Hot Rods Street Racing Story time~ the good,the bad and the ugly.

Fall 1969, three of us in my friend's 65 LeMans coupe. His dad was a used car dealer and used to put a bunch of real "interesting" cars together. Like the 68 El Camino rollover he bought. Roof looked pretty bad so a vinyl top went on it. Needed to dress it up a bit being a 307 Powerglide no air so he put mags on it. Problem was that he did not hSve a matching set so two on one side, the other two on the other, his reasoning was "you can't see both sides at the same time.".
Anyways, the LeMans was bought with a blown engine, a 326 with a rod hanging out. So he buys a 65 or 66 Catalina rollover with a 389 2bbl. Dirty engine installed so it appears that it is untouched (!) Car runs extremely well though.

We are cruising Telegraph and we come up alongside a brand new Chevelle SS 396, had to be a 325 hp as it ws pretty quiet. Window sticker still in it, on dealer plates, two guys in it. Gordy pulls up next to them, light changes, hammer down. The 396 car was a bit heavier, probably offset by our passenger load. Gordy's claim to fame was to run the Tempest Automatic to about 90 in low range then shift to drive. So the Pontiac was screaming.

Beat them by about a car length, they pull alongside, passenger yells out "what's in that?" Two door Tempest, white walls with snow tires, no hub caps, just a typical used car lot rat car. Gordy tells then "326 2bbl", "B.S. the passenger says, let's run again" so we did. Actually twice more, same result.

So the fun begins, the passenger says "pull over, I wanna see it", so we did. Just south of Michigan Avenue. They pull in behind us in a parking lot. Pop open the hood, Tim pulls out a flashlight and turns it on. Greasy 389, Rochester 2bbl, no air cleaner, looks like a legit 326 though. The driver is getting pretty agitated at this point, a barrage of obscenities spewing from him, last coherent thing he said was "I don't ******* believe it!"

He then slams the Tempest's hood down, gets in the Chevelle and proceed to neutral slam it, single track wheel spin and all to leave the spot of shame.

I imagine the conversation that went on the next morning at his selling dealer. Would of loved to hear it.

 

I don't miss the traffic court days. During my 3-strike period, I was in traffic court ready to surrender my license, pay a $300 fine... and it was my 1st wedding anniversary. I had messed with the system so badly that at a prior hearing the judge had me post a $200 bond.

I'm sitting there and gradually tune in to what is going on. They called the cases alphabetically and I was down the list. I hear "officer no present, case postponed... or case dismissed". The judge saved me for last that day. He says that this was my lucky day... case dismissed. He calls me around his bench, he had a monitor to check driving records, must have been a NY state mainframe. He says most people's driving records are a few lines... yours is 4 PAGES. I gulp and look at what I managed to rack up in 10 years of driving. I thanked him, walked out with the $300 in my pocket and my $200 bond money.

 

Yeah,truth be known Gene Cromer had a hand in the Falcon Sprints performance. HRP

 

What makes a Sprint a Sprint? And what engine did you run in yours?

How does a no good punk kid (no disrespect meant),
with long hair, 32waist jeans, playing guitar, having a hot little number for a girl friend (no disrespect again, I'm trying to get to my point, but I'm a sucker for drama in the story) , who also likes fast cars too, get Gene Cromer the famous Drag racer with the killer Willys coupe (now both HAMB celebrity's) to wrench on your little 50$ DD with an amplifier in the back?

I dare being so cocky because I'm pretty sure there is a damn good story in the need of being told!!!

And would your little Sprint Tudor for really beat a S/C Hurst rambler?

I like them, because they are a underdog and the little engine that could, at the same time.
Most people don't look twice at an Rambler, unless you only gets to see his tail lights.

 

I've really enjoyed this thread. One of the guys I ran around with in Pekin, Ill. had a 57 Ford fake hardtop with a 390 FE motor, 406 cam and solids,four barrel, and a three speed column shift. This was when the Mustang first come out and the owners thought they were hot shit. They were just building the four lane in Peoria at the time. We'd roll thru Main street Steak And Shake in Peoria and if we saw a Mustang we didn't remember I'd hold up a ten spot.The driver would always get a big grin on his face, thinking this would be easy picking. He would follow us out and down on the unfinished four lane where where he would suddenly find his doors blown off and wondering how it had happened. We'd pull over to collect our winnings and swear it was a 312 with dual exhaust. I guess they would never tell about losing because we did this almost several nights a week for the summer with nary a loss.