AllenN71
63 posts
Aug 28, 2010
1:03 PM
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I hope you guys could help me out by checking out an excerpt from the novel I am writing. This passage concerns a (fictional) drag race on Rip Rap Road that turned deadly. I am hoping some of you can tell me if I got the street-racing culture of the late 60s right, and other things like is the paint job and the car I describe something that would have been considered "cool" back in the day, or should I change the description. Just, generally does my fictional account jibe with the reality of 1969?
Comments can be made here or on the blog, where anonymous comments are allowed. the blog site is on my profile.
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tlturbo
205 posts
Aug 29, 2010
5:21 AM
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Sounded good until I got to the end and realized it was 1969. By the mid 60's most people who had souped up 57 Chevy's had changed over to the more powerful musclecars. First was the GTO then the 66 396 Chevy Chevells followed by all the great stuff. A 327 (stardard 57 Chevy upgrade) would usually be out classed. In 69 I had a 435 hp 427 Corvette with 456 gears. Also, everyone ran mag wheels - moon hubcaps would have been 50's stuff. Now I know this kid saved and saved and probably couldn't buy a new muscle car so getting an older 57 Chevy and souping it up might fit the story, BUT the one big mistake is at the end with a speed of 150 mph. Ain't gonna happen. I was tough to beat in the vette and it was only about 115 in the quarter. I have a 500 hp Buick GN Turbo now that runs high 10's but still only at 124. A drag car would have had acceleration gears that probably would have topped out the car around 120 mph. Keep at it - hope this helps.
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delcodude
49 posts
Aug 29, 2010
10:47 AM
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I'll trump your '69 Mopar with a '69 Boss 429 Mustang or a '69 427 Yenko Camaro. But, I guess then you'd pull out your 426 hemi 'Cuda, right? HAHA
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AllenN71
64 posts
Aug 29, 2010
4:03 PM
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Thanks, Turbo. I will cut the speed down, 90 MPH is still plenty fast enough to create the horrific wreck I described, no? As to the '57 BelAir, that is just so...Miami Villa, don't you think? That and I am writing there about high school kids on Rip Rap, not semi-pros at KilKare.
Did I get the location of the Rip-Rap site correctly?
I myself had a 1962 Chevy Impala with (I think) a 327 and a Holley 4-barrel. I only raced it once, against some Junior at Wayne who had a Corvair and challenged me to go title for title. Of course I beat him, and of course I told him not to worry because I wouldn't want a POS Corvair anyway. That, and he was my younger brother...
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tlturbo
206 posts
Aug 31, 2010
5:25 AM
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Phil - so did I. I had a dark green with white interior Hemi GTX on order but canceled it when a guy traded me a 66 427 vette conv for my 61 George Montgomery built Pontiac.
Delco - one of the few cars that gave me trouble was a black 429 Boss Mustang some guy at the Kitchen bought.
Allen - I was a Beavercreek/Kettering guy and didn't know a lot about the various Dayton neighborhoods. It could well be that the 57 would fit right in with the culture and car money of the Villas (I don't even know where that is). Sounds like a poor boy builds a hot car to take on the muscle cars scenerio. Kind of like the movie of the old guy from Austrailia who brings his motorcycle (Indian?) to Bonneville.
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tlturbo
207 posts
Aug 31, 2010
5:30 AM
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Not sure this will work - but if you ever raced at Shelby Drag Strip, this link will bring back some memories. Terry
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=414786
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AllenN71
66 posts
Aug 31, 2010
10:25 AM
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Turbo: The way the scene fits the plot is: (1) The dead boy is the older brother of the outgoing Detctive Sgt. and (2) the victim of the murder in the book (Peterson) was a witness to the sabotage and helped send all three to BIS until they were 21.
If the book ever sees the light of day I'll send you an autographed first edition.
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Leath
14 posts
Jan 09, 2011
11:57 PM
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When I was a junior at Belmont (1964), a senior took an Avanti airborn into a tree at 120 MPH and all in the car killed...and yes the rod greasers drove like 1960 souped up fords and tri powered 6 cyl's,,,,I was the first one in high school to ride a motorcycle...a 1947 Indian Chief....NO hondas yet...just mopeds from Sears and wierd European bikes.
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barry56
3 posts
Apr 09, 2011
3:13 PM
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yeah there was alot of racing done on rip-rap road in the early 70s people used to go to frishes and set up races used to be a curve and a bridge on each end of that stretch.river ran beside it and it would flood.used to have look outs on each end with c-bs to tell when the police were coming.was less than a quarter mile long.good brakes were really important.also they used to race on i beleive it was river road.i think that was in west carollton but i could be wrong about thatwas only there once was at rip-rap quite a few times.hope this helps
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F16 1UB
16 posts
Apr 11, 2011
1:22 AM
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Late 60's used to meet at Frischs in Moraine and race on I-75 towards Miamisburg then race back. 1 guy had a Chevelle that he'd put cheater slicks on.
Also used to race at Green County Airport off 35 near Xenia. Remember a person driving his new 69 Camaro over the cliff.
Olive Rd was another location. Lost a friend there when they hit a train in a vette.
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bigbob
134 posts
Apr 12, 2011
8:58 AM
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F16, i think i knew the guy that was racing that vette when he hit the train. i won't mention his name but he was in a GTX 440 AND WAS PRETTY CRAZY GUY. I also raced him on union road in a sunbeam tiger and i had a blow out and flipped several times in a corn field, same thing, he drove off not caring if anyone was hurt.
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mem
98 posts
Apr 25, 2011
5:13 PM
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Nashville songwriter, Frank Myers, wrote a song about Rip Rap Road. There was a death on Rip Rap road during drag racing when Herman Miller was killed while watching a race. Racing went on there for many years even though the county sheriff would close of each bridge and write just about everyone up that was involved. I attended many races all through the late fifties. We even had the start and finish lines painted on the road. That area was finally closed off when the new road was opened. It is now a city well field area.
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AllenN71
186 posts
Apr 26, 2011
5:08 AM
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Yeah, those Start and Finish lines were painted over endlessly by the cops, and reappeared like mushrooms after a rainstorm.
According to Google Earth the former alignment of Rip Rap has been named "Radavinsky Lane", and is mostly a bike path except for the well field.
According to the HHPD Information Officer, Sgt. Taylor, about half of Campobello Island is in Dayton proper and about half in the City of Huber Heights
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Steve65
1 post
Jun 05, 2011
7:40 PM
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I, too, was a Junior @ Belmont when the guy ran the '64 Avanti into the tree. (Leath P - is that you ?) I still have a photo of the wreck. Not much left - the transmission was all the way into the back seat area. There was an engine ompartment fire, and the fiberglass body really disintegrated up front.
Steve S.
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notgoingquietly
5 posts
Dec 06, 2012
3:28 PM
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I was very much caught up in the cruising/street racing thing in the late 60's early 70's. 4&69 was another popular impromptu drag strip. The best street race I'd witnessed was for $1,000.. a lot of money in that day. A fellow named (Jim?) DeMint had a black '68 Barracuda that was completely gutted and hosted a Hemi out of one of Bill Stepp's early Pro Stock cars. The car had no cage, that engine was far too much for the chassis and was twisting the body/buckling the quarter panels, but it was wicked fast. One night two grey haired fellas in a T-Bucket with a stock-sounding late Hemi pulled in the Roy Rogers across from Frisch's Keowee looking for a run. They were talking big money, and the only taker was the owner of the 'Cuda. I would imagine that he, like me, heard a smooth idle from the T's Hemi, and didn't imagine it to be a match for his race car with license plates. To make a long story shorter, the seniors with the T-Bucket went home $1,000 richer, as after the 'Cuda pulled the first 60' on the T, the old fellas just drove right around that 'Cuda.
tlt, I remember your gold Corvette; I'd bought my '70 440 SixPack GTX from The Egyptian. A fellow named Joe Klepaz out of Brockman's Speed Shop tuned my car as well as my buddies, and he had his hands on many of the fastest cars in Dayton. He'd been life-long friends with Ohio George Montgomery, and worked for years for George, subsequent to Brockman's closing.
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olds88
3 posts
Jan 27, 2013
2:36 PM
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Biggestrace i ever saw was jacks speed shop vs jesse maysfield on new rt.4. Many,many spectators came out from a place called paul,s drive-in on linden
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