The Official Hot Rod Thread - Part 4: Burnouts for Distance

[churchmouse]

Ok I know most of the cats that post here (car lovers and racers) are a bit younger than me so the ways of the street were different for me. I used to ride shotgun in a 55 chevy retired to the streets gasser. I was maybe 15. That would make it 1965. My job was to prime the Enderly (Sp) injector stacks if ole girl didn’t lite right up if we sat for over an hour. Needed some pump work but money. Always about money. And if not I would not have a job
Jim five owned the car and it had been his dads. His dad was our mentor on most everything small block of that era ( mid 60’s) when guys invented stuff on thier own with a more limited after market.
The 55 had a destroked 327 in it. 301 we have is basically a poo mans DZ 302. Most everything was factory parts but the pistons and cam shaft. Hell the valve springs and rockers were over the counter 365 horse vette parts and that thing was scary fast for the times and the straight axle up in the nose attitude only added to the scare factor.
Jimmy five could row the gears.
Any way I just got caught up in a memory.
I remember very few street races that did not get loud. If there were more than 2 cars (and even then) it could get silly unless everyone was solid friends. Fist fights and yelling were the norm. Especially off the south side. Those cats were serious about keeping their money. We came down from the west side and it was straight up American Graffiti.
The south side guys would come over here and cruise the Pole.
TC ask your dad about the pole and Frisches and the White Castle in Speedway. Fast cars everywhere. Get 6 to 10 out on the back roads to mix it up and the crowd would figure it out when that many bad asses rolled off and they would follow. Side bets and fist fights were the norm.
There was always a JJ in the crowd. He would ride shot gun with a fast guy and dig up races.
Damnit those were good times. And I swear we mixed it up with a very fast Mustang that from our discussions was your Dads car.

Memories.
It’s 1:48 AM and I am awake.

 

[churchmouse]

Amazing cars but JJ may be the most annoying man on the planet, and I hate all of the network drama garbage.

Yeah me to but that is what sells the show and buys air time. Follow the money.

 

[thunderchicken]

Ok I know most of the cats that post here (car lovers and racers) are a bit younger than me so the ways of the street were different for me. I used to ride shotgun in a 55 chevy retired to the streets gasser. I was maybe 15. That would make it 1965. My job was to prime the Enderly (Sp) injector stacks if ole girl didn’t lite right up if we sat for over an hour. Needed some pump work but money. Always about money. And if not I would not have a job
Jim five owned the car and it had been his dads. His dad was our mentor on most everything small block of that era ( mid 60’s) when guys invented stuff on thier own with a more limited after market.
The 55 had a destroked 327 in it. 301 we have is basically a poo mans DZ 302. Most everything was factory parts but the pistons and cam shaft. Hell the valve springs and rockers were over the counter 365 horse vette parts and that thing was scary fast for the times and the straight axle up in the nose attitude only added to the scare factor.
Jimmy five could row the gears.
Any way I just got caught up in a memory.
I remember very few street races that did not get loud. If there were more than 2 cars (and even then) it could get silly unless everyone was solid friends. Fist fights and yelling were the norm. Especially off the south side. Those cats were serious about keeping their money. We came down from the west side and it was straight up American Graffiti.
The south side guys would come over here and cruise the Pole.
TC ask your dad about the pole and Frisches and the White Castle in Speedway. Fast cars everywhere. Get 6 to 10 out on the back roads to mix it up and the crowd would figure it out when that many bad asses rolled off and they would follow. Side bets and fist fights were the norm.
There was always a JJ in the crowd. He would ride shot gun with a fast guy and dig up races.
Damnit those were good times. And I swear we mixed it up with a very fast Mustang that from our discussions was your Dads car.

Memories.
It’s 1:48 AM and I am awake.

I will ask hime about the pole, Frishes and that White Castle. I know a couple of his hang outs were the TeePee, the old Steak & Shake that was on Madison & Troy and there was a White Castle but not sure which one. Dad graduated high school in 72, so you may have been in the game a little before he was. I would love to have one or two of the cars he had from back in those days. He had a Falcon or two and 3 or 4 different mustangs over the years. My uncle at one point had a Torino Cobra Jet. Dad borrowed it one night and locked horns with a Corvette out on German Church and whooped the guy pretty good and the guy in the Corvette tried to run him off the road so after some fender bangin he sent the 'Vette spinning into a church yard. But it tore up that Torino pretty bad and they don't talk about the rest of that story so??? I couldn't say what happened to the car after that.
I dabled in the street scene when I was younger but that was the late 90s and lets face it it was pretty slim pickin's then. Factory cars and the TV shows seems to have brought the street scene back to life to some degree
Dad's 6'4" and frankly in my youth, I was half afraid of getting into too much trouble lol

 

[femurphy77]

Amazing cars but JJ may be the most annoying man on the planet, and I hate all of the network drama garbage.

Wife and I attended a BBQ boot camp a few years back; the guy doing the training was from one of the teams on BBQ Pitmasters. We'd watched it enough to recognize the players and there was one guy on there that was a total tool. I asked the instructor about him and he said the "tool" was actually a very nice person but the network told them that if the show was to renew that they needed a bad guy.

One of the many reasons I don't watch a lot of tv.

 

[churchmouse]

Wife and I attended a BBQ boot camp a few years back; the guy doing the training was from one of the teams on BBQ Pitmasters. We'd watched it enough to recognize the players and there was one guy on there that was a total tool. I asked the instructor about him and he said the "tool" was actually a very nice person but the network told them that if the show was to renew that they needed a bad guy.

One of the many reasons I don't watch a lot of tv.

If you have any knowledge of the skills and equipment needed to do what is being protease/sold on the flat screen all or most of the frame is pretty easy to spot.
One shop based series on the now motor craft channel (started out as “the Speed Chan” years ago) was Fantom works. It’s a big place but not one I would use for much of anything. The drama is so obviously scripted and the work being done at least for the show was, well you would just have to see it.
The guy was Charitable to a fault and they had some pretty cool cars come through there.

What I have noticed is some of the cars they build with the most drama are in the shop parked and you see them a lot after the alleged unveiling like they were just scripted builds. Or the customer could not pay and the cars were kept.
Who knows.

 

[churchmouse]

I will ask hime about the pole, Frishes and that White Castle. I know a couple of his hang outs were the TeePee, the old Steak & Shake that was on Madison & Troy and there was a White Castle but not sure which one. Dad graduated high school in 72, so you may have been in the game a little before he was. I would love to have one or two of the cars he had from back in those days. He had a Falcon or two and 3 or 4 different mustangs over the years. My uncle at one point had a Torino Cobra Jet. Dad borrowed it one night and locked horns with a Corvette out on German Church and whooped the guy pretty good and the guy in the Corvette tried to run him off the road so after some fender bangin he sent the 'Vette spinning into a church yard. But it tore up that Torino pretty bad and they don't talk about the rest of that story so??? I couldn't say what happened to the car after that.
I dabled in the street scene when I was younger but that was the late 90s and lets face it it was pretty slim pickin's then. Factory cars and the TV shows seems to have brought the street scene back to life to some degree
Dad's 6'4" and frankly in my youth, I was half afraid of getting into too much trouble lol

I was ejected from school in 68 diploma in hand and never looked back.
South side had the hang outs you mentioned. White Castle at the split. Tee pee north of there. The steak and shake had a huge back lot so it was where you sat and cooled of the cars on a hot night and was social. That was the loop. Cruise the strip From Sumner the lite south of the High school down south of the split. Thursday nite was low key but Friday and Saturday was hoping.
Very popular place.

 

[ghuns]

...I dabled in the street scene when I was younger but that was the late 90s and lets face it it was pretty slim pickin's then...

Early 90s weren't any better. Cruising around McKinley in Mishawaka you'd occasionally run into a semi-fast 5.0 Mustang. There were a couple rich kids riding around in twin turbo 300Z cars. That was about the fastest stock thing around, but neither kid could drive a stick to save his arse, let alone race one. Small block swapped, lifted Toyota 4X4 trucks were all the rage for a minute. Some of them were crazy fast. There was a bright yellow one that the kid used to race at the OC dragstrip on the weekends. One of the fastest, and scariest rides I saw up there was a big block swapped CJ7 on 38s.

 

[thunderchicken]

I was ejected from school in 68 diploma in hand and never looked back.
South side had the hang outs you mentioned. White Castle at the split. Tee pee north of there. The steak and shake had a huge back lot so it was where you sat and cooled of the cars on a hot night and was social. That was the loop. Cruise the strip From Sumner the lite south of the High school down south of the split. Thursday nite was low key but Friday and Saturday was hoping.
Very popular place.

Well I can't say if y'all ever locked horns on the street or not but you certainly wallered down a lot of the same dirt.

Hey a day or so ago, we briefly chatted about the smx and Pro Line hemi's. If you have some time you might jump on UTube and search daddy dave hemi tear down.

 

[klausm]

The cruising scene was real big in Goshen in the 70's. It was the place to be on Friday and Saturday nite. The Goshen PD made their salaries on all the bumper height tickets they wrote every nite.

 

[churchmouse]

Well I can't say if y'all ever locked horns on the street or not but you certainly wallered down a lot of the same dirt.

Hey a day or so ago, we briefly chatted about the smx and Pro Line hemi's. If you have some time you might jump on UTube and search daddy dave hemi tear down.

Brother thats all I have right now is time. I thought he went Pro line and promax.
The blower cars are making a comeback. It seems they are more consistent, and altitude is not as big a factor as to staging/spool up. Mark Martin is running promax now.

It would have been my buddy's 68 banana yellow Nova, Taxicab plain no frills. He had to put a cigarette lighter in it as there were no comfort options. L-79 327 with some frills and some chassis work. It was a great streetcar.
Fuzzy memories of running up next to a mustang and we never beat it and he did not get around us. It was fun. Pretty tall fellow driving it. I want to say a lite color pain but that was not important.
This sticks in my memories as we usually outran most of the fords back then at least on the street. Lite to lite.

I am checking out Dady Dave.

 

[churchmouse]

The cruising scene was real big in Goshen in the 70's. It was the place to be on Friday and Saturday nite. The Goshen PD made their salaries on all the bumper height tickets they wrote every nite.

Bumper height was such a load of crap.

 

[ghuns]

Bumper height was such a load of crap.

Not as much crap as the farmboy fabricated drop bumpers me and my buddies were fabbing up out in the shed. They were sooooo bad.

 

[churchmouse]

Not as much crap as the farmboy fabricated drop bumpers me and my buddies were fabbing up out in the shed. They were sooooo bad.

I remember these attempts to skirt the rules. Pretty slick.
My car was to pretty and yes it sat up per the look of the era and to clear the L-60's on the 10" rims. Fender well Doug Thorley headers and woody woodpecker short Thrush muffs mounted right under the doors. 3" pipe and only 18"s long.
Easy to take off and put in the trunk in the conduit mount clamps screwed to the floor to hold them and not burn the trunk mat. Small toolbox had 2 sets of plugs and the wrenches to swap them on the Hemi. A couple of screw sticks and a 9/16" open box and a 3/8" drive ratchet with a 9/16" deep well to open the headers. A distributor wrench as well.
If I had help, we could turn the tune up from street to strip in a matter of 15 minutes. It was the difference of half a second at the track.
You can say we were deeply invested. And my license showed it...

 

[churchmouse]

I remember these attempts to skirt the rules. Pretty slick.
My car was to pretty so those did not get used. and yes, it sat up per the look of the era and to clear the L-60's on the 10" rims. Fender well Doug Thorley headers and woody woodpecker short Thrush muffs mounted right under the doors. 3" pipe and only 18"s long. Dash mounted sun Tach/oil pressure and temp gauges pretty much told what it was about including LEO.

Easy to take off and put in the trunk in the conduit mount clamps screwed to the floor to hold them and not burn the trunk mat. Small toolbox had 2 sets of plugs and the wrenches to swap them on the Hemi. A couple of screw sticks and a 9/16" open box and a 3/8" drive ratchet with a 9/16" deep well to open the headers. A distributor wrench as well.
If I had help, we could turn the tune up from street to strip in a matter of 15 minutes. It was the difference of half a second at the track.
You can say we were deeply invested. And my license showed it...

 

[churchmouse]

Huh.....not sure how that post got split...?????

 

[klausm]

a set of air shocks with the line ran up to the drivers seat could save you ticket, but then you had to crawl away to have them re-inflated

 

[ghuns]

I remember these attempts to skirt the rules. Pretty slick.
My car was to pretty and yes it sat up per the look of the era...

I was talking about jacked up, 4x4 trucks.

Wait, you old guys had the backend of a CAR so high it violated bumper height laws?

We were resorting to drop bumpers on trucks with 8, 10, maybe even 12" lift kits. Trucks with 38-44" tires.

 

[churchmouse]

I was talking about jacked up, 4x4 trucks.

Wait, you old guys had the backend of a CAR so high it violated bumper height laws?

We were resorting to drop bumpers on trucks with 8, 10, maybe even 12" lift kits. Trucks with 38-44" tires.

They started all the bumper crap due to some insane attempts by street racer to get real tires under the cars. You were allowed a few inches "BOTH" ways. Mine exceeded by 8"s. The whole car set up just not as much in the front. It was the look of those days.
I did use a truck trick when I figured out my wheel hop was mainly due to the air shocks and discover you could buy wheels with custom back spacing/Off sets. I put the rear axle under the rear leaf springs which bought me just enough with the custom wheels to keep the 12" slicks. It was a bit of work involving new spring perches and a wedged spacer plate to get the pinion angle back and lowering the snubber. Dodge always had ample wheel wells from their racing heritage. You just had to find the right off set. It hooked like a beast after 3 nights work out in the shop. I went back to steel wheels and dog bowl hubcaps with the rears been custom off set. I always liked the simple look of the steelies and bowls. Especially on the COPO Camaros. Less is always more to me.

I can ramble on all day about this stuff. We had to adapt/invent/fabricate so much.

 

[klausm]

the 68 Camaro could fit bigger tires then the 69 with how the wells flared out a little.
3 inches from "stock" used to be the number on the bumper

 

[churchmouse]

the 68 Camaro could fit bigger tires then the 69 with how the wells flared out a little.
3 inches from "stock" used to be the number on the bumper

3"s sounds right. I know I was still over even after lowering it with the right wheels and the axle work. Maybe 4"s total. But that was in another life and time... Never owned a 68 past the few we flipped. 69 is my year. Love-em.