The first I heard of the Hare & Hound Run was in Robert Genat's book, "The Birth of Hot Rodding." It sounded like a typical old timer story jammed pack with idealism and a lack of respect fo... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Well,having taken part in a couple of "time distance rally's",in much more recent years. Knowbody adhere's to speed limits,since mistakes always happen(we men,don't follow directions well). You can certainly see,how the general public,viewed hot rodders as "hoodlums",with activities like that fueling their opinions.
I always tried to get the most penalty points for being early without being disqualified! We came up to a little town in the north of Italy 'bout two hours ahead of the rest of the cars. Up comes a motor officer leads us thru the town at full speed and points to the side of the road. We waited till the cars close to our number showed up and joined in again I think that might be the closest I ever came to being thrown out of the Mille Miglia Storica and pretty sure I'm the only one that ever got a 'Stop & Go'' Do you know how many I come on that scene in the photo? Change cars change country. Same scene.
The town I grew up in in the '50's has the highest mountain peak in Mass. My older cousins talked about "hair & hound" events held after school where the guys would race up the road to the peak and someone at the top would time them. They learned early on NOT to race back down the switchbacks because no cars brakes could take that kind of punishment and last the whole way down. I heard that there were a few wrecks,mostly dented fenders,because remember, we're talking 6 cylinder Chevys& Mopars and flathead Fords that were mostly stock and couldn't go very fast up that mountain road. Plus the drop offs were pretty scary and the road had very few guardrails. Glenn
Same concept still happens today. We did them when I was attending Texas A&M - we called them Lime Runs. Instead of a flag, you'd use a lime. It was a lot of fun until a kid in a 300ZX missed his lime at night, and went over a curb at around 80mph, pushing all four struts up through the bodywork. Well... it was still fun for everybody else. Yeah, hotrodders are hoodlums.
Come up (or down, depending on where you live... could also be over as well)... Well come to The Bronx and you'll see some hoodlums, but they wont be driving their cars too fast or making a turn with-out their signal on!
Just keep in mind those street racers from a few weeks ago. There are so many more people now, who work all hours of the day and night, that can get involved and lead to disaster. Too bad.
CruZer - my buddy Bruce and me in his '53 Stude comin' down off Mt. Greylock one fine Spring day after ditchin' classes @ PHS and NO BRAKES! Interesting ride to say the least. Probably why I want a hand brake hooked up nowadays... vic
You know what I mean..... Trust me man......if I could afford the drive from WA to Mokan....I'd be there....sleeping on the ground cuz I can't afford a room......hahaha Someday, I'll make it, it's a goal of mine to DRIVE my hotrod a few states away to a COOL event.....the Revolution may be the first.
Too much fun. Back in the '70s we used to do those in the local sports car clubs. Sometimes they used flour instead of lime. As tie breakers they used to have you count the lime drops. I still remember coming over a rise in the road running near 90 to make up for getting lost and seeing about thirty lime spots along the side of the road. We just estimated the number and said he hell with accuracy.
This sounds a lot like Greatrace, except that the timing is more precise. I've run my hot rod in it for a few years now and there are times when you have to make up losses. We do it under control but the essential concept is the same.
Oh hell yea, just what I was thinking. There was a M/C in Ft. Worth, that used to sponsor a Midnight-Madness Lime Run. Started at midnight, and went about 120 miles. Same concept, busted bag of lime on the road meant you were going the right way. 2 bags meant a turn coming up, and you had to choose, left or right. A busted bag 100 yards down meant you made the right chioce. And so on. Now, it's 2a.m./3a.m./4a.m., you and your buds have been stopping off for a 'toke and a brew', you can see where that's going. Serious munchies by sun-up. That event died out with the avent of lawyers and liabilities (bastards). Then we all got old. (sucks).
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9900E1DF1539E433A25751C2A9679D946297D6CF if you have adobe, read this. hare and hound races go back to 1903 in new york. this ny times article is a story about one race ( not sure if its fictional or not). the language is pretty funny, especially the "dicker" part. but that could be because im an immature bastard.
I don't know if I should admit to this or not.... , but we used to do this back in the '60's..... in the winter!!! We would mark the route with an X using spray bomb! Things got out of hand real quick! Some folks would try to confuse the issue by doing 360's over the X. Lot's of fools would end up in peoples front yards. etc! Talk 'bout your hoodlems!!! No one got hurt thank God!
My father's high school car club in Escondido, CA (The Dragons) used to hold the same type of "informal" events. He tells a great story about tearing through an avacado grove one night and coming to an "abrupt" stop due to a drainage ditch in the field. The Model A had to be towed out...and the insert in the roof had to be repaired as well. Apparently his female "co-pilot" wasn't holding on too tight and did and "up and out" through the insert. Good times.
In the mid 80's we used to see who could get the fastest 'lap' of the M25 starting and finishing at the Dartford Tunnel Toll. A lap is about 117 miles as the road circles London, during the day traffic spends most of its time at a standstill bit at night it was a differant matter... We only had old bangers and the lap would take us about 90 minutes so we would be traveling at over 100mph for most of the journey. The quick boys would be doing it in about an hour... Ah youth... When you are indistructable and you cant even spell consequences... P.
Our lime runs also had a checkpoint at each spot where the lime was lined across the road. A pad wad nailed to a fence post or a highway post within 50' of the lime mark and you had to find your number and tear it out. At the finish the person with the shortest time and the most tickets won a prize, some were very good prizes. This was in the open hill country of central Texas in the fifties. We also did Hound and Hare on these same roads but the hound would fire a flare every so many minutes and you had to try to figure where he was and where he was going and try to catch him, this didnt last long because it turned into an all out race between the contestants.
One of my earliest car activities was a run like this, put on by Meramec College in St.Louis. Must've been 1984 or so. Dad let me use the 75 Torino. I still have the red T-shirt!