Street Drag Races You Have Seen or Done?

[John Rogers]

I was raised in middle Delaware where there were miles and miles of straight and flat two lane roads put in the country. This was the late 1950s and up to middle 1960s where a dozen or so 1/8 mile and a few 1/4 drag strips were opened. The first race I can remember were the Plymouth Furys and small block corvettes and usually the big block Chrysler product with dual 4 barrels and a modified automatic transmission was fastest. My cousin bought a 1961 Ford Police interceptor with the 390 engine, 3 carbs and three speed with over drive! It became fastest until the trans blew out one Friday night and a T-10 four speed was put in and it was a bit faster.

Then on Saturday afternoon at the gas station on the North edge of town where all the racers hung out, a 1962 Chevy Bel Aire black on black pulled in and it sounded like nothing we had ever heard on the street. It was a 409 with the dual carbs! Driver was from Philly and was on his way to the beach and wanted to see who was fastest, so my cousin popped up and said lets go. A long line of cars drove out to our favorite spot, watch dogs set at ends of the road and away they went, with the race over in about 200 feet or so. I'll never forget each time the Chevy shifted there was a BANG and the speed when it went by was scary. Back at the garage the guy was given a full tank of "Super" and someone asked is that stock.....and he said noooo the engine and trans were from Bill Jenkins shop of all places! He bought the car from Ammon R Smith in PA!
Wasn't long after that I went into the US Navy to beat the draft and not become a ground pounder and have been in San Diego mostly ever since. Lets hear your races.

[pwd72s]

In the early 60's there was a guy living above Sweet Home, Oregon in Cascadia, a small area, who had mad hot rodding skills. A '47 Ford, running a Packard with 400 cubes. Dual AFB's...solid lifters, etc. Closed mouth on the engine innards. Caddy Lasalle transmission, Ford 9" rear. Said he'd race anybody who could drive the road to his home. One of the first cars I'd seen to use weight transfer front shocks. Far as I know, he never lost. I personally watched this beast beat a Mopar 426 Max wedge. A one trick only car, but it did that trick well. Local cops made him paranoid enough that he took the car apart around '66-67...never put it back together. Bob was the local go to hot engine builder for years...

Done? I herded a couple of Goats back in the day, but always obeyed traffic laws.

[ckelly78z]

Yeah, you guys weren't going to even come close to competing with a "Grumpy" Jenkins 409 Impala....those were legendary, cool story !

[Tervuren]

Did do a side by side standing start in an industrial park on a sunday afternoon against my brother's C5 Coupe in my C5 Z06.

The guy he bought that Coupe from had money to burn when it came to modifications.
I knew in advance the outcome of that one.
Wouldn't call it a race from my perspective.
I loved the sound of the two cars taking off.

[wdfifteen]

I never did any drag racing when I was a kid. I watched other guys in high school spend every penny they scraped up on their cars, and there were some cool ones. I recall a red '58 Chevy 348 tri-power, a black over red '63 Chevy 409, a beautiful two tone green '59 Ford 390.
I was saving my money for college, so I bought a '60 VW for $600. They probably spent that much on gas in a month.
The problem with the VW was it led me to Porsches, and by the time I was 19 I was welding two wrecked 356s together. It was the only way I could afford both a Porsche and college.
I did take my Speedster to the local strip on a test and tune day once and made 2 or 3 runs. As I recall it was in the 15s.

[jcommin]

My first experience - In the early 60s while I was visiting my grandmother, I saw 2 cars coming down the street she lived on. A 61 Pontiac bubble top 389 and a 62 Ford Galaxy with a 406 engine. I knew where they were going to a street along side a set of railroad tracks. I ran down the street to watch. The Poncho won. I have been in love with a 61 bubble top Catalina ever since.

Never raced but seen some fast cars. My first experience in a fast car was sitting in the passenger seat of a 1966 Plymouth Satellite with a 383, 4,bbl w/ torqueflight. My family had Chevy's and I was use to the drone of Powerglide transmissions.
That car could fly! Fell in love with that car too.

[Seahawk]

My first car was a 36 hp VW Beetle, so...

[wdfifteen]

On the other end of the spectrum, in high school my best friend's parents had a full size '63 Chevy 4 door with a 230 six and three on the tree. It had to be the near the cheapest full size Chevy you could buy. I think the only option was an AM radio.

[oldE]

In the fall of '67 and spring of '68 my cousin Jim was having a good time taking all comers with his '67 390 Fairlane. Nobody could touch him until George C. showed up with his '68 302 Camaro. George blew Jim's doors off. Nobody thought that little motor would pull like that.
Another local guy,Archie bought a 340 Dart while he was working as a mechanic at the Mopar place. He worked on the car a bit and a couple of times a week he would gas up on the way home, then stop on the bridge near our house and practice his starts.
Loved the sounds of those small block v8s.
Best
Les

[masraum]

Originally Posted by oldE

In the fall of '67 and spring of '68 my cousin Jim was having a good time taking all comers with his '67 390 Fairlane. Nobody could touch him until George C. showed up with his '68 302 Camaro. George blew Jim's doors off. Nobody thought that little motor would pull like that.
Another local guy,Archie bought a 340 Dart while he was working as a mechanic at the Mopar place. He worked on the car a bit and a couple of times a week he would gas up on the way home, then stop on the bridge near our house and practice his starts.
Loved the sounds of those small block v8s.
Best
Les

As I understand it from all of the car mags, the DZ302 motor was supposed to be very, very underrated on HP.

[imaircooled]

My first car was a 73 Nova. We bought it from a little old lady......Not Pasadena.....Greenville, Ohio....anyway....it came with a 250 straight six and we took that out and added a small block Chevy....cam and headers....not the fastest car....but I did win some races. When I say races I mean.....like 2am in the morning races when nobody else was around....against high school friends.

I sold that Nova while I was in the military to buy my 911.

I was born too late.....I love the early 60's Super Stock cars....like Max Wedge cars....the Thunderbolt Fairlanes....and the swiss cheese Pontiacs.

[masraum]

I was born in '70, and my first car was a '65 2dr Impala with a junk yard 350 2bbl out of something that was probably a '72 or '73. It did have a 4 spd and 4.10 rear. It wasn't terribly fast, but it was quicker than a lot of other stuff in the 80s. I could always take the 80s Monte Carlo SSs (305s, I think), but I couldn't take the 350 Camaros or Mustang GTs. I think it topped out at around 110-115, and the brakes were crap, 4 wheel non-power drum.

My dad had been a hot rodder when he was young, but was adamant about me not being able to make any power upgrades, no 4bbl, no cam.

Still, I had a great time in it and would like to have a nice one now, but not if I had to trade my Boxster for it.

[GH85Carrera]

I drove a 1960 VW bug in high school. I moved up the 73 Super bug, and then a 914 2.0.

I have never owned a car that can just spin the tires at will on dry pavement. My 911 has way too much traction and only 200 HP.

In high school all the "cool" kids hung out and had monster engines and fast cars. One kid was always ready to "run for pinks" where the looser handed over ownership of his car. Of course his daddy owned the local race engine shop. He drove the old small body Chevy Nova with some untold HP monster engine it it. He never lost a drag race.

For some reason he never challenged me to a drag race, but every other boy in school with a car was challenged.

Like a lot of gear head boys I went to the local drag strip and watched them race. Even some top fuel racers which is just indescribable noise and power.

I have never been in a "street race" and never will. My cars are not that fast in the 1/4 mile, and I do my high speed on the race tracks. I have always preferred taking a 50 MPH corner at 49.6 MPH at tracks and leaving the drag racers to go a 1/4 mile at a time. Of course now cars are so fast they just go an 1/8 of a mile for safety.

[John Rogers]

Great stories guys! I learned to drive in a Corvair with an AUTOMATIC transmission! So hot rods were a great relief.

[ted]

Myself I never street raced, couldn't stay awake that late lol.
Early 70s Big Willy Brotherhood of Street racers were meeting in Fullerton.
We followed them to a street race that ended up being in Anaheim very close to where we lived.
It was for $1,000, between an Altered from Compton and a pick up truck owned by Tom McMullen of Truckin magazine.
The altered won be a lot.

[fastfredracing]

I feel lucky to have caught the tail end of that era . Both my uncles were street racers in the 70's. The memories of both of their cars ( Big block Chevelle, and high rpm small block Nova ) up on stands with motors, and transmissions apart every weekend in my Grandpaps garage, etched a permanent spot on my brain .
Even up till my early 20's there were a couple of places where you could pick up a street race if you wanted to . I had a couple of quick cars, but there was always some one with more money and a lot faster .
One of my favorite memories is getting the holeshot on a 944 turbo in my buddies capri rs, then around 70 -80 mph seeing that red german pos come alive and walk away from us like it was its job .

[ted]

Funny just found a photo of Tom's truck from a street race in the early 70s.

TOM MCMULLEN A100 GASSER HOT ROD STREET RODDER BUILDUP TRUCK 427 BBC 671 BLOWER for sale: photos, technical specifications, description

[herr_oberst]

Professional drag racing was the sport I followed when I was a kid, rather than the stick and ball stuff. I had a long list of heroes; Prudhomme and McEwan and Garlits for sure, but also Big John Mazmanian, Roger Lindamood, 'Ohio George' Montgomery, Bo Laws, Frank Iaconio... And the cars all had names! Color Me Gone, Pure Hell, The Blue Max, RRRevolution. Praying Mantis. There was a local go fast guy named Ralph Van Papheghem who's still building fast cars and driving them today even though he's in his 70's.

I spent much time at the local drag strip (Firebird Raceway in Star, Idaho) and would sneak out of the house on Friday nights and go watch the cars cruising the local main. In the early to mid 70's it was kind of a wild west show, and the color and the noise and the smell was just too exciting to keep me away. There were some seriously fast machines on display, at least to my wide open 15 year old eyes. Sadly, I had the empty pockets syndrome and was never able to afford much in the way of a car. Life happened, I still keep a peripheral interest, but like everything that was fun and exciting about my yoot, the professionals have taken and polished any rough edges down so fine that the sport is a shadow of what it used to be. My favorite class to watch is Pro Mod. It seems like they're allowed to innovate in ways that other top tier classes are rulebound from doing.

[Nostril Cheese]

I survived Mulholland and Decker Canyon Road.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by ted

The flames aren't doing that truck any favors, but the hammered top and the tubs make up for it. Four bolt front wheels, though. What's the reason for that?