Anyone Got Any Good Stories?

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: Anyone Got Any Good Stories?

LS1 --- WOW!

Totally killer story. Thanks for sharing that one.

Neat!

Brian

[A/Fuel]

Re: Anyone Got Any Good Stories?

good storys, i wish i could tell em.
maybe i'll have a few beers later and give it a go.

[outlaw57]

Re: Anyone Got Any Good Stories?

wow, makes all my stories kinda lame!

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: Anyone Got Any Good Stories?

I have to live race stories through my dad. He ran an A/G A/F Buick powered '37 Chev coupe in the early 60s mostly at Lyons. My favorite story is they would go on the road and (of course) stay at hotels.... the problem was most racers would rebuild their motors in the hotel room after each night's competition. Eventually someone decided to bring a motor that could not be taken out the door - so they simply sawed notches in the door frame to get the motor out.

I suspect that I didn't get to race when I was growing up because of my dad growing up in S. Cal and racing those years. Alas, I must also live vicariously through your great stories.

I have to laugh about the Olds tow car... today, if you're not towing with a mini-semi you just aren't a true racer.

[A/Fuel]

Re: Anyone Got Any Good Stories?

please, no one get this the wrong way. i'v been told a few times i should write a book. i don't think my story are that cool. if you've ever met me in person, i'm the most even keel person you've ever met. but i told my girfriend about this thread and asked her for ideas. and after she read this whole thread she said i should tell this one. i've had a few beers so here it goes...

i was working a dead end job at a pool company. sure i raced cars, every weekend, bracket racing though...
it really sucked, i finished in the top 7, but my real dream was top fuel, i wanted to be Dick Lahaie..that was my dream anyway.
well i saw a add in national dragster one day...i had seen it before, i've had this dream since i was 14.. it was the frank hawley school of dragracing...... and i knew no one in the sport. i'm 36 now....sitting on the toliet, looking at this add...really dreading another 12 hour day in the flordia summer, servicing pools...i said to myself. is this going to be just a dream, or am i going to do it.
i did it...with high hopes, i got home from work that day, called them on the phone, and they told me where to send my deposit.
so i did....long story short, i was known for my abilitys, and built a car for my bosses son...a little 12.50 camaro for 10 grand, with cortez silver paint job, and black SS strips, it was pretty sweet, oh it was a 72'......they all knew about my dreams, and at this time they loved me...i told my boss then that i just wanted to go see what it was like, i wanted a week off to go to this school.
i had worked for him for 10 years, i was his right hand man....he said no......
so i quit.....it caused a lot of grief in my life...i had to start my own pool company, i did pretty good i think.....i had close to 40 accounts. i was just in to making my own way so i could take time off...that was my goal.....and i did it.
i had a wife and a beautiful daughter, we had to adjust our life style,.....ok, i digress...i voulnteered on lots of TAD cars, cleaned my pools and all was good in my heart....
my wife thought differently...........she left, along with my daughter, to california.
i new it was comming, i stayed in flordia for a season, settled my affaires and loaded up my junk and headed for indiana.
another long story short, got intouch with one of my new found racing buddies, lived in his shop......
ok, this is why i suck at telling storys..cause when i was going to the frank hawley school, i met ronnie swearingine (spare engine)
he told me, i'd never have what it takes....oh believe me i've had some encounters with the guy......
but....he called me one day, and asked me to build him a a/fuel car.....
so me and my partner did, (my latest project thread) it was a 9 month project, lots of phone calls, yelling, hanging ups, my way , your way junk...i didn't know shit....
ronnie and me are good friends now, the car ran a 5.48@251 on it's first pass.
i totaly respect the man, he has a ego the size of the good year blimp...
he has learned a little bit from me now, from a guy that wouldn't make it (not that i have)
but i told him...if i have to hear the "i have 33 walleys story again" (in his defence he does, with all the divisional races in blown alcohol) i'd punch him in the mouth......
long story short, thats pretty short.
see i suck at telling storys.....
now if you want a story about beer, golf carts, cops , nitro, and security guards.......that was my idea. but i hounered my girlfriends wishes on this one.

[Brad54]

Re: Anyone Got Any Good Stories?

My son will have a bunch of really good stories when he grows up.

One I'm particularly proud of is teaching him to drive stick shift for the first time right after he turned 12.

...On the Bonneville Salt Flats during Speed Week.

-Brad

[Bamfster]

Re: Anyone Got Any Good Stories?

I'll throw one out:

Back in the late '80s cruising was still heavy in Denver, and it was highly regarded as illegal. On any given friday or saturday night you could travel anywhere in the metro area and find a cruise spot or street race. The majority of the demographics were late teenaged to early twenties suburban kids with muscle cars.

In the late summer of 1988 I had just finished my first small block for the chevelle. I had put maybe 20 passes on it running 14.0's N/A and 11.7's on spray. My best friend at the time, Chris, and I took the chevelle out for what we called "trolling", we were looking for girls, a street race, or a fight. We came across a '69 (?) charger, it was yellow and had a plate that read "UDLOOSE" ( the chevelle's plate was "1BAMF" ), no hood and from what we could tell it was a big block car. We played around from stoplight to stoplight thru the area of Glendale and we both decide we'd have a pretty good shot at beating each other, so we head for a fairly desolate street at the time (Parker Road). We do the standard roll at 10 mph and mix it up. We're neck and neck, he starts pulling on me so I go for the spray which gets me about a fender on him. We both crest a hill going southbound at 90+ mph. On the other side of that hill sits a state patrolman on a stop, he throws the driver he has stopped their paperwork and jumps in his car and flips a uturn.

2 - 3 miles down the road I see red and blues coming hard behind me. By this time we had both slowed to around 60 and were actually going to try again since the first was so close. I get in front of the charger, we both slow to let the emergency vehicle pass (yea right....we knew it was the trooper) and he stops us both. For the longest time he is talking with the guy in the charger before he contacts me. He asks what we were doing back there and I sheepishly told him that we were racing. He took my license and went back to his car. About 30 minutes later he returns to the charger, has the driver get out and arrests him. Chris and I are totally freaking out at this point. The trooper comes up to my car and tells me to step out, I do but no handcuffs. We step back onto the sidewalk and he gives me back my license and tells me if he ever sees me or the car again that he'll impound it. The trooper goes on to say that the guy in the charger had said that he and I were old friends and we weren't racing, just driving along talking and it only sounded like we were racing. I had already confirmed that I did not know who he was. I got off with a warning, and the guy in the charger went to jail and had his car impounded.

Fast forward to the summer of 2007. The City of Golden, Co. puts on what is called The Golden Supercruise on the first Saturday of every month, May - Oct. Its an organized deal, the businesses allow parking in their lots, the police tolerate a slight amount of mayhem, and everyone has a great time. I meet up with some friends at one of the hangouts. They are also expecting another friend to show up that they refer to as "A mopar freak". This guy shows up in a super clean dart with plates that read....you guessed it "UDLOOSE". Nothing clicked at this point. We start making conversation about my chevelle his dart, ect when he talks about his charger at home that he's had since highschool. At the same time we both realize how our paths had crossed twenty years ago. He goes on to say that that was the first ticket he had ever got, and his driving record had only got worse since then, he still doesn't have a license, and he has done time for driving offenses. He thought it was funny how I didn't get a ticket and was now a traffic cop.