Connecting Highway

[Jim B]

Originally Posted by Lew Silverman

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.

Nothing like a "big W" and a couple of runs on a Friday or Saturday night. It's been years since I even thought about that.

[cammer427]

Someone mentioned to me that some of the roads around JFK, including 150th/S. Conduit, were changed around in the '90s (?). Is 150th/S. Conduit itself any different than it was back in the '70s, or has it been re-routed/moved around since (I'm not talking re-paved, I'm talking it's location actually "moved" to some degree)?

[Lew Silverman]

Originally Posted by Jim B

Nothing like a "big W" and a couple of runs on a Friday or Saturday night. It's been years since I even thought about that.

I started hanging out there even before I had my license, around 63-64. The Max-wedge cars were starting to make the scene, along with at least 1 or 2 Z-11 Impala's, one of which was owned by Don Figalosi, who later opened a speed shop in Glen Head. I remember one 426 cross-ram wagon which I think was owned by the son of the local VW dealer (Dorr Motors) which was just down Northern Blvd from Wetson's. We used to run the Roslyn By-pass, but that was always a bit scarier, because it was usually crowded with slow moving locals!

Lew

[hemicop]

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(?)

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by hemicop

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(?)

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.

[hemicop]

Originally Posted by Ed Fernandez

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.

So are they, and where, running now? What's it take to be competitive (besides money) there?

[hemicop]

I rmemeber the Wetson's but didn't go there much for some reason. I do recall a guy that had an alum. nosed Mx-wedge car that always had the nose smashed up 'cause he kept crashing it (his words). Of course I was lucky enough to go to H.S. near Scott Schafiroff's house so I always saw his Camaro & later his P/S cars parked on/in trailers at his house but never spoke to him, he was outta my league.
I wonder how many of the "old guard" still run or at least play with cars? I was back there last year & was talking to an old friend and he had NO interest in playing with cars, saying he was "too old" for that stuff.
It's funny--I tell even veteran streetracers here, some from Calif or elsewhere, about the stuff that happened just in my little niche of the World and they don't believe it. I guess that's what made apparently made NYC the streetracing capitol. Other cities had there heroes as well & great racing, I'm sure, but the characters & attitude of NYC back then was (and will) never be copied