the first turn in a small series of "S"s, he backs waaaaay off. I stay in it, lose sight of him until the next light, a mile or two down the road. He looks over at me & just turns off the road sheepishly idling away. Truth be told, I'm sure he could've beaten me, but it was one of those things where the driver, not the car got beaten.....
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Re: Street Racing in the 60's & 70's - Tell them your story
[Re: I_bleed_MOPAR]
#506646
12/30/13 04:56 PM
12/30/13 04:56 PM
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Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 18,880 -
RSNOMO
Moparts Torchbearer
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Moparts Torchbearer
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 18,880
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Quote:
I notice the callouts on the hood- "HEMI".
That was out there, but there was a lot of 'stealth' in these parts...
Saw many a '383' tagged Elephant out runnin'...
(One bad one was a '66 Belvy...Plain-Jane brown, bench-seat column automatic...
The proverbial 'Grandma go to church car'...
Made some money until the word got out)...
Similar to this but no tags...
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Re: Street Racing in the 60's & 70's - Tell them your story
[Re: hemicop]
#506648
12/30/13 06:43 PM
12/30/13 06:43 PM
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Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,200 Sec.414,seat 12,White Sox Park
swapman
top fuel
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top fuel
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,200
Sec.414,seat 12,White Sox Park
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Every Thursday night, at 12 midnight we would run like heck out of Belvidere Assembly Plant with our paychecks in our hands. Since most of us were young (twenty something) we would get in our R/T's, Bees, Dusters and E-bodys of every color and Engine combination. Burn rubber to get to downtown Belvidere (Worf's Tap). Cash our checks and drink as much beer in the hour till closing,(1:00 AM) that we could. Then race to somebody's apartment or mobile home and play euchre or Dirty Clubs till sunup. Not to smart or legal, but we were young and dumb.
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Re: Street Racing in the 60's & 70's - Tell them your story
[Re: RSNOMO]
#506650
12/30/13 08:26 PM
12/30/13 08:26 PM
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,680 Buford, GA
I_bleed_MOPAR
master
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master
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,680
Buford, GA
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Quote:
Quote:
I notice the callouts on the hood- "HEMI".
That was out there, but there was a lot of 'stealth' in these parts...
Saw many a '383' tagged Elephant out runnin'...
(One bad one was a '66 Belvy...Plain-Jane brown, bench-seat column automatic...
The proverbial 'Grandma go to church car'...
Made some money until the word got out)...
Similar to this but no tags...
At 16 in 1971, a Hemi was the King of the Road and not to be taken lightly. Nothing else scared me- 396 Camaros, 427-454 'vettes, 429 Mustangs, etc. I would take on anything. Other than my car, there weren't too many sleepers running around in our neck of the woods. I never went into downtown Atlanta back then but it was my understanding that the heavy-hitters could be found at the Varsity Drive-In. Guy that was several years ahead of me in HS was racing his '69 Super Bee down there and had a clutch explosion. Lost part of his rt. foot.
Tim
'71 Charger 383/727 '17 Challenger SXT (Wifeys car )
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Re: Street Racing in the 60's & 70's - Tell them your story
[Re: RSNOMO]
#506651
12/30/13 08:41 PM
12/30/13 08:41 PM
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Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 30,460 Florida STAYcation
dOOc
The village idiot's idiot
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The village idiot's idiot
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 30,460
Florida STAYcation
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Quote:
Saw many a '383' tagged Elephant out runnin'...
..... and 318-tagged station wagons with healthy 440's and 5.57 gears that would hook-and-book with 7" cheater slicks and would be "done" at 70 mph !!
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Re: Street Racing in the 60's & 70's - Tell them your story
[Re: dOOc]
#506652
12/30/13 10:29 PM
12/30/13 10:29 PM
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,252 Sebring, Florida
Mopar Grandpa
OP
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OP
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,252
Sebring, Florida
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This isn't a racing story per'se but back in 1966 a guy I knew who worked at a Chrysler plant here in Indy purchased a new HEMI Coronet, very sweet car. I lost contact with him somewhere around 1968. This spring a friend asked if I could help him load a 72 challenger on my trailer along with many, many extra parts that he bought from a guy on the east side of town. When we got there I saw the guy walking out to meet us and it was the same guy that had the Coronet. He still has it and it looks almost as good as it did back in 1966. Original drivetrain, interior, paint, etc. It was like being back in 1966. I was hoping that he might be ready to part with it but he said "I don't think so." Joe did quite a bit of street racing back in the day, just wish I could have ridden with him.
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Re: Street Racing in the 60's & 70's - Tell them your story
[Re: paris401]
#506655
12/31/13 06:06 PM
12/31/13 06:06 PM
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 892 MA
steve70
super stock
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super stock
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 892
MA
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Growing up we used to head down to the "A+M" on Sundays. It was called that because of the business at the end of the road. The road led into an industrial park with the A+M being the only building on the road. The pavement was new so the street was marked off at a 1/4 mile. Back then everything was closed on Sundays so there was never any traffic. On a good day there could be 200+ people there and a lot of fast cars from miles around. Eventually it ended around 1986 because of a few accidents that prompted the police to constantly patrol the street. Once in a while I can still hear a car there on a Sunday but the road is really beat up now and the street is home to 6 or 7 busunesses now. Great memories here is a facebook link https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-raced-at-the-AM-The-unofficial-Marlboro-drag-strip/314663969429
Last edited by steve70; 12/31/13 06:07 PM.
1970 Challenger T/A 4 speed
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