I stopped in our local Moose Lodge to sign up today and there sat an old guy that always had the hottest car in town back in the 50's and 60's. When I was a kid it was known far and wide that what ever he drove was not to be messed with. Lots of guys tried but very few ever beat the hot Chevys that Bob had. The first one I remember was a black 55 post with a dual quad set up. Then a new 58 Impala convert with a 3 deuce 348 and stick. He got drafted about that time and when he came home he built the baddest 56 Bel-Air sedan around. By the mid 60's it was a black 396 Chevelle that changed into a 425 horse 427 shorty after the 396 shit itself. He is like 15 years older than me so I never knew him well when I was a kid but he was with out a doubt the "koolest cat in town" back in the day. I bought him a beer (which turned out to be a few more) and sat down and talked to him about the old days and the cars back then. He has some great stories to tell. I could talk to him for hours. When I asked him if he had any pictures of his cars he just grinned and told me" Hell boy, I was so damn fast that when anyone tried to get a picture all you could see was a fuzzy black car with shiny wheels" Funny to be called a boy when I am pushing 68 I hope I am still that shape and can still drink that much beer when I am over 80
Good times, I'm sure many of us had our local heroes. When I was in high school about 1970, I had friends that were a couple years older than me and they were friends with a local guy that also was a couple years older than them. He had a 56 Chevy sedan with a "real deal" 327/365 hp and four speed and it seemed like whenever we got together they had storys about that 56, kind of set the stage for me when I started hot rodding my 57 but would never have had a chance against him with my little 283/four speed Bel Air hardtop. I often wonder what happened to some of those cars.
When I was a kid the coolest guy in town and the best mechanic,customizer,who had the baddest 55 Chevy was a guy named" CURLY"! HE is legendary in the Jersey shore area.
I don't care if the stories change or not. Just to talk to this guy about the times and cars back then puts a sparkle in his eyes and a smile on his face. He is a big part of the history of hot rodding in this small town. I have talked to a few of the older guys around here and they all tell me their own tales of the "souped up Chevys" that old Bob had. I ask Bob what his first car was as the 55 was the first one I could remember. He said it was a 51 Bel-Air HT with a over bored 235, two carbs and a split manifold and straight pipes. It wasn't real fast but it was fast enough to take care of the flathead Fords around here. He said when the 55s came out he was a senior in high school and working part time at the Pure Oil station. He sold every thing he had and his mom signed for him and he ordered the black sedan that I remembered. Then in 57 it got a 283 which he ran for a while until a guy with a 312 Ford came pretty close to out running him and the 283 got punched out to the first 301 in these parts. He said the 2X4s and stiff gears made that 55 pretty quick, he was like an old west gunslinger, everyone had to try him but he shot them all down.
Gary was one of the "fast" guys in our area with his 3 deuce smallblock powered '55 Chevy. Worked at one of the local service stations and I heard that more than a few got to see the "Blue Angel" painted on the deck lid! Later went to work at the NAPA store, impressed the owner and was sent to machinists school. He was also the only kid that I knew that had a real steering wheel on his bike! Man, that was a l o n g time ago.
This story about Bob reminds me of a fellow who was the first I became aware of as a kid (about 12 yrs old, 1956). His name escapes my memory at the moment, but he was the older brother of a classmate. He had a ‘56 Chevy 210 2 dr post, black and white, 265 stick! He was the guy everyone wanted to beat. Though I often saw him driving around town, I never actually had a chance to watch him street race, but the reputation circulating was that he usually/always (?) won. Thanks for tickling my memory! Ray
Growing up in a small Chicago suburb (were they even called "suburbs" back then) in the '60s, I had my car heroes also. They drove the koolest and baddest cars and I swear the character of Bob Falfa was patterned after one of these guys. I can still see his primered '55 sedan in my mind. Were these cars really as kool as I remember them being in '61-'66? I'm gonna say yeah, they definitely were.
I love listening to the 'more experienced' guys tell stories from days gone by. We had better listen now...
'That guy' in our little town was Bill M., aka "Fireball". Lived about a quarter mile up the road from us. Probably 15 yrs older than me. Early 60's, I 'd ride my bike past his garage just to oogle the cool cars he & his buddies had. I was probably 8 or 9 when I finally got up the nads to actually stop. Those guys let me hang, I kept my mouth shut & ears open. Put up with the usual dutch rubs & shoulder punches, hell, it was well worth it. Figured if I was a PITA or a crybaby, they'd have run me off. Fireball was always the man. He was the guy that actually 'took' his rides to the strip on occasion. Quiet and cool as a cucumber, he could back it up on the street too, when they spoke of going to 'the stretch' on late night appointments. First car I remember of his was a '61 Belair bubbletop. W motor rumored to be a year newer 409, dual quad, 4spd. & 4.56 geared. Houduras maroon, probably the reason for my affinity to that '61 that @Moriarity teases us with on occasion. Next was a new '66 SS Chevelle in marina blue, solid lifter version, 4spd and also 4.56 geared. Low 13s and a daily, very impressive at the time. Then came the real monster. A new '69 COPO in that bright-ass green they offered. Jeezus that thing shook the ground! Apologies for the OT mentions, it was just part of my up bringing that brought me to this point.
One of the cars I remember seeing parked on the main drag was a all red '62 Belair sedan with those '409' badges on the front fenders, shades of "Dyno Don"! I never saw it move or heard it run, but you knew it was "just Bad".
I would think many of us can recall the baddest car in town back in the day, some drift off in obscurity and others go out in a blaze of glory. The yellow Henry J and the owner was one that wasn't going to be caught and he was being pulled over for speeding, he refused to stop and a pursuit followed , the police said speeds exceeded 100 MPH but the Henry J lost control in a curve near Broadway Lake and was totally destroyed when I hit several trees, the man was killed instantly. This happened in 1967 and guys my age still talk about the yellow Henry J that one most of the street races he was in but no one ever knew him. The one guy with a '56 Ford , Jerry wore the crown for many years as the hot show of the streets, his car had a cammer engine and his claim to fame was blasting down main street past the Police station at 2AM on a Sunday morning, and he turned around and drive back through town minutes later, Jerry couldn't out run Motorola and the Police caught him pulling into his driveway. His car was impounded and he got to spend several months at the county farm (chain gang) Jerry got his car back after paying a huge bill and took up where he left off and street raced up until the late 70's. Jerry was the kind of older guy my parents told me to avoid but I became friends with him and although he was rough around the edges he was a stand up guy with his friend, there is no doubt in my mind there should be a photo of him in Websters Dictionary describing exactly what a Hoodlum looks like. Jerry died about 12 years ago but he is remembered for his drunken drive through town so mny years ago. HRP
I had this friend named John, had the fastest little yellow 32 5 window..............wait, i just woke up!
One of our local legends was Brian. He is a few years older than I am, but I did get to know him fairly well. He was a Chevy guy and always had a very fast car on the street; he was the one to beat (I never did). Stories were mostly about him and his run ins with the law and most of them fueled by his street racing. I did buy an old car of his when I was young, a Ford he didn't much care for. I was able to make that car a lot faster than he ever did, but not as fast as his Chevys. I did make it fast enough to be "talked with" a few times by the local cops though. Anyway, he grew up and moved away and I didn't hear much from him for years until one late afternoon, a group of us were staging for a downtown cruise night at my shop close by. Brian showed up and we had a beer together just like no time had passed at all.
When I was 14 or maybe just turned 15, the school bus would drive past this guy's rented cabin [they called them apartments] with an open front garage. In the dirt floor garage was a bright red custom 40 Merc convertible with a chopped Carson-styled white top, frenched headlights and a 50 Nash grille. I used to sneak out my bedroom window, walk the mile down to his place where he was always tuning on the hot rod flathead. He'd do some work on it and say "Lets's take it out to see if it's faster". I got to ride with him!!! One night [sun was just coming up] we broke an axle key, laying rubber. He opened the trunk and dragged out a floor jack, swapped in a new axle key in no time and I still got home before my folks got up. The guy was my hero.
The Jalopy Journal
