Do we have any traditional rodders on here?

some good stories.....keep em' coming....

 

Free Sex, Drugs, and rock & roll, to whcih NONE exsist today. And we even had time to buld cars and race.

Like today, protesters are just weenie commie bastards to affaid to die for the country that gave them the privilege to protest.

Hated them then, hate them now.

I laughed in the face of one just 2 months ago when he called me a :

"Dope smokin, ear totin, baby killin', dinosaur"

There were no good old days, it just that the new days suck worst

 

I remember the indoor drag races at the Amphitheather. A great show and something to do in the Winter. Got exciting when some of the South side boys had an engine fire at the start-smoke about killed us. Never ran indoors only raced at Oswego. The good old days of engine swaps. We raced out at Army trail road and ran up and down Roosevelt road from Wheaton to Elmhurst stopping at the A&W to make some noise and look for dropped tie rods. In the early 60's the factory hot rods ( 409's etc. ) showed up and any kid with Dads $$ was fast. Kind of ruined it for us poor greasers. Ran a Packard powered 54 Ford, black primer and lots of pigeon shit from working on it in the barn. I remember the summer nights hanging out with the guys in front of the Seven Dwarfts looking for a race. Some of the most exciting and fun days of my life.
Speedy Pete

 

Just for the heck of it, you familiar with the names Jim Kaylor and Leldon Blackwell???

 

I live about 15 mins from the Brooksville airport in west central Fla. Since I am not a native Floridian I missed the drag events held at this airstrip. I understand that the meets at Brooksville were well attended and Garlits even smashed a mph barrier there in the early `60's. Don't mean to change the subject but I think there are a bunch of stories that pertain to that place. Anyone familiar with it?

 

Thanks for sharing....

I'll continue reading

HRD

 

Yes, I knew them both. Jim Kaylor has passed away, I don't know about Leldon. I know that he was in ill health, and that was several years ago. Jim Kaylor was one of the owners of the Golden Triangle along with the owner of the land and the guy who paved the strip. It was run by the Blockbusters car club of Clearwater, FL of which I was a member. I last saw Jim Kaylor at the racers reunion at Garlits Museum a few years back.

To answer the other question about the Brooksville Strip, yes I was at that one too, but just as a spectator. I am in a photo above Garlits first swamp rat in his museum in all my youthful splendor. Garlits set several records in Florida, but they weren't recognized because they weren't NHRA tracks. I flagged him off when he went over 160 at Golden Triangle, but we weren't sanctioned, so he immediately went to the west coast and set the record out there at a sanctioned track. As a flagger, he wasn't real friendly to me. I remember many times he gave me the racers salute when I called him back for jumping the flag.

 

I'm not, too young. In 1933 my dad left Tacoma Wash. on Thanksgiving day with $10 in his pocket hitchhiking to L.A. to go to work at a bike shop across the street from Stanford University renting bikes, as in bicycles. After two days he was as far as Medford, Ore. and met a fellow traveler who asked to borrow $5 until they got to Sacramento. In his writings my old man said the guy seemed a good sort so he leant him the fiver. They arrived in Sacto, went to the post office, the guy procured his money and payed my old man back: half his traveling money. Two days later he arrived in L.A. at seven am and went to work on the spot. He saved his $10 a week salary as much as he could until February when the owner of the shop arrived to close the shop. They then loaded the bikes on a ship back to Seattle and the both of them started hitch hiking back to Seattle. The money he saved was used to enrole in college at tw22He played football and was a star. He never had a hot rod or much else when he was young but he had great determination and a work ethic he lovingly passed to me. He wanted to be an engineer but settled for being a school principal. I wish my old man had lived long enough to take a ride in my old roadster. He would have loved it. He never let me go outside when the hot rod club met next door in about 1955. Those guys are trouble he said. Sorry what was this post about?

 

Dunno about bein' a rodder but I was born in So. Cal. in '42, graduated from high school in '60 so I was there so to speak. First car I rememember was my folks light grey '40 Chev Master Deluxe tudor sedan that they had bought new. Later they had a '48 Buick straight 8 woody wagon, a real POS car though it looked really nice. My first car wasn't a car, it was a '40s Harley WLA 45" flathead Army surplus bike which I bought in '58, I'm still into bikes, especially old ones. Probably have more miles in on bikes than in cars even though I drove a cab for a few years.

My first car was a '52 Plymouth 4-door flathead 6 that I bought for $25. Car was trash inside and out but the engine had been rebuilt and ran just great. I drove it home (with no brakes!) and put in a rebuilt master cylinder that I think cost me $7. Slow as a slug and rolled like a boat in the turns but it was a car. Never could figure out how they picked those awful gear ratios, it seemed like a 4 speed with 2nd gear missing. Later inherited my folks '50 Merc sport sedan, 3 speed OD...a great road car. My friend had a '53 Merc, also flathead but mine was faster 'cause the '53 weighed more. Also had a '42 Chev for awhile, a really rare bird since they only made a few before WWII started, the '46 is nearly identical. Also had a '38 Olds jalopy.

Some of my friends had some nice old iron. One guy had a telephone booth Model T on '32 Ford running gear, Merc flathead w/ Offy heads and 3 Stromberg 97s...always in fresh primer, never painted but the chrome did shine so bright. T-Timers (Topanga) plaque in the rear window. Too cool!

Another guy I knew had a pale lemon yellow '46 Chevy coupe with a jimmy six engine that was pretty heavily breathed on. He blow off someone in a street race and they'd ask what was under the hood. He'd tell 'em a six. They'd say, "No way." "Wanna bet?" he'd say. An amount would be settled on and he'd open the hood and take their money...suckers!

My English teacher had a funky but cool Model A roadster with open engine bay (4 banger), magneto iggy and cycle fenders all around. Front fenders and headlights turned with the front wheels...totally bitchin'. One day a bunch of guys from the auto shop class picked the car up and set it down between a couple of poles so it couldn't be moved. After school teach went to go home and boy was he fit to be tied. Eventually after a lot of laughs at his expense the guys relented and put the car back where he'd parked it.

The most sought after cars for rods were '32 Ford roadsters and coupes, usually with Merc flatheads, 3 Stromberg carbs and '40 Fords were popular too. OHV Olds engines were an item too.

Later when I was in Naval Aviation, one of my squadron mates had a '56 Chevy Bel Aire tudor with a 6 in it. It was totally stock but for some reason it was faster than most, maybe the engine was built on a Wednesday. He trophied in class at the drags several times with it. We used to go cruising looking for T-birds...I mean real T-birds, '55-'57, not those 4 seat POS ones. The thing with those cars was, although they were fast the rear wheels were lightly loaded so they were difficult to get off the line quickly. We'd pull up at a light and give Mr. T-bird the "Wanna race?" sign and when the light changed the T-bird would light up the back tires and we'd just motor away with the guy back there in his own tire smoke...no muss, no fuss, no scratch...just a-movin' down the road. Next light, "Hey what's in that thing?" "Stock six." "You're kiddin'!" "Wanna look?" Hee, hee, hee!

I've got some more stories but some other time.

 

I am far from old(31), but I was hanging with my father the other night, and he was telling some high school stories. I have heard about his 50 ford for as long as I can remember. It turns out as he says there were 7 blue/black 49-51 fords at his high school, with a total of 37 students(male and female). He has a tattoo of a panther on his forarm, that he got when he was 15 or 16. All the pictures of him at that age he has a DA, blue jeans, white t-shirt, standard loking 1956-1957 bad ass look. He had some wild stories. Most have been validated by his friends. He is still cool as hell, but his intrest in cars is only as new transportation. The coolest thing he has ever had in my life time was a 1953 chevrolet, and because if it I am working on one now. It will be cool, but I know he would flip if I built a dark blue 50 ford like his.

 

To me, the word "traditional" means carrying on something that went before. The words are purely semantic in todays terms, but I think the IDEA of taking a car and making it go faster, look better than it did from the factory in whatever medium a guy chose, whether that be paint or primer, chrome or no chrome, etc., and basically PERSONALIZING it to suit his or her tastes...and the explanation and the stories of the how's and why's it got that way is what this is all about. Young guns of each generation since the mechanical age began have always searched for ways to "tweak" what they had and to show it off in action, be it mechanically or aethestically. And its those stories of the creative genius in all of us (some better, some worse, but still creative nonetheless) that makes this hobby, industry, sport...whatever you wanna call it....so fascinating. It hold true for even the import tuners of today...they have that same creativeness and drive and rebellion that we have all had at some point in our hot rod life. I was born in '47. My dad spent his entire life around cars, albeit in a body shop working on collision damage and doing custom work for the young guns in our town who wanted a chopped merc, or shaved chevy, or frenched headlights, or a 46 olds grille in a 48 ford, or custom hand rubbed lacquer or flames or scallops paint jobs. Many a night was spent watching him work his magic at his shop on our property south of town. He would work into the night because once the creative juices started flowing it was hard for him to stop in mid-project, whether it was roughing out a hood on a 54 mercury for a scoop being added where the "bird" ornament was, or putting the last coat of paint on a gorgeously prepared flawless 60 corvette, or bobbing the rear fenders of a deuce 5 window and designing the rear rolled pan for it. I was awed by his masterful talent, an unsung artist who used cars as his canvas, living right here locally in our town...and he was my dad. He was my inspiration to be creative in my own right. I worked along side him whenever I could after high school, wet sanding those huge 58 and 59 impalas, sweeping the floors, brazing up holes where moldings used to be, and learning how to apply and sculp the pre-bondo filler known as lead. Each step learned was a story in itself, like the time I was learning how to skin a door and the big old electric Milwaulkie grinder I was using caught an edge due to my error of putting the edge of the grinder disc turning directly INTO the work edge, and it flipped almost out of my hands and landed in my crotch of my coveralls I was wearing at the time...it had a toggle switch instead of a trigger switch and it had wrapped the disc around and around the looseness of my coveralls down in my crotch area...and I couldnt reach the toggle switch to shut it off for what seemed like an eternity. When I untangled the mess, I discovered that the disc edge had sliced right through the coveralls, my jeans, and into my BVD's ...and, luckily it had only scraped my skin....My dad saw this happen and said to me: " Well, son, any closer and your name would have been Stefanie!" we both laughed about it. He then showed me the right way to do it. My first car was a 37 coupe with a full house flatty merc. Came back from the Navy and sold the coupe, and other priorities came into play (families, homes, other not so expensive hobbies) but my love for the hot rods was always there. I kept up on the latest trends and cars through the magazines and the locals building their cars and kept the spirit alive inside me. I bought a VW convert in 83 because i wanted an open car and couldnt afford to build a roadster the way I wanted to. I just finished it in 2003. It has a lot of hot rod touches on it like a deuce dash, tuck & roll interior, shaved handles and trim, chopped carson top, louvers in the lid, bigs and littles, etc. Now my attention is on my 30 A highboy coupe which I plan to drive next July. The chassis is of my own design, taking cues from different cars and equipment, but making it to suit my tastes according to how I have planned the whole car. I can see it done in my mind....and I am making it happen....aint that what the vision of hot rods is all about?

 

I was born in '47, got interested in cars at 14. My first V8 (at 16) was a 1927 fenderless T tub sitting on A rails with a stock '34 flattie. Still had the rod brakes even. Had straight pipes with chicken wire shoved up them with a broom handle, and leopard skin seat covers. Graduated to a '36 5window with pink plexi roof insert and copper exhaust pipes that glowed in the dark, then to a channeled '33 5window. The cops at that time had '47 club coupes and Mk1 Ford Zephyrs (English) and me and my mate could outrun them easy. Used to run false plates clipped over the top of the real ones so they could'nt trace us. Rolled a Ford going backwards (drunk at 1 a.m) and rolled a 37 Chev coupe into a guy's front garden. One thing I remember is going to see a mate with a flattie rail who lived in the country. He'd just finished it and wanted to see how fast it would go. We took off down this real long straight road in his 59 Ford with 352, and the rail following us. When we got to top speed in the 59, about 110mph I guess, the rail came past us like we were standing still! He had no crash helmet or harness but we never thought of stuff like that in those days. We used to drag on a country road with 1/4 mile white lines painted on it. The authorities would come and paint them over with black, but they'd be painted white again that night!! On any given night there could be anything from Ford coupes to Mini Coopers racing down there. This was in the mid to late '60s, by 1970 the show rods had started appearing, and things got serious. The spontenaity (sp?) disappeared, and the rough cars got stripped and rebuilt with chrome and real upholstery etc. To me the '60s were fabulous and fun, the '70s lost most of that, and so I lost interest in rodding. I regained my interest around a year or so back when I realised that guys were now building cars with paint instead of chrome, Mexi blankets instead of $10K upholstery, and primer and suede in place of the $15K paint jobs.

 

I agree , I lurk alot on this board and have for years even before I joined up.I love to hear from the seniors of this board.They are the reason I am here.They are the reason Ryan started this.I love the core of hotrods and they are the last tale of our origins.thank you .swaZZie

 

I'm still a youngin', but shootin it with the guys who were there when it all began is easily one of the coolest parts of the hobby.

The fella (whose name escapes me at this moment) bought this beauty in 1955 as a stocker. He and his brother worked for Lentz auto body in NJ, and chopped the car in '56. He carried a couple of photo albums with photos dating back to the mid 40s, and pictures chronicling the build every step of the way. He told stories of characters that have come and gone, and how they used to do things back then. The car still has the fully dressed flatty in it. He's 73 and has owned the car for the past 50 years. Talking to that guy for the 1/2 hour I did was well worth the hour drive to the show alone.

 

Joe this chopped `39 Ragtop is euphoria for me. Thanks for posting a pic of it.

 

The picture of this immaculate 39 ragtop shows what most of us building cars in the fifties were trying to achieve. Most of our cars never made it to this stage of beauty, but here is the epitome of what we were trying to achieve from the custom street driven car that made you the envy of all the other guys that weren't there yet. Notice that it is basically stock with just a little chop. This speaks volumes about knowing when to quit. Nothing else would make this car look any better.

 

Hey hotrod1940,

Leldon Blackwell is doing OK especially since his recent retirement. I saw him a month ago and he looks like he feels much better. Too bad Kaylor went so young, and unfortunately Carol his wife has passed away also. I helped her a bit after Jim died and she told me some stories. Like a Brooksville drag meet was one of the first times she and Jim met, and how she played "hard to get". ha- ha! I'll tell you we must listen to these stories and strive to remember them. They are golden!

 

There was a dragstrip in Cincinnati called Beechmont Dragway, that was only open for a few years ('58 to '60 or '61). It's where I first saw George Montgomery race his Cad powered '33 Ford. He usually raced the guy in the picture below for Top Eliminator - Jim Cook, who had a garage (Cooks Garage) in Newtown, Ohio. Jim was the local Mopar wizzard, and did all of the work on the Ohio State Patrol cars. Jim was also in excess of 300 lbs, which was one of the reasons that his roadsters always had Hemis for power - anything less would have been futile.

Jim was a gruff guy, and it was fun to watch his crew get his car prepped for a run, as Jim took a Jabba the Hut pose on a disappearing chair or tire as he directed his crew.

The strip had to shut down because of noise complaints from the snooty Watch Hill homeowners, across the Little Miami River from the strip. In an effort to muffle the noise, the strip erected a hay bale noise barrier behind the starting line for the last year.

Anyway, the last time I saw Jim run, or try to, he did his usual routine with the crew, and with much effort, he climbed into the seat, and they strapped him in. In the picture, which is from the Nationals in Detroit, and was on the cover of Hot Rod, and the Hot Rod Reunion program, you can see that his helmet is small, in comparison to his shoulders - an indication of his girth. The crew was particularly unhappy with him as he did a burnout and staged. When the flag came up, his Hemi puked it's guts all over the starting line, and he slammed his hands on the steering wheel in anger so hard he bent it. As the crew hustled out to push him back off the line, he was flailing his arms, and bouncing his head as he chewed their asses for the demise of his motor. The crew pushed him around the hay bales as we watched the track crew clean the mess up.

After the mess was cleaned up, we could hear someone yelling, between cars doing burnouts and staging. Thinking nothing of it, we went to look for Cook's pit to see how bad he hurt the motor. His pit was empty, except for the crew, who were laughing and having a pretty good time.

We found Jim behind the bales, still in his car, begging people for help in getting out of his car, and threatening all kinds of bodily harm to his crew when he escaped. He couldn't get out of the car without help, and his crew figured it was safer to leave him in it, and after pushing him behind the bales, walked away.

That car would have been a record holder with a normal sized driver.


Mutt

 

Henry Floored I sent you a private message. Thanks

 

There is a lot of truth in what is said above. Hanging around guys from the The west side of L.A. in the mid 70-80's Guys like Isky,Donovan Bud Hand, Engle. used to come to a cruise night @ the Westwood "All American Burger",
This was small parking lot & it would just get packed with all kinds of cool cars. I had a 68 GTO convrt, & felt out of place. sold it to get something much older.
They were always talking about the lastest & greatest new thing & here we are stuck in the nostalgia of their youth. Go figure. Doane Spencer was the same way.
My Dad grew up in the heart of L.A. Hot Rodding, Graduated LIncoln High 47, in Lincoln Heights CA. Lots of guys with Hot Rods,all different kinds,but their focus was not on getting the hot deuce roadster over on the corner, It was the next hot "New Car" . Everything new was cool to them,because they had lived through the depression,then WW2, so "NEW' was indeed better for them.
Many GI's stayed here after after the war & that's how most of the surrounding (mine included) areas were built.
My dad past up what today we'd see as choice iron to save his Air Force pay to buy a "Brand Spanking New 49 Merc". didn't have it a few hours & put "Duals" on it, while it was on the rack "might as well heat the springs too", So within a day of owning it he had it "personallized" so it would stay "new", Shortly thereafter he had the top chopped by his buddy Gil (Ayala) and that kept it new still longer.
My dad is like that to this day, In fact we just bought him a new car 2 weeks ago
(Black with a 5 spd & rear spoiler & mags) He kept his 3 yr old Regal as a back up.l The sucker is 75yrs old.
He wonders why I'm into all of this car stuff,speed equipment and the stuff that he grew up with,but he puts up with it. He comes around every now & then and tell me about how they used to cruise around looking for chicks & taking the sight @ the "joints" but as he gets older he tends to think what we're into isn't such a "waste of time after all" .

 

Cruise night spot in the '50s San Fernando Valley was Van Nuys Bob's drive-in. Even the LAPD freeway patrol (Olds w/lumpy cam, roll cages and cops in helmets) used to drive through and do a little burn out when leaving. Everything from rich guys in Ferraris to funky rods in primer. Just like the Mothers of Invention sang, "We were gonna go to the drive in and I was gonna show everybody my new carburetor but you didn't call me girl!"

 

Born in 44 borrowed my first R&C in math class about 58. I was done. it was over...a terminal disease that I'm still afflicted with...happily

I forget what we called our first car club. A few teenagers that I met at the Mighty Mo. We were going to build a race car!!! Somewhere we found a 29 A sedan channeled over the frame. I wish I had a picture. It would fit right in here. The rear was welded to the stock frame. Hank had a cool black 58 Impala 348 3spd on the floor. He had a spare 348 with a Turboglide(?) trans. The odd trans not the Powerglide. We were building it in the back yard. No garage just grass. (rye not weed I never saw any weed until Viet Nam) Needless to say it never went anywhere.

I finally got enough nerve to aproach the converted pre-war airplane hanger behind the Mighty Mo. Home of the P.G. Kustoms.


The property was owned by Prince Georges county and we paid rent of a dollar a year thanks to county Police officer Vince Duscalier(sp?) and a D.C. police officer Dave "tubby" McGonagal(sp?) The red area is the outline of the County. The windshield is on the Dist. of Columbia/Md. line.

I was a little intimidated. There was some cool shit coming and going from that place. All I had was 58 Ply with a 383 that I put in it in my back yard. It did have an Isky 310 duration hyd. cam that made it sound bad. Since I was employed and able to pay the weekly dues, I was welcomed with open arms. The dues paid for the welding supplies and the occasional upkeep on the corrogated tin pole building and the old airport control building that we used as the club house.

Bob Sales had a 41 Chevy convertable. SBC (I still have his Spalding flame thrower) 4 spd. I think. There weren't many automatic Chevy powered hot rods due to the lousy trans options. He always won a trophy in the D.C. Armory show which back then was one of the top national shows put on by the Ram Rods.

Now Oldsmobiles were a completely differt story. Granahan had a 33 Chevy trunk back sedan with a 394 and a built hydro. It had a genuine Tiajuana upholstery job from his days in so. Cal. There was a 49 2dr Olds with another 394-hydro. in the garage too.

Sonny Willet was a hero of mine. He special ordered a beautiful black 61 88 hard top. 394 with three on the tree. I asked him how much did it cost you to get the 3 spd. He said 175$ less than the optional automatic. duh. He was top banana on the street for a few years until the 327s started to take over. He claims to have never lost to a 409 on the street. He claimed it had special Nascar parts that were available from the parts dept. if you knew the pt.#s to tell the counter man. They were not listed in the parts catalogs.

It was his 34 Chevy 2 dr. sedan that turned my crank. Black as coal with another 394-hydro. He put a 30s Ford axle front end under it to get rid of the heavy and ugly independent front end who's name escapes me now. He made his own fender well headers that bubbled the fender paint so he made heat shields to fix the problem. Only a god could build his own headers in the early sixtys. Anyone could bolt a 327 into a 55 Chevy and go fast but to build a car like this took special talents that just were not that wide spread back then.

I guess if you are still reading this it wasn't too boring. Sorry to be so long winded but I enjoy remembering where I came from.

PS. The plaque dates from the 50s before I became a member. A friend found it a few years ago and it found its way to me.

 

Maybe not traditional. Born is 43. In 59 my buddy and I took mom's car, a 53 Buick straight 8 with a stick shift and dragged the local flatheads. That Buick was a surprise to most of em. Then we got the bright idea to nose and deck it and lower the rear end. I was never allowed to drive it again. First car was a 52 ford convertible. In my memory it was too cool, in the pictures I can find it was a POS, including the crappy nose and deck job, flipped rear shackles and spinner hub caps. By 61 I had a very cool 59 Impala, floor shift, jacked up rear, dump tubes and the pics look good (for faded black and whites from a cheap camera). But it wasn't enough. Bought a 32 pickup from the junk yard and a 53 Olds donor. No, I didn't change the brakes or suspension, I changed the MOTOR. what else mattered? It would peel rubber anywhere, anytime. Of course I melted the coil first trip out. Something about mixing 6 volt and 12 volt components. Some things that stick in my mind; even then we dissed the rich kids whose Daddies bought them new Fury's and Vettes. If Daddy bought it, it didn't count. The coolest guy in town worked at a machine shop and always had the fastest car. The best rod was a fat fendered plymouth coupe (39?), steve weighed about 350 pounds, quite a combination. Some guys were visionarys. A stock looking, souped up 56 Nomad Wagon, in 1962. A customized until unrecognized 54 studebaker. 327 - 4 speeds were fast. push button torque flights were cheaters. We all carried slicks in the trunk for serious Saturday nights. In 65 my number came up and a stint overseas sidetracked me to sports cars. It has taken years to get back to my roots, old detroit iron. I always thought my hometown of 20,000 people in rural Minnesota was just normal. When they built Brainerd International Raceway (Donnybrook) I realized we had more than our share of gear heads.

 

My Dad has some great stories from the 50's and later. I wish I was a little older or remember more of my early childhood but I do remember some cool stuff. He ran A/Fuel rails from late 50's thru the Early 70's but I remember many times to keep me out of his hair he would hand me a screwdriver and tell me to go take the injector stacks of this motor that sat in the corner of the garage, when I got them off he would have me wipe them off real nice and put them back on, sometimes it would be the valve covers but i did this many,many times. It would be years later before I realized that motor that had been sitting in the corner as long as I could remember wasn't just any motor it was an ARDUN.Sometime later he fills me in that not only is it a nitro injected ARDUN but it is the ARDUN from the Scotty's Muffler shop car his buddy bought off Mr.Scott in CA. and brought back to IL. He had the foresight to keep that thing for all these years and still has it today just as it was when he pulled it out of his old FED before I was even born. He has it in a FED now and takes it to shows on an open trailer every once in a while but the chassis its in now is a bit too new for that motor Now if he could only locate the Scotty's car that it was in originally that would be really cool He said the last he knew of it was around the Clarksville Tenn.Area he thought and that was along time ago.

 

Can't tell y'all how much I'm diggin' this thread, keep the stories comin' guys...

Here's a pic of a '39 Chrysler moon off my old buddy's '39 Chrysler. The car is long gone to the crusher and my friend is long gone to the graveyard but this set of moons still roll daily on my M-body 5th Ave. which is sorta poetic don't ya think?

 

About 1966 our club decided to have an outing together. We'd all get together on Wed. night at "75 & Dusty" for their test and tune night. The tracks real name was 75 & 80 Drag-o-way in Urbana Md. It was at the corner of rte 75 and rte 80 (It closed for good about a month ago) If any of you ever watch Motor Week on PBS. Their slolom runs, 0 to 60 runs and braking tests...that's 75 & Dusty.

It only had grand stands on one side. The other side was a corn field. No shit! Not much of a guard rail to protect the corn. One night a 64 Chevy II with a straight axle broke something and took off on a detour out through the corn. It was funny as shit. The mid-summer corn was pretty high. The car damn near dissapeared when the bent over corn tried to stand up again behind the little Chevy II. Nobody got hurt.

We all met at the club house and went up together. A couple of us flat towed and some just drove up in the caravan. It was an impressive sight...all those hot rods in a row.

I forget who flat towed my 38 Chevy coupe up there. The coupe looked and sounded impressive. A decent black paint job with chrome 6 lug wheels on the front and a set of borrowed slicks on the 55 Chevy rear. 4" blocks between the standard I beam axle and the springs got the nose in the air just like a gasser. No running boards with the collectors just peeking out from the back of the front fenders. I can't brag too much it was so cherry by todays standards. All I had to do was install the engine and trans...a 383/torqueflight. Why? because I had it! I built my first set of headers for that car with some help from my friends.(it's so much easier with tin snips instead of a cutting torch)

Now I had never raced a car at a real race track before. I'd never driven a car with a helmet on! I had a Dixco tach in there somewhere but I always shifted the 64 Polara console shifter by ear. I didn't know whether to shit or go blind with a helmet on!

When you were ready to go you just got in line. No classes. You just ran against what ever was in the lane beside you. I knew enough to back up and heat up the tires. I'm along side a 55 Chevy 2dr.(I'd love to have a picture of that) A serious racer that was there to dial in his race car before the real races on Saturday. The flagman waves us up to the line but the 55 waves at me to go on and run uncontested. WTF? Then it hit me. At that time this podunk track only had one clock. Only the winner got his time. He was afraid of me...ME! If I beat him he learns nothing.

I pulled up to the line and cleared her out twice. I could hear her now! My heart was going a hundred miles an hour. The track was level to the finish line but then it went up and over a hill and disapeared. I had no idea what was on the other side!

I torgued her up and let her fly when the tree went green. It pulled real good up thrugh 1st gear and on through 2nd. I shifted right through drive into neutral and let off. It coasted through the traps at 14 something and 70 something MPH. Holey shit! What would this thing turn if I stayed in it? The unseen shutdown area wasn't that scary once you saw it.

Back to the pits. I cleaned and set the points. The only thing I could think of to do. I had no idea what real racers do between runs!

Back to the starting line to see what this baby really has. I dropped the hammer but I heard something strange. She wasn't pulling like she did before. It labored on through the gears. When I cleared the traps I put it in neutral and looked down at the gauges...no oil pressure. Why did it quit?? I coasted on to the return road to get out of the way. They couldn't see me from the starting line. When I didn't comeback the return road, they sent someone to investigate. I tried to start it but I couldn't hear anything with that goddam helmet on. It was locked up. Someday I'll tell the story of the trip home that night.

As it turned out I spun a rod bearing and the piston was kissing the squish area in the head.

Not very exciting but there has to be more drag racer wannabe's than big time racers. That's a true story of this wannabe. I never raced again. I just built hot rods for the street. I later put a 327/340HP with a 4spd in it. Someone stole the trans out of it in the garage and I got drafted. I sold it and it sat behind the guys house for several years.

 

Btt
I really enjoy these stories and hope that more of the guys that lived the era will share them with the rest of us. Whatever you younger guys are enjoying now with this hobby, the old guys have years of these stories and much of it was the formative history of the sport

I was hoping to hear more from the Detroit area and the early days of the fifties. Anybody remember the shows at the Rotunda? Milan Dragstrip, New Baltimore.

I remember Clarence "Chili" Catallo running at the new Baltimore strip and one of the old guys in our club signing a permission slip saying he was Chili's father. Chili was 15 at the time and racing his real dad's Oldsmobile.

 

Born In ’38 so I guess Grumpy’s nickname of “Greybeard” fits me well. I was raised in Dayton where other than Jack Walker and his glorious customs most had ‘40’s and ‘50’s cars. Most were mild customs. In the early ‘50’s we drag raced on Main Street in downtown Dayton from traffic light to traffic light. If memory serves me right that ceased in around 1957. Around 1955 they opened a drag strip, Dahio, at an abandoned airstrip west of Dayton. Drags every Sunday from 11:00 am until about 5:00 pm. They used a flagger for starts. This was the place I first saw George Montgomery run. This was before Kil-Kare was even thought of. I had a ’48 Chevy with a 292 cuin Jimmy with 3 side drafts and a split manifold. Could not speed shift that old Chevy as it had vacuum shift; throw was only about 3” but it took about a week to get from first to second and another week to get to third. The Fords ate me up because of it.

Two speed shops in town; Brockmans and Smittys and were a regular hangout on Saturdays. Brockmans didnt do any mechanical work at that time but did later. Smittys did engine work. I Worked part time at a Sinclair station after school and some on the weekends. Bought 5 gallons of Pontiac Limefire green lacquer and mixed with 5 gallons of thinner, started shooting the coupe, at that station, about 6:00 am and laid the gun down about 2:30pm. Rubbed it out about a week later and it was like looking down in a deep pool of green water.

Other hangouts were two Hasty Tastys and two Parkmoor drive in restaurants with carhops. One of the Hasty Tasty's had a securith guard we nicknamed Tint. He musta weighed around 400 lbs. Always gave us a batch of shit if we nursed our cokes too long. We'd fire up and leave and come back about 15 munites later and reorder another round of cokes. One kid had had polio and his dad bought him a ’55 Olds two-door hardtop. It was shaved and decked and painted white, smooth looking car. His first name was Paul but I can’t remember his last name. Another kid had a ’40 sedan with flatty that ran like a streak. Kid acroosed the street named Tim had a sloped back '49 Olds that just reared up at launch and ran really well. One guy Jim did a lot of bodywork in his garage. He bought a new 1950 Ford coupe, brought it home and striped the upholstery out of it, including the headliner. Coated the whole interior with undercoat and re-installed the upholstery. He then pulled the motor and sent it to Indy where it was balanced. Heads, trip’s and Mallory came next. He then frenched the headlights, taillights and nosed and decked it within the next two months and shot it in Black lacquer. Wide whites and full moon caps were also added.

Guess I’d have to say it was good times.