History Do you remember your first street race?

I remember it well, even though it was back in 1977. My co-worker at the garage had a 64 Olds 442, 330 4 speed. I had an OT 67 Cougar 390 GT automatic. We both left work shortly after 10:00 PM closing time. The race was totally impromptu. Heading north from the intersection the road was 4 lanes, necking down to 2 lanes in about 3/8 mile. We were side by side leaving the intersection, me in the right lane. He stepped on it a bit. I stepped on it a bit, then he floored it and jumped ahead of me about 2 lengths. I floored it and started pulling on him. I got up beside him, and then my door was at his front fender, gaining ever so slowly. The merge of our 2 lanes into 1 was coming up fast, but I still wasn't ahead enuff to get in front of him. I saw tail lights ahead. I knew he wouldn't let off. Time for a split second decision. Let off and get beat, or stay in it and have no where to go if I didn't get past him, and possibly rear end the car ahead if I couldn't slow down fast enuff!

Being a foolish 17 year old, of course I stayed in it. With the right tire on the shoulder at 90 mph, I just got past him at the merge, and immediately piled on the brakes. The car ahead was going about 40 and I was no more than 30 feet behind when I got down to his speed and off the brakes.

Later the guy with the 442 said he was about a foot off my back bumper, and was sure he would rear end the Cougar. His 4 wheel drums against my 4 piston Kelsey Hayes discs. He also said he wasn't going to let off! At the time it was a sweet victory. Today, it seems extraordinarily foolish!

 

The very definition of adolescent stupidity
My best friend joined the Air Force and asked me to look after his 64 tri-power,4 speed GTO while he was away. Me 17 years old and driving a new GTO what was his father thinking!. Picked the car up from his house with my then girl friend. Low and behold the second red light on the highway pulls another GTO. We both came out hard and I had him by half a car in second gear. He was in the outside lane, I'm on the curb side. Just as I'm about to slam third my girl friend screams and pulling onto the road is a 40 foot long gas truck. The other GTO just barely cleared the front of the truck. I slammed on the brakes and slid off the road into a diner parking lot ,straightened it out and went around the rear of the trailer. Talk about having your brief 17 year old life pass before your eyes!!
Not to say I didn't street race again, just became one hell of a lot more safety conscious.
Btw I must have really impressed my girl friend with my driving prowess, years later she became my wife.

 

Does it count if the other person didn't know they were racing?.....slowly jamming through the 3 gears on my '60 Elco (on the tree) with the stockish 283 humming, trying to beat a 90s Camry .

 

I raced a Monte Carlo in my Cutlass. It was just like American Graffiti, with the nerdy kid out front with the flashlight. I went sideways and almost ran him over. I lost. Hard to take, because that Monte looked like a shitbox and mine was cherry. Wasn’t long before I added speed equipment. The Cragar SS added three tenths in the quarter ha, ha. Ten years later, I had a turbo Probe. Talk about a sleeper, off topic or not, it was fast right off the showroom.

 

1979, Sixteen years old and I was so proud of my '57 Ford y-block powered shortbed pickup. That thing sounded sweet thru her dual glass packs! My buddy Ellis' Dad was a drinker and I was over at their house one evening and he challenged me to a race against his '74 Ford F100 longbed with a 302. Since he was a bit too tipsy to drive he got in the passenger side and let Ellis (15 at the time!) drive. We lined up right in front of Ellis' house and I smoked him. He claimed Ellis was just green with the three on the tree so we lined up a second time. Same result.
I was hooked! Every Saturday night for years all the young guys from the community would gather at the local hang-out (Esso gas station with pool tables and foosball) and end up challenging each other to drag races. We were always in trouble with the local law. We were all in our late teens/early twenties and running muscle cars with big blocks (Chevelles, GTOs, Etc). Heck, they were just cheap used cars back then!

 

First planned street race was in HS 1964. My 56 Victoria 292 3 speed against a friend's 57 Chevy 283 3 speed......He won...

 

My high school car was so slow that I knew better than to street race. It would have been embarrassing to say the least.

 

People think because a Plymouth doesn't have eight cylinders, that the Ford is always going to beat it. That's not always the case though, the Plymouth could hold their own.

 

Thanks for your Service Sir.

 

My 67 Ford pony car, 289 automatic against a friends 66 Ford pony car, 289 3 speed. I took him, I had L 60 tires and he had little F 78’s. Mine would hook and go at the drop of the hammer, his would spin through second gear. When he got some wider tires, he’d get me by half a car length.

 

16 just gotten my license in my 55 ford more door 272 four barrel three speed that I had replaced the damaged front clip and got on the road proud of my Hurst mystery shifter. My school buddy had the same thing without the Hurst and they were close in color. We were always racing around screeching tires burning rubber.

Anyway our big race starts in front of all our buddys and I pull him by about a fender power shift into second and the Hurst mystery shift problem rears it's ugly head the whole stick part of the shifter pivots around so now the ball is way up close to the dash LOL.

But the good news is I still beat him because the cars were so high geared you never made it into third in a quarter mile.

But the best news was yet to come..........my father would get phone calls about me hot rodding around screeching my tires, and I probably was, but when I got home I would blame my buddy with the same looking car and he would do the same LOL.

Well this night we were eating supper and pops gets a phone call and looks right at me and says "It can't be him he is sitting right here and has been all night".. Well I looked him right in the eye and told him "See I told you it was the other guy."

 

Yeah, in my old "well tuned" Z/28.... I won!....

 

Come on Tom, what could be slower than a worn out Rambler?, nine the less you take excellent photo's of cars racing. HRP

 

I was in my 61 Chrysler at a stoplight. It was (and is) slow. Two lanes going into one.

A late model Camaro pulled up next to me with a couple guys in it, clearly looking to race me.

Alright, fine.

So I just went, while the light was still red.

Boy, did that piss 'em off. They came roaring up behind me, passed me on the wrong side of the street and just kept going.

 

It happened when I was driving the school driver education 1956 Ford four door, V-8 standard shift. There was the instructor, myself and 2 girls in the back seat waiting for their turn to drive. At every stop sign, there was a 1955 Pontiac pulling up next to me, with 3 guys in it. They were razzing me about my driving, and why didn't I race them. I finally had enough at the last stop sign. We drivers looked at each other, and away we went. I cleaned his clock. They turned off before the next stop sign. The instructor made me stop the car, and get into the back seat for the rest of the session. He later had a few words with me about my antics. But I am still proud of that day 64 years ago.

 

My wife was out last night terrorizing the streets !!

 

I do but HAMB law prohibits me from saying to much

 

I was driving my sister's 1966 VW and my friend, Grant, was driving his family's Opel Kadett. Many of our senior class were watching during our homecoming parade float construction party. That VW had 4.11 rear and hole shot Grant by a good two car lengths at 100 feet. Had him all the way. Today, Grant is a renowned fertility doctor in Ohio (He had a '33 Plymouth four-door in college). I'm retired, still working on a '29 AA (I had a '29 A standard coupe in college).

 

Yep I do. Was my senior year of high school. I had the most "loud" looking car in the parking lot with my O/T 97 Z28 that was a pace car edition. A fellow senior then picked up a Fox 5.0 Mustang and wanted to race my Z really badly. To the point he waited to follow me out of the parking lot and pulling up at a light. I had been avoiding racing him, mainly because any ticket on my end would force me to sell the car as I was running on the edge of funds to keep the car insured. When he pulled this, I finally snapped and gave him the "nod". Light turns and I floor it. That LT1 just walked that 5.0 Fox. Guy was pissed the rest of the school year. That was my first street race of any kind.

My first street race in a car closer to HAMB friendly was in my O/T 68 Camaro. I had just put in a hotter cam, new Holley carb and a tune up. I was on my way to a car show in the early morning on the other side of Portland out in Sandy, Oregon. I was just about out of Portland on highway 26 when a 68/69 Roadrunner pulls out of a neighborhood and pulls up next to the Camaro. He revs it up and I return it. Figured it was time to see how the new cam and carb run. We were at the last light before the highway had a long stretch before the next town. Light drops and we shoot off. The 68 is not geared much for out of the hole, but once we got rolling she rolled on by that Roadrunner and all he saw was tail lights.

 

Can't remember the specifics of my first race, and we didn't really have many places in town for a true stop-light drag. But I surprised many people in my Dad's 1968 Chrysler Town & Country. 440. 4 barrel Carter. Dual exhausts. Pretty peppy away from a stop for such a large barge, and would bury the 120mph speedo.

 

I never had the nerve to race anyone until I was 21 with a new Mustang in '64. I had a friend that cruised with me and after a while, he bought a new 327 Impala. Neither one of us had a clue...... actually, nobody we knew in town had a clue about simple things like an advance kit and carb jets. So we're both clueless mouth breathers, just factory stock, but getting the itch to see which car was faster. We picked one of the 3 roads out in the county, away from town, where 1/4 miles had been marked for "grudge matches" and we had our race. His 327 beat my 289 by one car length. I was holding steady, couldn't gain on that length and he couldn't pull on me anymore. I think if I had more experience with reaction times instead of him honking 3-times-n-go, I could have had a different result.

 

My first race was in 1980 in my 56 Chevy. I had a 327 in it with a 3 speed lol 513 gears. I raced my buddy from school in his 1970 Dodge Dart, he had a 340 in it. cool car. I won the race but later on that night I put a huge whole in the oil pan n block lol oil everywhere. That old $100 327 couldn't handle those 513 gears. paid another $100 for a 1968 Chevy for the engine. Blew up that engine 4 weeks later. At 16 years old I blew 3 SBC up lol. man, those were the days. The 56 Chevy has a nice 427 in it today and is cruised around Colorado by my brother Tim (radical56) on here

 

I never "street raced", but that's not to say I didn't do some dumb, irresponsible shit on my own just for my own personal satisfaction. 100 mph on the GSP in a very questionable 57 Chevy, though my personal best was in college with my OT 98 Mustang, where I took the main road out of town into farmland at 4 am, and just matted the gas for what seemed like an eternity, and ran 143 mph into Fair Hill. I broke enough parts to eventually realize that I just wanted my car to run reliably rather than constantly be trying to set speed records.

 

It was 1957 in front of the new hi school . I had a 39 Ply. with a hopped up 6 banger and raced a 49 Ford v8 and I beat him as we drove past the school principal waving his arms at us. I drove around the block and parked behind the school . Then the local cop car pulled up behind me and sited me for loud mufflers . Went into school and first class got called to principals office . He was really mad and said he was calling police about me drag racing. I said don't bother because police got me in back of school . Later that month he asked me why I was still driving , I told him my Dad knows the police chief , That set him off he turned around and walked away !

 

I always was lucky to have a daily driver and a hot rod/antique car since I was 16. Had to do it all on my own and was a poor boy so racing or agressive driving was never on my agenda. I couldnt afford to break them! Not to mention had a hometown guy shot over a street race one night in the 70's. Lucky he survived with minor injuries.

 

I'm a senior in high school waiting at a stop light on a Friday night. the road narrowed to 1-lane 200 yards past intersection. I'm in my new to me 68 Camaro, 327 4bbl, powerglide. a 62 Ranchero pulls up beside me. I know from earlier it has a 312 in it. light changes, we bust off & get pulled over right away. unbeknownst to either of us there is a cop RIGHT behind us at the light. 1st thing the cop says is "I dont know if I have ever met two people more stupid than you guys". both got drag racing tickets & my insurance doubled cuz of it. at least he didnt find the 3 cases of beer in the trunk.

 

The race that wasn't a race.

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 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 revved his engine so I did the same,the light changed and I stabbed the loud pedal and blew his doors off, or so I thought,he just sat there and watched me get busted.

Unbeknownst to me,a police car was right behind me and 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, Officer, 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 m

He also said he knew the guy in the AMX spurred me on and if we both had took off he could get us both for racing but he let me off with a reckless driving ticket and got me for 4 points,,he 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

 

Joel, I think it was my expert driving that did it. Seriously, that little Plymouth ran great, and they were good cars, along with having a sweet sound with duals.

 

One late Saturday night around 1983 I was cruising the neighborhood in my OT '71 Torino GT 351C 4V. I saw an acquaintance of mine parked at the local hang out so I pulled in to chat. He had a '72 Mercury Cougar 351C 4V and he challenged me to a race. We pulled out onto the two lane blacktop and backed down to the big locust tree that served as the official starting line. When flagged off he immediately pulled away from me at a high rate of speed. It took me a second or two to realize that I had left the trans in reverse!!

 

Had a lot of Super Sport Chevys in my younger day but when I was 25 I had a 307 Chevy Nova. Nothing fast , just a daily driver. Late one night I get a Cougar beside me at a light and when the light changed.I pulled a hole shot on him but never broke the speed limit. I did this for about 4 lights until I was sure he was pissed off. At the last light I started reving the engine to egg him on. When the light change he spinning tires while I just sat there with a big grin on my face.