Street racers....What's the worse ass whoopin you ever got street racing?

Referring to my post in such a manner is unnecessary. The movies I watch are not the point here... this thread is about street racing - this is an open forum. I posted a response to a thread that deals with a contoeversial subject. If a bunch of younger guys see this stuff they might get the idea that street racing is cool. I lost a buddy to street racing some 30 years ago... I am a father of a teenage boy. I act and express opinions accordingly.

 

Ok one more....

It was the late 80's and Hot August Night's in Reno, NV was just getting started. We didn't have a track so we raced in the "warehouse district". One night during the show, we locals were hangin out bs'n. Some out of towners showed up to look at the cars and show themselves. A guy and his girl were walking past a group of us, my buddy had one of them new fangled turbo's gnx's. He had sunk some pennies in it to make it faster, but it looked and sounded stockish.
Anyway the couple walked by making remarks about each car there. We just happend to hear a comment about the POS chevelle I had (sleeper) and his "stock" buick. Mofo turns to his gal to say that his car would beat both of them turds, and walked off. I looked at my buddy and said, " you know it's too bad you have such a handicap." He smiled and said "how's that?". I said, " cause ya' got two cylinders less than everyone else."

About that time a car fires off, was a blue '70 gtx, it was this same mofo's car. He lined up all by himself and launched. I was watchin him stall and leave, when I heard the little bent 6 and a wheeze, leave the curb about 200 feet behind him off too the right.
That gtx didn't know what was commin', all of the sudden the black bufford was next to him fish tailing and then gone, by half track.

See that black gnx ran high 10's.......on slicks and 11's on street tires..

Those WERE the days.....

 

RTRimmer! you sent me a email by mistake thinkin I was someone else braggin that you might have pissed off most on here but you dont seem to care..I did respond a tell you exactly what I thought,if your on here to cause problems your on the wrong site(FNG) this is about enjoyin the life around cars the the culture.....so as said be fore LIGHTEN UP OR READ ANOTHER THREAD

 

Agreed, this thread is about memories. No doubt most of us learned from our experiences, either good or bad.

By the way, your not the only one who lost a friend to street racing. Sadly, you won't be the last.

Besides it was their choice to race, knowing full well the ricks. Just like it is and will be for anyone who choses to partake in and illegal street race.

You want the respect to be able to offer your opinoin, then give others the same. State you disagreements on another thread of your own. Just don't step on the fond memories of others.

 

whoa whoa whoa...

*gives fat twin cruisers a bad name*

I'd hit 85+ on my bike alot without realizing it (never really check the speedo)

I ran it for all it was worth one night on the freeway and got just over 120 (never tried goin that fast since). Didnt see a single car ahead or behind me.

 

No one here is condoning street racing. However, fact is, it was an integral part of the hobby back in the day.

Besides, whether FORMAL street racing or not, I can almost guarantee that there is not ONE SINGLE person on this forum that has not had SOME SORT of street race at some point in their driving career. If anyone can say they have never, ever even had a little "100ft away from a stoplight" kind of race on the street in their entire life, they are probably lying.

I agree... lighten' up!

 

*yawn*

 

I don't look for street races anymore. I used to hunt for them on SoCal streets every Friday and Saturday night. Had lots of fun, made a couple bucks, no one ever got hurt.

But it was dangerous. Maybe that's why it was so cool to me then.

I grew to heading to the track and learned more there anyway.

I don't hunt for street races anymore.


But, should some joker rev on me at a stoplight, and there's no one else around...I might be tempted...

Should said joker be in a FWD import with its requisite wings, it's a good bet I'll go for it.

Should said joker's girlfriend be in the car...it's an even better bet.

Should said joker's girlfriend talk smack about my car, it's on. No doubt.

As I get older and slower, my cars get quicker and faster. Go figure!

~Scotch~

 

Amen Scotch.....amen......

 

'round here we call them shopping carts. Sometimes if we see a couple at a light, we will run out and get behind them and make like we're gonna push race 'em.

 

ha ha I got taken good once. Was cruzen out Magnolia in Riverside one Fri. night [around midnite in my 265 chevy power Model A 2dr ],]to check out whats goin on in Corona, it was cool and clear and no traffic. Then I noticed an old car way back in my mirror. Next thing he,s about 5 car lengths, he comes snaking up on my right and its just an old 37 beat Dodge stocker 4dr checking me out. he stays with me for awhile then I decided to get away from the dork staring at me, so I slowly pulled away hmmm here he is again? couple more times, so then I slapped my 39 trans in second and stood on it, and just left him, but just as I could see him in my mirror hes comin on strong and just BLEW MY DOORS OFF! that thing was just haulin ass! I looked around to see if anybody saw that, and there wasnt [glad of that] So, puttered back to Riv. city and pulled into Rubys to see if anybody had some info on that car. One of the guys said "yeah that guy is from LA and running a blown Chrsler!" Thats what them guys did to us hicks, come out there and 'cherry pic' back in 57'

 

reading back in this forum I see comments about condoning street racing, I dont do that no mo, to verify that i will state,"we were incredibly dumb to do the things we did". altho the cars are safer by a longshot, the speeds are crazy and the chance for something happening to us and others is much greater. There were more empty spaces and much less people, and the cars we built were not safe in anyway compared to todays properly built rods, and modern stock cars. hmm I sound just like my Dad.-- still applys !

 

Was driving a Sunbeam Tiger headed home and a late 90's Z28 pulled uo next to me. They gave a little rev and rolled forward. Car sounded just like a stock LS1 with exhaust. Light turned green and you could hear the blower or whatever some sort of forced induction it had on it hummin away as he ran away like I was going freaking backwards.

 

In 73 I had a good running 68 Firebird that would run like hell. I was late for work one morning so I was running about 90 or so. This total POS Mustang ragtop that was rusty and had tape all over the top to cover the holes came up behind me and I thought, what the hell is this joker thinkin he's gonna do?? I hit it for all it was worth and that freakin Ford just about blew me off the road.Come to find out the Mustang had a built 428 hiding in there.As far as some of the other threads on this post I've also outrun State Police on more than one occasion and oh yeah, I love to street race but only where there are no people and hopefully no traffic.All that was then but now it's a totally differant story but I do it anyway

 

In 1966 or thereabouts, I managed to pick up a 1953 Ford 2 door with a flathead in it, in mint condition. A man had bought it new in 1953, then died in 1956, and his wife had someone jack it up and set it on blocks in her garage. I was the second owner of that car, and it ran like brand new. I thought I was really hot shit untill I got my ass handed to me in a street race with a Volkswagon Rabbit station wagon. He got me by about 3 car lengths when the light changed, and I could not catch the bugger!! And it was bone stock!!! Now I see all the hoo-haw about people wanting to put flatheads in their nostalgia hotrods, and all I can think is "Dumb Shits"!!!

 

Not Hamb cars, but here it is...Some years ago I had a '91 Dodge Spirit 4 banger. A real granny car 4 door. That thing would fly! (Spirit R/T, intercooled turbo 2 liter, Getrag 5 speed, the R/T package cost about as much as the standard Spirit). It was a factory exec car, and ran like it got special attention along the line. Some guy in a new BMW M5 must have recognized what it was, and started messing around on the open road. We took off together from about 60 mph, that little Dodge started pulling hard in the meat of the boost range. It left Mr. BigBucks so far behind I couldn't believe it. I laid off at an indicated 130 and slowed down. He came by me slowly, looked over, shook his head,l and gave me a thumbs up. He showed some class in his defeat. I sold the car to some dude that was going to put the engine/trans in some little bitty Dodge econobox from the late '80's.

 

Spot on Ryan......................street racing. We have all done it. It was stupid in the 50's and it is stupid now. The problem, it is way more dangerous now. Cars are much much faster now than back then.

 

Yeah, it's getting harder and harder to do any street racing as I'm pretty picky about the circumstances. I've never hurt anybody or damaged anything (that wasn't mine to damage) and don't plan to any time soon, so with the population and traffic the way it's gotten around here ........... just don't do as much as I did.

But to the story;
Good friend of mine who was into sports cars back then and I were most of the way to Vegas when a faded looking Poncho wagon eased up behind us and sat on our tail. My friend took it for a bit but finally got annoyed and rolled on the pedal a bit. Wagon stayed. A bit more pedal and the Poncho stuck it out. Finally he just poked it and let it run. Somewhat safely past the century it topped out but the wagon was still right there behind us. After about half a minute or so the guy pulls out and literally shot into the distace like a f'ing roadrunner cartoon.

It wasn't 'til several months later, after telling the story around a bit that someone told us we'd been had by Harrah himself in a toy he liked to do that in. To this day I don't know whether to believe that part of it but I'll sure as hell never forget that wagon.

 

Back in 65 I got my ass kicked by a Sportster of all things. I had a 57 Ford Custom 300 with a built 427/425 Ford, headers, 4 speed ,456 gear. Skinny guy asks me if I want to run for fun. I figured yeah what the hell, let him outrun me. Guy smokes my ass. I ask him why he didnt want to run for money and he says "oh I knew you couldnt beat me" WHAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!. A month later I see the guy ride the Sportster from Miami to West Palm, run 11.80 and ride back home. Now I know its not that fast now but do you know how fast 11.80 was on the street in 1965 ? His brother was shop manager at the Harley dealer in Miami and it was a giant stroker motor, as big as they went. I learned to beware of Harleys with plates under the cylinders, they haul ass !!!!!

 

I used to like to toy with the bigger bikes with my two strokes, I had an awfully quick RD400 that I road all the way up to the mid-late 80's. It'd take just about anything stop light to stop light. To much fun.... Now my cousin Danny had a few different cars with the same stroked big block in it. Even used it to tow his drag car to the track. It was upsetting to people to get beat by his tow car....

 

Not only are cars much faster now, there are also a lot more "commuters" on the roads, and development / urban sprawl has taken over the once (relatively) safe places to race.

 

Ever see his Jerrari, actually he had two versions.......

That's what he called them, mated amc Jeeps with Ferarris..........sick mind, great guy

 

Hadn't heard of the Jeeps, doesn't surprise me though. I've heard several other stories about him as well.

I don't gamble so whenever my first wife and I went out there I'd do the dam tour and his museums while she blew her hobby money. Really bugged me when they shut'em down.

I once ID'd an unknown cowl I bought (at a swap meet for $10.00) by seeing it in the whole car there. It was a '24 Nash and is now my lakes style bucket, Cassie.

 

EGOKILLER ??? When i ran around in my 70.5 z28 in highschool there was a pearl white one that said egokiller on the tag that ran memorial and was a bad son of a gun

 

It was white this was back in 95-96, I never got the tag he got away from me to fast. Probably why all the mustang guys got up near the road.... they knew what was about to happen.

 

As I think of street racing today, at the age I am now, there is no way I could ever condone it from a safety or a legal stand-point. However, back in 1962, when I was 17 years old, those factors seldom entered my mind and I think the by-gone era of street racing is what we are focusing on in this thread, at least I hope it is.
I think this thread is about pure nostalgia and nothing else. I, for one, certainly do not wish to entice anyone into trying street racing and would encourage anyone to use the legal drag strips only for this purpose . But it doesn't change the fact that most of us did it at one time or another,as wrong as it was. Eventually we matured to a more responsible way of thinking that usually only comes with age and wisdom or listening to someone that has it (wisdom), but it is still fun to talk about the things we once did, however irresponsible they might have been at the time. Bob

 

What's awesome is that the street racers of today will be sitting around telling their kids how they shouldn't do it after recalling tons of stories about Z06 Corvettes, Supras and radical FWD cars with NOS.... it never ends. Those that do, will....

 

1977 - I had a pretty strong '67 GTO, ran solid 13.90's, not fast but it could hold it's own with most of the "real" street cars at the time. A guy I went to HS with had a '40 Chevy Coupe with a built 327 in it. It was an honest to God ex-Gasser but he was running it on the street and it was BARELY street legal. I knew I'd get smoked but I wanted to see how fast it really was so we went out East of town. I stayed even with him for about 5 feet until he hooked up, by the time I hit the 1/8th mile mark he was on the brakes. The only other bludgeoning I got like that was the next year by a ratty looking '66 Olds 442 with blue smoke rolling out of one bank. Found out later it was a real sleeper and had a mega buck Mondello 455 in it, the guy would inject oil into one side of the exhaust to make it smoke to sucker in dipwads like me. It worked, just glad we weren't runnin' for money.

 

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