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Back in the day

plowman

plowman

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just sitting thinking about the old days. We had our favorite quarter marked off and we had upwards of 16 cars sitting ready to go. It was always like one in the morning. I remember this Nova with the 396 brand new blewit up. About three weeks past and there he was again. Asked about it, GM gave him a replacement block. Lined him up and he blew it again. Another maybe a month he comes back and said another replacement block. The block head blew that one up two a few weeks later. He said, GM refused to replaced and he was pissed. He was a real dumb *** he claimed his tact stuck I guess listening to the engine was not an option.
 
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That reminds me of the road in front of where I worked, back in the late 70's. We had 1/4 mile marked of with wide paint lines at each end for after work fun. Back then you could sit there for five minutes and not see another car - now it's a four lane highway and real busy.
 
We lived in a small farming community and our house was 1 mile from the town. It just so happened that most guys picked our property line as the starting line heading away from town as there was nothing else going that way as far as houses. I got to see many races and test and tunes when I grew up. At the time I was too young to realize what the cars exactly were as far as drivelines, but even at a young age I knew the difference between the fords, chevys and mopars. Pretty cool time to grow up.
 
Asbury Park at the New Jersey Shore had the Circuit.
We ran red light to the next light for bragging rights.
 
We went up the hill on Hwy 16 to a 1/4 mile flat marked off for racing. We were there to watch a few grudge matches. Standing on the side of the road, drinking a beer while a 1955 Chevy with a built 396 was getting lined up with a 69 GTX. The two miles of road coming up was a canyon, and the emergency lights were lighting up the hillsides. Somebody yells:"cops!"
The GTX shut off his lights and blasted off, the dummy in the '55 just sat there waiting. Seconds later when the cops cleared the horizon, the GTX was long gone, but you could still hear him.
 
Our 1/4 mile was on the highway from Smiths Falls to Jasper. Most of us stopped using it after a buddy of ours was run off the strip (by his own cousin) into a field and hit a cow. Paralyzed waist down for life. After that we told people to meet us in Luskville, Quebec on Sundays for grudge matches..
 
1963...1/4 mile marked off with white paint. Cars in attendance most nights: 63 Biscayne 65?Falcon Sprint 289-4 speed, 64 Comet Caliente 260-4speed 60 Pontiac Catalina 389 Tro-power 3 in the floor. 40 Ford moredoor flathead, 66 Coronet 318 3 speed with a cut-out no less, 57 Chev. Bel air 283 p/g, 62 Impala SS Conv. 327 4-speed. I’m sure I forgot some. Fun, Fun, Fun!
 
There is a lot of history with these cars. People my age tell these stories but few believe except people our age. We know what happened then. It was such a blast. I was ask by Gilmore Car Museum, that is doing a promotional video to speak of those times. They will be building a replica of a 60 & 70 dealership which will house these old performance and muscle cars of that time and speak of their history
 
dsd1967 said:
We lived in a small farming community and our house was 1 mile from the town. It just so happened that most guys picked our property line as the starting line heading away from town as there was nothing else going that way as far as houses. I got to see many races and test and tunes when I grew up. At the time I was too young to realize what the cars exactly were as far as drivelines, but even at a young age I knew the difference between the fords, chevys and mopars. Pretty cool time to grow up.
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Where was this at? I grew up in Toledo too. We used to go into Michigan on Smith rd. To race. Hang out at Greenwood mall and McDs at Lewis & Alexis.
 
We ran on Interstate 70 in Belle Vernon Pa. Back in the 60's not much traffic at night. Had 2 local drive-ins near by to hang out. The Dog House and Stringhill's. Take the entrance ramp on and back up under the bridge. Ran to the next exit,first there took the exit,looser had to take the next exit. Spent many summer nights there.
 
Darter6 said:
We ran on Interstate 70 in Belle Vernon Pa. Back in the 60's not much traffic at night. Had 2 local drive-ins near by to hang out. The Dog House and Stringhill's. Take the entrance ramp on and back up under the bridge. Ran to the next exit,first there took the exit,looser had to take the next exit. Spent many summer nights there.
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I lived on the eastside in the burbs of Detroit we had 3 places to race 13mile rd & little mack going south if it was after mid night or metro park way off the harper light either way we had it painted and 1-94 out around 23 mile exit I could write a book on all the streetracing going on back from 1965 to 1980 I only wish I had a video cam back then
 
While in Grade School, I would go over to the traffic lights by my school. They controlled on 8th Street, the 4 lane main drag that turned into a country road. Sitting on a wall, we would watch cars that got stopped by the light and sometimes it would be two cool cars. I saw lot of 250 foot drag races. Once in a while, a local racer would show up and keep people humble with: MOTHER SKUNK, a W30 442, the current NHRA record holder at that time who would show up with slicks and uncorked headers. It didn't quite pull the front tires, but the front end came up awesomely. Today, the car has about 6,000 miles and is exactly as it was when campaigned in the sixties.


Screen Shot 2019-10-18 at 6.46.09 PM.png
 
I have a friend who bought a 71 340 4 speed shaker hood Cuda that had 18k original miles on it in the late 80s. The car had its third warrenty engine in it. Chrysler told the guy no more engines,he parked it and never drove it again.
 
In Buffalo we had a spot under a large bridge (Skyway for Bflo. area people) we would have lines of cars waiting to run from about midnight to all hours of the morning. It was a desolate area with really no traffic other than us. Maybe an eighth or a bit less, but the shut down wasn't great, and it came to a T, so you better be able to stop. Many drum brake cars in the day, and they had a bitch of a time getting it slowed down, especially after a few runs. Sometimes money changed hands, but mostly for bragging rights. It was the late 60's early 70's and it was great with a lot of new muscle cars showing up. There were a couple cars that came on a flatbed trucks, and they would be waving cash for any fool that wanted to try them. I can still remember one red '64 Dodge that really shook the ground when it came off the truck and no one wanted any part of that, even with a couple lengths.

The only drawback was there was only one way out. Sometimes the cops would come down the road slowly with there lights on to hustle us out of there. We would return in a hour or so. Occasionally they would come down and as we took off around the exit road the state troopers would have a road block set up, and we had to drive through it to get out. A lot of muffler tickets, guys with slicks busted, or any violation they could find. Great summer nights. :)
 
You guys remember when you could rent a 66 Shelby 350 H from Hertz. Get for the weekend and run the crap out of it and take it back. Yeap, those were the days and need history preservation which Gilmore’s is taking on. Great stories guys
 
streetwedg said:
Where was this at? I grew up in Toledo too. We used to go into Michigan on Smith rd. To race. Hang out at Greenwood mall and McDs at Lewis & Alexis.
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I grew up in Convoy, Ohio. It’s a small town about 90 miles southwest of Toledo on the Indiana border. We were about 20 miles from Ft.Wayne, Indiana.
 
In New York City we had a lot of places to run in the 70s, but none better than Connecting Highways in Astoria. Tons of cars, hundreds of spectators, food vendors, trophies and more! They would even advertise big races. Nice thing about it was they raced down on the highway and the spectators were all above on the service road. http://www.connectinghighway.com/

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