I was involved in 2000-2002.        It was still alive and well.

 
NOS
was not  the trick of the day in 1965 66 67 68 69



today --------> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEHOGXkbvcI

Nitrous was usually frowned on with the guys I hung out with.   A few guys ran it, but they usually went apeshit and destroyed motors left and right due to poor air/fuel mixtures.    We called them bottle babies.    
Every so often someone would try and sneak in with a sneaky Pete.   They would get very creative.     VHT was also another thing guys would try to be sneaky with.

I was always afraid of the Novas that had five different shades of primer.  
The civics lit up with neon were usually slow as hell, but there was one guy named David that had a 99 civic hatchback that would consistently run high 9s at famosa.

Got into many a race with young navy guys around 1997-2001.  4-4-2 got most of the fox body mustangs and new Trans-ams  and SS Camaros.  When I pulled the 403 olds out and swapped in the 455 in a 79 trans am I got even more.  That car was a beast for 10,000 miles till I wore the ten bolt rear end out. Got three grand for the motor when I got out for good.  God I miss those cars, don't miss the constant tinkering though.

That started in the late 50's. Never had a fast car but watched many races. Guys would go out 2 cars would slow down and hold up traffic and the race would be on. One of the TV stations setup a van in the median and filmed a bunch of the races then broadcasted it. Cops were out in force for awhile.
It all took plaice at the McDonalds on the Turnpike in Newington. If you pealed out of the McDonalds lot and a cop was there you got a ticket for excessive noise.

Mine doesn't have A/C.

I grew up to late for this. In 1984 I was 18and living at home. My Dad wrenched on road race and oval track cars. I came home with a 1966 GT390 fairlane It had a cam, headers, intake, carb and3:50 gears If the car wasn't running it looked kinda stock unless you saw the Tach and the Slapper bars.

My Mom took one look at the car and mentioned that it looked like it was used to get groceries....1/4 mile at a time.


I've owned a C6 corvette and a 67 fastback mustang that was set up for road course work.
I miss my Fairlane the most.

It was totaled by a drunk off duty Long Beach Cop at 7:30 in the morning.

A crazy friend of mine bought a brand new 66 Fairlane GT 390 at West Side Ford in West Seattle.He signed the paper work, had them pull it in the shop and take off the complete exhaust system from headers to tail pipe and throw them in the dumpster. He then had them put on a set of Hooker Headers and nothing else. He and I drove that car the whole time he had it that way.[he worked at Boeing is how he could afford a new car]. That 390 was very fast for what it was; we won many races with that car[it was a freak]

it blew up here in the mid to late 90's on the import scene here. I miss it too. durring spring break one time we raced 7 nights in a row.



 

So. Cal.....Lion's Drag Strip

I took a pretty stock Chevelle 396 there and they ran me against another 396 that pulled the front wheels off the ground and ran in the 11's.  I ran low 13's, just headers, slicks and 4.11's.  We also raced on the roads in the beanfields in Huntington Beach and on Geenville in Santa Ana.

I remember being at Oscar's Drive-In in Santa Ana and watching a guy tow a nice coupe through the lot that really seemed jacked up in the front.  People were anxious to see the engine....it was MIA.....a tease.

faster.......?

CROWER cams  made a backdoor cam we dubbed it an Oscar grind on account it
was a thumper / fender shaker and that  was all it was intended for/to do...lol
just for those  parking lot (only) cars.

Yeah.    Look at the hp and quarter mile times of stock cars from the 60s, and now today.
Cars off a showroom can beat full on race cars of the 60s.

Great thread.  

If you lived in a small enough town, there was still good, safe street racing even in the last decade.

Or so I've heard.  

One of the many muscle cars my dad raced back in the day...


















ETA: 1967 GTO XP code 400ho Ram Air, 360hp






More pics to come...

 

yer right  i was thinking  bilt not bought
john force ?

I don't think I have ever seen "safe" street racing.    
I watched a Security guy from Intel total a WS6 and buy about 4 acres of grapes on night at a spot everyone said was safe.  

Nitrous WOT switch got stuck on the throttle body blade.   Guy turned the ignition off to kill the motor and locked his steering wheel.  

but
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOgqUHk-zDY


anaway
as long as NO-ONE gets hurt   save your self???

My father did his racing in a 64' GTO. Sadly, no pics.

I did mine on two wheels. In 1995 my street legal bike would run low 8's. Again, sadly no pics.

N

I think the difference is mostly that COPO models like Yenko are now more available to the public.  Then there's gearing and tires.

http://www.camaros.org/copo.shtml

yep like the 175,000.00+ camaros
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9UoCo9vheQ
and
-----> sweet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2XBGbkSEEM


i ALMOST bought a  ZL-1 1969 new (i sat in it)
50 maros 2 vetts ever made

Err, full on bilt street racers of the 60s.  
I have seen an XDR class PSCA car run a street race south of Bakersfield.    
He drove the damn thing out there filling up every couple of miles.

and good ol burndowns

my first car was a 68 GTO 350, 550hp that I built when I was 17.

it had a B&M turbo 400 trans, roller bearing cam, doug thorley show tubes, good year N50 tires on the rear and L6Os up front on Cragar triple blue chrome SS wheels.

Want to hear a secret?

It never ended.  

Street racing in LA got to the point that the county was crushing cars instead of selling them at auction.
They were tired of impounding the same cars several times.

My roommate had his 91 corvette impounded because it had ET streets (legal) 5 point racing harness instead of a seat belt (legal) and a bottle (legal unless you do illegal stuff).  
He got his car back the next day. All fees were waived and the Kern County Deputy that impounded the car got a little more training.

60's
1960's
 it helps  if you WERE THERE
 to see or  be involved
the 60's

I street raced every weekend..What great times. first car was a 77 Smokey TA that had a 454 chev tunnel ram two 660 no nos .New one was a 74 Camaro 350 with a 6-71 Dyers setup two 600 with 411 12 bolt .  both had autos for bracket racing.

race for PINKS

yes I'll say the old 1/4 mile strips are still used around here..    Last race I did was in Huntington WV against a new 5.0 with my C5 vette.  Next car I build will handle corners as well as the 1/4.

I grew up in the '80s, dad was a former drag-racer from the 'late-'60s and early '70s. Growing up around Chevy II's and Chevelle's set up for drags, along with my dad's gear-head friends was interesting. One thing I find with my dad is that he is terrified by the new technologies available today, and he refuses to even listen to me explain it. Some of his other friends have an appreciation for it, at least.

I never got around to building a car of my own, but I've got some neat parts squirreled-away in case I ever find a decent Chevy II for a reasonable price. There's a '62 327 sbc, a Muncie M-20, and a set of Dart Iron Eagle heads that were apparently cast by elves just waiting for a project.

I've got a 63 chevy II SS sitting in the corner of my dad's garage that I bought when I was 15.  between Dad and I we have about 10 motors and countless $$$$ in parts.  In my garage is my 70 Nova.     The next few years we're going to pull the deuce out and go to town together on fixing it up when he retires..(I plan to give it to him sheeesH)  I figure it will cover the rent on the garage storage of the car and storage of my parts...

Reading back through this thread made me remember one funny street racing story from the mid-1990s.  There was a very active street racing scene in my hometown when I was growing up but occasionally some of us wanted different scenery so we'd get a group of 8 or 10 cars together and caravan south to Birmingham for the night.  Usually we'd hit the track at Lassiter Mountain first and then everybody would congregate in the parking lot of Mrs. Winners (I think it was a fried chicken place?) in downtown Birmingham.  That's where we would line up races, change to the slicks, make adjustments and whatnot.  After a couple good races were lined up we'd head over to the industrial section of town and run.  Since I wasn't too familiar with the town I never really knew where we were exactly, but it was a heavily industrial area right in the middle of town with little narrow roads and big warehouses and buildings on both sides of the road.

One particular night we had lined up some good races with some of the faster locals and were just about to get the first run off when the Birmingham PD came rolling up and blocked the roads.  We were pretty well screwed cause we couldn't run since none of us knew our way around town, so we just sat there waiting for the inevitable.  Cops came down the street and, for whatever reason, they singled out my buddy's car parked beside mine.

After asking for a license, the cop says "You're a long way from home son.  What brings you to Birmingham tonight?"

Buddy: "Uhhh, just came to visit some friends, sir."

Cop: "Looks like a pretty fast car you got here son.  You wouldn't be down here to do some racing, would you?"

Buddy: "Oh, no sir.  I would never do that sir..."

Cop: "Son, if I look underneath this car am I gonna see any catalytic convertors?"

Buddy: "Well sir, that all depends..."

Cop: "And what exactly would it depend on?"

Buddy: "Do you know what catalytic convertors look like?"

Cop: "Of course I do!"

Buddy: "Well sir, you're probably not going to see any then..."  


I guess the cop found that answer to be acceptable because he tossed the license back in the window and told us to get the hell out of there and don't come back.  

Nice! I like your style.

Grew up living right off of Woodward Ave. in the 1960's - 1980's (Still live just a 1/2 mile away from the epicenter of the drag racing Mecca's center... 13 mile & woodward.)

I have seen and built most manufacturers engines throughout my life, and had several "Muscle cars" over the years. Most of them I've had to sell for one reason or the other (Mostly for financial reasons).

I now have a 1966 Dodge Coronet sitting about 25' from me, awaiting what might be my final Muscle build. I have already told the wife that she will go before the car does

I see the "Ricers", Corvette, and the Mustang fanboys beating the crap out of their newer cars with NOS/Turbos?Etc. But it's just not the same.......

To a real gearhead, the sound of a large displacement engine with a nice cam set up....is pure sex.



Tall Shadow

I ran across this news article when I was filing some papers, street racing also had a tragic side,
I was told my 2 friends were sitting in a bar arguing over which car was fastest, a 63 409 340hp
or a 64 383 325hp, they left the bar lined up in the street and a few seconds later both were killed.
I was in Vietnam at the time or I would have probably been with them.
RIP my friends

What else was there to do?

I still go out to "The Quarter Mile" when I go back home.

One of my co-workers was into the late '60s/early'70s muscle car movement.  

He tells me of his 454/650 '72 Chevelle that had torque straps to keep the engine from breaking the motor mounts.

Said they used to hang out at Shoney's and smoke tires and clutches.

Told me he outran the cops twice with it, one time putting it on two wheels around a turn.

Said he scared himself so bad with it he sold it.

Is that Scribner??  Oh man, the memories from that place.  Remember the MVTA before Corky bought it?