Connecting Highway

[Carl Juliano]

Originally Posted by FINESPLINE

Hi carl, small world we live in. What was your fathers name and when did he work there. I worked part time btw 73-75 helping out in the shop and doing maintenance to the dart ( we kept it there as we had an ongoing bill with pete ).

Dad worked at Island Porting from '69-'73(approx). He'd come home from his full time job and head over to the shop and port heads from 6 till closing. Dads name is Carl also.

[mopar68]

Originally Posted by gremlin1945

Anyoneremember John D'Andrea?Had a 1970 Gremlin with a 390 AMC motor,won alot there.

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.



M68

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by mopar68

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.



M68

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......

[hemicop]

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!) . 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....

[afbarrett]

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

[Paul Ceasrine]

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

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by hemicop

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!) . 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....

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.

[Paul Ceasrine]

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

[art leong]

Originally Posted by mopar68

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.



M68

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

[GaryGoFast]

Originally Posted by gremlin1945

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

You fail to mention:

The Wedge Inn
The Hutch
I95 / Tardi's
Shea Stadium parking lot

Got my 1st ticket for loud exhaust at Connecting Highways