When I was in high school 30+ years ago we used to cruise the strip downtown on Friday and Saturday night. It would take up to an hour to do the loop of six blocks down and six blocks back. I lived in Bremerton at the time which is a Navy town so you had a mix of high school and older kids and sailors cruising town. There are a few stories to tell and getting hassled by the cops would be part of it. Please tell your stories, here is one of mine to start with. I had a 54 Chevy 1-1/2 ton truck with a newer 292 GMC 6 cylinder in it with a 194 Chevy head on it that brought the compression ratio up a bit because of the smaller combustion chambers. The frame was shortened to be used for a yard truck and was 5-1/2' from the back of the cab to the back of the frame. A pair of military trailer fenders were on the back with a piece of steel between them for a tiny bed. It had a burned out side pipe right under the running board and when you revved it up and backed of it would shoot a flame out about a foot and a half with a loud bang. One night I was cutting through an alley to get back on the main street and as I was about to pull into the street this squid (that's what we called the sailors) cuts me off in a white Lincoln and then starts to have a conversation with the guy going the other direction on the street blocking traffic both ways. Well he finally pulls forward and I get in and at the light it turned to two lanes. I pull up beside him so that the side pipe is aimed at the rolled down window, revved it real good filling their car with black smoke and then the back fire. The light changed and I got the hole shot on him and then changed lanes in front of him so he was behind me at the next light. The light changes and he is right on me (I think he might have been upset) so I told the people who were with me to brace on the dash and I jammed the brakes and then the gas. It looked like the Lincoln bumper almost hit the ground because he didn't want to hit the 3/4" thick plate with two channel iron hitches sticking out of the back of it. He turned off at the next street and I never saw him again the rest of the night. I had a lot of fun in that old truck and knowing what I know now I would have fixed it up but I didn't have the skills to do it then, Wish I had it back.
There was the time when on the way back home from cruising Whittier Blvd with a buddy in my 70 Chevelle SS396 we came up on a 65 Mustang at a stop light, when the light changed we both hit it and I pulled out in front, and then the red lights started flashing behind me. Damn! Cop had sen the whole thing, said he pulled me over cause I won. Told me he wished I'd not stopped, because he loved high speed pursuits, then cited me for speed contest. Expensive ticket!
The squid was probably drunk, otherwise he'd have beat your ass. Or maybe he didnt want to go to jail for beating up some punk ass kid. Either way its a good story, be glad you're alive to tell it. Merry Christmas.
He just didn't want to play road warrior with his Lincoln. More stories of youthful exuberance please.
1969, I'm a 17 year old kid who had just graduated high school. All through high school I worked at the local Standard Chevron Dealer. I had been saving my money for a new car; I wanted a 69 340 Dart, but by the time I had enough money, the 70's were out. So, this 17 year old bought a brand new 1970, 340 Dart, Torqueflite, 3.91 Suregrip, Vitamin C Orange with a twin scooped blacked out hood.....................and paid cash for it! Headers, 16 inch Cherry Bombs, cranked up on the torsion bars, and air shocks in the rear, Cragar S/S rims with big and littles. First time at the drag strip went 14.40 up against a 68 Dart GTS/383 car with a girl driving. I beat her, but then she did go up in smoke. Cruised the world famous, city of Everett, Washington's Colby Avenue, AKA "the Gut". Golden Gardens in Seattle, the Renton loop, even went over to Bremerton one night. They used to have huge street races at Golden Gardens, and there we even window decals that said, Golden Gardens Raceway. I never raced the Gardens, but a friend did. One night in Everett I raced a 57 Chevrolet off a traffic light on Colby, did't even see the EPD car two cars back. Lit up both up, the 57 kept going, I pulled over. I just knew I was DEAD! Cop comes up to the door, and he says, "Look, you and I both know what this car will do, don't do it in town, not get out of here!". He did't need to say that twice. Raced a 65 Vette F.I. on I-5 once, and he had me all the way to about 110, when I finally went by him and pegged the 140 MPH speedometer. When I turned 19, I got a notice from my uncle in the mail inviting me to come play war with him; that put a dampener on everything. But, it got me away from working on cars, to working on people, and a 32 year career in healthcare as an X-Ray/CAT Scan Tech. Been a drag racer, helped operate Bremerton Raceway for four years, build several drag only cars, a bunch of street cars, and now I'm back to classic Chevrolet's (currently a 56 Sedan Delivery and a 51 Bus Coupe), and building another street/strip car; a BBC, TH400, 12 Bolt, 68 Biscayne, 4 door sedan, sleeper. I am Butch/56sedandelivery
That's a great story Butch. That is cool about working the Bremerton strip. You probably knew One Eyed Jack and his Firebird.
Back in the early 50s when it was still legal to race on Woodward ave.[the cops were driving 6 cyl. Chevys and could not catch anyone] I carried a stopwatch. I had time of the green lights memorized so I hit the light just when it turned red. Hard to pick a race if your 3 cars back.
One eyed Jack, Jack Ward, and his black 68 (67 or 68?) Firebird, he still runs that car. I was the starter 88-92, then my work schedule changed to being responsible for a lot more of "on-call", and I had to drop out of the Handler's Racing Association. But, being at Bremerton was the toughest job I ever loved. Now, with Gordon Howell and his wife running the show, it's more "for money" than an all volunteer, non-profit than it had always been. Course they managed to do a lot with the track, so it's not "portable' like it was; jersey barriers, tower left in place, scales. But, the Port has also built a new road into and around the inactive runway area with the hope of light industrial development. It's just a matter of time before Bremerton goes away. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
When I was about 19 or 20 I rode in the back of Jacks car with a manual shifted automatic and got my head bounced off the back window when it shifted. Jim Ford
I grew up near Grove City,Ohio. Graduated in 69 so I was pretty much in the heyday of crusing. Hot cars,hot girls,life was good. Green Gables at Central Point on the weekends was the place to be, the kind of place if you didn't have something that run you best keep your mouth shut. Some of the big boys trailored cars in for streetdrags! After gables we would head over to West Broad to loop around the Big Boy and do some stoplight runs. A couple times a month I would go down to my grand parents near Logan, there we would circle the Shake Shop, go thru downtown to The Knotty Pine and back to the Shake shop. I had more fun and got into more trouble than any other time in my life! I went to work for Uncle Sam via a greetings letter in early 71, when I came back it wasn't the same and went down hill from there. Now all the good cruise spots are gone and unless me and a couple other gray beards get the old cars out all you see is wise assed punks in tuners with fart cans and big speakers or diesel pickups with black smoke rolling out of the bed stacks.
Back in the 50's/60's in Holland Mich, 8th street was the main cruise along with the state park in the summer. Craziest thing I remember was when a guy was getting married, at the bachelor party, they would crate him up and stand him up on the cruise route. When I finally could get a good cruiser, 61 Chev 2dr ht, 327 stick, pulled up next to an Olds 4dr at a light. Light turned, popped the clutch and blew the rear gears all over the street. First attempt to change a rear, got a pumpkin at the wrecking yard for $10, got it in with help from a rookie friend and we didn't clean out the broken teeth. Not long after, had to change it again as the ring gear picked up some shrapnel and drove it through the housing. My buddy had a 63 Impala(in~1968) and was racing another buddy at night (after the state park closed)who had a 36 Ford coupe with small block Chev. I was in the back seat of the 63 and could see the generator brushes arcing on the 36 through the engine side cover louvers - funny how certain things never seem to leave your brain. Those were some fun times!
Its 1968, my buddie had a 57 Ford two door sedan passed down from his mom. 223 with a 3 speed. We ran onto a guy that had raced a 312 Ford in the late 50's , had all kinds of go fast goodies and two complete 312's for $250.00. We build a bad assed .060 over 312, wild cam, 2-4's, ported heads, the works. done it all on the cheap with what he got from the old racer guy and help from out vo-tech auto shop we were in and the friends in the machine shop next to our mechanics shop. As soon as we got the bugs worked out we headed for the street, stock 3 speed with a hurst shifter, 9 inch with stump puller gears and that ratty assed 57! I was driving as he was scared of blowing it up. We came up to the last red light before it opened up to a long straight county road out of town, this new RoadRunner was beside me, givin us the he-haw and revving the hell out of it. I goosed the Ford up a little, the light turned and the RR dumped the clutch and sat there spinning the goodyears, I eased it out to about 30 and kicked those 2-4s, the linkage over centered, the 312 was screaming and we beat the wise ass in the RoadRunner. When I finally turned the key off we must have coasted two miles. We got real good at replacing gears in those old 3 speed trans, after about 4 of them he found a top loader 4 speed, two weeks after that the 312 threw a rod out the side of the block, we put the 223 back in it and he sold the 57 and bought a 396 Chevelle, that one started a whole other series of stories!
I graduated from high school in 1967, and had a 61 Pontiac Bonniville Convertible 389 tri power. I took out the auto trans and put in a speed. I could beat 396 Chevelles with that cr, big and heavy but would run. We used to race just outside of town just west of the drive in theater, and up and down 2nd street, part of the strip. One night while racing stop light to stop light an old man stepped off the curb, and I almost hit him, scared the crap out of me. That stopped me from racing for a couple of weeks though.
In the late 60's I was cruising the Queenstown (Hyattsville, Md.) Mighty Mo and the Capital Plaza Hot Shoppes in Landover Hills, Md. in this. Chasing girls, checking out the parties, watching the street racing. It's what we did.
I was cruising the main drag in my 63 1/2 Falcon Sprint one late fall evening on my way to play at the local teen club,I had my Fender dual showman bass amp setting on the back seat and the head in the front passenger floor board,my bass guitar was in the back floorboard. I pulled up to the light at the intersection of main and Whitehall when I hear a rumble of a AMX pull up beside me.he glanced over and reved up his engine so I did the same,the light changed and I stabbed the loud pedal and blew his doors off...I thought,he just sat there and watched me get busted. Unbeknownst to me,a police car was right behind me but I didn't know it because the speaker cabinet was too tall to see over,but I did see the red reflection on the headliner and a faint red blip on my rear view mirror from the bubblegum machine on the police car and of course the siren. I pulled in at the Burger King about a block down the road and preformed my best song and dance,,,,my foot slipped of the clutch was my excuse,he didn't buy it and questioned how could I be so dumb as to do that with him behind me. He also said he knew the guy in the AMX spurred be own and if we both had took of he cut get us both for racing but he let me off with a reckless driving ticket and got me for 4 points,,he also charged me $ 17.50. My share of the money our band made for playing that night left me with just enough money to pay the ticket Monday morning, a few gallons of gas and a hamburger at Micky D's later on that night. HRP
Great story Danny, I didn't know you played bass too. I've got a mid 70's Jazz bass, I mostly play guitar but I get the old bass out once in awhile and play it to keep the chops up.
In high school & college (late 70's/early 80') I drove a inexpensively repainted silver blue '64 Impala convertible - 250hp 327 with 3.08's. Not a boulevard brawler, but a real looker. In the winter, my folks were good enough to let me store my convertible in the garage to better survive North Dakota winters, kicking my dad's pickup out into the driveway. Let my dad take my convertible on ice cream cruises that I only learned later were really fun for him, although he wouldn't admit to me. Anyway... My dad bought the family (basically my sister and I) a lightly used red with/red vinyl top and red interior '75 Chevy Monza notchback (not the fastback) with the small v8 (262ci, IIRC) & auto trans for teenage transportation. Sort of a cute little "girl's car" (it was basically a glorified Vega), but that little v8 made for a zippy little car. I think the base model Monza came with a 4 or 6cyl, but this was the optional v8. My sister mostly drove it but I would drive it some, like in the winter or when I had some other reason to not drive my convertible. (Now... to get to the point) I was a good kid, kept my nose clean and didn't normally do anything considered reckless. I hadn't street raced until... I was heading down the main street of my hometown, Mandan, ND one night and find myself next to a cherry'ed out nicely painted butterscotch colored '68-70' Nova with a lumpy cam. I'm checking out his car and make unplanned eye contact with the driver who had one or two people with him. He sort of sneers at me dismissively, in what likely looked like a girl's car. Not sure where my sudden burst of bravado came from, but the arrogant prick pissed me off, so I revved up my "girl's car". Made him sneer more, and yada yada yada we are about to have us a street race. I did know from a few friends who had cars they would street race that a 'race' was from one light to the next in my hometown. As luck would have it the light I was stopped at was only one block to the next light. Not even sure why the fool was going to race me, but was likely showing off to whomever was in the car. I can't even tell you why I had found myself in a street race with a "girl's car". Anyway... light turns green and I'm aware of my engine noise and his engine noise and.... tire squeal. That little Monza wasn't really a tire squealer, but if you put your foot in it, it would leave sneaky fast like a gopher with it's tail on fire. When I got to the next light, I was about a car length ahead of the Nova which was just starting to get wound up.. If the block had been any longer and he likely hadn't spun his tires he would have ate my lunch. To say he was pissed for losing was an understatement... cuz for the next few blocks he menaced me, shouting for me to 'pull over so I can kick your ass!'. I just kept driving as I didn't like the sound of a 2 or 3 on 1 ass kickin'. I heard for awhile he was 'looking for me'. So, I retired from street racing: 1 Win, 0 losses. All thanks to a "girl's car".
This is more of a "you know when your old when" stories. After years of raising hell on Telegraph rd. in Detroit during the late 60's & early 70's I'm driving down Telegraph in my 79 Ranchero with a tired old 351m in the late 80's. Sitting at a light a kid pulls up in his "race car" that I don't remember what it was. He's revving his engine, giving me "the look" and I'm sitting there wondering what the hell is his problem. When the light turns green and he smokes them a bit it finally dawns on me he wanted to race. Duh! Talk about feeling old.
Hand in the air. Manditory in my 57 BelAir high school car, it looked hotter than it really was, stock 283 with a T-10, Cragars and a "Grump lump" hood scoop. Life was good!
Man, does this thread bring back some memories (not all good either). My first high school car was a black 61 Impala, 4 door h.t. had a 348/3 speed on the column. I had just put a Hurst syncro-loc shifter in it (first speed part I ever bought), neighbor kid went with me to cruise Broadway,"the" cruise spot in Portland in the late 60's. This guy was always "pull'n shit", while sitting at a light, with the clutch in, I turned to look at some girls and the idiot reaches over and puts it in neutral (he thought). It actually was just part way out of gear, and when I went to peal out to impress the girls; there was this big bang from under the car, well guess what I was doing the next weekend, you got it, going to the wrecking yard to look for another transmission. That little prick never got to step foot in my car again.
Wisconsin Ave, Milwaukee Wi. 64-70 for me, It was Big on Saturday nite. 100's of cars thousands of people, My buddy, "Crazy Dave" buys a 65 GTO, picks me up for a cruise, normally did not ride with him, (nickname). We are sitting at stop light, plankington and Wisconsin ave. Saturday night 9:00 PM. Crowds of people chanting, light them up to everyone. See the gleam in his eye, keep in mind, bumper to bumper traffic, beat cops on every block, light turns green, we sit, to get a space in front of us, thinking, OBoy, he lights the GTO off, full tilt tire melt across intersection, slide to a halt, beat cop walks up to us and said, What The Hell is wrong with you ? And I said are you crazy ? Well Crazy Dave goes directly to jail for driving with suspended license and I take his car home. another "Crazy Dave" story just got my 327 64 SS back together after exploding rear end, put 4:88 posi in, had Street slicks,fairly fast for time frame, meet Dave cruising and we decide to race, he was just out of Huber law and driving his GTO.. He tells me about this great race road over in Glendale.... We get there, all quiet, line up and Go, The Red lights went on instantly as the local cops were watching this area, Dave turns off, I run straight, much to my surprise, about a mile down the road, 90 deg, right hander, over 100 Mph, Said to self "Shit", slowed down some, went off road, thru fence,and mowed down alot of corn. Will never forget, cop pulls up and over PA system says, Lock her up Buddy,You are going to jail. Was held in a holding cell till Monday am to go before judge, they had me, wife showed up, they let me call her, she brought our baby along and the judge cut me a deal of a lifetime. He suspended my licence, $150 fine and sent a copy of driving record to all surrounding burbs, if I got caught again, this was not the first time I was in trouble over driving like an ASS, I was going to jail. Next day, put sign on the SS, sold it in 2 days, my street racing days were over, decided to go dizzy track racing for my need for speed, a 21 year adventure and many stories, AND NO MORE Crazy Dave as a friend, have more stories with him and I, together we were "Stupid is as Stupid does"
Hello, Having an early start in hot rodding and custom cars in our Westside of Long Beach neighborhood in So Cal, we did see a lot of styles that people like, even by today’s standards. When my brother bought his first car at age 15, everyone laughed, but he was determined that his car would be one of a kind. Again, money did play a huge part in what was put on the teenage hot rods and cruisers. The most obvious thing to modify were the wheels and tires. We went to a lot of local car shows and scoured the Lions Dragstrip parking lots for hot rod styles and wheels. There were many days where my brother’s friends would come over for a hubcap swap event. Just to see what hubcap looked good on those old cars. (Three prong flipper on a 51 Olds Sedan or Moon Discs? Dodge Lancers on a 34 Ford 5 window or Baby Moons?) 1951 Oldsmobile cruiser/hot rod Most of the time, the “flipper” hubcaps won out over most others. But, there was a market for them in all sorts of sales. (Underground or swap meets at ridiculously low prices) So, there were all sorts of way tried to keep those flippers on the cars. One of the most interesting ways was this item or the earlier variations, that were sold at most auto parts stores. How ironic, that sometimes at the swap meets or yard sales, these might pop up sitting next to the flipper hubcap set shown. “Hey, we take them, but here is a way to safe guard them…” There were some problems with the fit and finish as sometimes the hubcaps would fall off and instead of rolling to the dirt by the side of the road, they got smashed while still attached to the spinning wheel. A good, but no so good idea. alternative full size hubcaps on a 33-34 Ford 5 window coupe 1959 Jnaki In the many years that followed, there were plenty of hubcaps created. One of them was a copy of several styles and on certain hot rods or customs, they look as if they came from the mid 50s. But, they are restyled, newer versions. It is a custom accessory just for hot rods and customs that want the 50’s look, with new hubcaps.
The Jalopy Journal
