Hot Rods Anyone know of any DC car clubs The speed shifters

I was talking with some real old timers the other day and they were talking about old Washington DC car clubs and street racing. Two names that came up were The speed shifters and The DC rubber burners. Anyone ever heard of others?

 

the saints out of arlington from the late 50's

 

22 Caliber Mike has his P.G. Lakers plaque 1962-64 pictured on the HAMBs Maryland Social group.

 

Tommy has his Prince George's Kustoms plaque on the HAMB somehwere too.

 

I've never heard of those two clubs. Clubs were very very local. Unless they put cars in the DC armory show it's probable that our paths would not cross.

A friend found this for me. I joined in 64 and we did not have the plaques then. It is probably from the 50s. I never thought of a car club from inside the District line. All of the ones I ever knew of were from the suburbs.

 

....Sorry, I've never heard of those two either, but like Tommy said, clubs were apparently very, very local and sometimes had only a few "members" and maybe a few more "hangers-on". Then again, they may have existed before my time, as I'm a fairly "young" 61 yr. old.........Don.

 

The Accelerators were based in Alexandria, Va. I never heard of any in D.C. before.

 

I suppose if you are referring to the Washington D.C. "area", the Ram Rods of Silver Spring were probably the most visible club. They put on the annual World of Wheels show at the D.C. National Guard Armory for many years.

 

Do you know about the quartermasters? i think they comprise in large part current and former(retired) federal gov't workers who in general are some of the nicest, most decent people around. i mean i know how you might feel about fed gov't workers in general, but the ones who come to DC to work i find to be good people. i'm not nessesarily talking about the higher up gov't positions such as president, secretary of state, congress etc.

2 of them came to my house once to buy a sfi jacket and a tachometer i was selling. That's when they told me who they were and about their organization.

http://www.quartermastersracing.com/

 

Then there was the difference between the clubs that were like The Pharoahs in American Graffitti, the Hollywood Knights types and the clubs that were like race teams. I guess the difference was sport/hobbyists vs cultural/social. I was just old enough to cross paths with a few dinosaurs that were from duck tail days when swinging plaques hung from low back bumpers throwing sparks when they drug driveway approns.

 

Thanks guy's, These member's are thinning out now. The reason I started this post was because a guy that was known locally name Joe Mayhew recently pasted away. There is a twin brother team that had a car in the armory world of wheels in the 60's they are the Coffy's brothers. They build cars today and can be seen at Carlise and diffent NSRA events. These guy's from the speed shifters use to race on Hawii ave and RT50. Some of these guy's grew up in District HTS and Fairmont HTS. These guy's were backyard mechnics that worked on thier own cars, did upgrades and raced amongs themselves. When the war came along alot of these guy's were drafted. I did meet a guy that was part of the club that first started the armory shows.

The Quatermaster club is a racing club with a husband and wife team They are very nice people and I have been to their events.They send me an event e-mail from time to time. The last fot he DC clubs now is Old cars Unlimited. They had three presidents in their history and I was one of them. They do not race, they mostly do parades and car showings.

 

.......Back in the late 60's a lot of racing took place on Rt. 50 on the back side of Landover Hills, Md. Inbound Rt. 50 had a sign, Cheverly exit 1/4 mile (how convenient!!). Traffic back then was so minimal after midnight on a Fri. or Sat., pairs of cars could often line up 4 or 5 deep and be flagged off before any traffic approached. Spectators would usually be watching from Parkwood street which paralled the Highway and offered multiple escape routes if the local constabulary arrived on the scene. Of course this was all illegal and if anyone asks, I was never there. Never heard of anything going on @ Hawaii Ave., don't even know where that is. The other venues were George Palmer Hwy. (now MLK Blvd.), 295 @ Blue Plains, OStreet N.E.,D.C., Briggs-Chaney Rd. @ Rt.29. At least this is what I was told by reliable sources.

 

Hawaii Ave was near North Capitol St and The Old Soldiers Cemetery/Rock Creek Cemetery. Right around the corner was another long straightaway that was popular: Puerto Rico Avenue. Then there was V St. N.E. in the warehouse district.

I didn't frequent those spots too often. They seemed high risk to me even as a spectator.

I went by V street one night and they had the Fire Department wetting the street down to prevent racing.

I think what killed racing over there was alarm system technical advances. The racers didn't realize their cars were setting off the warehouse alarms and the cops were being tipped off immediately.

I raced on Riggs Road just outside of DC on more than one occassion.

Even did a road race against a good friend on Riggs Rd that started at Chillum Apartments and was to end at Jack-in-the-Box on University Blvd. He made a slick turn at a shortcut thinking I'd never make it from the middle lane, which I did, sideways, but I did. After the next turn I saw his headlights swish side to side and Whamm! He lost it and creamed a fire hydrant. He never let me forget watching him, the cops and the tow truck while eating tacos from the safety of Jack-in-the-Box. Hey! Loser was supposed to buy! He got of easy . Besides, if I had gone over there they would have known we were racing and then there would be more alibis to try and collaborate on .

 

.....That's right, Paul, it was V Street, not O Street that I meant to say. I think I was drooling into my bowl of Cheerios and got my alphabet mixed up. Thanks for that clarification.

 

Check out this page on my website to view a few more .....

https://carclubplaques.pairsite.com/Cities/WashingtonDC.htm​

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And Dennis O'Brien has plaques for these DC clubs .....

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One more I found and he may have more .....

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Hey Pokey just wondering it says you are near oxon hill is that the same oxon hill right off of the Wilson bridge?

 

Here are a couple of Speed Shifters plaques that Dennis can make .....

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I was/am a member of Capitol street rods and have the same plaque but they only go back to the early 70s. Notice streetdods and not hotrods. We were trying to live down the hotrod stigma that many people had of the hotrod name tag. They are responsible for the Nats East. The first regional Nats ever. The club never folded. We just drifted apart. I have my shirt and light jacket somewhere.

I bet that there are thousands of clubs that met for a while, 6mos or a year, collected dues and never did much. I can't remember the name of the first club that I was in. Some clubs may have bought plaques but many, like us, never did. We bought a POS channeled Model A sedan that once was an altered. No it never got running so no one remembers except the few guys that actually paid dues.

 

There was an article on the Speed Shifters in Garage magazine (Issue 14).

I can't remember the specifics of the article, I can pull the magazine out if anyone is interested...

 

......We're interested, Joe! Please tell us more.

 

Ok, I'll see if I can scan the article tonight...

 

The rubber burners? Are you sure that was a CAR club?

 

Yes, I can throw a rock and hit the bridge WOW look at those plaques I think we are really seeing some stuff now. Thanks for that info.

 

I was told that the Timonium show was the first NSRA show which gt moved to York. There is a guy that specializes in 1938 chevys who was the president. Do you know who I am talking about. I think his name is Andy Hamond.

 

So you know those white top helicopters constantly flying overhead....Ill have to wave next time I'm overhead Im apart of the Marine One helicopter Squadron

 

I was doing some reading tonite and found that Willie Lee JR was a member of the speed shifters. He is a active member of the quarter masters race club. I think I need to sit down with this guy. Could this guy be the legend I have heard of called BIg foot Willie?

 

I finally got a chance to scan the article.

Here it is, enjoy!

(I think if you right click / save there should be enough resolution to enlarge and read, if I'm wrong let me know...)

 

Although there was a certain amount of segregation the story is an exact parallel of what was going on in the White neighborhoods of the area.

The Shifters may have thought their bald heads only got them in trouble because of their color but I remember when the same thing happened to a bunch of my White buddies. I remember being the only one that didn't shave my head that spring and boy was I glad.

Every morning at roll call in school our math teacher would walk the isles calling out names and smacking the heads of any one with a shaved head. For some reason group head shaving was seen as an affront to the authorities.

I remember blue jeans being against dress codes too. You could wear white jeans but not blue. Blue jeans were "hoodlum".