Connecting Highway
 

All of the recent bitching and moaning is starting to get stale.
Just to lighten things up I'd like to hear from those who frequented the following Friday,Saturday night circuit in NYC.
Connecting Highway
Laural Hill Blvd.
Francis Lewis Blvd
Review Ave-Van Iderstien fat rendering co. stunk lik hell
The Conduit (150th St)
Columbia St-Red Hook Bklyn
1st Ave.-Bush Terminal
Fountain Ave-not one of my favorites
Mitchells-Roller skate waitresses
This was in the late 60's early 70's.I got my first ticket one night at Connecting.Had a new
1969 VW bug and cops caught me racing another VW(he had Calif. plates,didn't pay ticket).The
cop gave us speeding ticket (55 in a 50)
instead of "Speed contest".
Was there one night when they ran a front engine dragster on highway.
Anyoneremember John D'Andrea?Had a 1970 Gremlin with a 390 AMC motor,won alot there.
How abouttheFish Kid or George he Greek?
Shaffroff had more than afew motors running around then.
The heavy duty races went off after 2AM down at the Conduit.Bklyn Heavy etc.Alotof $ changed hands
Just a few memories from misspent youth.The rest is blank.

Ed F.
NHRA #15
IHRA #1945
T/SA

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Hey Eddie.
We were at all of the above. We raced "Brooklyn Heavy", the Smallwood Bros, Fast Eddie, Maxie,, George Elliot etc.
Used to race to get enough money to go to the nhra national events LOL All the traveling we did years ago and neither one of us had a drivers license. Taken away for street racing. I got popped twice in the same night at first avenue by the same cop. He asked me why I didn't leave after the first ticket (speed contest) I told him I had to make some money to pay for the ticket LOL.
Those were crazy days, but fun.

Re: Connecting Highway
 

I remember when Bruce Springsteen (didn't recognize him at the time) was hanging out at the Burger King on the Conduit in ENY. We thoght they were IRS agents looking into the money that was bet. LOL
Rember the Crossbay Dart? we made five figures off them in one night.

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Artie;
I dont remember that particular Dart butI do remembera Hemi Dart at Columbia St. pier.They called the guy the barber.ColumbiaSt. was where my 55 Chevy was pretty much destroyed bykids inRed Hook park.I parked it in front of the entrance,so that when the cops came I wouldn't get a spectator ticket (Loitering).One Sat. night the cretis rolled an 8' utilityco. cable reel into the passenger sde.I sold the car and that money went to buy my wifes engagement
ring.I look at that ring now and just sigh.(Car wouldhave more monetary value,but after 35 years the wife was the better deal).


Ed

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Scott;
Probably the best part about those times were that you could actually park these cars in the street.I grew up in Manhattan in Greenwich Village and parked these cars on the street in this order:
1960 Pontiac CatalinaW/a 389 hydra matic
1969 VW bug- stinger exh.-Empi mags
1956 Nomad-red/white w/r/w r&p interior,straight axle,440 mopar,727.
1956 chev 2 dr. s/w handyman special,265,
auto,brown on brown.
1955 chev 210-283,4bbl,4speed,blackr&p interior.
1966 Mustang notchback,awful green,289,2 bbl,3 speed stick,factory air.
Howlong would they last in todays world?

Ed

I get some good stories from Ken all the time.

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Those were the days.
Scott I still didn't have a garage in the 90's I put my FWD stockers together in the street in front of my house
There was more crying and sandbagging back then than you realized. We didn't care if you came with a Volkswagrn with 4 flat tires we always argued for a spot.Those guys on pinks are amatuers when it came to begging for a spot. LOL
Back then we used my 440 wedge motor in about 9 different bodies. Some of the cars we beat became our partners LOL Shep from Chrysler told us We would have made some of the Chevy racers proud. LOL. We also did a SS/A type hemi motor that we ran in our 71 Charger RT.The only place we raced that was 150th Street or the Willowbrook expressway in Staten Island. That motor we lent to a superstock racer at E'town one year and it was within a tenth of the 2 bullits he grenaded earlier that day.
Our 71 charger was an original factory hemi car, I believe the last one to roll down the assembly line. And I sold the shell for $300. One of my many "MISTAKES"

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Hi Art, Just how fast was that Charger. I remember in the 70s you beat my friends 10.70 Valliant like it was a go cart. Remember all the big money grudge runs out at West Hampton at the end of the day. They usually ended with a few brawls and a knifing or two. All the cars had no time written on the window. Those were the days, Paul.

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Hi Paul. I remember racing a grey primed valiant, was that the one? I think we got 1 and the break. We hooked up a switch to the brake lights to remain on when we left. Very Very effective if you were sitting in front with the break of the tires. People would key on those huge tail lights, and see them getting smaller LOL.
We never made an all out timed run with the charger. But the motor went10.18 in a SS/AA car in July (90+ degrees)

Re: Connecting Highway
 

That explains a lot. BTW, the first bar I was in was the Back Fence on Bleeker Street.

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Dave;
Is that good or bad.My favorite place was and is John's pizzaria on Bleeker.Arturo's on W. Houston was a close second.

Ed

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Got my 1st ticket at Connecting Highway, loud exhaust, I ran on the Conduit/150st. But we made or lost our money on the Hutchinson River Pkwy. Used to hang out at the Wedge Inn. mid 70s

gary federico

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Boy you guy's are "old".

A group of us ran several cars, two look-alike black 52 olds (the 2nd one was parked off Astoria Blvd for the race), a prime 55 Chevy with an olds tri-power engine, and even a Packet, along several others up into about 1970/71. Saw lots of arguments about cheating after prearanging a race by someone switching an engine. However, to me just hanging out to see who showed up with a real serious race car on a trailer or truck at the BowBow or Cross Bay Blvd. Would also go to West Hampton, New York National and to Islip to race.

After getting out of a couple of "speed contest tickets", learned that the cops would have to hear the agreement to make it stick in court, I got smart or dumb and just raced at the AHRA/NHRA tracks and off the streets.

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Hey Artie, Remember the green RoadRunner?

Re: Connecting Highway
 

A friend of mine had a yellow Gremlin,390 AMC, auto that was an 11 sec. ride. His friend had another one in yellow with a 304Amc.They did quite well for a while.

Ed

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Yes Al I remember it well made us a lot of bucks.
Do you remember the night I crawled under it to put in the drirve shaft , and fell asleep while doing it. LOL

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Back in the early 60s I lived near Moses Lake Wa. There were a lot of untimed speed contests with guys from the Air Force base. I had a 54 chevy with a 354 hemi and I was paired up with a 32 five window with a 392 hemi. When we left the line as I watched the 32 drive away I noticed a motorcycle pull out behind us. When we got out at the end he went by on his back tire. Had to be going close to 100. The rider was our local Honda shop owner Bob Kneivel. That was before he was Evil. Boy what an outlaw he was, probably still is.

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Hey Ed, Im vouching for my dad, Carl sr....he ran at all of the above with various rides. He tells me alot about the Conduit and Crossbay. When my bro and I raced our 66 chevelle we ran mostly Francis Lewis, sometimes at 20th ave in Whitestone.Im 40 yrs old now, I remember National Speedway like it was yesterday, standing on the roof of dads 70 chevelle wagon, watching him run his 4spd 55 chevy, then the 67 Camaro. He flat towed forever, and my brother and I became 2 of the fastest tire changers around!...LOL, we had slicks on the car before some guys backed their cars off the trailer!!

Re: Connecting Highway
 

In case some of you haven't heard of the website dedicated to it: http://www.connectinghighway.com

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Nice site.My memory is a bit foggy but I think the red VW shown was the one I rn my VW against the night we got tickets for "speeding:.I think we weren't going fast enough to set a ticket for "speed contest".
The mentioned about the cops hosing down the highway.One night while they were doing that a guy and his family was doused by the stream of water and hit the outer wall.The cops rolled up the hose and got out of there like a bat out of hell.
They mentioned the night a rail was unloaded and run down the highway.To the best of my knowledge it wasn't a fueler,it was a SBC powered slingshot.I was there.Maybe another time a fueler was there.
One car that sttod out was an ill handling SBC powered Nash Metropolitan.It was brown and named Classical Gas.Scary car.

Re: Connecting Highway
 

One of the best cars out on 150th st. was Andy Harris's 67 Nova, I never saw him lose a race. It was 9" tires and no hood. I happened to be in the tower at W.H. and seen him go very quick without the spray. That car was deceiving. I can't even remember how many races I went to on 150th st, but I saw an awful lot of money change hands.

Casey Miles
248H

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Hi Casey, up to the tower to collect your pay and have a few beers. They always had cases of Schmidts stacked up near the clocks. That place had character

Re: Connecting Highway
 

W.H. was always a guess to how much $ you won if you the race. It sure was alot of fun back then. I won a race there with an $8 entry fee, raced Bill Marshall in the final and we split $1300. Not bad for a half assed track.
Grudge racing was at it's best there also. Alot of cars would show up from out of state and the cash would be flowing. You could make as much money in the stands as you could winning for the day. Also, you had to run your car out, because back then they only had true win lights, so if the other car you were racing red lighted and there was a bet on your car, you still had to get the win light to get paid. Alot of arguments, "I'll make you so broke that you'll have to borrow money from your kids", that was fun!

Casey Miles
248H

Re: Connecting Highway
 

What were the Smallwood Bros. racing with when you raced them? I've read they've owned two ex-Sox & Martin cars.

Re: Connecting Highway
 

I know Ronald Lyles was big up there as well. He called my dad at midnight one night wanting him to fly up to NY the next night to run a street race in his 71 pro stock car. Ill find out which Sox and Martin car the Smallwood Bros bought.

Herb Jr

Re: Connecting Highway
 

GaryGoFast,
The 'Wedge Inn'. The Castro family owned the place. The dividing line
between Westchester racers and The Bronx racers..
Many 'burn-outs' on Boston Road (Route 1)
Don't know if you were their for the race between the 67' Chevy II
427 Tunnel-rammed A/MP car from the University of Vermont
(silver color, lettered 'Amphetamine'), and the 70' 'Motion' Camaro
from Long Island. Best 2 out 3 race I ever saw on the Hutchinson River
Parkway!!!
Paul

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Herb, one post I came across mentions the two cars were a 1969 notchback-roof car and a 1972 Plymouth 'Cuda, but it would be interesting if you could find out for sure. Did your dad end up shoeing that night for Ronald Lyles? Do you recall what year this was?

Re: Connecting Highway
 

From what I recall it was the 1972 'Cuda.

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/5606/smallwoodbros.jpg

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/9...1973at42ph.jpg

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/9717/815200711.jpg

M68

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Yeah, I remember seeing John's Gremlin at Raceway Park sometime in the late-1970s or early-1980s.
I had no idea he street raced the car until I saw this scan. I didn't know Art and Ray did either. :)

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5844/nyc1web4.jpg

M68

Re: Connecting Highway
 

The guy writing the article must have breathed in too many fumes.Masotto is driving a Nova.Even an AMC die hard like me knows that.
I don't know what happened to the gremlin.John bought an AMX and raced it for a long time.He still has it.It's purple now and sat for a long time.It's been out a few times at RP
but it's in pretty sad shape now.
I bought/traded the 304 and 904 trans from my 1st gremlin for a Vitar 727/390 engine from John.I think I also gave him $600.The car went from low 14s to mid 11s and finally
low 11s.I literally put over 3500 runs on that 390 with one puff up on it,Still have every
time ticket.The car is about 20 miles from me.Sitting in a large garage/shop.One day......

Re: Connecting Highway
 

I ran around a few of those places back then--Connecting, conduit, Francis Lewis & the World's Fair Marina. I had a '71lime green Pinto that today you'd call it a "proStreet" car. It was caged, tubbed,etc. with a mild smallblock Chevy. Got it from a guy who worked at Corvette City in Elmont. I knew John D'Andrea pretty well back then. He lived off of 150th in his parent's basement. At the time he was a Housing Authority cop and it always amazed me no one seemed to know that. Like alot of others he'd work on the Gremlin in the street in front of his house.One day a guy goes by his house smoking the tires & John threw a wrench through the guy's back window! The guy comes around & John Badges him & tells him to get the **** outta there--end of discussion!!! He was the first guy I knew that had an automatic for racing, from Vitar Engineering as I recall. He knew a guy that had an original S/S AMX and wound up using its top-end for a little while. He eventually bought the car from the guy and kept it in a garage near RP. I saw him years ago, he was working for Scott Schafiroff and still working on cars in front of his parent's house. It's been a long time since I spoke to him but I'm guessing not much has changed. He said he'd never get rid of the AMX (don't blame him!:D) . I have my own "war stories" about those places & miss the whole scene but I never was one of the "big dogs" and generally ran against my own "locals" that lived in Flushing....

Re: Connecting Highway
 

I hung around Francis Lewis and the Conduit. I remember some current very well know professional racers who particpated in some very fast and large money runs on those streets. I remeber a guy that had a red 71 Chevelle with a blower. I think his name was Rick. There was also a guy with a very good looking Charger with a blower. Do you remeber Sambucci's daughter's Camaro.

Tony Barrett
SC166H

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Max-Wedge-Tony,
You should post the pictures you have of The Mutt Brothers, with
the black 68' Hemi Dart (the ex-S & K original factory Dart).
Also, your turquiose 63' Belvedere 426 Max-Wedge 4-speed
versus the Candy Apple Red 57' Chevy (Injected 327) from
Port Chester, at the Westchester County Airport Road.
I remember you set a record for 'drive-shaft ejection', the thing flew out about 300 feet, on Route 120.. Looked like a 'boomerang'.
PC

Re: Connecting Highway
 

It's amazing how much those cars look like todays stockers and superstockers.

Re: Connecting Highway
 

We tried to keep a low profile. We were usually the ones whining and crying for a spot. LOL
Maybe thats why I don't do it here. LOL
There was no pride in street racing just cold hard cash

Re: Connecting Highway
 

John's AMX wasn't one of the 53 Hurst cars.The T/F in his car may have been one of
Vinnie's early T/Fs but Vinnie had a bunch of Turbo's out at that time.
The one I got off John was one of Vinnie's units.

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Max-Wedge-Tony,
Post those pictures you have of The Mutt Brothers,
the 1968 Black Hemi Dart (the ex-S & K Hemi Dart).
Some mis-information out there on some internet pages.
They got the car in the Spring of 69'.
It did run on the track also, and did hit a 10.97, in SS/B.
PC

Re: Connecting Highway
 

I talked to dad today and The Smallwood Brothers bought Ronnies 71 Cuda but they also purchased a few more Shop cars, cars built by them that werent driven by Ronnie or Herb.

Herb Jr

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Anyone remember running West Shore Road in Port Washington in the late 60's? We used to choose-up at the Wetson's on Northern Blvd. The stretch of road in front of Bar Beach was straight and flat and the top of the hill did help slow you down. There was a primered 55 Chevy coupe (driven by John Balch?) that used to clean-up, and assorted 409's and Max-Wedge's. One night Eddie Akem brought the A&P Auto T/F down and made a short pass, but right after that the Nassau Co. police shut us down. :)

Re: Connecting Highway
 

It's been years--I could've been mistaken. I know he had a friend that ad an AMX " American Dream" or something like that, that was a facotry car. The TF in John's car was an early piece as I know he kept going back there to get things sorted out. I saw the Mutt Bros. Dart one night & that turned me into a Mopar fan real quick. It was years before I could afford to play with Hemis. I know there were some Brothers up inb the Bronx that were pretty good with Hemis also but they didn't come into Queens much. The cars I remember were a guy named Vinny Teuton's pale yellow Camaro, Tony Russo's L-88 'vette, a dark green Camaro owned by a guy named "Mario" (what a surprise!) who worked in a pizzeria in Flushing, Paul Ciano's black Motion Camaro, and a '66 Chevelle called "Blue Vendetta". I usually hung around "competition Speed" speed shop in Jamaica and larry Chen "supported" a few street racers that I thought were really cool. One of them was a '66 Impala with his spare 496 M/P engine hooked to a cltch-turbo. The car was a disgusting ****-brown painted with a brush but it ran fairly well. There were others, like the Grippo bros. and some guys I went to H.S. with but I long lost track of them all. I'll be going back to NYC this Fall & I'd like to see just what & how much it's changed.Strangely I met a guy here named Tom TeutRon, who claims Vinny is his cousin(?)

Re: Connecting Highway
 

Connecting highway hasn't changed much.Last time I drove through,early last year the only visual change was it's now 2 lanes each way with a shoulder.And of course the exit past the bridge (going towards Bklyn.) has been closed since who knows when.
It's still possible to make a pass.If you can afford the ticket and impound and possible
steel bracelets.
BTW John named the AMX American Way.The car is shown in an advertisement for Vitar Engineering.