Folks Of Interest Your first visit to a Speed Shop

1968 ... My brother and I went to the Annex Speed and Custom Shop on Grandview Avenue in our hometown of Muscatine Iowa. It was a very small shop packed with speed equipment and some wheels. As I gazed in amazement at all the things I had never seen before I came across the books and magazines area, and a book on How To Build a Big Block Chevy caught my attention, and I didn't even know what a Big Block was back then. Didn't buy anything that day because I was only 12, but that trip that day cemented my desire that I already had for a fenderless - lowered Hot Rod Model A Coupe that I had been exposed to and had been taken on a ride in .... and the dream had been planted.

22 years later, at the age of 34, I finally was able to build my own fenderless Model A Coupe, and still have it today at age 65.

 

Hey Marty, Radke's in North Portland in 1968 was the first time I went to a real speed shop. Bought a Hurst shifter for a friends 66 Comet Cyclone and installed it that afternoon. Moved to So Cal in 1971 and right across the street from where I worked was Jon's Speed and Sport and next door to that was Gale Banks Racing Engines in San Gabriel California. Good memories, seems like things were more affordable back then somehow.

 

Can't remember the name but in the neighborhood where I grew up in the '60s. Bought a new 780 Holley for my fresh-built hot rod 289 Ford engine. Too much carb, but you couldn't tell a dumb kid anything

Joe

 

Back in the 60's I also bought from Couch in Des Moines Ia. A pair of new double hump 2.02 Chev heads with valves for $125. Later on closeout bought a new 1050cfm Holley 3barrel carb for about $45. Good Times! speedshifter Greg White

 

UPDATE:
I Googled Couch Racing and found this:

 

1979 @ the Compton Store.

 

My 1st was a fab shop, Topper Engineering. John the owner narrowed me a Cougar 9" rear to put under my '66 Nova and assisted with getting the leaf springs moved a little inboard so I could run slicks. He also did the clutch linkage. This was in 1975. Real top notch work, unfortunately after that I forget how many years, John took his own life over marriage woes.

For engine work I went with a local shop, Transit Automotive, I first used in 1973 with them doing a valve job on my 394 Olds engine. They did work for some of the stock car guys I knew.

 

Ace Speed Shop, Charlotte, NC. Cut school with a buddy to go. 2 hour trip each way in 1970.

 

First visit in about 1959 to a speedometer shop. Bought a mechanical tach with a 6-inch face. Found out it was 1/4-speed reverse rotation. Never could figure that one out.

In maybe 1962 I bought a set of Enderle fuel injectors for my only car, a 29 roadster. Bought it at Scotty's Muffler Service in San Bernardino. As you can see, Scotty discounted it for me along with dragging out the no-interest payments for months. He had a minor partner at the time and this just drove him crazy.

 

Raceland 1974 , in Lincoln , Nebraska.

 

My first time was in 1978, Midwest Auto Specialties on Brookpark Rd. in Cleveland Ohio probably 7 or 8 miles from my house. I could not find an image of the 1978 catalog, but the Tiger is still the same!

Later that same summer was my first trip to Summit Racing in Akron, Ohio (the original one) back when they were in a little strip store off Gilchrest Rd with 2 counter people & a little storage area in the back.

God Bless
Bill
jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/nationwide-single-car-transport-hauling-open-or-enclosed.614419/

 

Marty gets up pretty early so I figured he would beat me to posting about Radkes in North Portland.
That was thee speed shop around here, not the only one but the oldest I'm sure.
My first few visits were about 1971, went with an older friend that I helped with a couple different drag cars he owned and some of the cars he built for his racing pals.
A couple years later I think I helped Radkes pay their electric bills, when I started on my first drag car, I spent a fair amount of money there in the mid/late 70's for sure.


End of an era, remembering Radke Auto Parts.

Radke’s Auto Parts has been at 6666 N. Columbia Way in St. Johns, Oregon since 1933. The business started as a single gas pump ran by husband and wife Julius and Letha Radke. Through the thick of the depression Julius fixed cars to the best of his ability and vulcanized tires while Letha pumped gas, maintained the books and cooked. Living only a couple blocks away from the business, their sons Merlin and Ronald grew up working at the gas station. It was a family affair according to the abridged business history. Many members of the family pitched in their time and money when it was needed. Surviving through meager times, the boom of WWII brought workers to the nearby shipyard and business to the Radke’s. In the 1950’s the name was changed from Radke’s Auto Electrical to Radke’s Auto Parts. Father Julius attended trade schools to receive additional training and the family project boomed...............
Full article here:
https://www.worldofspeed.org/wos-bl...emembering-radkes-speed-shop-in-all-its-glory
A couple of other speed shops in the area that we frequented were Baxter Auto Parts and Exhaust Specialties.

 

My first visit was when I was 15 had to be ‘76 or ‘77, my sister’s boyfriend had a 70 Z28 and we went to Bell and Gaines in Modesto. I was looking at a ‘55 or ‘56 Chevy fiberglass front end they had on the floor. This older guy (had to be 25-30 ) said “that’s for a real race car. A few minutes of talking with him I told him I’d be getting my Dads ‘57 PU with a 454. He walked over to the counter and handed me “How to hotrod you Big Block Chevy”. The book that has the engine on the cover with fan spinning and orange? Headers.
I told him I didn’t have any money just came with a friend. He said “take it”.
Pretty cool thing for an “old guy” to do.

 

A little 'hole-in-the-wall' place called Harry's Precision Machine. Hardcore racing machine shop to the max. My mentor introduced me to Harry's when he helped me build my first Modified. Harry's did it all. Dealt in new and used speed/race parts, custom machine and motor work. Everybody that worked there raced something. Loved the smell of the parts cleaning soak tub and the cutting oil that hit you when you walked in. Little wooden counter with one of those big parts catalogue binders on top. A counter man that knew his shit, and sold you what you NEEDED, not what you WANTED. On any day you'd find some Sprint, Midget, Modified, FED hanging halfway out the garage door while the crew was working on something for a customer. They made a buddy of mine bring his FED to them after they built his blower motor so they could put on the supercharger and fire it up and break it in. Harry personally set up the fuel injection on my Modified and took the time to explain what he was doing while he was doing it. The one big thing I remember about Harry's is the phone was always off the hook. All the time I spent there I don't ever recall hearing it ring. I asked him once about it and he just shrugged and told me if it was really important, they'd get their ass down there. Harry wouldn't have taken kindly to the cell phone world.

 

We had two, mas in St. Paul and smith auto in Minneapolis. It was a longer trip to get to smith but he had time for a 16 that didn’t know a lot.

 

Radke's certainly was THEE place to go in the late '50s, thru the '90s! Quite often it was worth the trip just to see what might be in the parking lot: rails on trailers, cool hot rods, or the occasional custom. In the '70s you'd also see a few 4 X 4s. They had all the not-found-in-your-local-parts-house go fast stuff.
Baxter's and Exhaust Specialties were good shopping places, too. The best part was their counter people knew their stuff!
Thanks Marty and DDDenny!

 

My first real speed shop visit was to a Don't Speed Shop also. 1971 in Sumter S.C. I had a 390/4speed Fairlane and the owner raced 427 Fords. He often had used FE engine parts for sale there. Sometimes I bought some of them when I could muster up the money on Airman's pay...$300 a month. Most of the time I just hung around looking at stuff.

 

Partner in Nash+away's D &D Speed Shop: Doug Juonis:
'57 https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/attachments/cropimage-120780001-jpg.1593164/

 

About 1984, I was 8. I discovered the auto parts store, had all kinds of amazing stuff on the walls. The counter guy would round us up and tell the name of a few parts and send us out the door.

They also stocked some bike parts and would help kids order whatever we could pay for from Hank and Frank in California. "Exotic race bike parts" all yhe way from California and shiny car parts in one place.
The hook was sunk, I was a gear head in training.

There was a guy painting a 65 mustang fastback a block away. Candy red, had to have been lacquer because he seemed to shoot paint everyday-all summer. We'd stand on the sidewalk in front of his garage. He told us we couldn't get any closer after trying to run us off didn't work.

Another guy in the general area had a drag car. Hadn't run in a few years but we all had heard it would go 150, 180, 200 mph. Had to ride by there at least twice a day to see if the garage door was open.

 

Gratiot Auto Supply on Gratiot Ave in Detroit in 1961. Didn’t have my drivers license yet but went with an older buddy to pick up some parts. For a young gear head who loved all things cars and racing it was better then a trip to Disneyland.

 

Smith Auto on Lake Street in Minneapolis in the late 1970s. Ted Smith ran the place and my buddies and I of roughly 17 years old hung on his every word about speed parts. We’d pretty much buy whatever he suggested for our 60s and 70s Detroit muscle cars. I recall he was a nice guy and truly was knowledgeable about speed parts.

John

 

Ramchargers in Taylor Michigan, in the mid 70’s. Had a coupon from Autorama for a free T-shirt, wore that shirt until it was a rag.

 

It was in the later, O/T half of the 60s, and due to the influence of the magazines that I was buying, I ordered some Hooker headers. I didn't know of a physical speed shop anywhere so I assume I went through an ad in one of the magazines. From a radio ad, I next went to Mr. Norm's to get one of those fancy "dyno tunes" which turned out to be a bust because they didn't know how to do Quadrajet carbs. That pissed me off but again, with one of my magazines, I got an 'advance kit' from a general parts store and trimmed the carb metering rods on a lathe myself. After a year, maybe two, of wrenching low-budget parts and projects I started dating a co-worker and she had a brother who was partners in a speed shop with full shop services. The name was WAR Automotive (or W.A.R. Automotive) in Addison, IL. They didn't have an inventory or 'store' exactly. Customers would figure out what they wanted and the shop would get it. It was one of those places where you could hang out and do some of the little fussy projects yourself as long as you tossed them a bone once in a while.

 

Summit Ky, just outside of Ashland, was Summit speed & custom. I loved going in there! He always had what you were looking for in stock. I tried Google to see if there was anything on the internet about the place, but I guess it's long forgotten now. But thanks for bringing back the memories squirrel....

 

Eddie's Speed Shop on Blackstone across from Football stadium in Fresno about 59-bought stuff there when I could afford it.

 

I don't know if they would be considered " Speed Shops " but my first trips to Bob Joehnck's shop in Santa Barbara, CA and another first to Gary Hooker's newly built shop in South Ontario, CA with my friend and fellow dirt racer, Bob Taylor, certainly got my attention. I stood there in Joehnck's shop listening to him talk about what he was doing to Taylor's 327 to improve air flow and learned a lot. Same at Hooker's place. He was using Taylor's engine for a guinea pig and took the time to explain to me just exactly why equal length headers would make my Ford run better. You know what, they really did.

 

At the age of seventeen I was blessed with a 0ne hundred dollar car. It just happened to be a '56 Dodge Lancer 2dr coupe. When it blew a head gasket my mentor informed me of the nature of the engine. A 315 Hemi rated at something like 225 hp I think. The D-500 option included Dual exhaust, solid lifters a WCFB 4bbl and a Mallory dual point dist.

We found that Frank Bash in Germantown Phila carried the points set for the Mallory. Surprisingly the shop was located in a sleepy neighborhood of tall trees, century old stone houses, green manicured lawns. Not at all what I expected for a speed shop. It was obvious though that Bash had been there a long time.

As things progressed My '57 chevy was treated to many goodies from K&G in Haverford PA. Nice Folks. Many many goodies.

 

Dougs Racing Stables Tacoma Wa in the 60,s and 70,s.

 

It’s been mentioned, but my first experience was at Wise Speed Shop in St.Louis, Missouri. I bought headers and intake bolts for my El Camino project. This would have been 1995. The counter guy was a man by the name of Donnie Barron and a couple of years later helped me out tremendously when I started bracket racing. Wise even had an on-site machine shop and they balanced my 383 Chevy bracket engine. I will never forget the inside of Wise, all the parts, all the stuff you only got to see in magazines. This is a great thread, thanks Squirrel!

 

There used to be an auto parts store in downtown Cedar Rapids Iowa called Rapaport I believe. Dad didn’t work on cars very often, he was a Carpenter, but I went with him one Saturday morning to get something. In the front window, they had a display rack of Hurst Shifters, and you could actually try them out. I must of played with that for ten minutes, and I was hooked. Another Gearhead was born that day. Thanks Dad!

 

Trenton Speed Shop, Trenton NJ around 68-69. Street racing was the thing then and they were at the center of it all.