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

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My back in the day goes back to the 90's. Lol. The fastest street cars in town were a 68 charger my dad painted panther pink for a friend. 440 auto with MP 509 cam. Solid 12.6 at 3800' elev. Changed to edelbrock heads and is under 12 now. My ex GF parents had a pro charged 90 mustang 5.0 5spd that ran 11.51 and a 81 mustang with 351 that ran 12.4, both at interstate drags near Fargo. Fun street cars. I have had the pleasure of riding in all three and driving the 81. All three had one thing in common... street tires were worthless! In high school I prowled the streets in a 73 Firebird Esprit with a 400 auto. The 2 bbl was switched to a 4 and dual exhaust. I loved that car but it was no drag racer with highway gears. It would run out of power with the 160mph speedo swinging between 135-145. At least that is what I was told... ; ) At this time my father and I rebuilt a 76 warlock that was a hand me down first car for me until we decided to do a restomod out of our garage. 2 years layer I was prowling the streets with that. Gave a built 454 chevy a spanking. Toyed with him. He wouldn't believe it was only a 360.
 
I forgot about my friends cars. Nathan had a 74 RR clone with a 383 and nitrous. It was pretty quick but lost to the 81 mustang after a lot of smack talking. Andrew still has his 72 olds cutlass 350. One night his car was running bad and lost to a turbo shelby. he was pretty bummed. I had a 95 SHO at the time so to make him feel better I thought we would find the shelby so we could both lose to it... HA! I wasn't even close. That SHO was fast for its time.
 
69 Cuda 440 said:
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.
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"Carmel Ford"? Funny, but I don't even remember a Ford dealership at all. There was the Chrysler/Plymouth dealership on Rte 6 down by the strip-mall and the little Chevy dealership by the county court house, but I simply don't remember where the Ford dealership was.

I don't really recall the black '66 Chevelle but I remember the "well-drilling" family as they had a younger son around my age or a little older. They lived near the intersection of Rte 311 and Rte 292 in Patterson.

Patterson was were Sal and his '70 LS6 Chevelle were from. His family opened and operated one of the first pizzerias in Patterson over on Rte 22 just south of where Rte 311 intersected with it.

Small world. Kind of cool hearing this kind of stuff all these years later from a chance encounter on an internet forum. I like surprises like this! :smilebox:
 
When I was a kid, one of my older brothers had a 72 Demon with a built 340. Never lost to anyone, and had many challenges from 454 chevys to anything that wanted to race. Our town was small, but word got around and people out of the blue would show up. Never took it to a dragstrip, so I have no clue what the E.T. would have been. I do know that by the speedometer it would hit 70 mph between "back road" telephone poles (they weren't very far apart), and that is at 5000 ft above sea level in Wellington, Colo. And out on Interstate 25, pegging the speedometer past 120 mph would happen in a quick moment.
 
hemicop said:
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............
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I remember Brooklyn heavy I was just a few blocks from his shop but because of his drug activity I was forbidden to stop there. I was in my early teens so the temptation of the Sox and Martin cars and Ronnie Lyles driving them would have sucked my dumb a_ _ right in there.
 
Back in the late 70's early 80's there was a 67 Coronet RT. License plate read "Alien 7". It ruled Central Ave in Minneapolis. I didn't have a flash cube for my Kodak camera so no picture. :(
 
hemicop said:
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............
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I grew up just "upstate" of NYC and I remember some of those guys. Can't forget the infamous Mudd brothers and their legendary Hemi Dart as they were right there with the rest of the NYC heavy hitters. But those guys were all in a league of their own. Guess you could have called them "semi-pro" cause their rides were purpose built race cars being driven (probably illegally) on the street. Those "semi-pro" cars were far removed from what the fastest "amateur" young guy was ripping around in his home town with. But it is those "young guns" that I like to think of with this thread as it is those guys that I can best relate to and like hearing about. :burnout:
 
Early 70s we had a guy passed thru and talked up races once a year. I lived in central fl. and his car had Virginia tags. On the back was a chevy emblem with Untouchable 35 painted across it,. Was a 35 Chevy with a big block and tunnel ram.Had a purple lexan top where they were canvas when new. Monster back tires black primer paint and ladder bars all the way to the front wheels completed the look. Total badassery. Carried the wheels thru first gear on the street every race. Everytime he left town with everyone brave enough to try hims money he left untouchable. Will never forget that machine. He shut em up and shut em down.
 
in high school in 1973 there was a doctors kid who had a Ls6 chevelle 454/465 hp that bad body ruled our town for years a very close second was a six pack super bee both cars were 4 speeds
 
Paul's 65 Vette. Dynoed 800 hp on pump pee. Single 4 barrel, roller cam. 4 gear car. Was beyond fun to drive. Got to drive it from NJ to NH and back a couple of times. Benson's 67 Nova. Big block, pair of karbs. Ran low 10's. Bother in the late 80's. Stickles first year GSXR, had a Vance & Hines motor. 190 hp at the countershaft sprocket. Under 400 pounds dry. I was the only one stupid enough to hit the rev limiter in 6th gear. Bike was the only street bike I ever rode that would do power slides. Good times until he committed suicide on it.
 
Back in the 70s a buddy had two. A beautiful 70 Chevelle and then a tricked out Pinto wagon. 4 banger built by a race shop in the San Fernando Valley. He could rev that thing through the gears so that it sounded like an Indy car. My gosh it was fast and custom suspension. Drove like a dream. He was one crazy dude and loved to party. He's now the police chief of a major Ca city. Won't talk to any of us anymore- likely he's afraid we might reminisce to loudly.....
 
RzeroB said:
I grew up just "upstate" of NYC and I remember some of those guys. Can't forget the infamous Mudd brothers and their legendary Hemi Dart as they were right there with the rest of the NYC heavy hitters. But those guys were all in a league of their own. Guess you could have called them "semi-pro" cause their rides were purpose built race cars being driven (probably illegally) on the street. Those "semi-pro" cars were far removed from what the fastest "amateur" young guy was ripping around in his home town with. But it is those "young guns" that I like to think of with this thread as it is those guys that I can best relate to and like hearing about. :burnout:
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"Young guns? Little guys? There were plenty of them, too! Speaking speecifically of Queens, NY (Flushing, Bayside,etc.) there was Paul Russo's L-88 'vette, Lary Chin's '66 Impala, his speed shop's '66 Chevelle, John D'Andrea's yellow Gremlin among others. These guys all ran somewhere in the high 10s/high 9s which, considering P/S back then were doing mid/low 9s was pretty good. Paul had a great shot of him at NY NAt'l running against S&M's GTX---wish I had that, that seemed to be his high-point. John's Gremlin was shown in a past issue of HMM in an article on NYC streetracing back in the day. We all played on the street back then & NYC being so large I'm sure there were cars I never even saw that could run with or even beat these guys. It was great fun back then.........
 
I thought about this for awhile before I answered. I can not think of a single person but I can think of a single shop just a few miles away.

Baldwin Motion
 
Baldwin/Motion, Rockville Centre Dodge, Bayside Dodge and a few others all had cars running out of their shops---and why not! Like today, many of the mechanics were young, obviously car-oriented and had Detroit's latest & best at their disposal, even if only for testing or tuning. Back then, with the lack of technolgy & correspondence among racers, you had to do the best with what you had---some of those guys could pull alot out of some simple stock parts.. Just look at the F.A.S.T cars today & you get a real good idea of what could be done!
 
A few others I was just thinking about... Toby Sweet - had a ratty early 80s Ranger with a built 351 and plate system, the truck went low 12s on the motor, 11.60s on the plate. He now owns a much faster Falcon w/ a real chassis. Some Mopars - Dickie with the '69 440 RR, Dave C. with his 440 A body Barracuda, Chet Fusick and his 426 Wedge early Dart, and Randy J with his primered Coronet 440 that is deadly consistent track or road. Some of you may have lost to him at various Northeast Mopar events, or are running a transmission he built or his billet servos.
 
Eastchester, New York {circa; 1971}

Nicky D'Agastino
1970 Opel GT with a 327 Tunnel Ram, and a 3-Speed Manual.

Street-Driven, and ran 10.80's at New York National Speedway.
 
There was a real fast chevelle in our town growing up, when I got to high school he was still running around with it. I ended up with a 68 GTS 383 that I traded for a 75 nova, I allway's wanted to race that damn chevelle but it never happened! I raced just about everything around, and beat almost all of them. One day on lunch hour out at our normal meeting place that we raced, I had just won a race, and an older guy showed up with what I thought was a piece of crap 6 cylinder Buick looking to race. Well let me just say that was the last time I wanted any of that car, he walked me like I was standing still! It turned out to be a brand new Grand National X , I no longer look a those car's the same, those thing's can haul!!
 
Back in the 80's Bob (current member "racerhog") had certainly one of the fastest cars in town....Monrovia California.

He had I believe a '70 Challenger 440.......that thing was a screamer!
I always loved that car....I don't think he has it any more.

Another friend of mine had a '68 Charger big block (don't remember what size) that hauled a whole lot of ***! He sold it 20 or 25 years ago for $800 ! LOL....he still kicks himself!
 
Back in the early 70's, way before I was alive, my uncle did a lot of street racing. He had a 327 4 speed Impala, and it was quick but not quick enough. He sold it and bought a '69 Super Bee (383/727.8.75) in late 1968 when he was 19 years old. Well, after a few years it wasn't fast enough for him either. So he bought a '68 Charger (426/A833/D60) and swapped everything over to his 'Bee, then sold off the Charger with the old drivetrain from the Super Bee.

He raced his 'Bee for a long time, and was always making it faster. Big solid roller, higher compression pistons, headers, bigger carbs, and I don't know what else but I'm sure there was more. He seldom talks about it but I do remember him telling me it was a .620" solid roller, and the compression was 12.5:1. After a while, people stopped wanting to race him because they just couldn't keep up with that Hemi. Unfortunately, the car is long gone. I've been trying to track it down but have had no luck...

My grandpa said it would set you back in the seat so hard you couldn't touch the dash. My other uncle said it would rattle the china in the house when the car idled in the driveway. And my uncle that had the car said it got 4 mpg, fouled plugs often enough that he kept spares, wasn't reliable, but damn was it fast.
 
Stockberger Chevrolet from outside Philadelphia had a mean, street legal Camaro that ran at Atco Raceway in the early 80's. I drooled even as a mopar guy.
 
I'm going back to 1980 thru the early to mid 90's . There was a few spots to run on Fri. / Sat. nights . It depended on where you lived and where you called "your main spot" . For me the main spot was called WestGate because there was a big mall parking ( WestGate mall ) lot to hang out in and set up the races that was right beside rt. 27 were we had the quarter mile marked off . On any given Fri./Sat. night there would be all kinds of cars from all over filling the parking lot and runs after runs going off on rt. 27 . We didn't have a list like on some TV shows nowadays . We had what we called king of the hill . Which was the fastest car that week or month . Some of the fastest cars I can remember was my 69 Charger with a built 440 , 2 fours , bottle in the trunk , etc. that my best time at the track was in the 9's side ways . Next under or beside me ( depending on the week ) was a buddy's 68 440 powered runner . His brother had a couple of cars during that period but I think the Fastest was his 440 ( ex track car ) 69 Dart . Also there was my now wife that ran a big block 383 Dart that was a lot faster then my buddy's 440 Dart . But it was harder for her because back then , guy's didn't want to race against a girl . Personally I think it was that they didn't want to be seen losing to a girl . If I remember right her car did a 10 flat in street trim . There was also one other guy I'll never forget . This guy's name was "Wild Bill" . He was a welder by trade and every time you saw him he looked like he had just crawled out from under the greasiest ford you ever saw . lol He drove this orange 70 Runner with primer spots all over it , cut quarters to fit the big tires and totally stripped out to lighten up the car . There was a time were he didn't even have any glass in the car , not even a windshield . At that time he raced with what looked like welders goggles , with clear lens's . lol You didn't see Bill to often and you never seen him before the race . But somehow he would get a race set up and the next thing you know , he'd be up at the light lined up next to his next victim . He never challenged us for some reason but he had no problem lining up next to any brand X cars and I never did see him lose a race . Well I could go on and on about all the different cars like blown chevy's , bottle rocket mustangs , big and small block Mopar's , etc. etc. and the people that drove them , but this story has gotten longer then I had planned so I'll leave it there . Thanks for the memories guy's . I'll leave you with a couple of pictures I have downloaded of the wife's Dart , Johns Runner , Ricks Dart and my Charger . :burnout:
 

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