Street Racing Confession(s)

[33 IMP]

At my ca house, nearest track is 5 miles away, but i can't use it, open only twice a year for national events. (ARRRGH ! ) Until a few months ago, I had two others, each about a half hour away, in opposite directions. No real reason to risk street racing. (One now closed, California disease )
Now that I have moved to Arizona, nearest track is 110 miles, one way. (Vegas).
Found the local street race spot, by accident. Land fill about seven miles out of town, they race on the access road. Two miles of dead straight road with no side streets, down hill so you can see the cops coming for miles. Too bad there's no place to run to if they do show up.

 

[biomedtechguy]

you can see the cops coming for miles. Too bad there's no place to run to if they do show up.

Just act casual, maybe bring a blacklight and one of these:

 

[WS23U1]

post #48 do i know you that 71 rt looks a lot like my 71 rt did?

Only for 70 yrs. lol

 

[YY1]

Just put this up on the FABO side.
Might as well put it here.

Probably shouldn't be admitting this.....

My '15 Renegade 1.4T six speed weighs the same as a 73 Duster.

Yesterday I raced a newer rs camaro from a 15 MPH rolling start.

SMOKED it to 70 MPH.

Lat week I raced an '05-'10 v6 mustang in about the same circumstances.

Smoked that, too.

...and almost unbelievably....about 6 months ago I smoked a suzuki gsxr to 50 MPH.
I did have a little head start but he couldn't catch me until past 50!!
He was revving his engine at the light and I spooled up kind of as a joke, but he heard it.
I guess I just timed the light better (or maybe he didn't think I was serious), but I couldn't believe how long it took him to catch me.

That's more street racing than I've done in the previous 20 years!

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

When I’m at the front at a light, I’m always watching the other lights. When their light turns yellow, get ready, when it turns red a little rpm, look both ways to make sure it’s going to be clear, and when my light turns green…boom! Perfect reaction time off I go!

 

[YY1]

It's almost like a drag strip Christmas tree, isn't it?

That's my regular route home, so I'm very familiar with the light cycle lengths.
I've not seen that bike before or since on that route, so maybe not familiar.
But again, we were both all out and I stayed ahead until over 50 MPH after about a 2 car length head start.

 

[YY1]

...but sometimes an opposing turn lane throws a monkey wrench in.
They are not always timed the same for both directions.
That's burned me before at an unfamiliar intersection.

 

[gooser]

this is a story i wrote for the oakland press. this will be in the 36 page pullout in side of the paper for the 10th woodward dream cruise. true story the east side guys pay a visit it was mid summer and a lady was writting for the detroit times. front page news all about woodward ave- the cars racing girls sex and drugs.monday thur thursday. on friday our club wheels inc a.m.f,got togather at peppys off of 12 mile and van dyke and we decided to check it out. sure we've been on woodward before street racing. we left peppys about 9:30 we got to 12 mile road and made the right turn going north all you could were hot cars and chicks. that night we took three cars bills 65 442 dougs 65 gto 389 tri power 4sp small cam with headers and my 69 charger rt with the new 6pk that we installed also milled and blueprinted heads and hooker headers. we went down to teds and the line was 3 blocks long to get in so we went past the light at square lake rd and made the turnaround to go south to make another pass. we were lined up at the lite and a 66 SS 396 chevelle pulls up. bill wanted this guy first we rolled to about a 15 mph roll and they took off doug an i waited about 5 seconds and we took off.i first noticed the flashing red lights in my mirror as we were going 85 or 90 mph.yes the man was behind us doug and i pulled off to the right side of the road the cop told us to stay there bill pulled off on the left side of the road. the cop told him to stay there. all this time the guy in the ss396 was rolling slowly maybe 300 feet up on the left side of the road the cop took off after him . doug and me pulled out behind bills car. lucky for us there was a turnaround right there so we all pulled into the turnaround and had a quick club meeting what to do bill said he was going i did not have my i d with me so we all said the same thing adios.bill was first he pulled out right before traffic got there doug and i had to wait till traffic pasted and we were both gone.looking up the road i saw another cop pull bill over i said to my freind rich taylor the cops are just waiting for us. so we turned onto a side street doug did the same .i knew if we could find a street that came out to square lake road we could make I-75 well we did once on the ramp i nailed it doug did the same .we were moving i looked at my buddy rich he had one hand on the back of the seat on hand on the dash eyes big as could be i looked down at the speedometer and were bouncing off 135 mph.when we all got back to peppys and talked about what went down doug asked me how fast i was going he said my tail lights just keep getting dimmer and dimmer doug backed out about 100mph. we ask bill what he got from the other cop. bill said he can up with a story that the two guys in the gto and charger were throwing beer bottles at his car and he wanted to get out of there fast . the cop gave him a ticket for 5 mph over the other cop didn't know about the street racing. so this was just another night out in the 60s and yes i still see my friends and i still have my 69 charger rt. this story ran thursday aug 19 2004 and yes i still have my 69 charger rt thanks for reading

 

[gooser]

post 73 i kinda had a feeling that was you how are things going i will call you this weekend

 

[WS23U1]

post 73 i kinda had a feeling that was you how are things going i will call you this weekend

use the cell #

 

[Darter6]

Wow, so many stories, don't really know where to start.

Couldn't say it any better. Late 60's well into the early 80's.
I lived in a small town. The new Mayor owned a concrete company and immediately started repaving all the town streets.
A cow path made of red dog dirt connected the downtown area to the upper town.
Soon that cow path that was about 1 mile long became a 4 lane concrete road.They called it Senaca Blvd.There was a straight stretch in the middle little over a 1/8 mile.
At the bottom was a Chrysler Plymouth dealer and at the top was a Boron oil gas station.It was the local hang out for all the gear heads.I was a pump jockey there.
Most all the guys worked at the local steel mills and had money to buy the "New Muscle Cars" so from about 66 to 75 or better we raced them all.

My Dad bought a new 68 Coronet R/T and soon turned it over to my older brother and bought himself a new 70 Dart Swinger Slant Six.
One day a race between my brother and a guy with a "New" Boss 429 Mustang was going on.Just so happened Dad was driving in his Dart in the on coming lanes.
He pulled to the side,watched and waited for my brother to pull up. Dad asked "Did you win ?" Steve said "Yep 3 out of 3." Dad's reply, "GOOD" and drove away.

They also raced on Interstate 70 that was local to us at late night.Not much traffic those days.A race from a on ramp to the next off ramp went on many a late night.

 

[Budnicks]

I used to do a lot of street racing 1975-ish to 1985-ish

when in HS Class of 77' baby

Early on like late 1975, my sophomore year
El Centro rd. outskirts of Sacramento Ca. (ElCamino area)
after cruising J street or the Sunrise Mall for babes or both
my 68 Charger R/T GG1 dark green/black guts & top,
I got in 1974 for $350
I 1st put Cragers all 4 corners & N50/15 Pro-tracs on the back
about in mid 1975
'I hated the look of the org. 14" wheels & hubcaps', Big O 70s
saved for a year to do the mods, working for $1.65 - $3.00 an/hr
Paul Petterson Shell

I started the build
org. 70k+ 440 mild cam, 284/484 hydr. purple shaft/727 TF with B&M shift kit
Edelbrock Torker intake (or Tarantula I don't remember which, had both)
770 Holley 7310 (?) vac. sec. 4 bbl
my Stepdad Bob (lived in Antioch with my Mom) gave me from his spares
14"x3" element Moroso drop base Gold air-cleaner & VCs
Hedman 'Hedders' 1-3/4" long tube, 3" collectors
into the stock 2-1/4" factory Mufflers/exhaust with H-pipe

I had many different 8-3/4 sets of gears in it,
stock 3.55:1 to 5.13:1
3.90 4.10 4.30 4.56. 4.88 you name it I had them/tried them
got them doing work for a guy my Dad knew,
they were in a storage shed of one of the places
cleaning up Moble Home Park properties in Auburn Ca.
(MY Dad Harvey was a contractor Add-On Home improvements)
the steep gears were tough driving down from Georgetown/Garden Valley
area ElDorado Co., down to Sac. like 75 miles each way

Anyway;
I knew who to pick on, I knew not to go after the lighter cars, with v8s
lots of V8 Vegas & Monzas or Gen 1 Camaros or Mustangs roaming the streets
in a heavy 4,000# beast, I mainly raced the guys in full-size cars
like Chevelles, Buick GS, 442s or Galaxies/Tornios/Cyclones etc.
faired pretty damn well, it almost never lost,
gears were the big difference
get that heavy pig out of the hole 'fast' & never let up...
Car was only like 13.30 @ 107 (? IIRC), but fast enough...

I had one guy from Fairfield Scott H. that had a (later he moved to Concord)
piss yellow/black 70 GS 455/TH400 Stage 1, with fat tires & Polished slots
he & I would go back & forth, I think I had the better record
pretty much an even match...
I had another guy Ron H. (from ElDorado Hills $$$, above Sac out hwy50)
he had a 69 Torino GT 390/C6 lite-met. green fastback
about the same mods as my 68 Charger had...

I raced him a dozen times if not more over like 2 years
he never could beat me, he'd do something new & come out a month later...
We'd line up & I'd put a car on him, only beat him by just enough
that was the deal back then if you had them covered
you didn't want to beat them too bad, nobody else would line up against you...

There was this guy with a 69 Camaro built 400+cid sbc 2x4bbl tunnel-ram
2 holley dbl pumpers, a really nice RS/SS blue & black, he hounded me to race
we raced a couple of times, he would edge me out, by a fender...
He was 1,000#s lighter too...

I finally beat the guy in my Junior year, he never would race me again...

It was sketchy out there (El Centro especially) narrow rd.,
(Ball Cannery was nice smooth rd)
A guy sitting down at finish line off to the side
with his lights on while we raced, he'd flash them if the Police were coming
usually the CHP, he'd call the races if it wasn't obvious or really close...

In the spring of my Junior year 1976
I put some $$ into my Charger after I wrecked it on J street cruise,
I ran into the back of a 68 Camaro all jacked-up, he stopped suddenly
& we (5 of us from Ponderosa HS, Shingle Springs) were checking out chicks
& didn't see him stopped, fucked up my Charger front end & grill
folded in his rear quarters bad, his went on the hook...
I drove mine off, after putting Bubble gum
in the holes in my radiator & jumping on the hood to get the bend out
just so we could close it & drive 75+ miles back home...

I put a 292/509 Racer Brown cam, Rhoades anti-pump up lifters
& met a guy Bill Starmerjohn (spell),
a great older gentleman, a cylinder-head guy,
showed me what to do on a set of 906s
pocket porting & gasket matched the intake & heads
matching dual springs for cam, CM retainers & keepers/locks, Teflon seals
& a 5 angle valve job, woke that 440 up...
Edelbrock 'Tarantula' (canted carb) Manifold I know that time...
A 950cfm 3bbl Holley all the same bolt-on stuff &
hooker 2" long-tube headers 3-1/2" collectors, Holeshot 3,000 stall converter
4.56:1 gears, the car ran great...
We went out to Ball Cannery rd in Fairfield, out by Travis AFB
lots of flyboys out there racing, met quite a few good guys, with cars
raced anyone & everyone that'd line up against me, V8 Vegas were the craze
I waxed them all...
Raced a guy with a badass looking 70 Camaro 454 LS6 or LS7 I suspected
Dan M. he was from Walnut Creek/Concord area...
(later would see the guy a lot after I got out of HS & moved back to Concord Ca.)
he was the fastest guy there, hands down...
We lined up & I a put a car length on him out of the hole
he was having trouble getting traction (up in smoke, still fast as hell thou)
& I just walked it out & nailed it in 2nd, kept the car length thru the finish
foot buried on the floor... (I rarely ever did that)
His was a legit 11. sec. 120+mph car...
Left there with my chest so inflated, I thought I'd never come down off that high
went to Sacramento grudge night Wed. night Races, still on street tires N50s
it's run 12.90's at like 112, all day long...
I was addicted to drag racing & especially street racing

or Out Bass Lake rd. in HS day especially in Placerville area
lots of street squirrels, stock cars mostly, just tires & wheels added
we even raced backward a time or two...

Made a lot of friends out there that are still friends today

remember this was late 70's way before any good traction DOT tires/street-tires
you either ran slicks or street tires, hardly anything in between


to be continued...
when I get into my memory banks of the
Antioch, Pittsburg 10th St, some serious showdown
& wrecks (not me)
& Nairobi Nats 1/8th mile more like 400' races & hardly any shutdown area
right off the side of westbound hwy-4 in Pittsburg Ca
(it wasn't called that, is was a far more derogatory term)
or my extensive Concord/Walnut Creek Ca races era
& N2O

 

[Darter6]

They also raced on Interstate 70 that was local to us at late night.

I mention that in a earlier post. The town is called Bell Vernon.The cruise was between 2 joints called Stringhill's and the Dog House,about 2 blocks from each other on the same street.That is were the hot rodders hung out. Russ had a 68 Barracuda fastback that looked good,black with Keystone mags.It was his daily driver and had a Slant Six.Most of the time guys were ok, but this one guy shows up with a new 69 Camaro big block.He starts to hassle Russ about lining up his Barracuda with his Camaro.Russ didn't say much and the guy kept on him.Russ said,''Look you want to race,I have a old Plymouth that I will go get and we can meet up here later.
The guy showed up with his Camaro.So did Russ with his 64 Savoy Max Wedge Aluminum front end car..... The guy drove away... I don't remember him ever coming back.

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

I hated the look of the org. 14" wheels & hubcaps'

 

[parksr5]

I have a few stories, mostly spectating. Street racing around here was still big, even in the early 2000's. The fights and crazy stuff were just as entertaining as the racing. Saw a guy lose a race one night and was so mad, he took a come along and busted out all the windows of the S10 he lost in.

I'll share a story of a race I chose not to run.

I went to a tech school. Every day it was the Indy 500 going home. Everyone tore out of the parking lot full throttle. About a mile down the road, most people took different paths to get home. Kids came from over an hour away in different directions. My group that was headed back to our town turned onto a 4-5 mile road that dead ended into another road.

I had just purchased a 90 notchback 5.0; probably a low 13 second car, it was fun. I had a v6 Firebird I just sold to another classmate. He came flying up by me and I down shifted to 3rd and was about to give it hell but, decided not to. I clicked it back into 5th and cruised down the road at the 55-mph speed limit.

At the other end of the 4-5-mile road was a church lot that was directly across from the stop sign that you had to stop at to turn onto the next road. That day, a cop was parked in the church lot and pointed to everyone that was speeding coming back into town. When I got there, the lot had 6 or so cars in it with people waiting to get a ticket. They had a bird in the air with radar and clocked every single one of us.

That day, I was lucky enough that my 17-year-old self had enough wisdom/self-control not to race a car I knew I would blow the doors off of, it wasn't worth my time.

Talked to my friend the next day, they gave him a little break between what they clocked him at and what they wrote the ticket for. It was still enough over the speed limit that he got reckless op.

 

[YY1]

Prior to my earlier post, the last street race I got into was about 5 years ago, in my 2000 Dakota R/T.

I was cruising about 62-63 on a 60 MPH sweeping curve 2 lane with sporadic traffic which was somewhat unusually light that day.
Behind me is one of those "303 HP" FWD monte carlo's. My 4200# truck has a 245 HP 360. Not sure what that chevy weighs.

All of a sudden he starts riding my *** and then after a mile or so, pulls out to pass.
All I could think of, after assessing the oncoming traffic situation (non) was "not today'.

As soon as he got to My door, I floored it.
He tried to keep up, but I walked him up to about 95 and he never made it any further than my door.
After I was clear, he slid back over.

I consider that a hell of a victory factoring the HP difference and the weight advantage.

 

[Outlaw525]

My "daily" driver in the late 70's/early 80's was '70 440 6brl 4 speed Road Runner. It had a Direct connection .590 lift cam, Accel dual point, a set of multi piece headers, vertical gate shifter and the factory 4.10 Dana. I had taken the 6 brl off and put an Edelbrock STR cross ram on it. It probably would have run better with the 6brl but I wanted a cross ram. There was a guy in town when I was about 12 with a '68 Super Bee that he had put a Max Wedge in. I used to ride my bike to his house to watch him drink beer and work on that car. When I got my Road Runner, I saved my after school paychecks until I could mail order that intake and Carter carbs. I packed a lot of irrigation pipe for that intake!

There wasn't really much back then for good sticky street tires and traction was an issue but it did run 11.90 at the track with some tuning help from my Dad who had ran a B Gas Willy's in the '60's.

I had some of the old DC blow your doors off stickers in the back window like ones on my GTX that were there when I bought it.

There was a local guy with a '68 Chevelle running a 454 that sounded pretty healthy. He hated those stickers and always had to make a comment about them. I was tired of listening to him one night and asked him if he wanted to go out to the airport and run them. Behind the airport there was a nice flat road between two fields that was marked off for the 1/4 mile.

The bet was if he won, I would take the stickers off, if I won he had to run one in the back window of Chevelle for month. For the next month, I laughed every time I saw that sticker on his window.

 

[biomedtechguy]

70 440 6brl 4 speed Road Runner. It had a Direct connection .590 lift cam, Accel dual point, a set of multi piece headers, vertical gate shifter and the factory 4.10 Dana.

Healthy combo, probably right about the 6bbl intake with tweaked carbs for your tune, but I understand the "want" for the other intake.

 

[Budnicks]

here's one
not me, but a Buddy of mine Jeff B. in Concord, I was there
instigating
with a 70 'cuda Gran Coupe, beautiful T7 (?) car, black top/interior
0.030" over 383/727TF
built up a lil'
Venolia flat top forged piston, plenty of valve relief,
good rods/bearings Clevite Tri-metal IIRC
machined & balanced by Manuel A. at Tri-City Machine Pacheco
the top end was redone, good valve job, garage pocket porting,
H-S rollers (1.6:1 IIRC) on a tried & true Racer Brown 292*/.509"
makes it like 0.542" gross lift, Rhoades lifters
we had to take heads back
& have them cut back/down the valve-guides at the top
so it wouldn't interfere with the retainers/keepers
installed proper springs so it wouldn't bind

Old trick was
He had the block squared & decked like 0.040-0.050",
had to double up the intake gaskets, get really good compression
that decking caused a few problems, with pushrod lengths too,
all stuff I helped him figure out
we took a B&M 3500 Super Holeshot (this was back in like 1980-ish) off my shelf
we did the Art Carr tricks to the valve-body/shift kit

I loaned him IIRC a set of 4.30:1 (489 gearsets)
He had (IIRC) a Street Dominator Holley single plane intake,
we gasket matched to make it fit better to the decked block,
misaligned ports, when we looked down the runners (PITA to make right)
with a 800cfm Holley dbl pumper with annular discharges off my shelf
jetted up & added like 35-37 squirters & the brown cams
Holley blue electric fuel pump & regulator, set at 7psi
he had some shitty Hooker Headers,
like 4 piece design headers PITA (*this will be a footnote)
1-7/8" to 2" (IIRC) longish tube midlength style, with a 3-1/2" collectors
& 2-1/2" Flowmaster mufflers/exhaust, dumped at the axle

We did (IIRC) Rancho shocks 90/10 front & 50/50 rear
it was low, I think he cranked the TB down quite a bit (*this will be a footnote)
he had the same M/T Sportsman tires L60/15 supposedly sticky street tires
& some cheap narrow **** on the front
(IIRC) he had Daisey Style American Racing wheels
the car did have discs upfront, power Brakes & power steering, power windows etc.
It really was a pretty sharp car...

we took it out for a beat run, it was a beast, 'felt good'
I figured we would have some takers that night

Walnut Creek cruise 1st,
then out to Encino Grande shopping center in Concord
off Concord Ave. & Willow Pas rd. where we all hung out & bench raced
& got others to go race
it was a relatively busy night, lots of cars lots of races
we waited till later like 1:00am
quieter cars ran up or down Willow Pass rd., louder & faster cars went out to
Ygnatio Valley Rd. a couple miles away, (by my house)
to race to not have the LEOs on top of us too quickly,
because of noise or complaints from the housing developments

another friend of mine Jim C. (later one of my racing partners)
had a quick gold colored 68 ElCamino
with a typical BBC Rectangle Port, solid roller built 396/TH400,
12 bolt 4.11 gears,
it'd run an honest mid-hi 11's on slicks at Fremont, he was on M/T street tires too
still a formidable street car

we wanted to see how Jeff B.'s 'cuda would stack up against it
typical banter Chevy against MoPar stuff, all in fun

we go up to Willow Pass, square off, I get out to flag
Jim's wife gets out to watch too
both cars are sounding really rowdy, with exhaust tones bouncing off
the sound walls run all the way up the hill on W-P rd...
Drop my arms, away they go, pretty even upto about 330 ft or so
Jim was spinning the tires a bit Jeff was hooked & doing well
car ran great
Jeff pulled ahead, at about 600 ft, Jim was running him down & coming fast
at like 120+ to Jeff's maybe 105+, about 1,000ft
right when Jim started to hook up again
a German Shepard ran out into the street,
we never even saw it until it got spooked,
we always send someone down the lanes to make sure (safe)
Anyhoo;
Jeff tried to avoid hitting it
he was a total dog lover as so was Jim, all of us had big dogs
Jim goes sideways, locked em' up,
Jeff was a lot closer to the dog, rt lane
tried to avoid the dog, hit a bump in the road, in the bike lane
but missed the dog (thank god)
but that was a point **** hit the fan, *those fucken 4 pc headers
for some reason, I don't know why started to fall apart,
car so damn low because *Jeff turned down the T-bars,
I think a lil' bump upset it bad
& I think an expansion joint that was puckered up, in the bike lane
car bottoms out bad
pieces of header pipe shoots over,
goes under the tires & pops 1 left/frt tire...
Jeffs still going probably 100, and Jims not far behind going even faster
Jeffs all sideways, we could see light going every which way
sparks flying everywhere & tires smoke from them locking em' up/braking...
Jeff ended up on the divider, crossed both the lanes
(dogs fine & running up the hill)
cuda' had 1 broken wheel that had a popped tire
pass-side header all in pieces & the exhaust dragging a couple hundred feet
Jim barely avoided Jeff, and almost T-boned him at one point at 120+
Jim's car was fine a couple flat-spotted tires...

Jeff won, crossed 1st... but it was a crazy night

a lot of work, it was a runner
I went with Jim back to my house, to get my truck & my open trailer
hopefully get back before the LEOs show up
loaded the car up winched it on, took it to Jeff's (parents) house
his dad is the local Martinez, CHP Lt. 'he gives us the once over'
asked is everyone OK ?, & just went back to bed...

we got the car back together, like 2 weeks later
took it to Fremont put a set of my old 29x9" slicks on it
really tight fit front & rear of the slicks/tires
but ran a solid 12.60-ish @ like 111 (? IIRC), needed more gear, big tires
not bad for a 0.030" bore 383 with a few tricks, 3500+# street-car

to be continued
more antics, as I remember them

 

[Jeff_383]

I mention that in a earlier post. The town is called Bell Vernon.The cruise was between 2 joints called Stringhill's and the Dog House,about 2 blocks from each other on the same street.That is were the hot rodders hung out. Russ had a 68 Barracuda fastback that looked good,black with Keystone mags.It was his daily driver and had a Slant Six.Most of the time guys were ok, but this one guy shows up with a new 69 Camaro big block.He starts to hassle Russ about lining up his Barracuda with his Camaro.Russ didn't say much and the guy kept on him.Russ said,''Look you want to race,I have a old Plymouth that I will go get and we can meet up here later.
The guy showed up with his Camaro.So did Russ with his 64 Savoy Max Wedge Aluminum front end car..... The guy drove away... I don't remember him ever coming back.

Where is Seneca Blvd in Bell Vernon? Over in Washington Twnshp by Stringhill's?