Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 20 Top Muscle Cars

Mine was a 64 Dodge Polara 500, 383, 4 speed with Hurst shifter. My one and only Dodge. Wife was driving a 65 Mustang GT, 289 4 speed, when we met. It would outrun just about everything on the road, just got too light at top speed for liking.

We have discussed it before, but you all racing the P-ville drags on the downlow
is hilarious.


To the uninformed,
The P-ville Dragstrip had a Christmas tree.
The red light at the intersection of 2 state roads.
The strip was a straight stretch.
7mm's parents could hear the races, they darn near could see the strip
from their windows.

Was an amazing time and place looking back.
It wasn't just an impromptu pecker measuring contest between two
Rednecks in clapped out Vegas and Pintos.
There were times cars showed up
on trailers. Serious cars.
A lot of fast iron was from there in town too.



I was too young to be involved, but we used to drive through during the races.
Dad would laugh as we turned and headed down the strip in our 79 Impala.
In the 60s he had a 389 Tri-power 4-speed car he ran there on occasion.

This^^^ one of the sleepers in the day. And actually, available in a plain Jane sedan body with no fancy molding or SS emblems.

The 65 Malibu available equipped this was as well, although heavier.

Perfect analogy......giant killers. Other brands had sleepers as well I'm sure.

Yeah, Dad often talks about that car.
It didn't work great as original. A local who built racecars swapped cams and
got the carbs tuned and linked right, after that it was quick.

Dad traded it on something, the new owner was racing it and hit a bridge.

That's the car my dad had, he said it was fast!!! , he was in the air force and was stationed at Travis air base in fairfield .ca, The first week he was there a 69 camero challenged him to race, he beat him three out of three and the passenger yelled ,you just beat the fastest car in town. My dad replied, he's not the fastest anymore!! He said that car was a sleeper and was fast,fast!!

Not a bad list. I knew one of the guys who bought an L88 Corvette. He eventually crashed the car racing and broke his back. Parapalegic after that. He offered me the 3x2 intake off of an L89 for $100 one day. I didn’t want to screw around with three carbs so I took the Holly Strip dominator instead. Boy, if I could do that one over! The Holley intake and 850 double pumper is still on still on my vette.


Girl down the street had one of those. That 327 had a set of ported fuelie heads with a big solid lifter cam and a high stall Powerglide. She was running in the mid-10s on slicks back in the mid-80s. Fastest street car in town.

Yep, I’ve seen some serious money change hands from time to time.
Probably why I refuse to watch that show on Discovery Channel. I know better.
You don’t bet what you can’t pay, and nobody’s gonna spend thousands on a drag car and race someone they don’t know for pink slips. At least nobody in their right mind!
I’ve seen some honest to god 12 second street cars, and I’ve seen unlicensed racecars trailered in. They didn’t get unloaded unless there was hundreds of $ bet, but I’ve never seen a car change hands after a race.
7mm

Very fun and interesting thread. Brought back memories.

Dave spent many Saturdays under that Le Mans, fixing what he tore up Friday night! At that time the Summer Nationals weren’t watched by the cops as hard. But they did follow him home to ticket him for the exhaust pipes once and the rear height another time. Let’s just say the cops knew him..
We learned to be extremely careful, but the cops learned to be extremely sneaky!
And like I said, I didn’t push the limits with The Old Man. We had promised ourselves not to, and as I said, everybody knew Me also knew Dad! (including the cops)
I mostly went to Osterburg or Windber if I had to race. But somebody had to talk a lot of crap to get me cheesed off, and usually I played it safe. Besides that my younger brother was always around, and I was around for him.
7mm

Like I said before, the local cops would cruise through and once in a while run somebody off so they didn’t get busted.
If bust were made, they brought in cops from outta town undercover. I dodged a bullet one night. I was flagging, which is the same fine and loss of license as racing. Luckily I’d left before the bust, and nobody ratted me out.
Most of the time, we just bench raced and drank a little beer.
A bunch of us would caravan down to Mason Dixon to bracket race on three day weekends. We’d race and camp out. Usually the guys that tailored their cars ended up driving them home, because someone that drove broke something.
Tom Fleegle owned the gas station there, and he always told the cops to leave us alone. Tom told me that he slept better knowing we were around, because if somebody caused damage, the word got back to him and whoever the idiot was paid up.
After I’d left for basic, some [bleep] from outta town broke some windows and threw bottles through the Mobile sign. Nobody knew who it was, and the “pits” became off limits.
If that hadn’t happened and Fleegles still owned the station, who knows? Maybe we’d still be having the Nationals!
7mm

Give me a 1973 Pontiac Trans-am SD455. Had the opportunity to buy a low mileage one in 1975 but since I was only 17 could not get my father to ok the sale. Looking back that probably was a good thing, but still I dream about that car to this day. My cousin had a 69 GTO Judge that he let me drive when ever I wanted to. Thing about that car was it had 4:11s in the rear end so you could drive it in third gear in town or on the highway. First was so low that as soon as you let the clutch out you needed to shift and when you shifted into fourth which I only did once you were going really fast.

I have always thought that was pretty darn cool you’ve had this car all these years.

The box square Mopars always worked for me.

I'll go with the ones I've owned. 63 Impala SS409 425HP (Z11). Three GTO;s 64 389, 65 389 TriPower, 67 389, Two Olds 442's one a 455 Hurst Olds. 69 Chevelle 396 375HP. One odd ball, A Chrysler 62 300 with a 416 wedge two four barrels. Basically a letter car without the letter. Times of my youth, wish I still had any of them now,,

Is that the 340?!! Those things are great!!!
My buddy had one that was warmed up some. On slicks and with the headers uncapped it would run low 13s on the quarter.
What’s the story on the Mach 1? You holding out on us?
7mm

"Don’t forget the car that started the true muscle car era, been in my garage now for over 52 years…"

Next time, why don't you be extra helpful and actually tell us what make, model, and year that might be.

Tony

You’re not a car guy are you.

BIL has a '69 camero coupe w/396, dont remember if it's auto or 4 speed. Got a '70 chevelle 454 4 speed. Before he got it, it went thru Barrett Jackson Auction in Scottsdale. He bought the car in Ms. and it's a show car. And lastly, he's got an all original small block Z28. Not sure of the year, but it's early 70's. This is a local car he found about 2 or 3 years ago. It's been in a garage for decades.

389 4bbl or tri power?. Auto or stick?

Is your car a super dark blue or is it black. It looks blue in the pic.

I miss my Super Bee.