What got ya Hooked on Fast cars ?
 

it don't matter what kind of racing you do..speed/power hooked you at some point in your life.


Mine was in 1975,had a cousin by marriage that had a 69 Red camaro white stripes and White interior, 427ci with aluminum heads and chrome side pipes...Original Crager mags with Super Stock tires ( anyone remember them ?)

Will never forget..he had the Rolling stones blaring on the 8 track....took me on a stretch of road and let that Bad boy EAT...I was hooked ever since...Across the back spoiler he had "STREET CLEANER" airbrushed..

He was king of the street back then..took all of them out..large crowds would gather late at Night ( early am) and get it done.. ....I do not condone street racing today but thats just the way it was back in the 70's when i was exposed...

it grabbed me and never let Go.....

Mine was a neighbor who was the local hot rod guru when I was just a kid. This was in the mid to late 70's. There was always a 70 Chevelle, or a 68 Camaro being tested out, along with the big block Vega, (in 73) and a very nice 1967 L88 427 'vette that belonged to a friend of his, but stayed at his shop. Whenever I heard one fire up, I went to the front yard, because the testing was about to begin...

my dad
 

My Dad , our family has been racing since prior to my birth and I am 39 years old . dad raced with grumpy jenkins , sox & martin and all the old timers back in the day . He always said if we race together we stay together . He was right , we are still together , we just are neighbors now . he also said if he could get me hooked on racing I wouldn't be hooked on anything else .he was right about that too , I dont drink , smoke or do drugs and I owe it all to my dad . Of course i will admit that I do not think anybody could afford to race and do drugs , lol . I love you Dad , thanks !!!!!

i was 10 and my neighbor raced in round track and his crew would
come to work on the car for the wk end and one guy had a 65 falcon
with twin carbs that stuck out of the hood and that car would move,
you could hear him coming down the street, got me hooked :wink:
oh and the guys name was "gordo" (fatman) :wink:

Had to think on that one for a bit. When I was around 10 or so, my sister's boyfriend had a 67 Camaro. He was just a good ol Texas farm boy, but the scream of that little 327 at full tilt, flying down a dirt road, through cattle guards at insane speeds, still sticks in my mind.......been hooked since

Good topic.

Born with loving cars since I can remember... i remember watching Richard Petty racing at Laguna Seca in the 70's when I was just 5-6 years old. It is something that draws you & never goes away... It is funny how non-car people look at us sometimes & wonder why we do what we do!! Scoot

1967 hanover park il, church st.i was riding my bike(THE KIND WITH PEDALS)a 57 chevy silver with things sticking out of the hood and a facon were starting to line up about the time i pedaled up the screaming engines and tire smoke then that damn falcon went skyward and i remember standing there with my chin on the ground thinking "i didnt know cars could fly" then that 57 went by me and i could feel something inside of me that i have never felt before nor since and i been chasing that feeling the rest of my life. ive come close to finding that feeling a few times after i was old enough to get into hotrods.drugs drinking, nothing even come close!

When i was growing up everything around me seem fast. It started off on a bike with the wind in my face till mini bikes came along and we took the goveners off or jammed them in and raced each other. Then one day my dad took me to see his friend that had a 67 corvette. It was a 427 425 H.P. with what ever was done to it at the time with a 4 speed. He took me out on a concrete highway and let it loose and pinned me in the seat till it was over. My dad was laughing thinking it would scare me but it did just the opposite. I think i was 11 or 12. Ever since those days it's like a natural high :D :)

I would say my uncles got me hooked on cars. It seems like they always had something that got my interest. But the one that really sticks in my mind is the ride in my uncles '68 or'69 vette 427 tri power " i can remember the triangle shaped air cleaner" i remember being pinned back in the seat where all i could do is watch out the side window and watch the trees go by as i was about 7 or 8 then. Been hooked ever since. :D

When I was 12 or 13 I used to watch the street drags from my upstairs bedroom window. We lived 3 miles out of town about an 1/8 mile down a side road off the highway. The cars would turn down my road and turn around in my driveway. They would line up going back toward town. The top dog was a neighbor of mine with a 34 Ford coupe with an engine from a Lincoln. He had it built and had a good setup on the chassis. None of the muscle cars could touch the coupe. Later he built a 64 Chevelle 427 and was still top dog. To give you a time frame, I'll be 57 years old this May.

Good topic i was 10 years when i took my first ride in a real race car 1964 max wedge car sitting on the big bench seat passenger side with a lap belt watching my dad push those buttons man that thing would really pull i think it went 11.85 @ 125 mph good speed for 1971.

I was 14 and the neighbor down the street took me a ride in his camaro...it was a rust bucket but it had a 406 with a 4 speed and 4.10 gears.I remember not being able to reach up and touch the dash when he took off. :D

10 or so riding to the bus stop in my brothers 69camaro BB 4SP Pullin wheels up everytime (that car didnt last long!)

I grew up around cars in my grandpa's shop. Go-carts and minibikes got me going at a very early age. my mom was dating a guy back when I was about 8.1974 Torino, I dont know what the engine was but it had a 4 speed and this giant sticker all the way down the side of the car that faded orange to red. it was reflective tape and the car just lit up at night. after my first ride in that car it was all over, I was hooked...

HEY GUYS!!I will remember it was like yesterday.It was 1960 and we moved into our new house. The next door neibours had a son my age.He ask his dad if he could show his fathers' hotrod to me in their garage.Well him and his dad took me out to the garage and there was this great looking 40 ford coupe all black sitting there.I liked to schiit when he ask his dad to take us for a ride!!From that day on ,I knew one day I would have A street rod.1972 I started builing a 32 lowboy and drove it to the 1974 STREETROD NATIONALS EAST in TOMONIUM, MD. FISHMANJOE

lMAO ..beast you just described my Last 63 vette pass with a 1.14 60 ft..i was pinned back looking out the side window at threes and gaurdrails....lol..

i felt like i was 3 when i got back to pits and tried to walk...hheehheeee :shock:

74 Torino ?..sounds like it had a 428 cobra Jet if it was factory bullet..they would run.no question

I live in Michigan, Connie Kalita lived about 1.5 miles from my parents house when I was much younger ( and so was he) i remember hearing him start his car, and getting on my bike riding that 1.5 miles to see it (seemed alot longer at the time)WOW. The local police use to shut the road down so that he can set the clutch out on the road. (Boy,what happen to the good old days.) :( That is where I felt the power and got the bug, will never forget lt. God Bless his son Scott he was one of the good ole boys.

We lived about a mile from the roundy round track and every weekend I could hear them which started my interest but it was my brother whom is 5 years older than me that got me hooked. He had a 69 cutlass that he hotrodded everywhere he went. I always said when I was old enough to drive I was going to go fast. My first car was a 76 Camaro and I was friends with a guy and his dad that had a shop, he helped me rebuild it with a few performance parts and I just kept getting faster and faster from there. It is in my blood, I don't see me ever stopping.

Watching vanishing point!!!!

:D :shock: :shock: :D

"Two Lane Blacktop" with James Taylor!

Believe it or not but my very first car was 49 Ford with a flathead Caddy engine. My mom paid $600.00 for it from a car lot on Western ave. in Chgo., Dogone thing wouldn't run cool, but it would smoke the tires for 2/300 ft. but wasn't fast, took it back to the dealer and got a 49 ford 2 dr. in exchange. Drove that car for a while then bought a 1939 LaSalle coupe and put a caddy engine in it, (sneaky), won my first trophy at Oswego dragstrip in Il. with it in 1956 E stock. From that point on i had 2 or 3 fords with caddy's and met Ohio George Montgomery at US 30 in Ind. and Kenny Herrato (mispelled) from Lowel Ind. bought a 671 blower with hilborn 4 port and isky cam, from him and built my blown sm/blk 1956 T'bird in 1964, set an AHRA world record ET and Speed at Oswego in Aug. 1966 in B/mod sports almost 10 yrs to the day i first raced and have raced off and on the rest of my life, taking time off from 1970 to 1983, and still in it at age 70 and can't wait for the track to open for the 2009 season.

Zip.

, and still in it at age 70 and can't wait for the track to open for the 2009 season.

Zip.[/quote]

WOW ZIP!! your 70 good for you. I hope im like that at 70 good going

i have alot of admiration for you zip!! i grew up around oswego and 31 used to listen to wls and wcfl commercials about the strips. mr. norms grand spalding dodge!!! what beautiful days they were.

Ya those were the days outlaw, when i got married at the tender age of 19, i lived 3 blks. from Mr Norms car lot, at the time he had about 12 to 15 cars on a gravel lot, after he got involved with building the Hemi cars, his business just blew up. He sponsered Forconas, Memic,and Coil, with the SS car, Yes the famous Austin Coil IE John Force. I bought a house in Streamwood Il.(VA repo) in 1962 and built the T'bird in 1963, first trip down the track at Union Grove Wis. in 1964 surprised the hell outta me, went 11.19 @ 121mph, i was shaking in my drawers. I was buying used slicks from Cris the Greek and The Gusler top fuel team at $100.00 a set. Then i got things right and really started to run (in those days) Dog Gone it was a lot more simple in those days, i had so many trophies from that car i used to give them to the kids for bicycle races. I seemed to always make a little money on race day (unlike today) course i worked a lot harder then to make things happen. Damn i hate OLD AGE, in that sense.

SUNDAY,SUNDAY, see you at US 30 Dragway, Ind.

Thanks for the memories Outlaw.

Zip.

In the 60's my cousin use to give me and my older brother a ride in his cyclone 289 4speed. From there I bought my first car. 1967 Camaro and ran 12.70's on Casler retread slicks. The tread was hard as hell and my camaro smoked the tires through first gear. I have a replica of that car today.
But you could say my cousin got me started wanting to race cars on the street and at the track when we went for a ride in his cyclone. Can't remember what year it was maybe 1964 or 65 ?

My older brother taught me everyting I know about building and fixing cars. I was fortunate to have an older brother that liked speed and racing.
We still do it together today :D

My step dad's friend had a 66 SS Chevelle, I don't know what motor it had but it was fast.
One faithful day they took me for a ride in it - I remember him dropping the clutch on that 4 speed and being glued to the back seat thru all four gears. I was hook, line and sinker.

Cool thread Bjuice, brought back some found memories I'll always treasure.
Thank you, Cp

Car
 

I was 17 and working at AAmco, R&Ring transmissions. One of the guys there had a 66 Chevelle SS 396. He took me for a ride and I was hooked. Wicked fast car in it's day. Went to work for a Plymouth Dealer and the RoadRunner had just been selected car of the year. My job was to tune the new cars and road test them. Loved the Hemis.

hey zip, i grew up in hanover park, i was 1960 when my parents bought their first house on poplar st.went to jr. high at taft.my first outlaw st. race was on irving park rd in streamwood!! man small world

getting your habit started?
 

Love reading these old stories. My Dad taught me how to work on vehicles. He never encouraged my racing habit. Had something to do with the last fast car he ever built, a 1949 Mercury. The guy that bought it ran into the back of a cattle truck the same day. Don't think HE ever forgave himself. He would help me from time to time. He's gone now.

I didn't really develope a speed habit until after I graduated from High School in 1973. A couple buddies "encouraged" me to go to the local track and try my car. A fairly bone stock 1967 Mustang, with a 289 and an automatic, no gears. Pretty much got my clock cleaned. That started my journey that lasted until 1988, minus a short reprieve due to service with our dear Uncle Sam from 1980-84.

In the mid 70's, I hooked up with a couple brothers that ran a 70 Maverick in D/MP. Then later they backed up and switched back to stock. Ran a 71 Pinto with the 2000cc 4 cylinder engine. They set quite a few NHRA and IHRA records in that car. That was where I got my teeth cut on real racing. Been so long ago, those were magical times.

Now 20 years later, I'm attempting a return. I'm rebuilding my 1966 Chevy II. In addition, my partner and longtime friend of 30 some odd years, Tod Lane, together we have purchased a 1979 Firebird, that we intend to build to race in IHRA's crate motor stock class.

I'm about 10 years older than you were Zip, hope there's time for me to make up ground. Wish I hadn't taken such a long sabitical but that's the way life works.

My uncle had a small garage and was always in there at nights. I started hanging around to watch him. The first project I say him do was stuff a 348 3 two"s down in a 1953 ford. When finished we took that car up the dirt road just a hellin!!! From that day on I was interested in cars. God bless him, as he is now in heaven playing with cars and engines.

i think it was when i was @9 when my dad took me for a ride in his olds super 98 and laid rubber for over a block just to show me it could do it. man was he laughing and smiling as he was doing it, so i just went along with it. was pretty neat when i look back on it now.