Undefeated on the street !!!

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In the later 70s we were the poor apartment kids. We had a 4-door 55 Chevy with a 396. 12.5:1 with solid lift cam. The heads were ported as much as anyone could do with the 396 head. (Which meant valve seal replacement 2 twice a year.) 4 speed Hurst Vertigate shifter to borg Warner Super T10 trans. 3.73:1 12 bolt posi. At best after a new valve job? Probably low to mid 11s. Which was FAST in 1976. It only lost when something broke. If held together. Undefeated. Including a few upsets. Including a Copo '69 427 Camero that had run high 10s at the track. I got a slight hole shot and he couldn't drive around me. Very cool guy. (For the life of me I cant remember his name at this time.) It was his shop that did the 396 heads. And let us put on some 9" slicks of his for the race that was actually a little shorter height profile to help on rear gear disadvantage.

He smiled and said. "That is a fast pile of **** you got there."

I believe the the L78 396 is the best engine Chevy ever made. (My opinion bias of course. And never had or even seen a real L88 427.) But never lost to a Corvette. And one Copo 427.
 
1980- my high school car was a'70 440 6brl 4 speed Road Runner that I bought for $650. My Dad ran a B gas Willys in the early 60's and taught me how to build and tune an engine. That car eventually ran 11.90's with the 6 brl carbs on a Edelbrock STR intake. Pretty quick on the street when I could get it to hook. Won a bunch of races and lost some too. That was a long time ago, but I remember the 2 worst losses clearly. One to a 68 Road Runner with a tunnel ram hemi, I beat him off the line but he walked me by over 3 car lengths at the end of the quarter. The other was to a 66 Chevelle with a Dominator on a 427. That car was super loud and beat me bad from launch to the end of the quarter.
 
Dual quads on the Hemi? Ps, don't feel bad, we launched Sideways on Gandy Bridge, lost by a car length to a late 60s small block mustang, in all Fairness, it was 4 am, we were drinking most all day, and I had 3:55s the Coronet. Oh, and I wasn't driving. My buddy from Ohio was....now about the time I left the strip club, and the State Trooper said I WAS doing fine, till 2nd gear, and hit 80....
 
Ironracer said:
Sounds like Ya NEVER raced a MOPAR! Lol
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Street Mopars were no problem. Mopars got scary built. But even back then they were more expensive. And more rare.

That same crowd from the 70s are still Chevy guys. I'm the one that broke ranks. And went Mopar in the 80s. Never looked back. And it started with the "Look" Chevy body lines are a little dull. Thus why (I believe) Mopars are able to support wilder color schemes. Mopars just look sharper. Better defined body panel folds. It wasn't until later I learned engine design advantages. Primarily in the heads. Rocker shaft vs Chevy's Ball Stud. And of course Hemi is just a full step up.
 
Ironracer said:
Dual quads on the Hemi? Ps, don't feel bad, we launched Sideways on Gandy Bridge, lost by a car length to a late 60s small block mustang, in all Fairness, it was 4 am, we were drinking most all day, and I had 3:55s the Coronet. Oh, and I wasn't driving. My buddy from Ohio was....now about the time I left the strip club, and the State Trooper said I WAS doing fine, till 2nd gear, and hit 80....
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Yes, dual quads through the stock hood with velocity stacks.
 
Ironracer said:
I have a low 7sec Bike, I used to street race. That's a different deal. Other than the 68 Coronet, I DID race at Gandy, Tyson, Harney, the only other Real Street Killer was a Fiberglass body, tube frame, nitrous car, w/ a full cage. No, my dumbass DIDN'T build that.....
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LOL- bikes are my real biz to this day. I have 14 of them right now, going to have a dual sport rental biz soon as well, as well as renting "chase" jeeps.

7 second bike is wicked fast!

I build cafe racers, street fighter, choppers, anyone that I think can sell- all japanese based usually, though I do throw in a Ducati or Triumph here and there LOL. Z1s are my specialty bikes. I have 5 of those. My V65 Sabre I have had since 1989 and my Z1 900 B I have had since 1982! My V65 has 200+k miles on it now, and I broke into the 10s with it in 1990, the only year I drag raced it.

Bikes are way easier to launch on the street than a car, and way harder at the track! Since you can run 9s on a 'Busa in bone stock form with a good rider, that rider should be able to take pretty much any street car, anywhere. Getting a 8 second strip car is pretty much impossible to launch on the street, so bike wins every time.

I used to take my Z1 Drag bike, wheelie bars upside down and the slick and tools mounted between it, to the track, run 10s, drive home. 40mpg on the street. Hard to be bikes LOL
 
cojohnso said:
Street Mopars were no problem. Mopars got scary built. But even back then they were more expensive. And more rare.

That same crowd from the 70s are still Chevy guys. I'm the one that broke ranks. And went Mopar in the 80s. Never looked back. And it started with the "Look" Chevy body lines are a little dull. Thus why (I believe) Mopars are able to support wilder color schemes. Mopars just look sharper. Better defined body panel folds. It wasn't until later I learned engine design advantages. Primarily in the heads. Rocker shaft vs Chevy's Ball Stud. And of course Hemi is just a full step up.
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This is the opposite of my experience- you needed less money to build more HP from a mopar- and my uncle had a machine shop and we had all kinds of wild **** come out of there with the 80s Pipeline money!

I made enough from 1982-1984 in the Army bringing cars up from the "lower 48" and selling them for 5-6 times or more what I had into them- I flipped mostly Chevys of course, they were the most popular. LS6 Chevelles, 427 Vettes, Camaros, you name it. Mustangs, every kind of ford you could imagine, and quite a few mopars too.

I was TDY a lot from Alaska, so I would get my plane ticket down, opt for "POV" travel back, and it would easily cover the gas money back then getting it back to Alaska. I bought a 70 LS6 for 1500 bucks in Phoenix, sold it for 10,500 in Alaska LOL> of course, the chevelle was only 12 years old then! LOL.

I raced only mopars, though individual parts were more plentiful and a little cheaper than mopar, HP to HP the Chryslers cost less than any of them, especially since I had the machine shop angle. BB mopars with ported 906 heads, huge roller cams, high compression etc lived longer than the Chevy's especially. I had a 9 second vega drag car too, 454 based. Still not as cheap to run at the track as the car in my avatar.
 
318willrun said:
My last bike was a '05 Ultra Classic bagger. Fun to ride, but so many folks riding your tail and text'n/driving that I can't relax enough to have fun, even in our remote area.. LOL. I'm bikeless for now.....
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Man, I used to Ride to Framing and Drywall jobs, Sawzall sticking outta the saddle bags ( back then, we didn't have the lever locks on em, but always a lost Allen key) cord around the neck, skill-saw on board, ect.. that was about 20 years ago .. today? No Way in Hell! And, I agree with You, there is so many people, it's a paint in the *** ( I'm further outta the town nowadays, just never far enough) that 05 sounds like a good bike. A rigid mounted Ironhead, w/ 2 broken motor mounts? Eh.. what the hell was I thinking?.. oh wait, I know, Not Clearly, that's a fact! Didn't even know till I broke Her down the 2nd time...
 
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Cruisingram said:
LOL- bikes are my real biz to this day. I have 14 of them right now, going to have a dual sport rental biz soon as well, as well as renting "chase" jeeps.

7 second bike is wicked fast!

I build cafe racers, street fighter, choppers, anyone that I think can sell- all japanese based usually, though I do throw in a Ducati or Triumph here and there LOL. Z1s are my specialty bikes. I have 5 of those. My V65 Sabre I have had since 1989 and my Z1 900 B I have had since 1982! My V65 has 200+k miles on it now, and I broke into the 10s with it in 1990, the only year I drag raced it.

Bikes are way easier to launch on the street than a car, and way harder at the track! Since you can run 9s on a 'Busa in bone stock form with a good rider, that rider should be able to take pretty much any street car, anywhere. Getting a 8 second strip car is pretty much impossible to launch on the street, so bike wins every time.

I used to take my Z1 Drag bike, wheelie bars upside down and the slick and tools mounted between it, to the track, run 10s, drive home. 40mpg on the street. Hard to be bikes LOL
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Well, to be honest, that was 7s in the 1/8th.... thing still screwed it on! ALMOST stock.. except for carb, intake, massive porting to the heads, valves, and pistons, and drag pipes...
 
Cruisingram said:
What bike?
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My 1977 XLCR 1000,
.my buddy got it outta Tampa V twin, years ago. One of the owners dragged it for a long time. Jan has a few, one w/ an extended swing arm and a 50 series tire, one w/ knobbies for dirt. I know both the guys that originally built it, Scott Moon,, and Wayne. Scott had a machine shop, drives a school bus now, he got sick of the bs.. super cool dude I got it from Allister in '02..
 
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Ironracer said:
My 1977 XLCR 1000,
.my buddy got it outta Tampa V twin, years ago. One of the owners dragged it for a long time. Jan has a few, one w/ an extended swing arm and a 50 series tire, one w/ knobbies for dirt. I know both the guys that originally built it, Scott Moon,, and Wayne. Scott had a machine shop, drives a school bus now, he got sick of the bs.. super cool dude I got it from Allister in '02..
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It was the best Harley I ever had with thunder heads and N20- and my favorite HD of all time. They were really disrespected by the HD guys when I had mine back in 82-84. My stock Z1 would beat it most of the time though, even with the N20. Once Honda invented the inline four with the integrated trans, HD could never compete again in any sort of racing without major handicaps. Only Vtwin to hold it's own after that against four bangers have been ducatis.

Interesting fun fact- one of my favorite Italian bikes was a company started by HD called MV Augusta. The 312 2+2 M/V goes 200mph bone stock off the show room floor, and is race ready "privateer" right off the bat. It is a 100k dollar motorcycle. To make a honda competitive with it, you have to spend about that much LOL.
 
Cruisingram said:
It was the best Harley I ever had with thunder heads and N20- and my favorite HD of all time. They were really disrespected by the HD guys when I had mine back in 82-84. My stock Z1 would beat it most of the time though, even with the N20. Once Honda invented the inline four with the integrated trans, HD could never compete again in any sort of racing without major handicaps. Only Vtwin to hold it's own after that against four bangers have been ducatis.

Interesting fun fact- one of my favorite Italian bikes was a company started by HD called MV Augusta. The 312 2+2 M/V goes 200mph bone stock off the show room floor, and is race ready "privateer" right off the bat. It is a 100k dollar motorcycle. To make a honda competitive with it, you have to spend about that much LOL.
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Yep, everybody calls a Sportie girly bikes, but it's fun as can be when ya dog out that 1000 pound garbage wagon right outta the hole, pull the front tire up going in 2nd, and blast off! That M/V is way beyond sick!!!! I'd love to ride one! Maybe at the SALTS.
 
Ironracer said:
Yep, everybody calls a Sportie girly bikes, but it's fun as can be when ya dog out that 1000 pound garbage wagon right outta the hole, pull the front tire up going in 2nd, and blast off! That M/V is way beyond sick!!!! I'd love to ride one! Maybe at the SALTS.
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If we want to talk about not losing on the street for me- it's bikes really. My V65, I have never lost a street race on drag racing stuff- 99.999% of guys do NOT know how to ride thier bikes. A new 600 CBRR should be able to hand my *** to me on the street with a 150 pound rider vs my 260 pound self- but it takes way more skill to ride a bike than a car LOL- I got my bike into the 10s after about a full summer of trying- and Peewee got his V65 into the 10s on a slower Magna in the 80s in one day, for example. However, he does wiegh 150 pounds less than me LOL.

Skill comes out in street racing, big time, making the car or bike launch on the street is no mean feat.

I have beat a turbo 'busa on the street that should be in the 8s on the track BTW. Tore him straight on up and embarrassed him badly LOL> my sabre

PART_1427593426975 (3).jpg
 
Cruisingram said:
If we want to talk about not losing on the street for me- it's bikes really. My V65, I have never lost a street race on drag racing stuff- 99.999% of guys do NOT know how to ride thier bikes. A new 600 CBRR should be able to hand my *** to me on the street with a 150 pound rider vs my 260 pound self- but it takes way more skill to ride a bike than a car LOL- I got my bike into the 10s after about a full summer of trying- and Peewee got his V65 into the 10s on a slower Magna in the 80s in one day, for example. However, he does wiegh 150 pounds less than me LOL.

Skill comes out in street racing, big time, making the car or bike launch on the street is no mean feat.

I have beat a turbo 'busa on the street that should be in the 8s on the track BTW. Tore him straight on up and embarrassed him badly LOL> my sabre

View attachment 1715911842
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Definitely an art to get outta the hole just right! And that's a Brutal looking bike! The turbo Busa? Man, that guy must have fried the tire, or benn scared! Sounds like you dogged his ***!
 
Ironracer said:
Definitely an art to get outta the hole just right! And that's a Brutal looking bike! The turbo Busa? Man, that guy must have fried the tire, or benn scared! Sounds like you dogged his ***!
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That's a V4 with 122hp stock and about just shy of 600 pounds curb weight.

Launching a turbo busa on the street is equivilent to launching a funny car on the street. Except you may "loop" the busa if your not careful, as it is, I carry my front wheel a few inches off the ground, at the track, I usually tripped the 60' light with the back tire. That's why I love this thread- street racing and drag racing were probably close to 20-30 years of my life, and now my boys are wanting to do it. It's not if he was scared- he plain did not have enough skill. When I face off on a real experienced rider- that would be a huge difference- but really skilled riders don't drag race, they drag knees LOL- and I have the worn out kneed pucks in my leathers to show I do it.

Now, the local are literally racing on hot lava! As soon as the lava cooled down to below 200 degrees, they built the new road to where I live, a place called hiway 132. (if you want to google it, it's hiway 132 in Pahoa, HI) drag racing popped up there, and reached a huge crowd during covid restriction when they shut down the county race track for 2 years. First time, my boys thought they had to sneak out- and I was like "what, are you fing kidding me, have you not listened to my stories while working in our shop"- and we went together. Mostly older foriegn cars with RWD, a few more modern ricers. Now they have opened the track and put speed humps on part of that area. so it has pretty much went away. The lava surrounds the area, and after it rains it can go to white out conditions from the steam coming off the lava. The road is always perfect because the asphault is always 150-200 degrees from the lava, so shortly after it rains- the pavement dries itself off - good thing in a rain forest LOL>

Crazy stuff man.
 
My street days were in the 70's. Lived in the DC suburbs and there were at least a dozen "hangouts", fast food joints, shopping centers, church parking lots:) etc. around the beltway in Md & Va where everyone gathered. Very few daily drivers at the time would run better than 13 oh's. Most of the big boys only came out once or twice a month.

Gotta remember, at that time, Pump gas was like race gas today...Sunoco 260 @ .50 or less per gallon...and you could run any compression you wanted. While there were some fast big block cars that showed up, the best street cars ran small blocks w/ 4spd's, compression, medium solid grinds & huge gears. Like 4.88 to 5.38.

My buds 70' 340 Cuda, auto. w/ 5.13's went 12.70's and hooked so well that the high 11, low 12 big block cars never had a chance to catch him.

I had a 396 4spd 4.10 Chevelle at the time that went hi 12's and beat everyone i "decided" to race, but had no chance against that car on the street.
 
Cruisingram said:
That's a V4 with 122hp stock and about just shy of 600 pounds curb weight.

Launching a turbo busa on the street is equivilent to launching a funny car on the street. Except you may "loop" the busa if your not careful, as it is, I carry my front wheel a few inches off the ground, at the track, I usually tripped the 60' light with the back tire. That's why I love this thread- street racing and drag racing were probably close to 20-30 years of my life, and now my boys are wanting to do it. It's not if he was scared- he plain did not have enough skill. When I face off on a real experienced rider- that would be a huge difference- but really skilled riders don't drag race, they drag knees LOL- and I have the worn out kneed pucks in my leathers to show I do it.

Now, the local are literally racing on hot lava! As soon as the lava cooled down to below 200 degrees, they built the new road to where I live, a place called hiway 132. (if you want to google it, it's hiway 132 in Pahoa, HI) drag racing popped up there, and reached a huge crowd during covid restriction when they shut down the county race track for 2 years. First time, my boys thought they had to sneak out- and I was like "what, are you fing kidding me, have you not listened to my stories while working in our shop"- and we went together. Mostly older foriegn cars with RWD, a few more modern ricers. Now they have opened the track and put speed humps on part of that area. so it has pretty much went away. The lava surrounds the area, and after it rains it can go to white out conditions from the steam coming off the lava. The road is always perfect because the asphault is always 150-200 degrees from the lava, so shortly after it rains- the pavement dries itself off - good thing in a rain forest LOL>

Crazy stuff man.[/QUO
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Cruisingram said:
That's a V4 with 122hp stock and about just shy of 600 pounds curb weight.

Launching a turbo busa on the street is equivilent to launching a funny car on the street. Except you may "loop" the busa if your not careful, as it is, I carry my front wheel a few inches off the ground, at the track, I usually tripped the 60' light with the back tire. That's why I love this thread- street racing and drag racing were probably close to 20-30 years of my life, and now my boys are wanting to do it. It's not if he was scared- he plain did not have enough skill. When I face off on a real experienced rider- that would be a huge difference- but really skilled riders don't drag race, they drag knees LOL- and I have the worn out kneed pucks in my leathers to show I do it.

Now, the local are literally racing on hot lava! As soon as the lava cooled down to below 200 degrees, they built the new road to where I live, a place called hiway 132. (if you want to google it, it's hiway 132 in Pahoa, HI) drag racing popped up there, and reached a huge crowd during covid restriction when they shut down the county race track for 2 years. First time, my boys thought they had to sneak out- and I was like "what, are you fing kidding me, have you not listened to my stories while working in our shop"- and we went together. Mostly older foriegn cars with RWD, a few more modern ricers. Now they have opened the track and put speed humps on part of that area. so it has pretty much went away. The lava surrounds the area, and after it rains it can go to white out conditions from the steam coming off the lava. The road is always perfect because the asphault is always 150-200 degrees from the lava, so shortly after it rains- the pavement dries itself off - good thing in a rain forest LOL>

Crazy stuff man.
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Man, Y'all are Living Large out there! And I thought people here were Crazy! Also, Congrats for being an Awesome Father! That's cool as can be!
 
One oddball badass street ride around 1975 was a "old guy" with a 67' Chevy stepside p/u in Laurel Md. I ran a 68' 327 4spd Camaro with 4.88's with my Chevelle and beat him by a fender. He then tried to get me to run the truck so i asked around and found out that it had a 425 Olds in it and had beat the Camaro by 5 cars. I said no thanks...lol.
 
Along with the bike theme, 76'/77' my best friend bought a new Honda GS650. I had been on a few cruiser type bikes before, but nothing like this. Road tests claimed it was a 12.20 bike...the fastest 650 sold at the time.

So after working on his BB Cutlass all day, he says take the bike out for the night. Cool! how could i say no right. So with about 45min of ride time i'm at a traffic light and a 70's Corvette starts talking and revin', you know the drill. So we roll out to about 20mph and i let her rip. OMG! i did get it into 2nd gear and i think the only thing on the grips was my finger nails.

Needless to say, i decided right then i need to be on 4 wheels.
 
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