Old, Old timers. When you where Bad, what did yours look like?

[GTX]

Yup, I remember Naugles although I lived and still do by the one that was on Highland Drive by the Villa theater and usually went to that place, but that's another hang out story.

Do you remember during that period on State up on 5th I guess on the East corner where Ken Garff is an odd mix of Mopars, trucks and imports ( usually my Porsche , MGB or Fiat)?
We knew the cop who was moonlighting as security at the lot and also handed out tickets on the street.

We used to park my buddy's truck one space from the end and Dennis ( the cop) would park his cop car in the front spot or in the driveway to Garffs. You usually couldn't really see his cop car coming up State that way.
We used to sit there on the tail gate and talk to the girls and watch the races etc.  Dennis used to hold our spots for us until we got there.

The funny thing was that guys would come driving by not knowing Dennis was a cop ( plain clothes) and would light up pipes or drink beers right in front of us. He would then flash his badge and pull them over. We thought it was hilarious cuz we were often ( not Dennis) drinking mini's of Schnapps, vodka or whatever wasn't real obvious. I never was real sure if Dennis knew about it. ( disclaimer: Honestly, I never drove while drinking and nobody who was drinking did, I swear and we also just got a little 'happy', Dennis certainly would have busted us if more went on)
One night these guys came by tipping back beers and looked at Dennis and said 'Oh, Shit' and just pulled over in front of us and waited.
Dennis never really did much about racing unless it was really crazy, by then it was mostly just a lot of low speed jousting ( the motor cops would get the faster people anyway) and he never did anything about the girl flashers but he didn't tolorate drinking/drugs and driving.

We saw some really hilarious stuff sitting up there. Girls flashing us, fights, races, accidents etc....... 
Those were the days when we were long past the racing thing. Couldn't do it any more by then, couldn't afford the tickets and we were finally wising up.

[cudaken]

 Night I became the bad of the bad.

Madason Ave yet a gain. (lot of stuff went down there) I was at the last light before the Super Shops parking lot, there lot was on a gental right cruve toward the interstate and was a 4 lane. Good view from the SS parking lot for 240 degress.

I was in the right lane and a Ninja pulled up next to me on the left. Seems he wanted to play and was letting me know at 6000 RPM's. Road was clear and no intersection's expect the SS shop was with in 1/2 mile. Guys there knew we where going to have at it so know one was going anywhere. It was show time!

I ride bikes as well, and knew if I tried to take him off the line I was dead meat. Light went green and I just pulled out a little qiuck but not fast. He jumped a little and back off and got beside me again. I started to make power at 3500 RPM's and knew I had to sand bag him til I got there. Tack hit 3500 in first and I nailed the Maxie and he did the same. Pulled me 3 cars in the first gear, nailed 2nd at 7200 RPM's and was down to 1 and 1/2 cars. Top of second he had me maybe 1/2 a car and then hit 3rd. Pulled him and pass him as we passed the Super Shops lot.

After it was done and over I head back to SS parking lot and ever one was impressed. I bet a Ninja,I must be a soild 10.00 to 9.89 68 Road Runner. Boy pickings where slim after that on the street. Had guys backing off that I knew could F me up bad.  I even had a guy with a 427 Ford Cammer in a T-bucket that would not play with me. Heck I even talked a little trash, well just a little. Seemed no one want to play with the Z-Eater, Name that was on the Runner.

Here is the LOL part! This was around 1986, up to then there was only 900 Ninja's. Remember the fact he was on the out side lane and jumped me in 1st and then I caught up pretty fast? What the guys in the SS parking lot could not see was it was only a 600 Ninja. LOL

God, I was the King after that All they could say I beat a Ninja, never bother to tell them it was a 600. Would you

That is when I under stood the next best thing to having the badest car in town is to have ever one think you have the badest car in town. I was only cutting 11.8's and was backing down 11.00 to 10.95 cars

Guy with the 427 Cammer T-bucket? Solid 10.95 car, I saw him at track. He would have beat me by 4 cars before I got out of first with 4.38's gears.

            Cuda Ken

[Mefirst]

Keep the stories coming guys.. I love this thread

/Tom

[HAZZARDJOHN]

This is a great thread guys! I haven’t checked this board in a while so I had to sit and read this from the beginning to the end right now. It has me feeling nostalgic. I have to tell you guys I am envious. I had to race these idiots in these Japanese cars when I was a youth. I am a bit younger than some of you guys but I would like to share a story from my youth. I hope you don’t mind because I was born in 1981 so this was just 8 years ago.   But I think it applies to this thread.   First off I had always been a gearhead since I could walk. When I was sixteen I wanted a second generation charger in the worst way (it took me four years but I got one!   ) My folks wouldn’t allow me to buy something that they didn’t think was reliable.   There’s no way I was going to buy a car that wasn’t rear wheel drive and had a V8. I had been working my butt off for two years and had about $8000 saved up. I wanted an Impala SS from the ‘90’s but couldn’t afford one. I ended up with a 1992 Buick Roadmaster. Unfortunately it didn’t have an LT1 like the Impala, so that had to change. I saved up and bought a good used LT1 from a salvage yard. I rebuilt it and had the tranny redone with a shift kit. The next problem was the exhaust so I got a Dual exhaust cross member from an old squad car and had flow master mufflers and true duals! This car flew and as you can see from the pics looked perfectly stock, except for the rims and the tailpipes. I would race just about anything with that car. It handled like crap, but it went fast in a straight line. I have a lot of stories that I should probably wait until the statute of limitations runs out on, but I do have one that I love sharing. I use to race in an area that has been shut down now west of the cities. There was some guy that would always show up with a 3rd gen Firebird. He spent a ton of money, at least he says he did on the motor. The guy was just a jerk. I got so sick of listening to him that I got up from hitting on the girl that is now my wife, and walked over to him and talked him into racing my car. He laughed at me but I said just give it a shot. We started to go and I did the old holding back ‘til he thinks he’s got you, then I downshifted and floored it and whooped his butt by more than a car length. It was hilarious. He turned around and left. I saw him about a year later and maybe he grew up a little because he came up to me while I was parked at a drive in that has a bunch of old cars there on Friday’s and shook my hand and then asked what I had in that car. We ended up talking cars all night. I really miss those days. The things that seemed important then just don’t seem important now do they?  

Take care and have a great day!
John

[Charger_Fan]

Those were the days when we were long past the racing thing. Couldn't do it any more by then, couldn't afford the tickets and we were finally wising up.

That sounds like it was around late 83, maybe into 84 then. By 84, it was all pretty much over with. There was an entirely different crowd coming in & all they wanted to do was fight people it seemed & the cops quickly lost their humor in it all.

I remember your hangout spot & no, I never did know that guy was a cop. Pretty funny. I usually did most of my messin' around south of 9th South, where it wasn't as crowded.
Once I was in behind Naugles with about 10 other guys, most of us had a beer in our hands (I brought 2 whole beers with me that night) & these two twenty something guys pull in the wrong direction in this old beater 4-door brown Dart.
The driver leans out the window & says "is that your beer"?
I answer back "like it's any of your business, go away".
He jumps out & asks me the same again, this time holding me a badge.
I chucked the beer over the fence behind me & said "I see no beer".
He grabbed me by the shirt & stuffed me into the fence & said "I'm not gonna ask you again".
"yup, it's mine"   
He cuffed & stuffed me in the back of that beater & commenced proceedings to haul me to jail.

Just then, a friend of a friend who knew these two cops (he happened to be the son of a cop) came up to them & plead to let me go. After he talked to them for a while, they agreed to let me go it they never saw me with a beer again.
I was verrry respectful at that point & guaranteed they would never see me with a beer again. I kept my word.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, for anyone unfamiliar with a Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider bottle from the early 80's, they looked just like a Miller beer, if you turned the bottles so the labels were hidden...it helped to shake them a little too, so they got some head on them. My friend had the great idea to go cruising with a couple of these bottles.

For once, my truck was completely legal in every way (didn't happen often). So the first night, we waited for a couple motor cops, then drank a little as we went by. Those guys were on us like stink on shit!
We played all innocent..."what's the problem, officer"?
"you're drinking, boy".
"drinking what"?
"don't be funny...BEER"!
"I don't have beer".
"yes you do, right there".
"officer, that's apple juice".
"yeah, whatever".
"here, smell"
"hmph"!

They let us go.

We did that for two weeks, until finally they'd just laugh & wave...some of them even toasted us with Martinelli's of their own as we went by.
Damn, those were good times.   

[Shakey]

We did that for two weeks, until finally they'd just laugh & wave...some of them even toasted us with Martinelli's of their own as we went by.
Damn, those were good times.   

Let me guess, then you switched to Miller and they had no clue, even as they cruised by and you and your buddies were puking out the window!   

[Charger_Fan]

We did that for two weeks, until finally they'd just laugh & wave...some of them even toasted us with Martinelli's of their own as we went by.
Damn, those were good times.   

Let me guess, then you switched to Miller and they had no clue, even as they cruised by and you and your buddies were puking out the window!     

We didn't. Not to say that the thought didn't cross our minds, I just didn't want to press my luck. 

[warlock]

You know, I really think the cops were different then. Like if they caught me with a beer, they'd simply tell me to dump it out. I'd dump it out and that would be the end of it. I never tried to tempt them again in the same day either. Sometimes I would impress my friends by pulling up beside Jim, a state cop I came to know, and ask him if he wanted to drag to the next corner. He would simply laugh and say, "Can't do that cause you'd never catch me I'd beat you so bad." I'd laugh and we'd shoot the bull for a minute or two. My buddies would say, "I can't believe you asked him to drag!" It was cool and we were young then around 66ish. There was another time around 74ish, I had been arguing with my wife and decided to go for a drive. I was running a 63 Dodge that I'd installed a 70 Super Bee 383 Magnum, from a rollover, and I mean to tell you that thing would bake. I stopped and picked up a Pepsi and burned a strip of rubber out from the parkinglot. Down shifted at the next corner and turned onto my buddies' road whippin her around sideways and drifted (or power slide is what we used to call it) for a few and then whipped her around the other way and drifted some more and by then I was feeling better. Pulled up in front of my buddy's house on the wrong side of the road and was going to back into his driveway. Holy smoke there was a cop behind me with his blues going. I mean right on my bumper. I couldn't back up if I wanted to. Man he was angry! He asked me what the hell I thought I was doing, and I told him that story about me and my wife fightin. He told me that I really ought to look around before pulling a stunt like that. I figured he'd throw the book at me, but came back and said "I'll tell you what I'm going to do, Here's a warning for disturbing the peace with excessive tire noise." That was the first time that I had heard of that term. I paid a couple of fines over that term in the years to follow.

[cudaken]

 Real glad you guys are enjoying the posting.

It was again around 1985 and Runner had all the crasy stipes on her. It was Friday night and I was heading to a date. Well for what ever reason I took the Runner and not the Caddy, what was I thinking? Now, I was 27-29 at the time and had money, well seemed like it then, To me  dressing for a date was not new jeans and a clean shirt! Suite and tie man then.

Also did not help that the Mopar Nats had been held in Indianapolis in 1984-1986 I think. Bunch of guys acted way dumber in nasty cars than I ever thought about! As CHARGER_FAN posted the law had started to lose there senes of humor and thanks mainly to the Dumb F from the nats.

Anyway, cops (well cheif) started to crank down hard on street cars. If you had Mags or cool exhaust you where getting pulled over. So happen the woman I was going out with lived on the south side on Indianapolis and that is where Madsion Ave was. (humm, maybe the reason I took the Runner.

To get to madsion I had to go down town Indianapolis. Traffic was real slow, wonder what was going on? It took 3 minutes to move 150 feet? Then I saw what was going on, 2 motor copys where checking ever car that sort of looked cool, even new ones.

I was say about 12 cars back and one of the cop's saw me and pointed at the Runner. Well I knew what was coming. Got to them and cop one told me the Runner was to loud and did not have mufflers? Told him it did and in fact only 2 moths old and handed him the recipt. (NOS Hemi Mufflers). Looked under the Runner at rear of the rear tires and said "straight pipes" and started to write? Pointed out to him they where front the axels. He looked and saw still shiney muffles.

OK, next he said the Air shocks had to much air? Ah Officer, I don't have air shocks? Looked at me like I was nuts and onces again I was on my belly point at stuff under the car for him. Remember I was in a suit and tie?  Told him this is the way a 68 Runner sits. (did not bring up the SS springs) He started to look in a book for the bumper height for a 68 Runner and could not find it listed? So he decied a 66 Barracuda was the same as 68 Runner and bottom should only be 10" from the ground?

Well I got the ticket but beat it in court. Dumb shit was trying to tell the judge my 68 B-body was the same a 66 A-body? But, I saw the wrinting on the wall. Good times where coming to the end. There was still some good times left on Madsion, but cops where more hard nose.

Something to do was a Hurst SS 69 Hemi Dart doing a 140 MPH on Shadeland AVE in traffic at the Nats. Power and Brains do not go hand in hand. It is a heavly drive street and lots of houses and cross streets. Made Madsion Ave look like a country road.

                               Cuda Ken

[GTX]

Tonight I was thinking of the old days around 1977 or so - actually I ran across a copy of Steve Miller Band, Book of Dreams - we used to listen to that all the time on 8 track in the Challenger - I still have it too. Top down, warm nights cruising around town.......
Anyway, I suddenly had a deja vu of going to the old UTE drive-in theater where it was $3.00 a carload. Sometimes when we were poor we pooled together all of our dough to have enough to get in and buy some food and drinks too.
We never watched the shows unless we were bored. Instead we looked at the other guys cars, bench raced and tried to meet girls.

That drive-in was a great place to meet tons of people from all the other high schools in the area. We used to set up races for after the movies and get shot down by half the girls, the other half made it all fun. I used to collect girls panties as a trophy. I'd try to talk them into giving me underwear to remember them by ( very hard to explain to mom when she found the pile) . Sometimes we'd try to get 'kidnapped' by the girls and go with them to where ever they were going after the movies, usually a pretty fun drive!

The Bob Seger Night Moves video reminds me of those days.

Damn, I wish I could go back to the Summer just for a short time sometimes. innocent days!


http://www.bobseger.com/video.html

[89MOPAR]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, for anyone unfamiliar with a Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider bottle from the early 80's, they looked just like a Miller beer, if you turned the bottles so the labels were hidden...it helped to shake them a little too, so they got some head on them. My friend had the great idea to go cruising with a couple of these bottles.

Heheehe, sounds like my buddies who , while in college dormitory + knew the RA [ resident administrator ] was on the floor, would fling the door wide open and start taking big 'ol bong hits, coughing the smoke out into the hall.   She'd storm in to bust them, and they'd hold up the banana peel they were toking !
  - They swore they got a minor buzz off the banana peel.....

[Ghoste]

Hey Ken I think that was 83 when the Nats were first in Indy.  I remember that cluster of motels near the loop when you came back into town from IRP and before you got to the 500 track.  I don't know the names of the streets there, but I remember going to cross the street (going from motel to motel looking at cars) and a black 66 Hemi Charger with slicks pulled into the middle of the intersection and lit the tires up and I mean he lit them up.  You're right, it was wild.
It was a part of the reason the police were less than pleased to see us back in the early 90's.

[Shakey]

Real glad you guys are enjoying the posting.

It was again around 1985 and Runner had all the crasy stipes on her. It was Friday night and I was heading to a date. Well for what ever reason I took the Runner and not the Caddy, what was I thinking? Now, I was 27-29 at the time and had money, well seemed like it then, To me   dressing for a date was not new jeans and a clean shirt! Suite and tie man then.

Also did not help that the Mopar Nats had been held in Indianapolis in 1984-1986 I think. Bunch of guys acted way dumber in nasty cars than I ever thought about! As CHARGER_FAN posted the law had started to lose there senes of humor and thanks mainly to the Dumb F from the nats.

Anyway, cops (well cheif) started to crank down hard on street cars. If you had Mags or cool exhaust you where getting pulled over. So happen the woman I was going out with lived on the south side on Indianapolis and that is where Madsion Ave was. (humm, maybe the reason I took the Runner.

To get to madsion I had to go down town Indianapolis. Traffic was real slow, wonder what was going on? It took 3 minutes to move 150 feet? Then I saw what was going on, 2 motor copys where checking ever car that sort of looked cool, even new ones.

I was say about 12 cars back and one of the cop's saw me and pointed at the Runner. Well I knew what was coming. Got to them and cop one told me the Runner was to loud and did not have mufflers? Told him it did and in fact only 2 moths old and handed him the recipt. (NOS Hemi Mufflers). Looked under the Runner at rear of the rear tires and said "straight pipes" and started to write? Pointed out to him they where front the axels. He looked and saw still shiney muffles.

OK, next he said the Air shocks had to much air? Ah Officer, I don't have air shocks? Looked at me like I was nuts and onces again I was on my belly point at stuff under the car for him. Remember I was in a suit and tie?   Told him this is the way a 68 Runner sits. (did not bring up the SS springs) He started to look in a book for the bumper height for a 68 Runner and could not find it listed? So he decied a 66 Barracuda was the same as 68 Runner and bottom should only be 10" from the ground?

Well I got the ticket but beat it in court. Dumb shit was trying to tell the judge my 68 B-body was the same a 66 A-body? But, I saw the wrinting on the wall. Good times where coming to the end. There was still some good times left on Madsion, but cops where more hard nose.

Something to do was a Hurst SS 69 Hemi Dart doing a 140 MPH on Shadeland AVE in traffic at the Nats. Power and Brains do not go hand in hand. It is a heavly drive street and lots of houses and cross streets. Made Madsion Ave look like a country road.

                                              Cuda Ken

This sounds like a scene straight from the movie American Graffiti!

[cudaken]

 Ghoste, remeber a 68 Runner with a American Eskimo dog (all so called a spits) hooked to the front bumper? If so that was me and the Runner and Muff. She was a great and best behaved Dog I ever had. She loved to go for rides in the Runner. I was letting her run with no leash but she stayed with in 10 feet of me and would come back if I just went "Muff". Talk about a chick magnet, seem's she could tell if they had a ring or not God she was one of the best things that had ever happen to me. She had a pinstar for a heart.

I think it was 1983 they speedway lets us crazys on the track, but we could not do over 65 MPH or something dumb like that, Yea right. I cannot remember his name but he had a 69 Hemi Daytona with tall gears and Muff and I hitched a ride. Muff pulled her head back in the car around 85 MPH. Back straight we hit 140 + and for some reason we got flagged off the track

It was not Daved Jones Dan, I knew Dave but at that point he was little full of him self.

As far as the way back, OK I am real old. Cranking some Grand Funk Rail Road, 96 dB.

                           Cuda Ken

[Ghoste]

I thought it was only 30 or 40 miles an hour.  That's so long ago though I can't really remember.  I do have pics but I don't see a dog in any of them.

[Headrope]

I'm not old enough to be an old, old timer. But my "when I was bad" tale is true - and a classic ...

I was the kid in high school who didn't have a car until senior year. Meanwhile all my buddies did: one guy had a '69 Tempest/GTO; another had a '72 Chevelle; Chevelle guy's brother had a 68 Impala; and so on.
When it was my time to find a car I fell for a gold, '67 Dart GT. It only had a slant six (which ultimately lasted 200,000 miles) but had all the other sporty options. And besides: It didn't look like what everyone else had.
As you might suspect, I took a lot of crap for only having the slant six. Especially since I was 6'4" and only weighed 150 pounds (Giraffe was my nickname). "Maybe some day you'll grow some muscles and be able to handle a V8," I'd be teased. Or I'd be told "Here, you can have this," while being handed one of those V8 drinks. Yeah, my buddies were pretty brutal.
Regardless, my slant six didn't require all the tweaking those big, bad V8s did. I got to drive the posse around every now and then.
One night it was raining really bad. But teenage boys being boys, my buddies still gave me crap.
"You know, if you had a V8 you could outrun the rain."
I drove faster. More crap was shoveled my way - until red and blue lights started flashing behind us. It got real quiet then.
"Do you know why I pulled you over?" the officer asked, as water bounced off his plastic hat cover.
It was my chance. I took it.
I looked right at him and replied, "Do you know why I was speeding, officer?"
Deliberately speeding to make a police officer have to stand in the rain carried a heavy fine. But the respect I gained from my buddies was well worth the price.

[73rallye440magnum]

that's a good one headrope. I bet it was worth it.

[SeattleCharger]

hehe, good story,            

[Blown70]

Well I just thought of this one.

I was at a car show with my charger.  Got done and I started it up, she always was very loud when she was cold.  As I drove out she made some noise.

Well I am headded out of town and a lowered old say 60's truck owned by some chuckle heads flys up behind me.  Of course wanting to race.

They pull out to pass I drop from Drive to 2nd  RPM shot to 4,000 and I hammered it.  They looked like they were sitting still. 

KEEP IN MIND they had a 428 or 429?  Some ford # in the truck  it was no slouch.

Well just about then the buddy that had a FORD pinto pulls around them.  THE FORD has a SUPERCHARGER four link rear (yea basically a drag car).... Yea ok buddy.   

To win and lose in the same stretch of road....

Tom

[69_500]

Well if your talking about a Daytona going around the Indianpolis motor speedway or the little track out at IRP? Because if it is the Indianpolis motor speedway, I can only think of 3 HEMI Daytona's that were there then. One of them was sporting a NASCAR spec HEMI engine in it. And yeah he had some tall gears. I don't recall his name, but I do recall him loosing the car in a court battle about a year after that show. Then there was Dave Jones HEMI Daytona and he woudln't ever flog on his car, and yeah he was full of himself then sometimes. Then at other times he was just fine. I know my dad had his B5 blue Daytona at the Mopar Nationals in 1983 or 84, but when the cars were doing the hot laps at the 500 track he took the HEMI 500.

[Charger_Fan]

This one didn't involve me, but was pretty funny.

In 1981, they held the 1st annual High School drags at our local 1/4 mile track.
Naturally because it involved only teenage kids, there some decent cars there & some real beaters. One kid from some school showed up with an old Econoline truck like the one pictured, but 10 times more beat up. It sounded like a bone stock V8, with the mufflers cut off & a bad exhaust leak at the heads.



Now...just looking at the bodystyle here, one can pretty much assume that there isn't gonna be much traction involved on the starting line. So to make him more of a level contender in the traction department, this kid decided he needed some weight over the rear wheels. Somewhere along the line of this deduction, the answer came to him in the form of...


...



a...



...



a big friggin BOULDER approximately 5 feet in diameter!
So after a feeble attempt in the burnout box, this kid pulls up to the tree & stages. He revs the piss out of it as the lights come down...then LAUNCH!
When he launched, the tailgate latches immediately threw in the towel...the gate flopped open & that big boulder dropped right there on the starting line with a thud & the truck went fishtailing down the track!

The tower announcer blares out "ok folks, now I've seen it all"!  

[Blown70]

 

[69_500]

Oh and hey Ken was it this Daytona that you were riding in?

R6 red HEMI Daytona. I believe it was at INDY then.

[69_500]

Or was it the year of this photo.

[SeattleCharger]