Connecting Highway

[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

[art leong]

Originally Posted by mopar68

From what I recall it was the 1972 'Cuda.







M68

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

[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

[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

[herbjr]

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

[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. 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.

[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.