Brooklyn, NY Infamous Street Racers Back in the Day

Sorry Bill – have not been able to find any other pictures of Dennis’s car – if I run across any I’ll post them. That car was fast on Hamptons ¼ mile – 11 sec in a ’55 was flyin back in the sixties, but it was completely unbeatable on Islip’s 1/8 mile!

 

I am a younger guy, but in the late 80's and early 90's, I used to walk from my house to Francis Lewis BLVD and the street racing was insane. easy 100 cars lined up to run on friday and sat nights. Flatlands in BK were also huge. Deerpark Ave had some good racing too.
The cops really cracked down now around here, too loud.... ticket. Fast start from a traffic line..... racing impound car (happened to a friend, he wasnt even racing anyone.)
The scene has kinda of died, still some spots though.
Good memories.

 

Farnnie Lew! well then you mus remember this landmark, aka the pits.
but NOT the car, this pic is truly old daze, 1978,

 

That's the stance we ran back then, LOL. High in the back; you'd get longer springs from the spring shop with a bigger arch.

 

Ronnie Lyles was a good man. We ran NED1 Pro Stock back in the day; on a real tight budget. Ronnie would come by, see something we were using that wasn't exactly the newest set up, and give us all his spares, or almost new slicks, stuff like that, just to help us out. Sadly he;'s no longer with us.
One of his friends and crewmembers has posted some stuff recently at the Dover Drag Strip site that's pretty cool.

 

Thanks so much for posting the clippings of the Brooklyn "Underground" Street Racers... I'm fortunate enough to have run into many members of this drag racing contingent over the last several years... Many of these fellows also appear with some regularity at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park (either to "No Time" race or hang out and be a spectator)... The outlaw heads-up doorslammer "SHAKEDOWN AT E'TOWN" event often brings out the Brooklyn and Newark, NJ "underground" racing "vets" in substantial numbers... I was also fortunate enough to interview "Brooklyn Heavy" at a Brooklyn corner Bodago during a "Head Hunters" car club block party-- I shared that moment on DVD with a few H.A.M.B. folks... Anyone who's ever seen their cars knows these people are hardcore-- Newark's "Simon" and his beefed-up/stock appearing Caddy and many other of the vehicles in this scene will blow you away... Geez, there's no denying that their "scene" is beyond cool-- it's sort of its own groovin' universe... And h*ck, the folks that I have had the pleasure of meeting from this particular scene are the nicest and friendliest folks you'd ever have the pleasure of ever meeting in one's lifetime-- They "live it" in a frame of mind that is really true to the heart of "good time" hot roddin'-- God bless 'em... BKLYN and NEWARK old school street folks are an admirable sub-culture drag racin' community for certain... "The Doc" (Celebrity Drag Racing Authority & Visionary)...

 

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Thank you for taking the time for looking. Yes that was a top car in it's time. It usually had a little 306 in it and 7" slicks in that photo. He ran I/HR-F1 at National Speedway, and did well there too....... Merry Christmas to you and your family

 

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Is that car Barracuda Bill's car......if it is, that was a very fast car way back, I lost to him twice.......ha ha.

 

thats the nuts,cant do fuck all now days,especially over here,to many cameras about now.great pics

 

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I just saw again a photo you posted of a friends car from very late 60's or very early 70's.... that 61-62 Buick Special.....it was Orange and the name was the "TIME MACHINE". He and another friend had worked for Brooklyn Heavy during that period too. Again....thanks for the memories..... Merry Christmas

 

I could only stand 90 seconds of that video, but dude, you are on some serious fucking drugs if think those shit boxes can run 170+.

If a man can't afford to keep the teeth he was born with he probably can't afford a 2000HP automobile.

Just something to think about.


Merry Christmas,

Tom

 

Fantasy, I am assuming your referring to the diner/walbaums parking lot. The 7/11 parking lot was also a huge spot for calling out. That area is dead now, dont live too far from there, every now and then I will pass by to see if any cars are running.
Remember a neighbor of mine when growing up just got his IROC-Z, 2 weeks later wrapped it around a tree on frannie lew. Split his nose open on the steering wheel as well.

 

deltuffo. Today standards require a parachute now for anything over 140mph. In the 2 minutes watching no car appears to have a chute or throw one.
170mph 1/4 mile is FAST AS HELL and generally not streetable unless a boosted car where you can de-tune like crazy.

 

The most insane street racing scene in NYC was on a service road out by Kennedy Airport. Cars that had been running NHRA pro stock a few months before were out there with bigger motors and nitrous.

 

What a brilliant thread, thanks very much to everyone for sharing this stuff!

 

fantastic insite in to street racing in the 70s.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnwvuaiCC2I

check out birka cup on youtube .....street racing is alive and well in sweden!!

 

Somewhere i have a Mustang magazine, where theres a story about a 65 Mustang, in Fiberglass, found in Brooklyn. And i think it belonged to Brooklyn Heavy.
Lars

 

But a '65 Mustang would not be a Mustang II.

 

You're probably referring to a 427 SOHC '65 Mustang previously owned/raced by Len Richter, Jerry Harvey, Hubert Platt then "Dyno Don" Nicholson. Nicholson sold it in '69 to a Brooklyn street racer named Tab Talmadge who "campaigned" the car on the streets of NY for big money. Eventually Talmadge sold the car to another Brooklynite. A fellow named Curt Vogt who owns a business called Cobra Automotive traced the car to some crummy old storage building in one of the worst parts of Brooklyn in 1988, managed to purchase it from its current owner, restore it then sold it around 1991. A collector named Don Snyder purchased it from Curt and still owns it. The story about the "re-discovery" of the car can be found in a book called Hemi In The Barn by Tom Cotter.

And no, Heavy never owned this car, but he did own a fleet of other ex-race cars.

I have a plethora of photos throughout the car's life and information about it at the Archive of Street Racing group here on the HAMB: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/group.php?do=discuss&group=&discussionid=1202 under the East-Coast Street Racing section (you'll find the information under the section for Tab Talmadge).

Here is the car as it sits today in Don Snyder's personal collection:

 

In the mid to late 70's Connectings was where the racing. and related stuff happened. Astoria Park (a bit of green space like Central Park) was where we would cruise to to get out of the cops watchful eye, party, play with titties, tune, put street tires on, etc.

"Willets Point" was what we called The Mariner, basically a parking lot left over from the worlds fair. Not big/long enough to "race", but lotsa burn outs and some toy racers(chrome wheels/cherry bomb). If a real race was to be had here, it went up on the highway, a nice long sorta str8 multi-lane thing connecting the VanWyke expressway with the Grand Central Parkway. I can remember many times seeing full race trailered cars unload in the Mariner, drive the streets, up the ramp, stop, stand em up, truck n trailer leave, car loaded on a city street............ gone.

Laurel Hill Blvd. ran between two large cemeteries and underneath the BQE (BrooklynQueens Expwy. This was a wide city street with an elevated highway above. The columns that held up the highway were on the sidewalk every(?)50'. Sometimes those became a problem.

Review Ave. in Brooklyn was a very serious scene around 76' 77'. This was a pretty safe place to run as it was located out in the flats/marshes that the city used as the dump. Yes folks, a dump measured in sq. miles and review ave ran right through it. No stores,homes, traffic just (Us) so NYPD was fairly lax about it all until something happened. I always found it quieter then the other spots cop wise.

As was stated earlier the Pizza City, Bow Wow, Cross Bay Blvd. thing had dried up by the time I was out there doin' it. People would still cruise there and hang, but street racing had ended by the late 60's.

Sorry for the long post guys but thats a part of my life I revisit often now living in Vermont

Thanks for listenin' Howard

 

There was also a lot going in NJ as well. I got interested in fast cars after going with some friends to the Adventure Car Hop, Rt 22 in Springfield in the 60's. In the 70's we hung out at Walt's in Linden and Steer Inn in North Plainfield. I remember a friend of mine yanking the fuelie 283 out of a guy's '59 Vette in the late 60's. He swapped in a dual quad 409 so the guy could street race it. That car looked bad ass when he would show up and put the slicks on.
Those most definitely were the days, fast cars and big money races on the street.

 

Anyone remember the famous "Cross Bay Dart", John D'Andrea's 1970 390 AMC Gremlin, Froggy and his Art Leong-powered '65 Hemi Belvedere or Al Masota (Al "Cap")? Just heard about the majority of these guys and would love more information on them

 

anyone remember a black 64 GTO with Eddie in red on the drivers door
got two bucketseats and door panels in red flakevinyl and a rollbar
and the grimreaper painted on the top of the scoop
had a cbb (dont remember if it was 427or 454 )L88 heads
ZL1 cam,Ronco magneto,aluminium flyweel,turboclutch transmission,
12bolt rearend in lakewood laderbars.cragar ss. It was featured in
a magazine i think it was carcraft in the 70s

Why i wounder is A frind of mine bougt the car in the 90s of
used car dealer and the story goes.(and i dont know how much
is thruth) The owner..suposedly Eddie robbed a bank and got
shot by the police. And they impounded the car. And somebody
from Sweden bougth it on a police auction.

He caled me late one night and said. Hey you i bougt a car
and its not running well can you tune it for me
cant you do it your self.
Ohh no it got a magneto and whe cant get it running.
and you are the only one that know anything about magnetos.
So i went over to our carclub it was only running on 6 cyl
turned out some one had swaped place of two wires on the
magneto. But goddamened it was fast when i got it running.
But the cam lost a lobe a couple a weeks later and it was
left outside. Got water in the carb and the engine siezed up
he mowed away and the car was parted out. i got the magneto
a few years later

 

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I remember racing on the Bruckner Expressway going west right after the fork with the Cross Bronx Expressway. Usually 2 am or so. The spectators cars would drive 3/4 abreast and slow down to a stop to keep the traffic behind them. The racers would be on the shoulder waiting for the "road block" and then pull out onto the expressway. There was an overpass that marked the end of the 1/4. No entrance for 3/4 of a mile and it was elevated on the sides with the divider fenced as well. The traffic would back up for a mile or so and NYPD couldnt get up to the front to hassle anyone. People not involved would get out of their cars and sit on the hoods and watch the show. They couldnt go any where anyway. It was actually as safe as any drag strip was in those days. I saw some big money change hands at a few of the races. As much as 5k.

 

Anyone remember Chris "the Hippie" black duster, small block real quick. or "Hubcaps" from valley Stream Copper colored Le Mans? Early 80's South Conduit, Behind Key Food on cross bay blvd. Tues and Thursday nights....
Black big block vette convertible that had "love to drive my 65" on the back?

 

Coney Island Ralph was inducted into the NHRA hall of fame a few years ago. He and his son Adam (RIP) built a altered anglia like the one he ran back in the day. Ralph Landolfi was his name.

Adam was on one of the early episodes of pinks about 3 years ago...

 

There's a facebook page titled We Raced On Cross Bay and The South Conduit
In case anyone is interested