Hot Rods THE BADDEST CAR IN TOWN

I found this photo of what was the baddest car in town, a red light to red light Chevy II that was well known on the streets of Anderson, South Carolina in the late 60's.

This car would cruise up and down the main drag and try to get someone to race him out on Concord or White Street, this car was fast back in the day, I'm not sure if he ever raced on the strip but I witnessed Maurice beat cars that I would have bet money he would have never outrun.

This photo was taken when the owner had passed away from what I can understand. HRP



What was the car that seemed to rule the roost in your neck of the woods? HRP

 

Where I grew up (LAX area) a few cars come to mind; Early on it was John DeRocco's chopped '32 tudor sedan with a blown Olds and slicks. Gilbert Leach's Bahama blue '49 Olds coupe, 394/hydro, fenderwell headers and slicks. Later it was John's red '64 426 Plymouth with white fenderwell headers he had after he sold the '32 sedan. And Randy Payne's big block early Nova, a Bob's Big Boy regular, it was ratty looking primer but very fast.

 

Early 70's was a tri 5 in Puyallup WA. As a 14 year old kid I thought it was the coolest.
It was a serious gasser, straight axle, nice two tone paint, root beer brown & white ... Gold lettering on the side "High Chaparral"
Was it king of the roost? I dunno. At the time we had GTO judges, chevelle ss it was the middle of the muscle car era.
It is the one I remember 40 years later, not the store bought cars the others had.
I wonder if anyone else remembers seeing it around.

 

In the early 60s, a 59 Impala with a 409-409.....then in the mid 60s a 65 Belvedere with a 383 that was built to the hilt. The guy with the Chevy then got a big block Chevelle they never raced, so who knows.
Ah, the good old days 1

 

I am from a small town. I remember this guy in high school with a MoPed..........

 

OK,time for "A way back story" early 1960s

Don't race that guy !!!!..Ya the word gets around. !!!!!

I grew up in a small town Coconut Grove/but it got over grown by Miami pretty fast. Still our south side of Miami"The Grove" was known in late 1950s an early 60s as a hot bed, for hot cars,many racers of local oval tracks around, Miami,Medley,Hollywood,Hialeah;all race tracks with in 30 or so min.s away.
Now days it's something that's a little funny,and not a thing one would of told others about back in the day,so enjoy some facts now!!!****
.
I had built a full custom Henry J,cut down in too a two seater using a folding top from a 55 Thunderbird mounted to a Studebaker rear window as a front windshield an a lot of other mods,powered by Olds Rocket 88 . It was in Car Craft mag in Jan 63. So was a fairly sexy looking custom,an would get a few that would run up be side me running down Dixie Highway. Howling hay buddy ya want race that thing???= So I'd say hold on,let me heat my tires,just a sec. ,at that point down shift to Olds tranny "Super" an floor it for about 4 sec.= rear tires an ass of "J" would get lost in cloud of tire smoke an wiggle some. Then let off an look over,well every time by then,they were dropping back,some times with a little wave,some times not looking ,so as to not make eye contact an fade back or turn off at first side street.
From stuff like that an those that knew my "J" had the big Olds 88 in a very lite WT. car, must of enjoyed telling about what they knew!!=My car got the reputation of, BAD ASS FAST,don't race that guy!
THE SECRET ::::
The real of it was,I never did actually race anyone with my "J",if I had the SECRET would of got out ! I knew better!!
The secret was,the big Olds Rocket 88 was too far forward in the "J" and very little weight was on rear wheels,so jumping on the gas would always burn rubber,an much more so in Super that would hold auto tranny in that gear tell you let up on gas.
So now you know; Hay don't tell any of those guys I scared off of racing !! LOL

 

I don't about the fastest/baddest, but the Wells bros. had some bad Chevies. One liked Chevelles and the other trucks, so they were always trying to outdo each other with the latest go fast goodies stuffed into their prospective rides. A childhood friend had a 55 Chevy sedan called "The Blue Angel" with a 3 duece smallblock that was pretty quickback in the early 60's.

 

The should have been the fastest car here in town in the early 60's never stayed together long enough to prove it. 62 409 Impala that was always having engine trouble but I think now that may have been owner induced either by not knowing what he was doing assembly wise or by his driving.

I used to hang out at Bob's drive in in Sunnyside Wa on Saturday nights in the mid 60's where a lot of the heavy hitter street rigs would show up looking for a race. 409 Chevys, seriously hot Mopar wedges that had been tuned by Bob Norwood (later of Ferrari tuner fame in Dallas) and some engine swap rigs that would have held their own in gas classes at the drags at the time.

 

not in my town,but I agree with 4tford the Silver Bullit. it showed up at TriCity dragway one day & ran 10`s with full exhaust (4 mufflers I believe) that does`nt sound fast today but it was darn fast back then. Pro Stockers were only in the high 9`s.

 

I can't say that there was any one car that was the "baddest" because in our little town there were a number of cars "to be reckoned", this was the late 60's/early 70's when I was in high school.
It ran the gamut from straight axle cars to stock and modified musclecars.
One car that (is HAMB friendly) comes to mind is a 56 Chevy two door sedan that had a bit of a reputation, had a "real" 327/365 hp/4 speed combo, it had nice original green/white paint and other than the American five spokes was quite a sleeper.
Another guy also had a 327/365 hp with a B&M 4 speed hydro in a 50 Chevy business coupe.
It was fast but it was also kind of scary, it had a backyard installed Econoline beam axle and jacked up stance, I rode in it one time, but only one time, the guy was a little wacky.
My car was more of a "poser" due to the worn out 283 (out of a 64 Impala), it had a Fenton shifted three speed when I bought it in 1970, had 3.08 rear gears.
I later installed a B/W T-10 and 4.11's so it was a lot of fun but I knew better than to match off with anybody.

 

Wouldn't be on topic as my neighborhood was all muscle cars but I think the local title would have to be a pearl white 71/72 Vega hatchback with a narrowed 12 bolt, LT-1 & Turbo 400. Nobody had anything for him.

 

When I was a teenager most of the cars on the street were some 40's but plenty of 50's & 60's cars.

I also recall a pretty fast 1956 Ford that was jacked up but not like the Chevy II I originally posted.

The car wore original yellow & white paint and the real wheel wells were cut for wider tires., the car reportedly had a 427 and was shifted by a 4 speed, I never saw under the hood so I can't say it did or did not have a 427 but the car was fast, he ran the Chevy II and lost but I heard he also beat the car on another occasion. HRP

 

I Know the car.....

 

FALFA
Hey, you know a guy around here with a piss yellow deuce coupe--
supposed to be hot stuff?

TERRY
You mean John Milner?

Falfa nods slowly.

TERRY (CONT’D)
Hey, nobody can beat him, man. He's got the fastest--

FALFA
I ain't nobody, dork. Right?

TERRY
Right...

 

Early '80s in Rockland, Maine. There was a guy who had a beautiful black Nova that was pretty fast, rumored to be a low 12 second car. Depending on who you talked to, it was either a 427 or 454 with a Doug Nash 5-speed. I only saw the car twice: once when he launched it at an intersection, and a couple weeks later after it got wrecked.

 

The first car with any real hp (and torque) I turned a wrench on was a 66 Belvedere I.
Factory 2x4 street hemi/4 speed/Dana 60 that a friend of mine had in the early 70's.
I never rode in it in stock form but had some drag strip passenger seat time in it after a handful of mods and I will say it made a lasting impression on this 18 year old.

 

The rural community I grew up in around the late 60s and early 70s had a reputation for weekend street racing. My best friend at the time, his dad "Buster" had a orange '57 Chevy that was king of the neighborhood. It sat high in the front, gasser style with big and littles mounted on Cragar s/s mags. It had two fours sitting on top of a 427 and a 4-speed. In '74 when Ray Steven's came out with "The Streak" he painted "Don't look Ethel!" on the header shields.
A "competitor" from a neighboring community built a Datsun 240Z powered by a small block Chevy. That same guy had a '66 Chevy flatbed car hauler powered by a big block. He showed up one Friday or Saturday night with that Datsun on the back looking for a money race. One night Buster wasn't around nobody would take him up on it and he got a little mad and said "Hell boys, I'll race you in the truck!". Still nobody would take him up on it.

 

In my hometown Tony had the car that beat everything that wanted to race him and his 1964 Dodge 426 Max Wedge.

 

When I was in high school there where two cars in the GTA that where feared.

one was an O/T Honda Civic that would blow the doors off just about anything, was actually in an American documentary bout street racing done on A&E back in the mid 90’s. Just a ridiculous car that looked like grandma drovee it to church on Sunday’s.

the other, was my buddies mid 60’s 4 door falcon with a supercharged 302 and nitrous.
Black, bench seat , 4 door but just an angry little bitch of a car that showed everyone what it was, a true sleeper in its day.

 

Back in the day my cousin (Midnight Joe) had the baddest car in town in my estimation. It was a chopped 49 Chevy rag top with a 348 cu in motor and a 4 speed. It had a sound that only Joe could make a car do. Here are some photos of the baddest car in Stamford CT. 1960's

 

Back in the mid 1960's Bill Bailey had an Olds powered Henry-J, Ford front axle assembly, and a 1950 mercury rear . The car was all jacked up in front, radiused rear quarter panels. Bill would drive to the local hamburger stand, ( Augie and Ray's ) in East Hartford, Connecticut. All the locals with their 409 Chevy's, 427 Fords, and Street hemi Plymouth's would be there. No one wanted to race Bill Bailey's Henry-J. Too bad for them, as the Olds motor was completely stock, and they probably would have beaten him.

 

1958-59 in small central valley town. 52 Olds with a Vic Hubbard built 57 Olds and a built hydro or a 51 Merc with the same setup-both extremely fast for the time. Would shut down most anything that came to town -even out of town hot dogs from Merced and Fresno.

 

Well, Duhhhh.................

 

My friend George Ventress had a stripped down Model T with 1908 high compression head, Rayfield carburetor, home brew magneto and open exhaust. It was some fast for 1924, it would do 70 MPH.

 

Late 60's.....67/68... J W Hooks was "king-of-the-hill" (for a while) in a little town in South Georgia. 64 Chevelle SS with a 365/327 engine. 4 speed and a very stiff geared posi rear. He could rip that 4 speed as good as anybody I ever heard. Full throttle speed shifts did not bother him in the least. The long tube headers and straight pipes to the rear bumper still makes me smile!
6sally6

 

I owned a 66 Nova L79 , I think in a city block race you would be hard pressed to beat it with any production car . I paid 1100.00 for it sold it for 1900.00 and was thinking I cleaned house ! Used that money to buy a 67 GT 390 Fairlane . The 390 lasted about 8 months , in went a 427 , gas went from .33 a gallon to .69 a gallon the 427 left like its head was on fire and its ass was catchin !

 

Where I lived was a guy named Roscoe with a 62 Vette that was about as radical a car as you could get on the street. Word was he built the motor long before he had the body of the car but when he rolled by the ground would shake and nobody I knew wanted to try him. Also was a guy with a 63 1/2 Falcon sprint that had stuffed a 351 cleveland, toploader 4 speed, and 9 inch reared in. Motor had a bunch of work done to it as well. It was very fast. Also was one of the best looking Falcons I have ever seen.

 

I didn't have anything worthy of being considered fast on the street until the late 70s and early 80s. By then, most of the real fast cars were no longer being driven on the streets, they were either drag cars, or had been sold (or wrecked), or were down graded to be used for family transportation.

The streets around here in the late 60s and early 70s was a hot modified factory high performance car mecca. I doubt there was any one king of the streets, it was more likely a nightly king of the streets. Who the king for the night was would depend on who was in town on any given night, or at any specific time of the night. Byron Dragway was only 30 minutes away, we had some well proven cars running around on the streets of our town back then. It was fun for a guy like me that didn't drive anything worthy of being a contender. Of the 5 or 6 of us guys that hung out together, I had the fastest car by far. 16 year old me was driving daddy's 64 Olds with the 394 4 barrel, and I wasn't smart (or didn't care) enough to be concerned about breaking it. Gene

 

By the time I hit the streets, late 70’s, it was mostly muscle cars. Fastest was a 68 Roadrunner with a 440. There were a few 55 Chevys running around, but not much else.