No Northern VA, DC areas stories???

What a thread....

I've had a lot ov fun in my life, i'm still having a lot ov fun, but nothing, not even the thing i'm currently devoting my life to, can touch street racing for sheer electrifying excitement. We'd LIVE for that weekend to roll 'round so we could cruise down to the flats and hang out. Rain on weekends was heartbreaking. I'd give up what i'm doing in a heartbeat and build a car in a month if street racing would only start up again here. As it is the car i'm putting back together now will see some, even if i have to personally be the first guy on the line and start it, just some good friends messin' around out on the flats... but even if it got going like it was a few years ago it just wouldn't be the same.

I wasn't even racing at the time. I had a stock EV2 71 Fury III 2dr with a tired 383 2bbl and hardly enough money to buy gas to get down and watch the races, let alone actually build something and run. Cool car, but it would have been lucky to run a 17. Otherwise i'd drive the hearse down there, many would remember that parked on the starting line.

This was only a few years ago, say in a 5-7 year span in the late 90's early 2000's, but it was no less exciting. We'd have upwards ov 50 cars a night racing on Fridays and Saturdays, out on some parallel road out ov town. Cars would come out from as far as Vancouver to play. The best part, as in the other stories here, was seeing what crazy [Edited by Moparts - Family Friendly Site - Keep it clean] people put together to race. This is primarily Chevyland, with a strong Ford contingent, but there were some cool Mopars out there running hard as well.

We had a bone stock looking 72 340 4spd Demon, pure F.A.S.T. material, though this was long before that started (with a driver just as tricky as the car...), my buddies absolutely wretched looking 'puke-green' Maverick with his own 'junk' 289 that everyone swore was bottled (it wasn't), a numbers 68 Hemi Super Bee 4spd car, with only a cam, headers and slicks for mods doing the most GLORIOUS 7000+ RPM burnouts EVER seen at the races (remember, this is not the 70,s, this is in the late 90's). The Bee only stopped coming out because after a couple years this guy had every idiot in a 5.0L coming out 'to kill the hemi' and got a little sick ov it. They'd brag if they won, though his was pretty god damn close to stock. There was a tight looking lil 69 340 Dart (bottled) that left the line harder than even the 10 second cars down there (and it was only running 11's), my boss' skanky looking 38 Chev truck with the (sadly) ubiquitous BC street-races SB Chev and a bottle in the bed, a half-crazed religious freak named 'Moses' with a 2ft long beard who was actually the leader ov his own small cult always had his scary (read: sketchy) as hell 4x4 Blazer with a 410+ SBC running in 4x4 on FOUR slicks (went as fast as 9's on STOCK diffs... hahahaha) with NOS (the latter two were the most violent starters i've ever seen, i had to start them cause nobody else in their right mind would, both 10 second trucks), a beat-to-[Edited by Moparts - Family Friendly Site - Keep it clean] looking late 70's Chev 3/4 ton farm truck sleeper with 'A-plates' and hay in the back running fast (even with its 300lb + driver), a SUPER rare 68 396/375HP SD Beaumont (1 ov 2 or 4, i forget) that had been street raced and HARD since the day it was bought new by its equally infamous owner, an 11 second 65 Impala with a big block and Jericho trans, a 9 second 'Yenko' Nova, numerous other big and small block Novas running almost as quick, and later on a nutty 70's Vette with a nuttier 363 and a LOT ov nitrous running mid-9's just to name a few. That Vette also raced nearer to the city and used to take on the fastest big-bore crotch-rockets and always won. He was pretty much the only car that showed up on a hook. This wasn't a quarter ov the cool stuff that showed up, i forget the rest.

SBChevies were everywhere, mostly in G-bodies and S-10's, and only slightly more common than 5.0L Mustangs. There were some crazy 5.0L sleepers, including one that NO savvy spotter would guess could run what it did. His was a bone-stock 5.0L 5spd with only slicks (mounted on the shoulder when he got there, like many others) and a bottle that ran 11's. He'd drop the clutch at 5000 and pull the fronts i dont know how many times... never hurt the thing in 3 years. We had guys building cars to run 9's in street trim at the time it all got shut down. Remember, this is not Detroit, this is BC... no money up here. Most ov this stuff was a step up from the junkyard. Even the 9 and 10 second stuff was usually pretty sketchy.

There was little to no traffic on that road after 9, and we would hit the spot around 11. We had a perfect 1/4 marked off with reflective posts at the finish. EVERYONE but the starter stayed behind the starting line, so no one got hurt. The race would not start till this happened. You could tell who won from a 1/4 mile away in the dark by seeing which post disappeared first. Racing could go on till the next morning, sometimes till people just got bored or ran out ov gas. Heh... while i wouldn't call it the safest road to race on (NO traffic or even side roads, but some serious 20ft deep "hick ditches" on either side as some city guy once mentioned), we were pretty well self-policed and never had an incident. That uber-rare 10 second SD Beaumont once lost it shifting 3rd and had both rear tires swing deep into the ditch at speed (heh... and i mean speed...) but the madman saved it and still almost won the race. He NEVER lifted. There was only two ways into that road and at night we could see headlights coming over 3 miles away... LOTS ov time to shut everything off and enjoy our little 'midnight car-club meetings'. Cops rarely gave us grief. Only when it got so big after a few years and we had well over 300 people watching and cars lined up parked for half a mile on both sides ov the road (behind the line) did they start getting upset. Then there were a few completely unrelated incidents in the city with stupid [Edited by Moparts - Family Friendly Site - Keep it clean] rat-racing through downtown Vancouver in their daddy-bought imports and Porsches plowing pedestrians down, the media got involved, blew it ALLLL way out ov proportion, and suddenly we were ALL 'killers'... and the cops hassled and threatened everyone with seizures and jail till it broke up.

This was all just a few years ago, and there was still a surprising amount ov musclecars down there, even some really rare iron, all running. I can only imagine being in Detroit or NYC in the 70s'...

Interesting thread! Seems like the cities aren't
the only places of action. Those "rain ditches"
you mention, we have them in the county, but
they're not that deep! Would make for a scary run!
There is just as much action in the plains of
Midwest as there are in the cities. Some of the
racers out there make GOOD USE of alcohol and
E85. Serious fuel for serious runners'. Much
respect to you guys!!

There is STILL a lot of action in and around the Tampa and St Pete area....so I have been told.

That is where I am headed.

Cleveland suburbs, Broadview Road. Sometime around 1975, I am in High School.

I had a B5 Blue '71 Duster 340...cam, head work, holley, intake, headers, shift kit in an automatic, 4:56 rear end (yes, 4:56...ran gas station to gas station, was given the third member already assembled by a friend!). Nice car.

Anyway. Driving down Broadview Road when a '70 Chevelle SS pulls up alongside me. I had never seen the car in the area before. There were three kids total in the Chevelle, I was by myself. This is around 7 in the evening.

It is warm out, windows are open. They are yelling across asking me if I want to give it a go. There are no lights immediately where we were, but traffic is lite so we stop in the middle of the road (a four lane road in the suburbs). They are in the curb lane. They count a three count and off we go. We are pretty even when BANG!!!! I can still hear the noise today. The Chevelle slows down and massive quantities of smoke starts coming out from around the hood and under the engine compartment.

They coast in to the entrance of a nearby K-Mart parking lot that we were just passing, I am watching in my rear view mirror.

I just kept going, no need to be part of their problem or explain to anyone what we were doing!

Looking back...we did this stuff a lot. There was a lot less traffic in those days. Still, I would absolutely kill my kids if they did this today!

Looking back...we did this stuff a lot. There was a lot less traffic in those days. Still, I would absolutely kill my kids if they did this today!

---

And that is probably what your dad said to your mom about you! My dad knew what I was doing cause he did similar stuff. Like they say...the apple doesn't fall from the tree. And just this afternoon I was coming back from Cinncinnati on Interstate 74 approaching Indy and I was on one of our drag strips from the late 60's. What memories of very nice muscle cars racing on the open (and deserted) highways.

My Dad was always kind of proud of the car, he used to show his friends.

As you know, it was fairly common to come home after a date, uncork the headers, change the plugs and then go back out for some action. Fairly certain my Dad had a pretty good idea what was going on, though we never talked about it.

A good man, I miss him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7HV8AGypDw

Rt.21 passiac NJ

My dad used to do alot of racing up there with their club " the united street racers" still active today.

he had a 64 gto convert triple black 4spd with a nasty rat motor.

Back in the day, probably 1967, I had a '62 Dodge Dart 361 auto. We used to take our cars up to Palmer Dodge on Keystone Ave. and have their transmission guy increase the line pressure, or did something to make the auto's shift a lot harder than stock. I was also running a tall pinion snubber that was hitting the underside of the body 100% of the time. Now the engine was basically stock, other than having the heads milled for that higher compression, (cut me some slack...I was only 17) but when it hit second gear it felt like someone rear ended the car. Pretty cool I thought.

When racing, many times my girlfriend was with me and sat on the console between the bucket seats. When I wound it out in first and hit the second gear button the car lunged so hard that it thru her in the back seat. What a hoot. Incidently, it was in the back seat of that car that we conceived our first child. Well that's another story. I didn't win a lot of races with that car but it sure was a lot of fun.

100%, What that Dylan classic, oh yeah
"These Times Are Changing", I think that's the
song. Before, when we were younger, we were fueled
by brawn and fearlessness. Now at our older ages
are fueled by wisdom and the insight of thought,
being careful of our actions and the end result
of who or what may be infleunced by them.

Here's a link to a forum with a large section devoted to street racing action from daze of yore:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/group.php?groupid=322

You have to join the forum to see the page. Here's a glimpse from the East-Coast Street Racing section:

New York and New Jersey offered some of the most intense street racing the world has ever seen. The period from the mid-1960s through the early-mid-1970s was most certainly the pinnacle of the action. During this period there was something of a battle going on between New Jersey and New York street racers. This battle though, raged on during the night and into the early morning hours before sunrise. Most of the action between racers of the two neighboring states battled it out in the streets of New York - the New Jersey guys would come and take on the racers from Brooklyn, Queens and the other boroughs of New York City. Entering the late 1960s, it is said the NJ racers began making the NY racers look bad. They were winning and thus taking a lot of money off them. New York was the location of big time, high dollar, all-business street racing. During the time period there was also a heavy connection between street racing and drug dealing, as many of the successful racers funded their street racing activities (new cars, parts, tune-ups, etc.) with cash funded through the sale of drugs, notable heroin. The wave of NJ racers storming into NY and winning would not last though, as a few certain individuals from New York turned the tides and began sending the NJ boys back home - and with much thinner wallets than they arrived with. Two of the NY racers who were largely responsible for this went by the names "Super John" McFadden and Ronald Lyles, both from Brooklyn. These two, among several other New York and New Jersey racers of the time, went on to race professionally in Pro Stock - several of them becoming very successful. There were several other racers of the time who would eventually go down as legends in the history of street racing. Continue reading below to be introduced to a few of them. Also note that the racers listed on this page didn't just race from stoplight-to-stoplight for grins, they were driving real all-out race cars on the street and raced for thousands of dollars on a single run. This was big-time, serious, all-business street racing.



Lots of history and pix. Highly recommended.

Oh, here's another link to a long Van Nuys Blvd. thread on same forum that you can view without being a member:

Who cruised Van Nuys Bl in the 70's?

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=133776&highlight=van+nuys+blvd

Qwik426

Those New Yark and Joisey boyz ....

Nutin' but race cars with uNlegal plates on 'em !

Hey .... EVEN the Chi-Town boyz had some real DRIVERS ! ...

I could have sworn they were HP's on that engine.
Maybe you are right cause that thing was pretty tame and quiet, but carried a big whip.
South Ave was magic and the rides on the SI Ferry was my down time to wax the car (73' SS Hatchback 4 speed Nova)before getting there.
I remember sitting in your GeeTeX at E-town for sure.
You now know my car right?
It never made it out to South, but made many appearances on 1st Ave, The Hutch, 150th, FDR,
Fountain, Bronx meat market, and just a few on the Connecting during the mid 90's.

Dont race it's not worth it !