South Side Street Racers

[dragcarz]

Is Street Racing something that could be posted here? Don't want to water down this thread. Opinions welcome.

[Mooneyzs]

I say post them considering I see people posting drag cars in the on the workbench section.

[dragcarz]

Since no one seems to have any objections, I'm going to try and post my first work in progress here, and if you allow me a little back story, hopefully you will understand why I wanted to Post this here. I was around when street racing was still popular. Back in 1975, I was 17 years old and hung out at the White Castle on South Kingshighway, in St. Louis Mo. There were nights when there was a line waiting to cruise the parking lot. The big nights were Saturday and Sunday, Saturday would consist of new plugs, check the timing and running the valves, checking the tire pressure in the slicks you just mounted for the nights activities, finished by a car wash and polish if your car was'nt primered.There was 7 of us that took the racing serious, though we normally did'nt race for money, bragging rights were king, Money led to fights and or possibly damaged cars and we all worked too hard to have our stuff tore up needlessly. My plan is to recreate most, or all of my friends cars, starting with the simpler ones. My car is the 65 Chevelle with flames, also is a pic of my motor. These are the only photos of my car taken in 1975 with a 110 instamatic LOL... My Chevelle will have to wait for now as the paint will be hard to duplicate. The other cars I dont have any photos of so I will be working from memory. Two of the cars were Camaros so I decided to build these together as they are so similar.

First up is Pats 68 Camaro.... this car was Butternut yellow with a black interior, Pat built a 302 small block Chevy backed by a turbo 350 trans and 12 bolt rear axle. I started with AMT 68 Camaro kit The SBC came from the AMT Corvrtte LT1 kit as it was more detailed than the original kits motor. I also used this kits Rally Wheels, the Automatic trans came from the Vega Twister kit which I scratch built a more accurate transmission pan for using sheet plastic and hex rod. I have the body and interior and chassis painted but not detailed.

Second is Eddies 67 Camaro, Eddie painted his car Ermine White, It was a Big Block, though the actual cubic inches were never really known, It was a single Holley carb, 4 speed Muncie and 12 bolt rear axle. Eddie ran slicks on open ralley wheels that I took from the same AMT Corvette LT1 kit listed above. The AMTs rear axle lacked detail so I added rear cover detail and 12 hex bolts. I then scratct built the lakewood traction bars by glueing .100 Evergreen Channel cut to length,squared up and then used the kits rear shocks with the shock removed for the U bolts to connect to the rear end. I started the Big Block using the Revell 396 from the 65 Chevelle kit. I have the body painted as well as the base coat on the chassie and interior, I hope to post an update soon. OPINIONS COMMENTS SUGGESTIONS ALL WELCOME.

[JasonC]

Sweet! My kind of builds. Will be checking on this for updates.

[dragcarz]

Got some work done on the rear axle today still need to add U-bolts.

[Green Duster]

Roger. Those are "Streetable Racers". Kind of like my car. Over in the avatar.

A 12 second street car.

Edited April 12, 2013 by Green Duster

[dragcarz]

I don't remember any of us ever racing at the drag strip, you didn't want anyone knowing how quick your car was. But some of these cars were brutally fast. Back then the interstate speed limit was 55 MPH, and I received more than one citation for doubling that . They were street driven race cars.

[GoatGuy]

Excellent work Roger. Looking forward to more.

[dragcarz]

I got some work done on Eddies Interior today, First time I've ever flocked carpet, not sure I like the results, Need pratice Im sure.

[Dragfreak]

great job!! interior looks sweet too!

[krazyglu]

Those are looking good, I really didn't get into street racing( way to much stupidity)..of coarse I am 28 and the world is much different now. I like the story and the fact that you get to remember the "glory day's" as you recreate your friend's car's.

[dragcarz]

Rear axle installed. not real sure about the axle shackels, may redo. BMF on bodies.Front suspension installed on white Camaro.posed the wheels. Im happy with stance Eddies camaro didnt use air shocks and didnt have the 70s jacked up stance. Slow progress is better than no progress.

[dragzz]

vary nice work u have got going on there

[crazyjim]

Very cool. We did quite a bit of street racing back in the mid 60s. The races were held on Saturday nights out on Ogden Ave. and Kostner, Chicago. The organizer; s had the full sanction of the Chicago Police Department who posted 1 squad car at the start and the other at the finish line. Most of the races were challenges matches with no money involved. However, sometime we had a grudge match for car titles. After the finish line the road started an incline to the Cicero Ave interchange.

There were very few accidents, anf if/when they happened, a safety crew was always on scene.

We had a great time; didn't hurt anybody or their property; booze was not allowed at any time; and it beat going all the way out to the track in Oswego.

By the way, I used to run a '56 Chevy 2 door post with a 325hp 327 out of a '64 Chevy Impala. Too much money in a couple of years spent trying to be competitive forced me to sell it and I bought a '58 VW bug. No speed parts for that puppy and I saved some money.

[dragcarz]

Police in St. Louis, not so friendly, 21 tickets in one year, 17 of which were moving violations, others were for improper equipment and loud exhaust......had a good, well connected attorney. Yes I was stupid! Much wiser today.

[am73grand]

These are very cool!!

One of my favorite things to do is build models of my cars and my friends cars.

Keep with the updates!!! I'm enjoying this project!!!

[Alan]

I was heavily involved in the local street racing scene back in the day with my 70 Monte Carlo, 454, TH400 3000 conv. 12 bolt 4:88's. I did pretty well ................. I have a few of these types of builds in the works as well. I am diggin all of these Roger !

Here is a 72 I am working on now, 550HP 454 LS-6 TH400 3000 conv. 12 bolt 4:11

Edited May 6, 2013 by Alan

[dragcarz]

Alan very nice Monte Carlo, most over looked GM product for performance in my opinion. STAY OUT OF TROUBLE! Post some of your builds and works in progress, maybe well start a street race thread.

[dragcarz]

Finally finished one. Got laid off again, decided to finish a couple old builds. This one fought me on the final assembly, the windshield is too long and kept the interior from sitting flush so all my hard work to raise the rear end went away, as the car now sits level....oh well it's done. This is Eddies Camaro as I remember it , and overall I'm pleased with the final result. It's no show winner and Pats butternut Camaro should come out better as I learned a lot on this one. Comments welcome ,good or bad ,as is suggestions.

[Rusty Sierra]

phenomenal work! I gotta ask... what kit is this Camaro from?

[am73grand]

That came out gorgeous!!! Nice work!!!!

[tubbs]

ahhh, white headers, slapper bars and shackles. can't beat the 'ol street racing stories. the build came out great, can't wait to see the next ones. love the color on it. did you use the proper color, or something close?

I was 16 back in '75 and my powder blue 6 clynder Maverick wasn't exactly a threat, so I would hang with my buddys. we were on the Mopar brigade, an AAR cuda, blown hemi dart,a 70 440+6 GTX and sometimes a 70 W-30 442 (yea, we razzed Ernie for being an olds guy, but he could take out most everyone with that rocket 455). we had Southgate shopping center just southeast of Cleveland Ohio to look for the races, went to the highway to race and if you had enough in your pants.... cash that is, you would head downtown to Quigley and Scranton Bvld where all the big boys hung out.

didn't mean to sidetrack your thread, I will be watching these street racers take shape.

[dragcarz]

Thanks for the kind words. This is the AMT 67 Camaro, they also did a 68 and a street machine version, they are available on E-bay. Eddie and his dad repainted the Camaro in their garage, but they used a generic white not Chevrolet white which was real bright, So I painted it Testors Model Master white, they have different shades and I picked one that I thought was close.

[dragcarz]

Hey Tubbs, we used to race on I44 west bound, get off at Southwest and race back on the eastbound ilanes if a rematch was needed. I remember nights where the shoulder of the highway was a parking lot with spectators watching the races. Then someone would holler COPS and pandemonium would break out.......Good Times.....Good Times.....

[dragcarz]

Finally, the second in these builds is finished. If you've been following along, you'll notice it's been a while since I've updated this post. Life has been a little crazy. I had to move to Atlanta Georgia for work. I work a lot more hours now and I don't get much build time. I took Friday off and spent Friday and Saturday to finish it. I didn't do any super detailing to the motor, just paint. Pat's butternut Camaro , as I remember it anyway, came out better than Eddies camaro, but it's just practice. Right?  

I could not get Pat to race me. His Camaro was a small block turbo 350 automatic plane Jane car. Not A Z-28 , SS or RS Camaro. Pat wouldn't give up any info on this car. He wouldn't tell you engine size or rear axel ratio. But Pat was a tuner, and he could get a lot out of a car.

One weekend night after a lot of cajoling on my part, Pat agreed to race. We went out onto I-44, and a couple cars blocked the two right lanes, turned on their emergency flashers, someone ran out between us and flagged us off.  Knowing I had Pat covered, I let him leave first, he jumped out about a fender on me and I came out on the clutch.My Chevelle leaped out in front of Pat by about a fender, and while I thought I would  just pass him by, I didn't. Pat stayed with me, he didn't gain anything, and neither did I. We just stayed like that to the finish.Needless to say I was surprised. All of a sudden flashing lights, BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH! The Cops were busted. We both pull over, Pat's was in the right lane so he pulls down the exit ramp first and onto the shoulder, I pull in behind him, and the Officer is behind me. Spotlight on my car, lights still flashing. The Officer comes up to my window, and he waives Pat on, tells him to get going.....I get a careless and imprudent, a drag racing, and speeding tickets. He should have just arrested me, but didn't. When the officer was finished with me, I asked him why he let Pat go? He smiled and replied you won......I finally get let go and returned to the White Castle where we hung out.  Later that night, Pat and I were talking and he asked if I was just playing with him, or was I really racing?  I lied to him and said I was playing with him, but I wasn't, his car was fast. As always, comments welcome.