Whilst not really a 'confession' - may get to a couple of those later - my favourite story of street racing comes from a time when I was just past 15, and although there, not really a participant...
Had a buddy named Robert, who was the youngest of three boys. His oldest brother was named Gene - we called him Mean Gene, cause, well, he kinda was. Anyway, Mean Gene was a big ol boy ; dark brown hair about to his shoulder blades, a big bushy beard and arms the size of my thighs. I have literally seen Gene pick up a Cragar S/S with an L60-14 tyre mounted on it and throw it like a baseball...at Robert. Gene's daily driver was a 61 Corvette. Red with black soft top and interior, the car had Cragar S/S wheels - rears sticking out of the wheel openings a bit and 4 1/2s on the front- and a pretty stout 327 with 11:1 pistons and a lumpy cam. All this went thru a 4 speed to 4.88s in back. When Gene was driving down the street, all you could see was biceps and hair thru the side window.
Gene had a buddy named Eddie. Eddie was the opposite of Gene ; trim , athletic build, blonde hair somewhat long-ish, but well within 'socially acceptable'/fashion at the time, clean shaven and soft spoken. And Eddie had a hardtop only 62 Corvette. Eddie's car was nicely turned out ; it was painted a metallic gold w/Cragars at this time, soon to be Centerlines, with a black interior. Eddies car had a very trick '301' in it with 12.5 to one squeeze, roller cam and rockers. It RPMed like a two stroke. A snorkel hood scoop covered the two 660s sitting atop a Weiand Tunnel Ram. That car was FAST. I saw it lift the wheels on the street, thru the mufflers and on street tyres, once. And that was in 1975. No tubs, no 4 link, nothing. Just 62 Corvette.
A few miles south of town, there was an area called the Catasham Bottoms. It was an agricultural area and sparsely populated. There is a stretch of road running thru it that is a reasonably wide 2 lane - smooth, flat and completely straight for nearly 2 miles with sod farms on one side and soybeans on the other. That particular area was fairly well known as a good place to conduct scientific and mathematical experiments ; you know, like discovering the practical application of Second Derivatives and doing physics experiments studying the relative accelerative capabilities of varying mechanical combinations housed in differing structures. Ofttimes side by side... All in the name of Science and Research you understand...
So one Friday evening, I was 'spending the night' at Robert's house. We kinda forgot to mention to my folks that Robert's parents were leaving as soon as Robert's dad got home from work to go to a wedding of some relative's kid out of state and had left Mean Gene 'in charge'... Late that night, we piled up in Eddie's old International pickup, Gene driving, me in the front seat, with Robert, a pair of slicks, a small floor jack and a few tools in the back, and followed Eddie out to the Bottoms. There was supposed to be this badfast Cougar coming out there that had apparently loudly opined that his car was the fastest accelerating contrivance extant in at least a hundred square mile area. Eddie had decided to go and prove his theory incorrect. [all in the name of science and research again... ] So, we all roll in, began the normal recon and psy ops, and Gene starts putting the slicks on the car. Pretty soon he hollers at Eddie to throw him the keys.
'How come?'
'So I can get the bleach outta the trunk.'
'You've got the bleach in the truck.'
'No I don’t - you said you threw it in the trunk!'
'NO... I said for you to throw it in the truck!'
'No you didn’t...' etc etc.
They were still mildly arguing when Eddie crawled in the car to fire it up and get the 'experiment' rolling. Finally Eddie said somewhat dismissively 'Aw ferget it. Just p*ss on it...'
Eddie pulled the car up and Gene walked out there with it as normal. However, after the Cougar had completed its 'warm up' and Eddie was pulling into his lane, Gene took him literally, walked to the side of the car, unbuttoned his Levis and let loose in front of the rear tyres! A puddle on each side. We're all standing there aghast and agape as Gene motions Eddie into the 'bleach box' and signals him to light em up! Needless to say that when that Corvette moved into the 'bleach', we all scattered!!!
