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Street Race Stories

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by BottleBob, Jan 10, 2009.

  1. 63chevyll
    Joined: Jan 4, 2009
    Posts: 30

    63chevyll
    Member

    Well, here is my small town story. I don’t write much, but I want to share.
    I was 17 and there was this pretty boy mustang eating everything up at this local race spot. It was blown and we all heard it was juiced up.
    I watched him beat everyone for a few weeks and wondered what I could do....I had to ride with friend because my truck wasn’t running....a very common problem at the time, tires, transmissions, rear ends, ect...you all remember those days.

    So one weekend night I had my truck running, pretty well, there were issues with my truck but wanted to see what I had for this fag in the mustang. Remember I was just a 17 year old kid and he was some dude in his late 20’s or early 30’s, who probably lived at home with mom, and all he had was his car and a girlfriend my age.
    I hadn’t raced anyone at the spot. Everyone thought I was just some dumb kid hanging out all the time. I didn’t care for most of the people there, but we had nothing better to do most nights.

    Since I was always working and changing things on my truck never had the chance to really get on it in town. All I knew was it was very fast. I remember thinking to myself “HMMM, it should be illegal for a 17 year old kid, like me, to have this much power”
    So the guy who owns the green mustang (I remember like yesterday) shouts “anyone else?”
    I step up and say”ill line up with ya”
    he looks at my lowered, primered fenders, blue door, red bed, 2wd 77 Chevy longbed and asks what I’m running and all I answered was “just a 350, shit, I don’t even have headers”.I wasn’t lying
    The mustang homo smerks at me, like whatever kid, but ill take your money too
    We agree on a $40, it was all I had to loose.
    We line up, he jumps, but I follow spinning the non posi rear end because I was holding up RPM to stall before the drop, he has an early lead, we were both pushing real hard, he did not want to loose to me. But my truck came to life, I catch up to him and pass him by maybe 1 car length by the end. He let off the gas and stated slowing down. I was sooooo pumped I just beat this assshole, I slowed down a few feet after him. It was a long road but there was a T at the end of the road we were racing on.

    I went to slow down and HOLY SHIT, my brake pedal was ROCK HARD….Ill tell you all why the end of story.
    I had to take the dead end road at a very fast speed, I was to busy thinking I was going to die to look at my speedo. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stop, so I took the turn as wide as possible, blew through the stop sign and water dips and turned right, going into the oncoming traffic lane, luckily there were no vehicles on the cross street, I would have caused some serious damage. Now I’m in my lane, and have a chance to slow down, What the Fug, my brakes work now????? I’m going nuts now, I pull over grasp my breath, open my hood to see if there were any problems..All looked good, so I headed back to the race spot, where everyone waits.
    I pull in and my friends are praising me, I’m feeling good and like I’ve just escaped death.
    Ready to collect my well deserved money………..All of the sudden we see lights coming toward us. We all bail going in every direction. I don’t get paid, or even a chance to talk with the mustang guy.
    I left that night with my life, no tickets, no $40 payment and a smile to last a lifetime.
    We went back a few times to see if the green mustang was there, never seen him, and shortly after all this the cops were cruising by our race spot all the time.

    That was the first and last time I did that kind of racing. It’s hard to explain the moment you almost crash maybe at 80 or 90 MPH.

    WHY did my brakes go rock hard…..My turbo filled my power booster with 25PSI of boost. I had never been in the boost for that long before.
    I’m not a turbo punk, I just made a bunch of shit work on an old Chevy….
     
  2. knotheads
    Joined: Jan 4, 2007
    Posts: 499

    knotheads
    Member

    would that be Boyd G that you mentioned ...he ran a real sneaky vega for awhile...then a 66-67 nova?
     
  3. GassersGarage
    Joined: Jul 1, 2007
    Posts: 4,727

    GassersGarage
    Member

    One night at the Jack-n-the-Box on Van Nuys Blvd, I'm sitting with all my friends when a black '77 Trans Am pulls in. It's a young kid with his girlfriend. As he cruises past the tables, I ask "Race ?". The kid stops and saids, "I'm too fast!". This peaks my interest. I tell the kid, "I'm not, you wanna race?". The kid said his car wasn't running right but he was too fast. I tell him its OK, I'll give him car lengths. The kid said he didn't need car lengths, his car was too fast. :(

    Now I'm getting perturbed.:rolleyes: I tell the kid I'll race for whatever is in his pocket. The kid said no, hes to fast. Now I'm pissed. I start offering the kid car lengths, 1, 2, 3...Each time the kid said no, he wants heads up because hes too fast. Now my buddies are holding me back, I wanna yank this punk out through his window. I yell, 8 cars for whatever you want!!!!! :mad: The kid calmly pulls away saying, heads up, I'm too fast.

    After I calmed down, I thought, what a great "ploy" to get car lengths. I gotta try that. Never got the chance.........
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2009
  4. BottleBob
    Joined: Jan 5, 2009
    Posts: 157

    BottleBob
    Member

    Why thank you. Since you ask, and because I may be on borrowed time as the moderators/administrators have seen fit to delete my Street Race Contract thread, this thread may not be far behind so I'll add a few comments before the ax strikes.

    In this post I'm going to outline the reasons for choosing some of my engine parameters which may be relevant to other street rodding applications than just racing.

    Rule number one is to be silent, but deadly. Meaning, a sleeper will get you more races than something so radical that it won't idle under 1800 RPM.

    So to this end I theorized that I needed a cam that had very short duration and overlap yet had high lift to make up for the short duration. I checked the catalogs of the major cam manufacturers of that time (70's), Crane, Isky, Crower, etc. and didn't find anything that met my rough expectations. So I had a small can regrinder in North Hollywood (Camonics) custom grind me a .700 lift roller for my nitrous big block street racer. It had to be a roller to accommodate the steep/rapid opening and closing ramps. It was a very short duration cam on 114 degree lobe centers with little overlap. As most know the wider the lobe centers the less degrees both valves are open at the same time, everything else being equal. This has two benefits. One; the intake charge isn't contaminated by exhaust backflow at low rpm which makes for a smoother and lower idle. Two; both valves are open less at TDC so deeper piston notches aren't needed in the 11:1 pistons I was using at the time.

    Anyway, the end result was that it idled almost like a stock cam and would run up to 8500 rpm with no problem and not float. I seldom took it that high since it had a pretty flat torque curve and with the amount of nitrous I was using made almost as much power at 5000 as at 8000. Besides, when you're street racing the spectators listen to how high your engine revs as an indication of how built your engine is, and I didn't want to maybe lose a future race by screaming the engine if it wasn't necessary.

    A little bit on my thinking for valve/ports on my nitrous motors. Most people put in the largest intake valve that will fit in the head, and this is a excellent idea for a normally aspirated motor since the whole idea is to pack as much air/fuel mixture into the engine as possible. But IMO, on a nitrous motor the exhaust side deserves more attention to detail. You can control the amount of intake a nitrous motor receives by adjusting your nitrous jet sizes or using larger or multiple solenoids. The exhaust side is what has to maximize flow so you don't incur major pumping losses trying push all those expended exhaust gasses out tiny valves/ports/headers. So for that, I put in the largest EXAUST valves that would fit and ported the heads to give most of the attention to the exhaust side. You need to run 2 1/4- 2 3/8 primary pipe sizes for flow purposes, and I wasn't really concerned with exhaust pulses pulling in the intake flow for the nitrous addition reasons I mention earlier.

    You should run VERY low restriction mufflers, preferably 4 mufflers in parallel not series if you have the room, for max flow. Running uncorked would be better, but that may not be possible - or if it IS - being uncorked makes even the mildest 283 sound like a race engine if the other car is corked up.

    Anyway, those are some tid-bits I thought might be interesting to some.

    --
    BottleBob
    http://home.earthlink.net/~bottlbob
     
  5. BottleBob
    Joined: Jan 5, 2009
    Posts: 157

    BottleBob
    Member

    K-head:

    If I ever knew Boyd's last name, and I'm sure I did, it's been long forgotten after 30 years. That certainly sounds like him. Did you know him? Do you know what he's doing now?

    There were other big dogs from central L.A. that used to occasionally come out to the SF Valley, Jr. from Lynwood, Mark Washington, Dirty Ronny, The Teacher, and hundreds more that I would probably remember if I heard their names but can't retrieve them from my data banks in my meat computer right now.

    --
    BottleBob
    http://home.earthlink.net/~bottlbob
     
  6. GassersGarage
    Joined: Jul 1, 2007
    Posts: 4,727

    GassersGarage
    Member

    Ah, Mark W, that brings back fond memories. My old roomate, Jim G had a blue '69 Vette with roller cammed 454 on nitrous. Mark wanted a race with his sbc nitrous'd Nova but wanted car lengths. The race was set so Mark got 3 (I believe) and the go. Now Mark's car has an auto, Jim has a 4 speed. They line up, Jim raises his rpms in anticipation of the start but Mark suddenly opens his driver's door and looks at his rear tire. Jim thinking that there was something wrong with the Nova, lets off the gas. Once the rpms drop, Mark is gone like a light. Unfortunately, Jim chased and a chase is a race...........:eek::eek::eek:
     
  7. BottleBob
    Joined: Jan 5, 2009
    Posts: 157

    BottleBob
    Member


    WARNING - For those that equate street racers with baby killers - STOP READING NOW - There is nothing here for you. Don't bother getting yourself aggravated for no reason.

    Rick:

    Your "Reminds-me", reminds ME of another engagement with Mark. We're at Woodly & Satacoy and about to start a heads up race. He's got his white small block box Nova and I've got the brown big block Vette out. The L.A. crowd doesn't usually drive all the way out to the Valley unless they are loaded for bear.

    So after our burnouts we line up, now Mark is a master of the cheat start as your own post shows. Personally I almost never cheat on the start and everybody knows that, especially the Compton group since they seemed to make a science out of that aspect of racing. So I'm very wary and in hyper observation mode.

    It's to be a standard point-point-up-down start. With the cars leaving when the starter's hands come down.

    The starter points at me - and Mark leaves hard - he comes back when he sees I haven't moved an inch. It's just a ploy to rattle your opponent and make him lose concentration. I hope it overheated his motor - serve him right. Anyway, now I'm thinking if he plays this out true to form he'll jump the start but just by a much smaller margin - him knowing that I don't cheat on the start, I'm speculating that he's counting on that. I try to be fair & honest in my dealings with people - but when someone attempts to use that fairness AGAINST me, well that sort of relieves me of the moral obligation to BE fair.

    We line up again. Starter points at me, then points at Mark and just when the starter starts to raise his hands I dump the clutch and leave hard. Mark is right beside me, since he left at about the exact same time - almost as if was choreographed and practiced ahead of time.

    We're side by side, through my first three gears - with a little plus and minus movement due to each of our gear changes. I'm hoping I'll still be beside him when I hit fourth, since I should out mile-per-hour him. Generally, light cars with small blocks get out there quick but on the big end it's the physics of raw horsepower that tends to take over (F=ma dontchknow). Anyway things seem to work out according to my backyard theoretical speculations since I'm now in forth and AM pulling away. In fact, as we're both in high gear (his automatic - my 4 speed), with no more gear changes left I'm not letting up on the button but I've backed off the throttle slightly to stay just a half car ahead - but I'm ready to stomp the gas all the way just in case he has any last minute surprises for me. But here's the finish coming up, and I'm holding him at my passenger door handle and he's not moving up. We pass the finish line car and I've WON!. And I'm thinking, God, what a lot of drama it is racing any of the Compton crowd. But I wouldn't have it any other way, since it's kind of like one of those classic Greek epics of good triumphing over evil. Isn't imagination grand? :)

    We drive back to the start and Mark pays up good-naturedly. He seems more surprized that he didn't snooker the rubes in the Valley this time, than pissed that he lost. Actually, he's a good kid and even though we (the L.A. boys and the Valley), always were "turf" enemies - we were all connected by the sub-culture we chose to be a part of. You might say it was a sort of Zen of racing, and then on the other hand, you might not. LOL

    --
    BottleBob
    http://home.earthlink.net/~bottlbob
     
    Dave50 likes this.
  8. GassersGarage
    Joined: Jul 1, 2007
    Posts: 4,727

    GassersGarage
    Member

    Oh yeah, those Compton Boys. Me and Randy went out to Florence and Main and got snookered by Tony with the red mid 70's Camaro. Randy had his '68 Firebird with the 402 chevy. Tony wants to race the Firebird but claims he needs 7 and the go. But the race is set, he wants to see the engine in the Firebird. Randy said it was a 400. Randy pops the hood, Tony sees the bbc and said, "Make it 5 cars" and Randy agrees. I pull Randy aside and tell him somethings up. Tony wanted 7 cars when you told him it was a 400. Now he only wants 5 with a bbc???

    We go to the race spot in an industrial area of Compton. Vacant fields on both sides. We wait a couple of hours until Tony shows up. Now I KNOW somethings up. The race starts and the firdbird makes up 3 cars instantly, but never comes close to the Camaro. Both cars come back and we pay. Time to go home!

    Tony laughs and asks if we want to do it again, but this time he will give the Firebird 7 cars. Randy agrees. I tell him hes crazy but he said when it wasn't making up any cars on Tony, he backed off. He believes if he can hold Tony off, the bbc will take him on top end.

    Here we go! The Camaro catches the Firdbird in first gear. I'm thinking that the Camaro must have hellacious low gears to catch the firebird so quickly. Sure enough, the Firebird holds the Camaro off. Tony wants double or nothing, giving the Firebird 5 cars. Same story, the Firebird wins again. Then someone in the crowd with a silver Camaro offers 5 cars to the Firebird. Firebird wins again.

    Now its late and time to go home but we made some money that night. The following week, I went back to Compton with my '55 Chevy with Chuck and his '62 Galaxie. Now no one wants to race, so Chuck and I race each other. I blew second gear and Chuck snapped an axle. We gotta limp home with nothing to show for it........

    Later I heard, Tony has to identical Camaros. Ones his daily driver and the other is his fast car.................
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2009
  9. Harms Way
    Joined: Nov 27, 2005
    Posts: 6,894

    Harms Way
    Member

    Not a great story,... I have several, but this is one of my favorites.

    I cruised Woodward, Gratiot,... and Telegraph, mostly Telegraph, I worked at Gratiot Auto Supply Livonia in the 70's and we did a lot of "Testing" on Telegraph or "The Ditch".

    It was 1973 or 74', I picked up a girl at Korvetts one night, she insisted she wanted to go with me when I raced someone, I had a factory 67 GT-390 4spd. Mustang Fastback, (blew up the 390 and replaced it with a dual quad 427 side oiler, It was Black on Black with SS Cragars),..

    She kept saying "ooh race that one,... no no,.. race that one!"I pull up to the light near West Chicago and a guy pulls up next to me and and rapp's it a couple times,... I look over at her and said "are you ready?" to which her reply was a giggle,....... We spooled them up and when the light turned green I side stepped the clutch and we went to war,.....

    Over the sound of that Big ol' 427 yelling out it's name,... Her screams just about blew out my ear drum, with a occasional STOP!,...STOP!,..WE"RE GONNA DIE!!!!,.... along with more screaming of coarse,..... despite all of the "encouragement" I got from her,... the Ol' black horse won,...... as We slowed down she started crying hysterically,... and saying "I wanna go back to my friends!".

    I take her back to Korvetts and she jumps out of the car and runs over to her friends,.. still crying hysterically,... I go over to explain because they were looking at me like I must have tried to attack her or something,.... They all called me a jerk (or worse) as they were trying to calm her down,... I look back just before I get in the car and I see the back of her light blue pants,... and her butt was dark blue :eek:,... I look at my passenger seat, and sure enough,.... I had to go over to Top Hat hamburgers to get some napkins,......:mad:
     
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2009
  10. The Best Street Racing in the Country was the Connecting Highway in Queens, NY
    it was ideal NO body could get Hurt it was a Highway that Connected the Grand Central Pkw.
    to the BQE If you want the Story just Google it & you will see!
    just my 3 cents
     
  11. The L.A. guys were ruthless sometimes. Years ago (as most of these stories come from) I saw an L.A. guy sit as the hands came down, letting the "Valley" opponent leave alone. Valley guy gets about 100 feet, stops and backs up. Just as he's backed almost to the start, the L. A. guy leaves, makes a full pass, and returns to demand his money. The Valley guy says, you didn't leave. L.A. guy says yes I did, AND I completed the pass. I might've left a long time after you, and nobody told you to back up. Gimme my money.
     
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  12. DocWatson
    Joined: Mar 24, 2006
    Posts: 10,273

    DocWatson
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    You guys HAVE to get together and write a book! Hell, Ill sell my kidney to buy a copy!

    You know, selling a kidney may not be such a bad idea right now??
    Doc.
     
  13. BottleBob
    Joined: Jan 5, 2009
    Posts: 157

    BottleBob
    Member

    This is a picture of the Frankensqueeze Vette (16 Solenoids), that literally burned to the ground at LACR, that Groucho mentioned. Ran 9.82 @ 143 mph. Licensed 3,600 lb. street car.
     

    Attached Files:

  14. Rice n Beans Garage
    Joined: Dec 17, 2006
    Posts: 1,658

    Rice n Beans Garage
    Member

    Alright, I should be posting this on my post of L.A. Street Racing but to "Welcome the Infamous Bottle Bob" to the H.A.M.B. I will post my lame story here.

    I was from the Bob's Westchester crowd, I had traded my Blue & White 56 210 sedan to Ron from Ladera Heights for his BB 4 gear black 64 Chevelle. With Ron driving on slicks (9" M&H's) the car ran 12.70's at O.C.I.R. (remember Wed. Nights ?) With my slow shifting ass on Caldwells I ran the best of 13.20's.

    One night we are all at the On Ramp (down the street from Randy's Big Donut on La Cienega) The late Fat Jack Shanks had purchased Gary Dennis's 67 Chevelle "white w/Harwood Snorkle Scoop, Center Lines, 454, Ford top loader 4 gear, 12 bolt w/4:56's" and gutted interior, My car 64 Chevelle, 396, 375 HP solid cam, 780 Holley, Headmans, M-20 Muncie with a sloppy shifter, 12 bolt with 3:73's full interior.

    As always I'am talking shit, I had known Jack since I was 12 and would chase him on my bike just to check out his cars (Jack always had nice cars) He's in a bad mood and I'am pushing him, he wants to race, I want cars, I think I said something like "you won't give me cars, my shit has full interior and a junk yard rebuilt motor, your running a 454, no interior with plastic body parts, you got a fucking race car ! what kind of shit is that!" That really pisses him off and he won't budge, I say fine, let Ron drive the car and we can go heads up ! Now he's thinking, he knows I can't shift a 4 gear worth a shit but Ron running him heads up ? I don't give him a chance to think I say how much, he says $100.00, lets go. We have someone start the race, the on ramp is a short quarter and would be an advantage to his car.

    We wait on the pedestrian bridge, first one that comes through wins. We watch Ron leaves on him and Jack smokes it a little, there side by side and when they come through it's a tie, Jack says he can't hook up, my cars miss firing from the plugs, we go again for the same money and tie 2 more times, we leave with a rematch scheduled for next Sat.

    I change the plugs and fuel pump which was starving the engine at the top end. Jack has Gary do some stuff to the 67. Sat. comes we line up, this time Jack hooks a little better, but once again it's a tie, and no one has noticed my car is coming through in 3rd gear. Jacks leaves and comes back, he says its not worth running anymore and shakes hands.

    Some time later we talk about that night and laugh, Jack confesses he went to call Gary to drive the car for him, and I confess that Gary and I had talked after the race, and that Gary had changed the cam, and heads before he sold the car to Jack.

    I'll post some photos in the future
     
  15. MUNCIE
    Joined: Jan 24, 2006
    Posts: 2,347

    MUNCIE
    Member
    from Houston

    Cool stories
     
  16. GassersGarage
    Joined: Jul 1, 2007
    Posts: 4,727

    GassersGarage
    Member

    Anyone know what happened to Jill with the Green Maverick. It had a single 4 barrel tunnel rammed 302. I heard she was George Putnams daughter. For you younger guys, George Putnam was a famous news comentator. Jill use to race all the time.
     
  17. I remember. She had a personal license plate that said "It's Jil".
    [​IMG]
     
  18. SinisterCustom
    Joined: Feb 18, 2004
    Posts: 8,277

    SinisterCustom
    Member

    Great stories BottleBob! You too Groucho....
    I never get tired of hearing old stories of street racing.
    There is a certain thrill, adrenaline rush, that comes with street racing that legal drag racing simply cannot duplicate. Those that street race know it well.
     
  19. GassersGarage
    Joined: Jul 1, 2007
    Posts: 4,727

    GassersGarage
    Member

    In '83, I had gotten out of street racing. In '84, I bought a Suzuki 1100E for commuting. My neighbor bought the same bike. One late summer night, we were cruising around LA and my neighbor saids, "Lets check out Fletcher Dr in Glendale, the Glendale boys street race there.

    We cruise by and sure enough, they're street racing. After watching a couple of races, I start getting the "Itch". I go upto a group of kids and ask if anyone wants to race my bike. One kid with a '67 Camaro saids he wants to race but he needs car lengths. I tell him to get together with his buddies. Imagine how fast my bike can possibly be and figure out how many car lengths he needs for a fair race, then add 3. He asks why, I told him I didn't care if I lost, I just wanted to race.

    The kid comes back and said he needs 18 cars and the go. I tell him, "Line em up!". The kid gets 18 into the 1/4 and I watch. As soon as he leaves, I nail it. I go by the Camaro in 3rd gear and back off. I win by a couple of cars. The kids aren't happy but they pay. They claim the bike is built. I borrow a flashlight to show them the headbolts. The motors never been touched. All I had was a pipe and some carb work.
     
  20. t5stang91
    Joined: Dec 20, 2008
    Posts: 300

    t5stang91
    Member

    i ran a newer trans am with nitrous last fall when i was on motor and still kicked his ass. came around him like he was tied to a stump lol we still run on the street here quite frequently.
     
  21. BottleBob
    Joined: Jan 5, 2009
    Posts: 157

    BottleBob
    Member

    Doc:

    You must be referring to the guy that donated a kidney to his wife, and now that he has divorced her, he wants his kidney back or 1.5 MILLION dollars. Is that goofy, or what? LOL

    Here's one of my more memorable races for a number of reasons. After the normal race negotiations it's decided that I'm going to race Junior's '68-'69 Big Block Camaro with my Brown Vette. He's one of the hard core L.A. crowd from Lynwood.

    Anyway, we go to Burbank & Balboa to do the deed. This street is concrete so hooks up good. We line up, starter goes point, point, up, down and we leave together. At the top of my first gear Junior is half a car on me. I'm thinking cripes his car hooks good, especially on those small tires. Usually, the independent rears on Vettes tend to hook up slightly better than solid axle cars - everything else being equal. I left good but Junior's still ahead. So I power second then hit the juice expecting to make up that half a car and more. IT'S NOT HAPPENING, he's STILL got me by half a car. Off button, power third, on button and halfway through third and he's STILL a half car ahead. Buy this time I've got the sinking suspicion that he's toying with me. Button off, shift to fourth, button on - and now we're in the gear where my car runs it's best and yet HE'S STILL a half a car ahead! My suspicion now turns into an almost certainty. I'm SURE he's sandbagging me and that barring a UFO landing in his lane I'm not just toast, but BURNT toast. We're near the top of 4th and I've made up ZERO distance on him since the start. I see the finish line car about 100 feet ahead and am all bummed out when all of a sudden Junior's car just drops back - like he let off the gas. I'm shocked and dismayed!

    We go back to the start area and I go over to Junior's car and say what happened? He replies, what do you mean? I say: You dropped back before the end. He says no way, I won. I say WHAT? By then the rest of crowd comes over and verifies that I've won. He's pissed, since there was another car parked in front of the finish line car and he thought THAT was the finish. The finishline car had it's parking lights on so was unmistakably the one to race to. I'm laughing and kidding him and he's getting more pissed by the minute. Since I'm sure he knew he could have taken me by a bunch more cars. And I even mention something to that effect. He says, you say anymore and I'm going to yank your beard out by the roots. I say Ok, Ok. He wants to run again double or nothing. Of COURSE HE DOES. I say something non committal like we'll see. But I want nothing to do with his car for the rest of the night. We go to another spot to watch a couple of other people race, and he's on me about every 10 minutes - lets do it? I'm getting all vague, maybe, maybe. It's early in the morning and then the cops come and chase everybody away and I'm SAVED! At least for THIS night. I never let him live that one down though. Like I said at the beginning, it was memorable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is I shouldn't have won!

    Junior eventually goes into Pro-Street racing at the track with a bottom 8 sec. Vega on street tires or something to that effect.

    --
    BottleBob
    http://home.earthlink.net/~bottlbob
     
  22. BottleBob
    Joined: Jan 5, 2009
    Posts: 157

    BottleBob
    Member


    Let me add a little tid-bit about my choice of spark plugs back in the day.

    It's my opinion that in an engine that does not see a lot
    of boost or nitrous that the differences between name brand
    spark plugs are pretty minor as long as you get the heat range close.
    Now if you are supercharged, turbo'd or using heavy nitrous loads you would
    want the best spark plug available. When I was looking for that elusive
    "Best spark plug" for my nitrous engines I took a regular
    spark plug tester (that normally only goes up to 125 lbs. air line pressure) and
    plumbed in a line from a nitrous bottle with a pressure regulator so I could
    vary the pressure.

    I checked just about every common - and some uncommon - spark plug brand
    on the market (at that time) as well as two electrode
    Mazda plugs, surface gap plugs, motorcycle plugs etc. Believe it or not but Champion
    plugs kept firing under more pressure than the others. This was a LONG
    time ago and there have been advances in spark plug design, materials
    and assembly so this or a similar test should be done with the new crop
    of spark plugs by someone that was similarly motivated.

    Another thing I used to do with my plugs was to J-Gap them. That's bend
    up the side electrode, the file it back a little, then bend it back down so the side
    electrode stops
    about halfway across the center electrode.

    Ask people and you'll get many "opinions" that Autolights are junk, AC's are junk, NGK's
    are junk, Champions are junk etc. IMHO, Spark plug
    preference is similar to color preference on a car, not very scientific.

    If you want real information you have to test them experimentally yourself.

    --
    BottleBob
    http://home.earthlink.net/~bottlbob
     
  23. Junior an Co. had some FAST cars! I go out to Compton street races once a year during the Holidays, and hear his nephew, Donnie, "carrying the torch", is one of the baddest out there these days.
     
  24. 327-365hp
    Joined: Feb 5, 2006
    Posts: 5,429

    327-365hp
    Member
    from Mass

    BottleBob, you're a good story teller I really enjoy your writing style. I want to thank you for taking the time to post your stories and thanks to Groucho for getting you to sign up here.
     
    Dave50 likes this.
  25. junk fiend
    Joined: Sep 16, 2008
    Posts: 430

    junk fiend
    Member


  26. DUDE, LIGHTEN UP! This was a long time ago and none of us would do it again. Times have changed, we got older, and there are too many assholes on the streets these days. Besides, the cops can take your shit and crush it for even thinking about racing now. So just back the fuck up will ya?

    HEY BOB, bitchin' story man. I was there for a few of them. And CUSTOMLINE VICKY, it's not a movie script. It happened just like he said. If you grew up in that area you just KNOW where your at. Like when I ran from the cops, I knew where I was and how I could get away and where. And I did it twice, so put that in your pipe and smoke it. BABY HEHEH.
     
  27. 40StudeDude
    Joined: Sep 19, 2002
    Posts: 9,536

    40StudeDude
    Member

    Street racing happened back in the late 50's/early 60's too...it was prolly more dangerous...and I got caught a few times, had a few accidents, got a lot of tickets, lost a license and NEVER hurt anyone or got anyone hurt...it was just "growing up"...and I wrote two books about it...

    R-
     
  28. GassersGarage
    Joined: Jul 1, 2007
    Posts: 4,727

    GassersGarage
    Member

    Well, I ended up with Bottle Bob's old brown vette when the motor blew. I had a old 454 in the garage and threw that in. It was hard to get a race because everyone recognized the vette as Bottle Bob's car. I ended up trading the 454 with Jim G's 454 because he was going to sell his vette and the motor was blown. Jim's 454 had a lot of head work and I was planning on rebuilding my old 454. After I rebuilt the motor, I had the vette taken down to bare glass, stress cracks fixed and repainted to a gun metal grey. I didn't use the vinyl covered hard top but put a new black convertable top on it. I had a new interior put in and polished the slotted mags. When it came to tires, I ordered a set of McCreary 10.50 x 15 for the rear.

    When the car was done, I drove it for awhile to break the new motor in. After the break-in, I tested the new tires. 2500 rpm flat bogged the motor. 3500 and the tires barked once and she took off. I drive to Bob's house to tell him about these GREAT new tires I got. Bob saids, "There's something wrong with your motor. Here, I got this gauge that measure how hard the rubber is". Bob grabs the gauge and measures the tires on his "new" red corvette. It's got 14" Firestone treaded tires. Gauge goes around the dial 360 degrees. He then tries it on a set of Goodyear slicks. The gauge goes to a little less than 180 degrees. Then he tries my McCrearys. The gauge doesn't move.

    Bob mumbles, "Stupid gauge broke!". He disassembles the gauge, then puts it back together. Tries the same test with the Firestones, Goodyears and the McCrearys. Gauge doesn't move. Bob tries the gauge on his finger and it moves 5 degrees. Bob saids, "Geez, your tires are softer than my skin!!!".
     
  29. BottleBob
    Joined: Jan 5, 2009
    Posts: 157

    BottleBob
    Member

    327-365hp:

    Thank you for those kind words.

    Not everyone views street racing with the same nostalgia that you do. Back in the day, it was a time of transition where the world was a smaller place and assured global destruction from the Soviet Union was hanging over all our heads. Hell, in school I remember practicing getting under our desks at simulated air-raid sirens. Risk taking didn't seem to matter as much since we were taking life one day at a time.

    It was an era whose like will never come again. I'm content to know that I was at least a part of something that was larger than myself - a rodding/racing subculture that extended country wide and touched the youth of America.

    Am I glorifying an illegal activity that was dangerous and put innocent people at risk? Perhaps, perhaps not. Our memories tend to let us ignore the negative aspects and remember the excitement and feeling of being ALIVE and living in the moment. The risk of being arrested just added to the excitement level. And in the overall scheme of things - it probably kept many a kid off a lifetime's use of drugs or alcohol and the misery that entails to themselves and their loved ones. So it may very well have had less societal impact/damage than if it hadn't existed as an optional outlet for a generation of rebellious youth.


    --
    BottleBob
    http://home.earthlink.net/~bottlbob
     
  30. 327-365hp
    Joined: Feb 5, 2006
    Posts: 5,429

    327-365hp
    Member
    from Mass

    Your story of Junior shutting off early reminded me of a funny story. Back in high school, 1976, my buddy Roy had a '68 GTX 440 4 speed and I had just bought a '69 RR with a 383 4 speed. He was following me and when I turned down the long straightaway I see him pull out to go by me. So I booted it and we were side by side for about 1/2 a mile. Near the end of the road where it gets populated I slow down and stop and he pulls up beside me with a big grin on his face. He jumps out of his car and comes around the front of it yelling "Wow that was awesome, lets do it again" I said, Hey Roy, your car is rollling! Oh shit! he says as he scrambles to get back around to the drivers side.
     

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