"Street Racing in New York City"

[PSU442]

this is a cool article (and it looks like an interesting book)....

why was i born thirty years too late?!?!


http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Features/articleId=120680

[442MUCH]

We used to drag race back home with the police's blessing. I lived in a Montreal suburb (south shore -Montreal is an island) in the Town of Chateauguay, pop. 45,000. Its only claim to fame was in the War of 1812, where 4,000 US troops attacked in the hopes of capturing Montreal, but were defeated by 500 French-Canadians, 50 Irish and 100 Mohawk Indians (sorry guys):o .

Anyway, there was a new industrial park in the mid-seventies and one new street Ford Blvd., was one mile of brand new blacktop and a dead end street to boot.

When the businesses closed at 5 on Friday's, there were about 50 cars parked in the empty business parking lots by 7 pm. No residential area was in sight and we had the Beach Boys, Led Zepplin, Deep Purple, ZZ Top tapes blasting on home stereo speakers hooked up to car audio systems.

We had marked out a 1/4 mile (even though Canada had started using the metric system two years earlier) with white spray paint. Most of us had brought along moms bleach. We had some really cool smoke shows. There were hot cars, loud, great music and hot girls checking out all the action.

Town police would show up every now and then and told us that we were free to drag all we wanted at our own risk. However, if they ever caught us racing on town streets, they'd throw the book at us. The asked that we have one car at the end of the road equipped with a CB radio to warn us just in case anyone (not with us) drove down the "drag strip". We never even had a close call.

One hot summer night we had a 1955 Chevy vs a 1969 396 Nova 4spd. Both cars were on the starting line, Deep Purple's "Highway Star" was blasting on the speakers and we see a car coming down the road. All of a sudden the light go on on top. It was a police car. It came over to where the majority of people were standing and even called the "flag" girl (girl with flash light actually). It was a Provincial Cop. We told him we had permission to race here and he noded that he knew. "As long as you're not on the streets with traffic."

He asked what car we thought was quicker, the 55 or the Nova. We said the Nova. He asked the 55 to move and took it's place on the starting line. He asked Yvon if he wanted to race a cop car. The cop car was a 4 door Mopar. I can't remember the model but it looked like a 300. A big mother.

The flag girl (it wasn't the same girl all the time) lit the flash light and both cars were off. The Nova was going through the gears with out the use of the clutch. There was rubber on four different occasions but it looked like the cop car was not fading back.

At the finish line there was still about a half mile to slow down. We got the CB radio report that the Nova won by a hair. Then we got a CB call from the cop, telling us to "play safe".

After that, it was off to the waterfall where we could park our cars (and vans) by the river and either make out inside or lie on blankets with our current girlfriends. Some others headed off to Montreal to cruise St. Catherine Street and go up to the lookout on Mt. Royal later.

Damn, we had some good times.:D

[ragz442]

650 defeated 4000 :confused: , damn.......talk about home field advantage :D . Your story reminds me a little of the movie American Graffiti ;) . I've got some good memories of Woodward Ave, etc. but we never got that kind of cooperation from the cops, musta been nice :) .

[PSU442]

todd -- i would love to hear your stories of Woodward Ave sometime... all the more reason for me to make it up there the week of the DreamCruise!

[ragz442]

Well I'm only 43, so I just caught the tail end of it :mad: . My old man had a service station on Woodward from '66-'86, and in the late 60's early 70's, it was rockin'. Actually, alot of his fond memories were from the 50's. He passed away in '86 at the age of 53, he was a great man and I still miss him till this day :( . Hope you can make it this year, it's the worlds largest 1 day car event, you won't be disappointed :D .

[442MUCH]

650 defeated 4000 , damn.......talk about home field advantage . Your story reminds me a little of the movie American Graffiti . I've got some good memories of Woodward Ave, etc. but we never got that kind of cooperation from the cops, musta been nice .


Actually, American Graffiti was the movie that really gave me the car bug. I liked cars before, but that movie put it over the top for me. I'd really love to visit Modesto, Ca. some day. I wanted a 1958 Impala so bad I could taste it. I found one at a junkyard on the reserve (Mohawks) near our town. I was 17 and my dad came with me. The "chief" wanted $1000 for this rusted out 58. In those days a new car was $4000 - $5000. Anyway my dad said he'd buy it for me if I really wanted it. My dad was a great guy, but I couldn't let him spend a grand for an old heap. So I told him I didn't want it. Never did get one.

The other night my two younger boys and I watched it in the home theatre. I think they liked it.

[PSU442]

i never grow tired of my dad's stories of street racing in pittsburgh along the ardmore boulvard and westinghouse bridge. In fact, they have inspired me in more ways than one. he had a '71 cutlass, hence my oldsmobile affection. His best friend, though, had a '69 Boss 302 (my dream car.) Yellow with the flat black hood. The kid bought the car new only to drive it so hard that he blew the engine within the first year. So what do you think he did? He swapped in the '70 Boss 429 crate engine of course.... talk about a sleeper, nobody saw that coming. I'm sure theres plenty of hemi owners out there who still have nightmares after running into him. haha. The kid had a great saying, something that will always stick with me, something he'd tell the Darts & Barracudas he'd make examples of: "It's the car that makes the stripes, not the stripes that make the car." Profound.





Anyway, here's the picture of the westinghouse bridge. it was their 'strip.' a few cars actually rolled on it... don't think any fell off... hope not, at least!

http://www.brianbutko.com/LH/LHmedia/LH-WB.jpg