[TimBer]

More car stories from my dad:
"We used to drive out and park on a side street and watch all the cars go by on their way to Van Nuys Boulevard to cruise up and down. We’d wait for a car that looked like it would be a good race for us and then we’d pull out and pull up beside them and get a little race before we got to Van Nuys Boulevard where all the traffic was and all the police were. We had it all wired down pretty good. We’d pull up next to somebody at a stop light and rev the motor a couple times. Then I would let the car jump a couple feet forward, a couple more revs. That’d be it, the guy next to you couldn’t resist, it was like a string in front of a cat. As soon as the light turned yellow I’d give it a lot of gas and as soon as it turned green then I would slam the clutch out and floor it and be burning a little rubber and we’d be gone. I was real good at speed shifting, its called power shifting when you don’t even let up on the gas you just bang the clutch down real fast while you slam the gear shift as hard as you can and you really make up a lot of time.Most of the drag racing was street racing and we didn’t really race a full quarter mile at top speed or anything. It was too dangerous to do that on the street – to be a hundred miles per hour. So, it was pretty much just through second gear maybe – 60 probably. And another light would be coming up so we’d slow down. Maybe it was me that I didn’t want to go that fast on the street. Once I demonstrated that I was faster than you, what’s the point? I’d let off on the gas and you could go ahead and pass me and that’s okay with me, but I showed you.