Has anyone REALLY street raced? (pics)

this is my current OT street car for late night frolics on Geary Blvd.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

440/ 4spd 4.56 dana sixty and all the goodies

 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

all I ever get to really run against is the local rice or the occasional bmw douche. although my friend will opccasionally bring out his roadrunner.

 

Reading some of these really reminded me of a few times back in the day. I had just gotten stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia in '74 and I had a '68 Nova with a '70 LT-1 and 4 speed with a 4.10 gear. It also had something not cool for South Ga. at the time... New Jersey tags.
One weekend we were in a little backwoods town at the local restaurant/hangout and some guys challenged us to a race at the edge of town for $50. I had just bumped the timing up a bit and when I went to start it up, it was too far advanced and wouldn't turn over enough to start. The locals in the Camaro jumped out to help push us off, and as they did, the driver stuck what looked like a small caliber pistol in his pocket. I asked my friend if he had seen it and he said "Yeah, maybe they won't be too friendly if we beat them" Needless to say, when they turned left, we turned right and didn't go back to that little hick-town for quite a while.

 

Another time in my Nova was in Savannah, on the main drag. We pulled up to a stoplight and a guy in a '70 Chevelle pulled beside us and ripped his motor a little bit. I looked over and saw that he had 14.80 shoe-polished on the qtr. window. I knew I was quicker than that and when the light turned green we took off.
MAN, I had been snookered! Before I got out of 2nd gear, he had me buy a car length. By the time we let off, he was 5-6 cars ahead of me. He turned at the next light and I followed him into the gas station a few blocks down. When I pointed at the 14.80, he just laughed and said "That gets you GI's all the time" and he proceeded to pull a handful of time-slips from Savannah Dragway and they were all in the 11.20's! We became pretty good friends after that. Also, the guy that owned the gas station was a guy named Bobby Brooks who was a local drag racer too. We became fast friends and anybody that's ever raced in the Southeast has known Bobby Brooks and his "Half-Breed" Anglia. Sad to say, Bobby passed away last year. A month or so before he passed, we were racing at an IHRA race in South Florida and Bobby and I were reminiscing about those old days on the streets.
Needless to say... I'm all grown up and been doing all my racin' at the track now for the past 30+ years

 

Happened to mee too this side of the world too in the 80's. Sorry no pics.
I had Nova wagon with nasty 327 and then ElCamino 454 to boot.
In the 90's I placed some riceburners and Harleys behind my Chevy Roadster that had nasty .060 over 283 with tunnelram and dual afb's.
All these saw some strip fun too without much success because all were in full street trim.

 

There was street action all around the Cape in the 70s and 80s, Mostly very loose. But the best by far (that I saw) was a place called A&M in Framingham. People trailered race cars in from the losing rounds from NE Dragway trying to get more action. Never ran there myself (never had the money to keep a car together to drive that far to run) but went up a few times.

We were able to run at the local small air strip when foggy (hence the cloudy pic)..



Still have one of the cars from the late 70s-early 80s, maybe this will be the year I get it running...

 

Funny you should mention that....



This car was a strip car before I got it and had a bunch of class winner stickers from NE Dragway in the side window (which is hanging on the wall in my shop). The car did not survive...

 

love those 69 chargers had 4 of em myself 2 bases 2 s/e's no r/t's though

 

yes quite a bit,thats all we did for years,about 25 years ago there alot of fast for the time, 11 12 13 second cars that were highschool drivers. used to race every weakend. there were a couple places that were good, one was a slightly longer than quarter mile spot, that would allow you to use a stop light to start , it kinda ran away from town and was 4 lanes wide, the finish was a overhead crosswalk so it was easy to know who won. i dont condone it so much today but i will still not let a car out excelerate me from a stop light,when in the deuce.

 

Street raced a lot, rural area '90-95 decent stretch of road every direction, '69 camaro low 12s at the track shifting at 6000 rpm, didnt have a cage, shifted a 6800 on the street and took out some mid 11 sec cars.
lot of people had CB's, we knew how many city and county cop cars there were, how many were out and guys would call out whenever you passed a cop. Cops were pretty passive with cars in our town, cop pulled up to me at a restaurant, I had expired tags, set of slicks, we looked at the car for a while, told me I shouldnt be out "tuning" and get my fucking tags up to date.
Played a lot of CB tag also, more dangerous than racing.

 

Did you ever get down to Orange County, behind the Nabisco plant?

Lotsa "unsanctioned acceleration contests" held there, back in the day... The DKP was usually out in force...

 

Somebody say HOT VW's LOL This '56 oval has a 2919 turbo'd innercooled EFI at over 400 HP on pump gas -- not a HAMB car for sure -- but nasty on the street

 

In the early to mid '80s, we used to go just outside the back of Tinker AFB to the corner of SE 59th and Air Depot, which at that time, was dark, quiet, and cop-free. That part of Air Depot Blvd runs South behind the base, and alongside what was then the General Motors plant. One mile of smooth, four-lane pavement! The only times this saw any real traffic was during the shift changes at GM. So, on any Summer Saturday night, this is where we'd go to get the best street racing around! At that time, there was no back entrance to the base there, and the main entrance to the GM plant was a mile away.

We'd painted a starting line about 200 feet from the intersection, and marked the quarter-mile with a big white line. The road continues under a bridge and is straight as an arrow, leaving lots of shutdown room. The lines can still be seen today on the curb! There has not been regular street racing out there for several years. Once that base gate was built, the racing stopped out there.

It was very convenient to get there, too, as there were two places nearby to go cruisin' - the Air Depot "strip" between SE 15th St and Reno Blvd (one mile North, on the other side of the base), and 12th Street in Moore. Both were about five miles or so from where we had our little "race track". The racing was usually late at night - around midnight or so, and lasted until the cops came later on.

Fun times back then.

 

mid to late 70s, Great Highway, SF CA. One of the greatest street race venues on the planet. Beach front four laner (two lanes each direction seperated by sand median), sand dune shoulders (one side anyway) and racing area had no intersecting/bisecting roadways. Come and surf world class barrelling beach break during day, then drag race at night. surfin' and dragin' at its finest. AND from what I hear, it was better in the 60s!

 

Those are Oklahoma / Texas boys go to youtube and type in the user bigrob3232 and you will see all the videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu7zAfEnuEM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWdc6YUqIcQ

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1gvSJgZam8

There is alot more videos

 

Remembering the good old days,71 camaro 327 4:11 's Friday nights Courtney Cambell causeway rt. 60 from Clearwater to Tampa ! Had a 1/4 mile marked off . c.b. radio's at each end runum all night long or intil the boys got there . 1974 to 78 f in Nuts !

 

Fiatdude, I see you on "UAC" all the time... I used to work for VW Trends, and then HotVWs... know all the same folks (DKP, DRF, DVKK, etc) that you do.
My name on UAC is "kaferdave" and I used to have a monthly editorial in VWT by that name.

 

Also remember York Street rod nats. would get nuts on rt. 30 ! Brought the Nat. Guard in one year to shut shit down ! They were unloadin Pro mods in K mart parking lot,it was getting way out of hand ! somebody was gonna get killed ...side by side passes with people 3 foot away ! Try that shit today .

 

Yep I ran in Toronto too Vic Park & Gordon Baker, Markham Bypass, Steeles & Altona all hot spots in the late 80s early 90s. My last season was 95. There was some high stakes runs I doubled my annual income street racing that year. Ran a Malibu 4 door with a huge small block no spray. Good for mid 9s. Sleeper all the way no cage bench seat column shifter. Power glide 4.88 rear.

 

Hey Dave --- I diffently know who you are

 

Raced her from 92 to 02 R.I.P old girl

 

We used to have legal street racers back in the late 60's early 70's in New Zealand down a rd the council would close off for a club I was a member of, I had a 39 Chev Coupe then a 51 Chev sedan, I never did even worry about time slips back then and it was always heads up racing and you were classed but a guy who just told you what class you were put in and no protesting etc, those were great days.

But illegal Drag Racing who me officer, never

 

dirtbag, that Chevy II sits tough... love what I see

 

interesting to look back through this thread and see alot of Virginia, Maryland and D.C. guys from the 90's. good times for sure and like most have mentioned, the tuners pretty much changed everything.

 

Yup, I sure did, from early '98 (when I was 16) till about 2002-ish. To me after the whole Fast & Furious thing, it really ruined it. Even in the late 90's though I remeber being able to race Glenoaks Blvd., San Fernando Rd. under the bridge, Canoga Ave & Plummer (I think that was the intersection) In the SFV.
Capitol St. in City of Industry (some of the fastest cars I ever saw on the street there) Airport St., Mission Blvd. in the Ontario area till almost sunrise without getting "raided".
I saw the tail end of the somewhat "unorganized" action where I would see the occasional domestic cars run.. Ah the good ol days..
Pretty sad that I live walking distance to one of the nicest facilities the NHRA has, but its never open to street cars.. figures.

Wish I still had the old newspaper articles, pics, and VHS footage to post..

Sorry if these were already posted, but,I did find some videos from 1993-94 (when Jap cars were still a minority @ So. Cal street races) The first one has footage of Big Willie, and the next omes were from a three part documentary that fox 11 did, but unfortunately the audio on the last one was removed.

Some good footage of the original Irwindale dragstrip from 1:51 - 1:58 in this vvvvvvvv first vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S-yCoxkSp8&feature=watch_response

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9y4ntKQi9s&feature=related

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-6SbVrYa8c&feature=related

Part 3 (No audio)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-6SbVrYa8c&feature=related

 

Did too much street racing from 15 years old and on. Too many brushes with the law, close calls with junkies racing for drugs, money pit, turned into a felony offense, yada yada ... gave it up to go to the university. Good times. Back when a car running 11s was fast and only cheaters ran N2O. 12 years after graduating college got the bug back and built a BB Dart street sweeper only to find he local scene overrun with hard criminals. Lost its luster. Now its impromptu stuff against biker boys and the like.

Remember one day after high school the auto shop teacher organizing runs and he was the starter too.

Another teacher raced us in his 427 Vette after school.

We had these donated Honda CBX's in Auto Shop, and more than once they would find there way to a race at lunch.

Had an old crotchety neighbor who was original owner of a Hemi Road Runner. Looked all stock, but was a street fighter in the early 70's ("...yeah I just got headers and N50-15s on it...all stock besides that...". Came out one night and just kicked all kinds of ass, and smiled too.

Think the corporate world would run an ad like this today?

 

Ahh, good times back when the SF was very different. And the "Nationals" off E14th in Oaktown. Coliseum was was a great spot.

 

check the bottom of that advertisement for the poster offer. Arlington, Va? wonder if i can still get my poster for $1

 

Did Big Willie run a '57 Chevy at one point?

 

Used to be a mid 60's, pale yellow with a white front clip VW Baja out there in 94-95 that would send quite a few guys home pretty pissed cuz they got beat buy a bug!! Took some guy in a new Ford Lightning 3 consecutive ass lashings to finally realize that he wasn't gonna win!

Also have a good friend that would spank a whole lot of big block cars with his mid 11's sbc 66 Elcamino around that same time period.

Lots of fun back then until dumb ass's felt it was cool to bring guns in case they lost.