On the way back from Bakersfield Dick said, you know, the pinion angle on that thing is wrong, I know I said, when we get back I want to make and adjustable length lower control. Dick said I've been thinking about an adjustable upper with a Heim end, we can cut down the spud on the no hop bar that the stock control arm connects to, and let the Heim come up on the side, so we agreed to do an adjustable upper. We all decided to go to Super Chevy Phoenix the next weekend, and didn't have time to make the new uppers so we cut the stock ones in the middle and shortened them so we had 4 degrees of pinion angle, the butt welded them, re-boxed the bottom, and strapped the sides. We were suppossed to get some new N50's but M&H sent more 275 x 60's. They had a road race at Phoenix the weekend before and the had used the staging lane/starting line area as a sweeping left hand turn. Well the launch pad was junk, and even with the pinion angle fixed the car was not hooking and I struggled to run a 10 anything, lost a $100 race to a crippled guy with a 70 Camaro, and only went two rounds. The funnest part was making a time only pass next to Randy Haggardy's Pro Stock Camaro. I actually left on him and was in front for about 5 feet, and then found out how fast a Pro Stocker can "get small".
Originally Posted by Goldchainer$$$ View Post Street racing is lame, take it to the track before you kill someone or a family coming home. so this vid shows the danger because i dont have any from 1965 or OLDER boys http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LEHOGXkbvcI
Current street racing's far sloppier run than when me and my friends raced 25-30 yrs ago. They better warrant the ney sayers here far more than my generation
Dangerous. Reckless. Foolish. Inconsiderate. Idiotic. I can't think enough negative adjectives to do what is shown in this video justice. That could have been evening news worthy if it had gone just a little more wrong. Way too many people around, way too many cars on the road, way too little traction. That was scary to watch. There's a time and a place for everything. That looked like the wrong place.
Umm.....yeah..... Look at when that was filmed,look at the cars in it,and give your head a shake. I don't know why that even ended up posted here,as neither vehicle involved was HAMB friendly,and neither one had anything to do with the stories we are trading off from "Back in the Day".... So anyway,has anybody got any "Close Encounter" stories with Jimmy Addison's Silver Bullet GTX out of Detroit...? Now THOSE would be some HAMB-tastic stories! (I realize that the car is technically 2 yrs past the deadline,but it's in the thick of the whole street racing in Detroit,back door assistance from the Big 3,etc...) Scott Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Not all street racing in the mid 50's was drags. I'm wondering who in the Seattle area holds the record for one lap around Queen Anne Blvd. now.
I don't know if it's just cause I'm on my iPhone or what,but I can't see that last picture you posted....it sounds like a badass too.Can you try reposting it..? Scott Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
AAAAARRGGHHH!!!!! Can you see THIS pic? Here's one I street raced in the early 80's (without all the stickers/lettering). Never lost. It was somewhat of a giant killer back then. I'd set some hard running cars 10-15 car lengths, each time thinking THIS is the one I'm gonna lose. Never did. This car was a blast. Mild SBC set back around 10" and me driving from the back seat area assured it would hook on the worst streets. Plus it only weighed 2000 Lbs. This pic was taken after I sold it and the new owner took it to the strip to win lots of bracket races
Grew up in that era? Ha ha ha, in that era I was that cop, in Tampa FL. I was a police helicopter pilot in "that era" and I loved it when y'all (and me in my other life) ran from the cops. Broke up my boring night and I NEVER had anyone get away from me once I had an eyeball on them....
That little Anglia body is currently mounted to a new chassis, and sitting in a shop a "stones throw" from the sight of San Fernando Drag Strip". The guy most likely driving in that photo is Duke Gardella. He won a bunch of bracket races in that thing. It had a little snorkel type scoop facing forward, and I've always felt that short forward facing scoops on cars with blunt front ends were worthless as the air hits the nose and goes right over top of the scoop, hits the windshield and causes a high pressure area at the base of the windshield. The scoop on the Anglia got messed up somehow and Duke took it off to paint it.., the car picked up like 2-3 tenths and several mph instantly. Dukes engines were nothing special but the car was light and ran in the mid elevens with the scoop, low elevens without. At one point he blew up his engine while leading points in Bracket 1 @ LACR. I talked Bob & Dick into letting Duke drive the Chevelle so he could keep his lead. He ran a string of 10.60's and runner-upped to Johnny Matasa's equally fast Buick powered '69 Gran Sport. We had gotten an old 316" modified eliminator SBC engine as partial payment/trade on an engine job, and I asked Bob & Dick if we could freshened it up and sponsor it to Duke for advertisements since he was such a good driver and was always winning. They agreed, and we freshened her up and surprised Duke. This engine had a set of Pro Stock type turbo heads that had more furnace braze in them than cast iron. We told Duke it was a bunch of old used stuff, but it should haul the mail, and if he treated it right, should last a while. The first pass, it went 10.40 something as he peddled it in high gear cause it was hauling. The next pass he "kept it on the wood" and went 10.27 in the high 130's, and Bernie Longjohn ( the track manager) had a crap, and told Duke to slow it down a bit, cause the car was wore out and unsafe for those speeds. Duke used his old Accel dual point, and the thing was "skipping & farting" from the get go. We told him to get a good distributor in it or all that misfiring was gonna kill it. About the 6th week or so out, it dropped the head of one of the old titanium intake valves off in the ligjts at full song, and junked the whole engine. We helped him patch together another junk 350, and it was back to mid 11's @ 115 or so.
Yep, everyone has been sending that to me, even Jason Line. George snapped that off the internet somewhere. Thats one of only three pics we have, and I have the original. My dad said that Jones had a really cool color pic, taken in front of the car @ San Fernando hanging the hoops, but Jones has never been able to find it. I'm stilling hoping one of these days someone will find some more and post them. They day our red car came out in Hot Rod Mag, I got a call from a guy named Jim Arnell, who lived up the street from us. His dad used to hang out with my uncle Roger, and around our house. Jim said he had several pics, color and black and white of the 56 in the pits and racing. He claims that one day at San Fernando, Stone, Woods & Cook brought there BB/GS Willys to play. He said the "PC&J" '56 won B/Gas class, and then beat the A,C,&D winners and faced the SWC car in the final for little eliminator. According to Jim, Dick Jones who was primarily the driver for our car, had a great light, on the handicap tree, and Cook was way late, and the '56 held on for the win. Its a great story, but since I never heard dad, Jones, or Christensen brag about it, I'm pretty much believing its just a story, kind of the same about all the pics as a year and 3 months later, I've yet to see any pics either.
Ok, Here's a pretty good one that is actually pretty funny too... So the story takes place in the early '60's,around 64-65 I guess,told to me by a good friend and mentor who was buddies with the guys involved. Back in the day,the cool thing for us Canadian boys to do in our little border town,was to throw a bunch of buddies in the car,and head for Port Huron Michigan,where there were always hotter cars,compared to the mostly mundane stuff at home. So the guys in question had apparently been marveling at the abundant torque of the big nailhead in the Wildcat that one kid's Father had been letting him drive.After several tire smoking episodes,the guys decide that anything with that much power must be unbeatable on the street,so they head across the river and cruise the lot at Powers' drive-in,the hot cruising spot,and a good place to show up if you were looking for something to run against with your hot street car back in the day. Now,nobody told the boys that the old Buick probably weighed 6000 pounds or so,and was probably too slow to get out of its own way in a street race,but being hound and green,they figured it HAD to be fast with all that motor under the 5 yard long hood... So they roll into the lot and proceed to shoot their mouths off about how the big Buick will haul the mail and mop the floor with most any car on the lot....lol About this time,I'm sure there were a lot of folks thinking to themselves "are these guys for real...?" Also about this time,a dude comes forward and says,since there's nothing else going on,he'll run them with his car. I'm guessing that the boys really had no clue what his weird looking little car was,or why it sat so high.They must have thought it was a real piece of shit....I mean,the poor shmuck hadn't even replaced the front bumper or grille on the thing.....must have been in an accident or something...?One guy commented that the weird looking little car kinda looked like a frog... When buddy hopped in the thing and twisted that key,it started to become clear the boys were swimming with sharks.....It was making noises like one of those K-Tel records that featured "Sounds of the Drags"...! So they roll out to the edge of town and line em up.....The big Buick must have felt like it was tied to a tree as our boys watched that Henry J and its blown Olds rock back hard on the cheater slicks and flat out disappear into the distance. Now,if some of the details are a little rusty on this,you'll have to excuse me,cause this story was relayed to me about 16 or 17 years ago,but the details of the cars will ALWAYS stick with me.....as soon as Terry said "looked like a frog" I knew what the funny little car had to be!lol! Hope you got a kick out of this one fellas. Scott Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
One night, my roommate Jim is racing his Blue '69 Vette against a trailered drag bug at Rinaldi and Reseda. This was before the Simi Freeway was built. For some reason, I decided to park my BBC '65 Chevelle up the hill and walk back, in case the cops show up. The Bug does a burn out when the cops show up. The spectators run for their cars when the cops yells on his P.A., "The next car that starts up, gets impounded". I walk up the hill and sit there and wait. When the cops leave, I talk to Jim. Turns out, the cops were going to impound both cars, but the Bug was so low and without bumpers, the tow truck couldn't hook up, so the left both cars.
Rinaldi & Reseda........man that spot goes way back. I raced Monk there with my Nova against his Rambler wagon (with a 406 SBC) and he cleaned my clock
I raced a guy I thought I could not beat......heads up, my "move". I told my friend to line him up 1st, then the second you line me up from in front of my left headlite (my opponent's in the rite lane)...RUN, because I'm leaving right then and there. That was worth about a fender, and that's all I won by. Tight race
I took my hot rod to a rod show and on the way out my buddy asked me to race him down the four lane. We took off, a tired driveline part failed, I lost control and hit his car. I was killed and my buddy's daughter in his car was also killed. God, how his family misses her.
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