Fastest Street Cars In Your Town, 'Back In The Day'

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Bad 440: "San leandro 67 mustang 302 4spd crashbox 10.76 modesto " Mike Defazio's bad ***.
Around Y2K era,Santa Maria valley,Ca. 65 Chevelle(4100lbs!). 558 BBC,8-71 BDS blower.3:55's out back,Continental 2600 stall. Best pass I saw(personally),9:72@139. On the street,not so fun. He also had a 70 more door impala. 383 ,B-M 144 blower,mild n20 hit. That car ran low 11's,high 10's on the street/track. It would hook anywhere.
 
yep and i saw it for sale at a pleasanton good guys show for 5500.00! sombody got real lucky getting that thing....
 
bad440 said:
yep and i saw it for sale at a pleasanton good guys show for 5500.00! sombody got real lucky getting that thing....
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No kidding,Bad440. That car,was the first of it's kind.(As a stock headed streetcar).
 
Wasn't in my town but I remember reading about the Silver Bullet on Woodward ave in Detroit and Big Willie in LA. I saw a lot of street races in Brooklyn during the early 70s Fountian ave Red Hook, Cross bay, they would even block the Van wyck expressway and race. the good old days!
 
deman360 said:
Wasn't in my town but I remember reading about the Silver Bullet on Woodward ave in Detroit and Big Willie in LA. I saw a lot of street races in Brooklyn during the early 70s Fountian ave Red Hook, Cross bay, they would even block the Van wyck expressway and race. the good old day
Thanks....
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Back in 70,.. I watched Big Willie and his crowd block off part of the freeway for street racing,, and saw him a week later at Orange County Int Raceway,, runnin for $$$,, no times posted... lol.. he won lots...
 
Everytown,

Had some guy who had a 'Backwoods Racer'.

Typically a gutted out 55' or 56' Chevy, with a wild-prepped 327.

We had a guy called 'Right Turn Red', who was a red-headed 40 year-old Grease Monkey.

1955 Chevy #150, with a 327 Tunnel-Ram.
No Front-Bumper, and a Stainless-Steel Round push-bar for the Rear-Bumper. Gutted Interior.

4.88 Gears with a Rock-Crusher 4-Speed.

Could run 11.30's @ 125 MPH at the Track, while on the Street back in 1970.
 
My friend Mike (Mikes270Dart) had a 72 Dart that was fast. My 70 Duster 4spd couldn't touch it . It had a built solid lifter 340 with tons of head work , tall gears and would rev to the moon. After that he had a 71 Cuda with a built 440 that was a more of a race car on the street occasionally. There was always Chevys around on the bottle that were fast but we always saw that as cheating. We are talking early 80s here when Direct Connection ruled.
 
A neighbor had a Orange and black 1977 442 with a built chevy 454..and man that thing would haul...
 
Bedford Indiana, I use to work at the local speed shop (cale kerns automotive specialties) and a bunch of old timers hung out there. id hear all kinds of storis of cars "back in the day" from bedford. the few that stick out was i heard stories of a 70 ss chevelle 396 4sp with a tunnel ram, 4.10s and straight 4in sidepipes. we were able to find the car from the original owner and rescue it. if i can find the pics from my old boss i will post them. cale himself had a 67 camaro rs with a de-stroked 400 to a 377 with a 4sp and 4.56 gears. could barely drive it but somehow managed to cruise it. from the last 10 years the cars that were actually street raced and well known was harold browns 70 charger rt. car was plum crazy with about a gallon of metalflake in it. its hard to say what his exact setup was because every summer it seemed he had a different setup. but mostly ran stroked 440s, 727, and 3.90 gears. jim edwards and his 67 cutlass with a 455, t400 and 12 bolt with 3.55s always cleaned house. and a few guys with early 2000s camaros and mustangs of course. not to brag but i guess my duster could be considered one someday. for the last 8 years its been around causing trouble. its a small town and people ive never met seem to know all about my car. ill try to get pics posted up of what i can fine. theres alot more from my little town that i cant think of off the top of my head. but for a little town, there sure is alot of hot rod "local legends"
 
dan purcells 76 roadrunner. always been known as a pretty quick car in town, and hes not afraid to run it.

the purple charger is harold browns 70 rt. no longer owns it but for many years was always the guy to race on friday night.

and my duster with my buddys cutlass back in the day.

nothing overly special, just the local crowd running what they had. and there are faster cars in my town but they dont get driven like they should.

theres many many more but itll take some time to track down the pics.
 

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When I was in high school in 1970, my uncle bought a new blue Boss 429 mustang. That was about as bad-*** as it could get. I still remember being scared to death in that car when he punched it!

A good friend of mine in high school had a 67 Olds 442 that was no slouch either.
 
Nice to see this thread revived.
I grew up in a relatively small town just north of Philadelphia.
I gotta say, when I was a child that place was motorhead nirvana.
There was all kinds of stuff running around.
In the early 60's Billy Neal was featured in the Max Wedge advertising, he switched from Chevy in '63, knowing that nothing else stood a chance. Though he was a serious racer, you know that thing was on the street. Another guy, an 1/8 mile racer,was running around in '55 chevy with a hotted up 283 with like 5.38 gears and a 3 speed... he used to tell me he could pull out of his driveway (on the main drag) and hit 95mph before crossing the railroad tracks like 200 yards away.
By the early to mid 70's the place was crawling with wild stuff. One guy running an LS6 chevelle with a 1050 dominator, headers, ladder bars, was supposedly fastest. Another in a '69 GTX, 440, big carb, headers,4.10 gears. The two of them were said to be unbeatable, though neither would run my dad's buddy with a '67 shelby GT500. I don't know what all he had done, but he was a great mechanic, and he had spent over $4000 in parts and machine work back then. His car was estimated around 650 hp.
Then there were all the smaller players, a 427 Yenko camaro, lotta smallblock cars. One guy driving around in a '56 chevy with a tilt 'glass front end, no bumper or grill, 327, tunnel ram, 4 speed two 'glass buckets and a rollbar, big cut-out rear wheel openings (think Two Lane Blacktop), 4.56 gears. A '55 nomad with a 427, candy purple with a silver metalflake top. '65 GTO with a 455... Not really a lot of Mopars running around.
Of course, right at the end of my street, at the main drag there was an exotic car dealer, too. I saw more Lotus, Ferarri, Lamborghini than you could shake a stick at. They would run down my street to get to the next road, that had about 3/4 of a mile with like 3 driveways on it. They also had what were already "old" road race cars like Porsche 904s and other cool stuff. They also had these miniature replicas of Ford GT40's, LM Ferarri's, and the 904's. I'd say they rolled on 8 or10" wheels, and looked perfectly to scale...Maybe 1/3 or 1/2?Had a 100cc Kart engine on them, beautifuly painted, the GT40 and 904 were closed cockpit, the Ferarri, open. I would love to find one now...
Oh yeah, I might have stolen the emblem off the nose of a Jensen Healey with a 440 when I was like 12... Hey, it was loose...
Don't even get me started on the bikes, or the later stuff...
 
Andy Crane - aka The Butcher. He had a 70s Camaro with a 468 and nitrous. The car had no interior but looked like it was parted out and a seat stuck back in it. All primer grey, I can;t recall but I think a cowl induction hood that was crooked. Word was it was in the 10s but never went to the track. Made lots of money on the street. Eventually he had a NHRA SS/GT car that he had rewired by a froend of mine as a street car. It was a green IROC. Big big block, lot sof squeeze. I saw it beat a car that I saw at the track - that car went mid 9s. I know he went to prison on drug charges. No clue where he is now.
Then there was Mike. He was/is into Mustangs. The last time I saw his car he went 10.80 lifting at the 600' mark. It's a stroker small block and single turbo in a mid 90s Mustang. He had no cage, so he couldn't run full at thte track... I'm sure that car could go wayyyyy into the 9s, maybe faster on 10.5 drag radials. Also fully muffled and quieter than the Cummins I rode in that day.
 
Late 60s/early 70s NYC had a ton of streetracers, some pro quality. The fastest would be hard to say, but some of the best? That'd have to be the "Wild Pumpkin" race team of Rufus boyd aka "Brooklyn Heavy". He had a S&M car, and rumor had it his primered Camaro ('68 I think) was actually Bill Jenkins old P/S car. Nicolson's Cammer Mustang was running at the time, so you can see it'd be hard to pick THE ONE............
 
Around my town was only guys in near stock Hondas thinking they had fast cars cause they put a noise can for a muffler on lol
Are you talking about fast car in the street or street cars that are fast at the track cause my uncle would tell me lot of street racing stories of his built 340 duster that would eat a lot of high powered car on the street that would of smoked him on the track.
 
Tough call, We had a 63 Savoy with a big wedge motor, Boss 302 Mustang, 302 Z Camaro, Rat motored 67 Chevelle, 350/327 67 Nova, 68 Hemi Roadrunner that would stop in where I worked for a tune up and some Premium fuel, 63 split window Corvette, 70? Shelby, A cool Maverick that Gene bought new ( when he was a senior) and put headers, intake, carb, gears, Cragars and white letters on a black car . Jerry, a buddy of mine had a absolutely perfect black 57 Chevy post with Cragars. He still has it and is restoring it.. I had my 65 Dart with HP 273 as a junior and my 69 Roadrunner as a senior.

Ah, Growing up in the 70's had it's advantages.....tmm
 
Most of the guys with fast stuff around here don't mess around on the streets to often. A friends uncle had a 2000 mustang with twins making over 1000 hp. I watched this car make a 7.85 pass then he would drive it up to the grocery store I worked with and throw a case of beer in the trunk. As far as street racing goes there are a few quick German cars running around. In high school my dart was the fastest for a while though!
 
My experience was mainly the 70's. Having lived in a densely populated area, a few miles outside of DC, and a area with a lot of $$$, there were hundred's of hot rods. A few stockish cars were in the 14's, but most of the bolt-on cars were capable of running 13's.

The cars with some real work, including a few of my own, would run 12's, and were still daily driver type cars. There's no way I could remember all the cars I was around in that time, but a few stick in my mind.....

Two 23' T's with SBC's.....They raced at our track during street rod event's. No rules applied, meaning they ran with shorts, t-shirts, tennis shoes, and a helmet.....One went 11.10 letting off after drifting into the grass on launch. The other went 10.0's on the first pass and 9.90's on the second pass...yikes!

The other was a 68/69 Valiant with a 440. It was a man close to 60yrs old that fueled up at the station I worked for in 1974. The car sounded good and I finally saw him at the track with slicks and he went 11.60's.

Just the tip of the iceberg, there was so much going on back then that it's hard to remember, much less write it all down.:D

Keep in mind, that boost & NOS was pretty much non existent at this point.
 
Also, around 1978, my neighbors 67' L88 Camaro that was built as a race car, but still had tags, took out several documented low 12sec cars on the street. Sadly we never knew what it would run.....1st time out, tore out the driveshaft on the first run. 2nd time out, broke the 5.13 r&p on the first run. After that the engine was sold and the car parted out. Makes me sick today since it was a original 396/375 car...:banghead:
 
69 Cuda 440 said:
Fastest Street Cars,

Back in 1967, there was a crazy kid Dave P* that flat out stormed the streets of Mahopac, New York {Putnam County} with a 1963 Dodge #330 '426 Ramcharger'.
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Mahopac NY?

I grew up and went to high school in the next town over eastbound on Rte 6 ... Carmel (although 10 years later in the 70's). Small world!

At that time the top dog that I knew of was an Italian kid named Sal who had a maroon 70 LS6 Chevelle that could outrun all comers. The only guy that could come close to hanging with him was a guy named Jim with a black (with a cool yellow flame job on the front end) 69 Mach 1 Mustang with a 428 SCJ.

I never got to ride with Sal in his Chevelle but Jim was a friend of mine so I got plenty of rides in the Mach 1 and it was a beast. One day he got into it with a Camaro on a stretch of I-84. The Camaro faded and backed off but Jim kept his foot all the way in that 428 and didn't let up. We were passing cars like they were going full speed in reverse! I don't know how fast we were doing but it was stupid fast and that 428 just kept pulling. I don't know if it was Jim's temporary lack of sanity :violent1: or the crazy speed we were moving at, but it literally scared the piss out of me! :shaking:
 
R-Zero-B,

Carmel Ford - Drake Viscome

They toyed with some potent cars.

There was a kid in Patterson {who's parents owned a Well Drilling Company} that had
a 'black' 1966 Chevelle with Ansen Wheels and with a 'tricked up' 427.

That Chevelle was a runner, and was 'The One' in the Carmel area.

It ran 11.70's at Dover Drag Strip, and was street-driven in 1972/1973 or so.
 
1968 black camaro with a DZ motor dual quad cross ram that ran on aviation fuel 4 speed. CRAZY 8 lic plate. I sware it was a 66 nova or something more boxy. Been on the phone all last night trying to find more infor about it. Even though it was a chevy I was like 10 years old when I seen it rowing gears.
 
The fastest street car in my town, and I mean street car, was my friends 71 Chevelle SS.

Started as an SS 396 (402) but he swapped out to a crate 502, and built it up from there. Extensive port work, solid roller cam and so on.

Ran mid 11s and was his daily driver (and only car) for years. The 502 had modest compression (under 9.1) allowing regular pump gas.
 
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