Great Smoke Stories!!!

[JT56]

I went to help another guy with his hotrod. Were leaving his neighborhood and this guy stops me to ask me about my car. "Hey what kind of car is that?", then he said "you wanna race it?" So he get in his S550 Mercedes and we go out on Route 66 in Rowlett. We have a couple of areas that go across bridges so no one can enter...anyway we do a couple of 20 mph punches and...well no contest. Then he wants to keep going...He askes if I have NO2! Told him no just American Muscle V8! When I take my buddy home Im pulling out of the neighbor hood and he stops me again and wants to buy my car!!!! Funny. I guess he thought his turbo V8 could take an old car! I pulled up his car and it says it makes 449hp and 512 torque

[JT56]

Why dont we use this thread heading for any other stories! Its cool when someone picks on these "old" cars and finds out the hard way!!!!

[Maddog]

The S550 sedan is a 4600lb car that runs 13.3 qtr mile, not too shabby for a barge. I'll bet he outweighs you by 1000lbs. Priced at $100,000 what is he doing racing on the back roads?

[JT56]

Because he probably thought my car weighs more than his and he had a 13 second car(v-8 turbo). I was ahead of him by 4 cars when I shut it down! I had an extra 200lb passenger too. Most of the new crowd thinks these cars are "heavy", little do they know LOL! Yes by race car standards they are heavy.

Before I changed the motor, I had a guy with a whipple charged new camaro that I knew would out run me. He was bragging how much faster he was with the new technology ect... I told him, yeah your faster...I can add money to my car to beat yours, but you can't add money to yous to make yours turn heads like mine!!!!

[chevynut]

Most new cars are heavy because of all the power equipment, safety equipment, sound deadening, and comforts that they put in them these days. In a straight line drag race, a Tri5 with decent power has a good chance of outrunning the S550 based on power to weight ratio. But on a twisty road or at high speed that would change dramatically. Even with the added weight the S550 would significantly out-handle most tri5s. At high speed the tri5s are about as aerodynamic as a brick.

It's funny that most people talk about my Nomad and my other 56 as heavy cars. They say they're surprised that I put the Corvette suspensions under these cars and they handle the weight okay. A C4 Corvette weights about 3300-3500 pounds depending on the year and model. A factory 55 sedan weight 3200 pounds. A stock Nomad 3400 pounds. People have a hard time believing they're that light. My GF thinks my Nomad looks long but I told her that it's within about 6 inches of her 2008 Malibu, and about the same weight.

[JT56]

Most new cars are heavy because of all the power equipment, safety equipment, sound deadening, and comforts that they put in them these days. In a straight line drag race, a Tri5 with decent power has a good chance of outrunning the S550 based on power to weight ratio. But on a twisty road or at high speed that would change dramatically. Even with the added weight the S550 would significantly out-handle most tri5s. At high speed the tri5s are about as aerodynamic as a brick.

It's funny that most people talk about my Nomad and my other 56 as heavy cars. They say they're surprised that I put the Corvette suspensions under these cars and they handle the weight okay. A C4 Corvette weights about 3300-3500 pounds depending on the year and model. A factory 55 sedan weight 3200 pounds. A stock Nomad 3400 pounds. People have a hard time believing they're that light. My GF thinks my Nomad looks long but I told her that it's within about 6 inches of her 2008 Malibu, and about the same weight.

When they are lower they do long longer! In the weeds!!!

[JT56]

Bump, nobody else has any other stories to share?

[vabeach56wagon]

Not a Tri-five story, but nonetheless true. When I was going into my junior year in college, I sold my 55 Bel Air coupe to buy a 6 month old 66 SS396 Chevelle. It belonged to the son of friends of ours who couldn't take it to college and his dad wanted the car out of his garage. So I bought it, 360 hp, 3.73 posi, M21. This became my tuition payer. The Washington DC area had several drive-ins where street racers congregated in good numbers, everybody posturing and blowing smoke. Fortunately my wife and 2 year old son liked the car and enjoyed drive-in restaurants. Another friend who could make conversation with a dead tree always met us. He set up the races because I was busy with the toddler. But some changes were necessary. First thing that went into it was a good car seat for the boy, then a litany of go-fast parts: 4.56, Hooker over the frame headers, Hurst, line-lock, pulled and blueprinted motor along with an Engle hydraulic "stock specs" 360 cam, Edelbrock, 750 cfm vacuum secondary Holley. No loud mufflers, nice and quiet, very slight rake, 15" Ansen slots and the biggest stickiest tires I could find. We'd show up, little family scene, my buddy would do his thing...He'd sidle up to some GTO or Fairlane or Chevelle and start his banter. We stayed away from the Tri-fives completely, too many unknowns, especially with built small blocks. The matches always were set for some time after midnight so the boy and his mother would be home and asleep. It took 8 races at $100 each per semester to pay my tuition, books were a 9th. We moved from spot to spot, drive-in to drive-in to avoid becoming too well known.







Eventually there appeared regularly in our neighborhood a maroon '67 SS Chevelle, jacked up and supposedly running a 427. You know how it works at the local gas station: "Hey, man. You run that badass '67 yet? When ya gonna really test yourself? He'll blow you away with that motor." One Thursday, my now ex-wife was tooling to the grocery store, boy in his seat chewing on god-knows-what, when the maroon car pulled alongside her. He did the customary challenge and my good wife squared up with him at the next light. Now she was adventurous but not at all a racer. She got blown away at the line by the guy, who slowed down and laughed at her. When she picked me up from my shift as a waiter she told me the story.

So the next weekend we searched him out. Found the dude and his buddy at the Hot Shoppes on Connecticut Avenue in northwest DC. I idled in, no splash. Wife and son were home. With me was my matchmaker. It didn't take long to set up for 1:00AM at the best place, a limited access spur off the Capitol Beltway where the staging area, start and finish of the 1/4 were painted on the asphalt. After the money was put up and in the hands of a very talented, honest and objective builder of hot cars, we left for my garage. Quick top end tune, uncap the hookers, mount the M&H's, and tighten the bars to the rear housing. We rupp, rupp and rumbled at less than 2 grand on the tach the 7 miles to the staging area. This was serious business. Honor was at stake in addition to my $100. When we got there I was amazed at how many cars were parked on the side of the spur in the opposite direction. Had to have been at least 50 and nobody knows how many people were lined up along the center guardrail.

The guy wanted to pull out and get his money back because my car was a "race" car and he didn't have headers to uncap, blah, blah. "No, sorry, bud...there were no conditions...let's go." Flashlight in hand, our agreed starter staged us. I pulled him at least a car length out of the hole and kept on pulling him, enough to back off a bit and win by 4 or 5 lengths. We did our turnaround and came back to the start. "Wanna go again?" "Yeah, but you gotta cap those headers or it's no go", he said. I did. This time I stayed in it all the way through the painted traps and smoked him by at least 10 lengths. He kept on going and I watched his taillights disappear towards DC.

Saw the guy at the AMOCO station a couple of weeks later. No posturing, just full of questions which I was happy to answer. We were going to go after it again at the old Aquasco strip down route 5/301 in Southern Maryland, but when I could go, he couldn't and vice versa. That car to this day remains close to being my favorite of all the cars I've owned.

paul

[chevynut]

SMOKE?

My first car was a 55 Chevy 2-door sedan that I built myself from a mostly bare rust-free shell and frame I bought for $35 in the late 60's. I first built it with a 283, and after a couple of years I put a Corvette 427 in it with a muncie and 4:11 posi rear. My first drive after installing the 427 actually scared me because the engine had so much more torque than the 283.

Anyhow, a friend of mine had a 67 GTO with an L-88 427 in it, and I had the 55 with a 390 HP 427 which was a lot of power in those days. I could break my L60 tires loose in second gear at will. We drove our cars downtown one night when things were pretty dead otherwise and were cruising side by side on a one-way street, when be both punched the throttle. Both of our rear tires started smoking and we literally filled the street and the next intersection with tire smoke.

You'd never get away with that today...the cops would be on you like stink on shit, they'd confiscate your car, and you'd be in jail. Back then even if you did get stopped, they'd often just give you a verbal warning or a minor ticket. Now it's all about how much money they can make.

[markm]

SMOKE?

My first car was a 55 Chevy 2-door sedan that I built myself from a mostly bare rust-free shell and frame I bought for $35 in the late 60's. I first built it with a 283, and after a couple of years I put a Corvette 427 in it with a muncie and 4:11 posi rear. My first drive after installing the 427 actually scared me because the engine had so much more torque than the 283.

Anyhow, a friend of mine had a 67 GTO with an L-88 427 in it, and I had the 55 with a 390 HP 427 which was a lot of power in those days. I could break my L60 tires loose in second gear at will. We drove our cars downtown one night when things were pretty dead otherwise and were cruising side by side on a one-way street, when be both punched the throttle. Both of our rear tires started smoking and we literally filled the street and the next intersection with tire smoke.

You'd never get away with that today...the cops would be on you like stink on shit, they'd confiscate your car, and you'd be in jail. Back then even if you did get stopped, they'd often just give you a verbal warning or a minor ticket. Now it's all about how much money they can make.

Kids today would be put away for the things we openly did at their age.