Fast cars!!

Back in the 60s when I would go to a lot of different drag strips, many of them had been build on closed WWII Government flight training fields. Some of them still having runways open for aircraft to show up as was the case at Englishtown, New Jersey. New York National on Long Island was another one as was Dover.

I currently fly in and out of a few small airports that allow drag racing on the runway(s) a few times a month.

Bob
 
Neat video Butch. As you know, it all got started on old airstrips in the early 1950s (drag racing that is....the salt flats had been going for years prior). Nice to see them running on that sort of pavement again. No bleachers, no control towers, just two cars and a long stretch. If I lived closer, I'd sure as hell attend that.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
 
LOL

anybody who think old muscle cars were "fast" need to go to one of these races :)

2500 actual-factual horsepower strapped to a roller skate, freakin' cool even if they do sound like mating horseflies in a bottle
 
John Kielly said:
Damn! You've had some arcane hobbies in your time.
Click to expand...

What, you'se guys don't breed fighting bots down there? (these be Olde Schoole Bots, this ain't some stupid robot thang..... but BOT'S, they manifest under the hide on cowz....)

Taste like $&!# but ya k'in live on em..... but the fly is a killer
 
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a light bulb joke

They're big up here on the top o' the marble...

Q-"How many flies does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"

Q-"You're asking the wrong question! How'd they get in the lightbulb in the first place?"
 
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alinwa said:
LOL

anybody who think old muscle cars were "fast" need to go to one of these races :)

2500 actual-factual horsepower strapped to a roller skate, freakin' cool even if they do sound like mating horseflies in a bottle
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Horsepower is Horsepower, regardless what makes it.
 
old drag races

I remember when I was in high school NHRA would have a race at k.c. about once a year. Top fuel, funnies, pro stock. Pro stock was my favorite because they still looked like an old street rod back then. Grumpys toy, snake and mongoose. big daddy don,Gene Snow. We would stand at the starting line when they took off they hit the gas and they throwed nitro all over you out the headers. Its a wonder we didn't blow up on the way home. Iwatched a race a while back on tv, its nothing like it used to be. The pro stock were running like the funny cars did back then, or maybe faster. Oh the days of old muscle cars. Doug
 
I miss my old Muscle cars and especially miss what they would be worth today if I had kept them, which financially was not in the cards. I bought a brand new Yenko Camaro in 1969 and sold it in 1971 for $2,450.00. My Baldwin Motion cars (2) only brought a little more once used (and abused at the track and on the street), but I do admit, though those seemed beastie in their day, I have been in modern hi pro cars that are faster than anything I owned and have power everything including AC, which we would have never strapped out mounts with in the 60s. Still have a 67 Corvette 427/435 Roadster with factory side pipes.. Plenty of noise, plenty of Horsepower and plenty of fuel burn, but with the retro red line tires on it, can't push it and keep it on the road and who wants to so that something breaks and either can't be found or found at a crazy price.

Bob
 
rkittine said:
I miss my old Muscle cars and especially miss what they would be worth today if I had kept them, which financially was not in the cards. I bought a brand new Yenko Camaro in 1969 and sold it in 1971 for $2,450.00. My Baldwin Motion cars (2) only brought a little more once used (and abused at the track and on the street), but I do admit, though those seemed beastie in their day, I have been in modern hi pro cars that are faster than anything I owned and have power everything including AC, which we would have never strapped out mounts with in the 60s. Still have a 67 Corvette 427/435 Roadster with factory side pipes.. Plenty of noise, plenty of Horsepower and plenty of fuel burn, but with the retro red line tires on it, can't push it and keep it on the road and who wants to so that something breaks and either can't be found or found at a crazy price.

Bob
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Christ Bob. You'd be well off today with just the Yenko, never mind the 2 Baldwin Motion Cars. I know I sold my first car on April fool's day in 84 that I bought in 76. It was a 1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda. The 60's and early 70's muscle cars. Those were cars, not these tinker toy cars of today. Even drag racing. The 60's and the 70's to me were the best 2 decades for the pro classes. I was lucky enough when I was 18 years old that I became a gopher on Jim Wemett's funny car team in the mid 70's in Division 1 which was the Northeast section of the country. We raced against some of the best cars on the east coast, Jungle Jim Liberman and Pam Hardy, Al Segrini, Bruce Larson, Pee Wee Wallace, Shirl Greer, the list could go on and on who we raced against and then against some of the west coasts finest, Don Prudhomme, Tom McEwen, Gary Burgin, Tommy Ivo, Joe Pisano when we hit some National event races at Maple Grove, Englishtown, and in Canada. We raced every weekend and once in a while we match raced on Wednesday night at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. I learned fast that it was not all glamour, it was a lot of hard work, cheap motels, fast food and driving sometimes all night to get to an event. The drag racing today is nothing like it was back then. It's too commercialized. There are no more 32 funny car events anymore. There are no small guy's like we were racing out of our pockets on weekends. It's just big business. The last time I saw Jungle Pam Hardy in NH, we were talking about the old days vs what's going on now. She hates the NHRA and what they stand for. I'm just glad I got to experience my own funny car summer, just like Mike Dunn did back in the early 70's.
 
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What's great about "hot rodding" is you can take an old car and build it into a modern performer that just looks like a vintage car.

Often, people will ask how much of my Malibu is original. My reply......"The windshield wiper motor".

My Malibu is a total custom. A Restomod, or what ever the term is now. The entire driveline, engine, brakes, suspension, steering, just about everything is based on modern technology. The Engine sports the latest in electronic controlled Fuel Injection. The transmission is modern bullet proof 6 speed with a ECU and lock up converter. The brakes are all disc, run by a thoroughly modern Hydraboost system. The suspension is the best the aftermarket has to offer.

It's the best of both worlds.

If you log on to any of the various Web Sites that cater to the vintage and muscle car crowd, you will see a distinct line drawn down the middle. There are those that think old "muscle cars" should be restored to original condition and not bastardized into platforms of personal taste. Then there are those that look at these cars as just expensive toys, and feel free to make them into what ever they wish or can afford.

I grew up in the '50's and '60's. I liveded the "muscle car era". Engines running hot. 120 mile an hour cars with 50 mile per hour brakes. Terrible suspension. Inadequate tires. And not near as much real power as we thought.

Like I said. Today, we can have it all. The look and style of a vintage car and the power, handling, and stopping of the latest thing on the market.
 
old cars

You re right Jackie, I had an old 340 duster It was a tin can with a big motor. I ran my tires as long as I could, didn't have any money, crappy suspension , clutch slipped all the time, didn't have power brakes, old 50 series tires on the back, it was a straight line ride. I never did wreck it though. A z28 about killed me.Got a Kawasaki mule I drive now. Doug
 
Hey Jim,

I bet we crossed paths in those days I went to school with Moroso's son and had Moroso front tires on my Competition Hemi Road Runner in 1968 and my Baldwin Nova in 69. Courtesy of his dad. Raced under the Betts Motors name from Irvington, New Jersey. The kid had purchased the Shrewsberry Dart funny car with Blown 426 B Wedge and we used to street race that in the Hamptons prior to all the development in the late 70s forward.

Spend lots of time at Dover, Englishtown and New York National.

We had a 1/4 mile laid out on the extension of the New Jersey Garden State Parkway to the New York State Thruway and met at "The Dinner" in Nanuet to set up the races. After midnight, out came the portable Christmas Trees, the trailers headed up to School House road and the chase cars got ready to stop any traffic which was always very thin. Even the local police would come out to watch. One of them, Gary P. who had a 396/375 Camaro that had been blue printed, the heads done by Tony File, tuned headers and full slicks ran once while still in uniform.

Brings back a lot of memories. $.28 a gallong Sunoco 260 and all.

Bob
 
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I remember

I remember when I was at the controls of a TFC and about all the HP we could reliably make was 4500. Now their getting 2500hp from glorified sports cars. That's what a TDS was making back then. Unreal.
 
rkittine said:
Hey Jim,

I bet we crossed paths in those days I went to school with Moroso's son and had Moroso front tires on my Competition Hemi Road Runner in 1968 and my Baldwin Nova in 69. Courtesy of his dad. Raced under the Betts Motors name from Irvington, New Jersey. The kid had purchased the Shrewsberry Dart funny car with Blown 426 B Wedge and we used to street race that in the Hamptons prior to all the development in the late 70s forward.

Spend lots of time at Dover, Englishtown and New York National.

We had a 1/4 mile laid out on the extension of the New Jersey Garden State Parkway to the New York State Thruway and met at "The Dinner" in Nanuet to set up the races. After midnight, out came the portable Christmas Trees, the trailers headed up to School House road and the chase cars got ready to stop any traffic which was always very thin. Even the local police would come out to watch. One of them, Gary P. who had a 396/375 Camaro that had been blue printed, the heads done by Tony File, tuned headers and full slicks ran once while still in uniform.

Brings back a lot of memories. $.28 a gallong Sunoco 260 and all.

Bob
Click to expand...

Back in the mid '60's we had a 1/4 mile laid out on Ordanance Road on the East Side of Houston. It is about a 5 mile long stretch of blacktop. On Saturday Nights, multitudes of fanatics would show up with all sorts of Hot Rods. It was not uncommon for Harris County Deputy Sheriffs to show up and keep an eye on things.

The Fain Brothers, who owned a huge auto repair shop on Market St, were legends on the East Side, had a little dragster with a hot GMC straight six powering it. The thing probably didn't weigh 1500 pounds, and I never saw them get beat. They even had a Norton Cam Grinder in their shop, and would regrind a Cam for any engine. Their saying was, "bring it by, we will grow some hair on it".

One of the stranger cars a friend drove was a powder blue Pontiac Catalina 2 door sedan. The guy that drove it had a dad that was the Service Manager at Gay Pontiac in Dickinson. The thing was a put together car, it had a 421 with twin four barrels, and all of the Super Duty suspension. The kicker. It had a "three on the tree" transmission. It is as probably an honest low 13 second car, if you could shift it.

Nobody seemed to mind our antics out there. But it's amazing we survived.
 
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I too love the old muscle cars. Had a '68 GTO when I was 20, but I didn't consider it a particularly fast car, or a comfortable car, but it looked good!
It was easy to say they don't build cars like they use to in the late '80's. That was obvious. But the horsepower they're putting in vehicles today, leads me to believe this is actually the "golden era" for the auto mfg's. The technology is incredible & they're comfortable too.
But give me a '67 Chevelle any day! Someday.....

Keith
 
jackie schmidt said:
Back in the mid '60's we had a 1/4 mile laid out on Ordanance Road on the East Side of Houston. It is about a 5 mile long stretch of blacktop. On Saturday Nights, multitudes of fanatics would show up with all sorts of Hot Rods. It was not uncommon for Harris County Deputy Sheriffs to show up and keep an eye on things.

The Fain Brothers, who owned a huge auto repair shop on Market St, were legends on the East Side, had a little dragster with a hot GMC straight six powering it. The thing probably didn't weigh 1500 pounds, and I never saw them get beat. They even had a Norton Cam Grinder in their shop, and would regrind a Cam for any engine. Their saying was, "bring it by, we will grow some hair on it".

One of the stranger cars a friend drove was a powder blue Pontiac Catalina 2 door sedan. The guy that drove it had a dad that was the Service Manager at Gay Pontiac in Dickinson. The thing was a put together car, it had a 421 with twin four barrels, and all of the Super Duty suspension. The kicker. It had a "three on the tree" transmission. It is as probably an honest low 13 second car, if you could shift it.

Nobody seemed to mind our antics out there. But it's amazing we survived.
Click to expand...
There's a name from the past Jackie, Gay Pontiac. I remember when Don Gay first started running a funny car back in 65. It was a 65 GTO. It wasn't a flip top fuel coupe but an early steel bodied car. Then his brother Roy teamed up with him. I believe Roy got killed in a highway accident around 72 or 73.
 
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Busy off season here. Engines, transmissions and cars are apart looking for a little E.T. where ever we can find it.

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