Imagine how the freeways used to sound like in 1972

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dodge freak

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Too close to Detroit, lol
Back with many 3.55 / 3.91 / 4.10 cars and no OD and 75 mph plus speeds.

Today I'm coasting a good 75 and along the way a couple of new sport cars start forming a pact, 2 vettes join in and one dude opened it up. From the dead silence just about you hear this little noise about 100 feet away and it past 2 cars and became dead silence again, lol

My exit was coming up and I watched them slowly fade away peacefully.


What happen to the freeway roar ? Only the motorbikes make them now. Us younger dudes missed out on some great times I bet. 3--4 hot loud muscle cars flying down the freeways no OD. Traffic hearing you coming and cars moving over or picking up speed.

No wounder "Highway Star" was a hit tune back then, like remote control, lol No, it was more like the roar could be heard a mile away.
 
A friend said to me that when I past him at around 80 with the 64 Signet on I-95 the other day, it sounded like a jet. Must be the straight pipes to the Supertrapps yet it still sounds awesome down shifting like the ol'car she is. My 30 year love affair..
 
nothing like running 4500 rpm in second gear with those old school cherry bombs talking jumping on the on ramp
 
nothing replaces the rattle in the fillings!
I have both sides of the storey, and have to say my dentist loves me for what I drive when I can.
:burnout:
 
i FEEL LIKE CHERRING USA USA USA LOL .. I went for a 200 mile ride with my old club so ya it would have been cool to live then lol
 
Had a 69 barracuda 340 ragtop pass us yesterday,...sweet ride,...sweet sound,...I could hear it in the Pontiac @ 100 yards...
 
All you have to do is watch Steve McQueen in "Bullitt". The scene where they are investigating the hotel room shooting. The window is open right by the freeway. Of course, it's dubbed Hollywood style, but they still got the sounds from cars and trucks of that era.
 
:prayer::prayer::prayer::prayer:
StrokerScamp said:
All you have to do is watch Steve McQueen in "Bullitt". The scene where they are investigating the hotel room shooting. The window is open right by the freeway. Of course, it's dubbed Hollywood style, but they still got the sounds from cars and trucks of that era.
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I lived a good mile away from the highway as a kid in Chicago and yes, you could hear everything with the windows open on a summer night. Everything from screaming motorcycles to thundering v-8's.
 
Back in '72 I had a '69 340 Swinger with a very stout engine, reverse-pattern manual shift 727, and 4.89-geared rear. Freeways were not my friend but it created quite a commotion when I did have to drive the freeway.
 
Yesterday I went for a trip to my neices about 1/2 hr drive away in my 73 Dart Sport(372ci,4 speed with 3.23).I had my 5 yr old daughter in the back and my 80 yr old dad in the front LOL.My daughter asked...Daddy why is everybody looking at us with thumbs up?LOL.Was good to see my dad give the thumbs up back.LMAO.I kept it at 60mph on the highway,dads on oxygen.
 
Sure do miss riding my chopper, 110" v-twin with 18" or so of pipe on each cylinder.....
 
pettybludart said:
Yesterday I went for a trip to my neices about 1/2 hr drive away in my 73 Dart Sport(372ci,4 speed with 3.23).I had my 5 yr old daughter in the back and my 80 yr old dad in the front LOL.My daughter asked...Daddy why is everybody looking at us with thumbs up?LOL.Was good to see my dad give the thumbs up back.LMAO.I kept it at 60mph on the highway,dads on oxygen.
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i bet that made there day good for u :cheers:
 
Motopsycho said:
i bet that made there day good for u :cheers:
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It sure did Eddie,was our first Mother,s day without my mom(RIP)I was hoping to take my dads mind off things for a little while anyway.He enjoyed it and we laughed about whined up windows LOL.
 
I remember what they smelled like back in the early 70's...Pee-You!!! Remember stage 1 smog alerts so we couldnt go outside during recess in grade school...The only cars I hear nowadays are Hondas and Subaru WRx's with 4" exhaust tips and Jake brake Diesels. And bikers: That no baffle 18" V-twin exhaust is incredibly annoying when you are not passing me. I was stuck right behind one for 15 miles, just cruising playing with the throttle and I almost pulled over to let him get out of earshot. He finally found an open and I could hear him opening it up for as far as I could see him, like 1/4 mile...Im getting old...
 
Nope that would give me a headache. Now don't get me wrong if you're opening it up sure why not, but just to be screamin down the road to go freeway speed, nope.
 
Much rather hear my old chopper than a fart can or a subwoofer.....at cruise it was not all that bad.
 
<<<< Has two Supertrapps ready to go on my 1989 318 Ram 150.
Side exit, one per side?
Side exit side by side?
Out the back?
 
We use to cruise Colby Ave. in Everett Wa. back in the late 60's early 70's. All make of muscle cars roaring from light to light. Cops seemed to stay away most of the time. In the mid 70's got to be to many cars and they shut it down. Was sure cool while it lasted though.
I use to like screaming down Intersate 5 with my headers uncapped on my dart back then. No wonder I cant hear Sh*t anymore. LOL
 
I went and took my 81 year old mother out in the Dart yesterday for Mothers Day and came on to it from a rolling start and got a nice second gear chirp from the 727. She asked me if their was something wrong with my transmission :) I laughed !!!
 
Seventy teu? Let's see I owned......................

81sruds.jpg


440 sixpack, 3.54 Dana, A 833, headers. The sixpack had been replaced long ago with an Edelbrock and various Holleys, mostly a 800 DP, sometimes an 850. Just under 14 MPG. You can't see in the terrible old photo, but it had the striped hood and air grabber. Aftermarket hang - on AC

The plates on the car, in fact, were obtained while home on leave in 73. My brother and his friend had died in a terrible crash in which he was driving. They weren't drinking, just out "having fun." My Dad said that "at least he didn't die in a rice paddy in 'Nam"

I don't have to "imagine" because I was THERE

AND...............evidently, for those few years in the vicinity of 70-74 that I was in San Diego, "they" were "ahead" of the curve on freeway construction, so you could ACTUALLY drive on the freeway as opposed to PARKING on the freeway.

I used to LOVE onramps. There used to be a NICE one somewhere in Mira Mesa going onto higway 15. It must have been Clairmont Mesa Blvd, but it's much different (Google Maps) than it was then!!!

Anyhow, I went sailin' around this neat little corner and this cop stopped me. I couldn't figure out what his beef was. He told me "you almost hit that curb going around the corner." My response was "I must have missed it by at LEAST a FOOT!!" He never did actually give me a ticket, but I'm sure he'd just loved to have.

AMAZINGLY I got few tickets in that car down there. (Not true when I returned to Idaho!!) Back then, the CHP was not allowed to use RADAR on the freeway. If you kept your eyes open.........

I found out that I-5, ??4?? lanes back then up N of Miramar was VIRTUALLY DESERTED early on Sunday mornings. I used to roll out and "go for a drive" up there. After I put the Sig cam in 'er that thing would crank 145. It had G-60X 15's and 3.54 gears, so it was relatively low geared for top end. 70 mph was 3000 RPM as I recall.

AND THEN came the "gas shortage" of 1973. I used to get SO PISSED. I had installed a Johnson/ Evinrude tank in the trunk, all tied down, with a pump hooked to dump the contents into the main tank.

You'd be down in a freeway "cut" look up there and here'd be about 4 signs goin' round. So you take the ramp, and the stations are CLOSED!! LOCKED!! But the damn SIGNS are still on!!!

I can remember at least TWICE I rolled into an open station and BOTH pumps were rattlin' on fumes!!

the-oil-crisis-of-1973.jpg
 
I remember the first gas "crisis" also............sold my 71 GTX....enough to piss me off now.
 
Yeah then came 1973 and party was coming to an end/ no more going 72 and being just 2 over. Nobody really did 55 expect for a few jerks but 70 was out--least going past the police.

Then 30 years later we got gas hog suv's that got about the same mpg at 75 mph and those were then OK to to drive at 75, ugh

Its been dead around here so far. Just heard one sports bike winding it out and that is coming off a quiet weekend. Last year they were screaming away through out the day.

The was a big police crackdown last winter, like every time you went on the expressways you see least one state cop. They littered the place with cop cars and must had ticket gosh so many but then spring came and things seem to return to normal but all the cool punks seem to be gone or very few. Too easy to lose your license today
 
Well, far as I'm concerned, it's up to US to make the streets and highways sound like 1972 all over again. I gotta one chamber Flowmaster goin on a 318 just for the occasion.
 
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