Legendary Street Race
Similar street action happened on the West Coast as well back then, but I don't recall anything with that high of a price tag.
There were two very well known cruise spots in the LA area, Whittier Blvd. in Whittier, CA, and Van Nuys Blvd. out in the Valley. Both centered around a Bob's Big Boy drive in. My spot was Whittier Blvd.
Friday and Saturday night cruising on Whittier Blvd. was legendary with traffic in both directions bumper-to-bumper for almost two miles. The Bob's Big Boy had several lanes of the parking lot leading into the car-hop section, and you had to wait in line in the lane next to the curb out on Whittier Blvd. just to get into those parking lot lanes.
Lots of really strong street runners back then. Your engine would load up just due to the heavy traffic and the sound of plugs being cleaned off at the stop lights was constant.
Whittier Blvd. was for cruising, the street racing action was centered around York Field in south Whittier. You'd usually find 'Big' Willie Robinson and 'The Brotherhood of Street Racers' hanging around setting up races. Actual races were run at various spots in industrial areas known as the 'Box Plant' or 'Nabisco', or relatively sparcely populated (then, not now) residential areas like Diamond Bar.
'Big' Willie was literally big and strong. A buddy of mine worked at a small speed shop at the time and 'Big' came in one day carrying a Mopar 4-speed under one arm. It took both of the guys in the speed shop to take it from him after they bought it. 'Big' Willie was always a Mopar guy - both he and his wife, Tomiko, later had matching his-n-hers Daytonas.
Wow. Memories. The good ol' days!