Duke's Drive In Final Cruise

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krazykuda

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Tonight was the final cruise at Duke's Drive In, in Bridgeview, IL as they are closing tomorrow...

They were the place to cruise around here back in the 70's and 80's... They were rated in the top 5 cruising spots in the country by both Hot Rod and Car Craft magazines back then...

There were some really bad *** cars there and I recognized a couple of them from back in the day...

I don't know why the fist picture is sideways, it was taken and posted right side up...

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More...

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This is the engine from the station wagon in the above picture....

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Yes, this is an original M code Barracuda... I knew this guy's uncle back in the day... His uncle had an original 68 Dart GSS...



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Great show, but what a shame they’re closing. Retirement? Couldn’t afford to stay open?? What’s going to happen to the building???
 
Great show, but what a shame they’re closing. Retirement? Couldn’t afford to stay open?? What’s going to happen to the building???

I guess the property has been sold...

But they are looking to open at a new location that hasn't been finalized yet...

If you notice the crowd that was there, that was not close to what it used to be back in their heyday in the 80's...

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I recognize this truck from back in the old days... It can do 14 seconds without the nitrous...

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This is part of the reason the Street Outlaws show got their asses handed to them when they came to Chicago... These guys are serious and been doing this for years...

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What a joke....don’t get me wrong, awesome cars and turn out...but why?!? Why...history...culture...hot rods and
Milkshakes....why sell? New location, not the same....don’t get it..guess it’s all about the $$$$$....so sad :(
 
Looks like so much fun. Great setting the Old Back In The Day Drive In.

Great Bunch of cars, Thanks for posting it up.
 
I agree. Great pictures! Brings back memories of cruise nights in the little town I grew up in. Not near as many cars or people but still great times!
 
What a joke....don’t get me wrong, awesome cars and turn out...but why?!? Why...history...culture...hot rods and
Milkshakes....why sell? New location, not the same....don’t get it..guess it’s all about the $$$$$....so sad :(


I'm not sure as to the why... You can look them up on Facebook as they do have a facebook page, but I don't do facebook so I can't tell you...

It's a shame that they have to move as this location has a bigger parking lot than the place that I hear they are considering...

Tonight is not the norm. it hasn't been the same as it used to be back in the day...


There was a bad accident back in the mid 80's at the street races and the cops cracked down on the racing and the cruising faded after that...

They haven't been able to pull the crowd like they used to... Today's crowd was about half of what they used to do... And they used to be that way on Friday and Saturday... If it didn't rain, Duke's was packed, you had to park 3 blocks away... The parking lot was wall to wall cars and people...

The culture back then was to fix your car during the week and get it ready to cruise Dukes for Friday and Saturday... There were 3 - 4 spots that they used to street race back then... They would set up the races at Dukes, and after they closed at 10 PM they would go out to the designated place and race... The real fast cars would run for 2 k per race and would show up on trailers with open exhaust and slicks... Unload the cars, warm them up, race, then load them back up on the trailer and get out of there before the cops showed up... Those were the true 9 - 10 second cars...

Some of the old designated racing places are more build up now and not possible to do that anymore... Plus they opened up the race tracks nearby and now you have a quarter mile track nearby where the closest ones back then were in Indiana or Union Grove, WI.... Now you can just go to the local track and race without worrying about getting a ticket...

As they say, those were the good old days....
 
Great stuff Karl. Than you for posting. A shame they're closing a piece of history. Maybe the new place can capture some of the magic. We can hope anyway. It's better than being negative.
 
Thanks karl.
Never got to experience anything like it.
Back in the late 70’s there were a few spots the fast guys would hang. But the main drag would have many cars cruising.
There was a park that many cars would cruise through, was a great place to take a seat and watch the street rods cruise through.
 
Hell the B body guys are liking these pictures more than you a body guys... I'm getting many more likes from them and I just posted them on there this morning, not last night like here...

You all got some catching up to do....
 
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Thanks Karl, those are awesome pics. Sorry to hear they closed. It won’t be the same at the new place, but at least there will be a new place. Kim
 
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