So what was up with the lack of 350 emblems on the front fenders?

Do you recall, WAS there a SS wheel as a spare?

GREAT STORIES BY THE WAY!!!

Hi Marc. Great stuff. You sure seem to know all the right people

I didn't know much about the Black Panther. I thought there was a dealership on Avenue RD that sold them and that was it. They weren't a big hit with the Harvey's crowd as everyone that came in had the 327 and was beyond slow. There was a rumor about a few that had the 427 but know one ever actually saw one. CU soon.

Hi. Sorry. Can't remember on either. The car came with the proper stripes. I think I got dinged in a parking lot and told the painter to fill in the stripes. No idea on the spare. Thanks

Cool. Lance was the top Chevy builder/racer in the country. Even his employees at the shop became famous Chevy mechanics and racers.

Well thanks. You and I are from the same mould. All your cars are some of my favorites and you've had a lot of Buicks as have I. You will like the stories of the Buicks if I ever get that far ;) .

So I'm walking through the pits with a buddy one day. It was a big show weekend and the new Pro Stocks were there all lined up. I heard something coming behind us and I turned around and it was a blue Vega wagon. It was Jungle Jim Liberman in his Pro Stock Vega wagon. When he drove by I looked at the back and all I could see was tire. It looked amazing. I looked at my buddy and he said Forget it man. That car would cost a fortune to build. 6 weeks later I called him up and said I have to pick up some parts. Do you wanna come? 1 hour later we are pulling into the back lot of Belmont Chev Olds. Davey wanted to wait in the car but I told him I needed a hand. We checking were out all the new cars. There was a midnight green Vega Panel Wagon sitting all by itself at the end of the aisle with nothing else close to it. It was late November and we had our first snow fall. The color was very dark and it had tinted glass. The snow had covered the drivers side window and we were standing on the passenger side. It looked like the car had dark tinted glass. You could barely see inside the car. Kind of dark and mysterious. Davey came up and said what are you looking at? I nodded towards the Vega. He looked and stopped instantly. Are you f**king kidding me!!! Are you going to buy it? I said I already did. We checked the car out. It was a 73 Vega Panel Wagon. Dark Midnight Green with black interior and tinted glass. It had one cheap beige seat in it and not many options. Tinted glass, HD battery, front disc brakes and HD cooling. No carpet.

It was listed as a truck with a truck ownership. Most buyers would be using them as a parts delivery truck. It came with a 3 spd manual trans and a 4 cylinder aluminum block motor. It was $2352 out the door! After driving it a few months on the street it was time to get started.

I called around looking for a chassis shop. Don't forget. This was 1972. There were not a lot of performance chassis shops around. After searching for a couple of weeks and getting ready to take it over the border I called Beatty & Woods. At first they didn't know anyone in Toronto that did that kind of work. Someone called me back the next day and gave me a number of a guy who worked on Hot Rods. His name was Dave Jackson and he was a good fabricator but he had never done a full back half or any job this big. It took a lot of talking and finally he decided to give it a try. He started on the car a couple of weeks later. On my third visit to his shop I met Wally Clark. He was a well know racer. He was a great guy and knew his shit. I figured if Wally was getting work done on his Vega here then I was in the right place.

I picked up a Dana 60 rear from the Courtesy Chev drag car that had crashed at Georgetown. We checked the rear end for straightness and one axle was bent. Luckily the rear came with a second set of Quarter Master axles so all was good. Dana axles are like baseball bats compared to a 12 bolt. The rear came with a 5:87 gear. Perfect for the street. lol. When I got the car all together I realized I could get a fairly wide tire in but the stock rear quarters could not take more then a 26" tall tire. Perfect. lol. I wanted to get the car all sorted out before I had the quarters opened up and the car painted. I remember sitting in Harvey 's behind the building and driving to the road. I could easily get the car into high gear before reaching the road. Talk about an eighth mile car. It didn't have much top end but not many could take me at a light.Emoji

Dave cut the floor from the back of the front seat to the rear bumper. The Dana fell right in as it was made for a Vega. Except for front end limiters the front end was all stock. I even kept the 4 bolt spindles and original coil springs.
I used the Hooker Swap Kit as there wasn't many available and it was well designed and came with 3 piece headers, motor mount plate and a trans crossmember.

At this point the car had a ladder bar suspension, mini tubs, 6 point cage, SBC, Muncie 4SPD and a Dana 60 with original paint. All tin work was steel. Even the stock hood and bumpers. I had picked up 2 bucket seats from a 1970 Celica, 3 gauges and a tach. This combo was Stage 1.

When I first started on the car I found my 1st shop at Sheppard & Meadowvale. That area was a well known street race spot and only about a couple of miles from Altona RD which was one of Toronto's most famous street race areas.

The shop was a stand alone building that was all brick with a cement floor, house size furnace, a huge loft and washroom. I still remember the first time I checked it out. It was a cold winter day and I expected to find a shop with a lot of junk stored. It was wide open and clean! Even the washroom. I stood in the middle of the main floor and it was warm enough for a T shirt! It was big enough for 4 cars. No drafts, leaks or cracks. I brought my stereo from home and I still remember the first song I played. lol. And no I wasn't dancing. Well. Maybe just a little .


Play That Funky Music
Play

It was an amazing shop compared to my dad's wooden garage with no insulation. I remember putting a set of 90/10 shocks in the Chevelle. It was winter time and below zero. I'm under the car and I pick up a nut and it actually stuck to my fingers! That's how cold it once.

So come Sat. morning and starting bright and early and the first job is remove the hood. The hinge assembly is welded on. Not bolted. Basically the hinge is welded on both ends. There is a solid pin that slips through both hinges with a C clip holding it together. I remove the C clips and the hood will still not come off. I look at it for 20 minutes and I just don't get it. I want the motor out on the floor today. I make some calls and no won has a clue. All my buddies are working on Chevelles and Camaros. I sure hate to start cutting things on a new car, but there is no other way. So we cut the hinges with a hack saw. Ouch!1 month later we weld the hinges back together. A year later I'm talking to a buddy at at GM dealer and he is working on a Vega. He's pulling the hood and asks me to hold it. So he goes to his tool box and I'm waiting to see him bring out some Hi Tech tool to do the job. He walks over with a large flat screw driver. Oh come on!!! He takes the screw driver and prys the one hinge apart. He then looks at me and says. What are you waiting for? An invitation? I snap out of my trance and look at the hing that is still hooked up. I move the hood side ways and the pin slips right out. DOH! I just couldn't believe that GM would design a hinge that you pry apart with a screw driver. Geez.









I got the 327 from the Chevelle on an engine stand and fixed a few leaks and painted it Chevy orange. It dropped in fairly easy with only a few mods. The headers were the most work but still went in fairly easy. This swap kit required you to cut a hole in the front wheel well for one of the header pipes to go through for more clearance. The inner stock wheel wells in a Vega are reinforced steel to help the unibody. I decided to keep the front end stock. The only mods I did were front end limiters and tow bar mounts. I also was running the original 4 bolt front spindles.

You don't see many people flat towing race cars any more but back then that was quite common. One problem that I ran into with the stock front end was the front crossmember was bolted in!!! So every time the car pulled the wheels and came down(which was a lot)it would try and spread the front wheels. I was getting a front end alignment every couple of weeks. When the front end was out of alignment the car would not straighten out coming out of a right hand turn while flat towing. The front tires would then scrub across the pavement and I would have to stop the tow vehicle, jump out, straighten the front wheels through the side window and then run back and get in the tow vehicle before somebody behind me would start honking his horn. Ya sure. It kept me in good shape but it was embarrassing. The only good thing about the whole deal was that when it started doing that I knew it was time to get the bear claw out and adjust the front end . For the first year before I got it fixed I would actually take a longer route to the track that had less right hand turns. LOL

Love the clear valve covers!

Another great story.

Being from here, I can identify from my earlier days playing with frozen tools and hardware. The things we do to go faster.

The final product looked great, what times did it run with those crazy ass gears? Did you have enough engine to cross the line?

Paul

I was 15 years old and rode my bicycle to a girlfriends place. Afterwards I decided to ride over to the nearest McDonalds (Warden and Sheppard) and couldn't believe the number of muscle cars in the parking lot. Turns out I had accidently stumbled upon the local car hangout. This Vega was one of those cars :smile: (although by this point in time there had been a colour change).

I am really looking forward to the stories.

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis Ken :frown:

i
 

So it's 1975 and the car is finally all sorted out and running well. I took the car to John Rossiter to check all the angles as the car does not feel right when it leaves. Turns out the custom ladder bars and mounts are all wrong. So I order all new stuff from Allison. Bars, mounts and brackets. We also cut the rear quarters to accept a taller tire. Each outer wheel well is cutout as a rectangle. Then you section that piece right in the middle at the highest point of the stock wheel well opening. As far as I can remember they added a 6" section which allowed for a 14 X 32 tire.

After I had the quarters opened up I decided to paint the the car. I had a guy who would paint almost anything including a color change for $750 and that was a quality job not a quick splash. At first it was going to be all white. It looked good but it just needed something to make it pop. I decided on a red stripe and I was happy with the way it turned out. I also put a reasonable gear in the car. I think it was a 4:33 but I'm not sure. With a 28.5" tire the car drove great around town. I drove it to the track a couple of times but it really made me nervous thinking something would break and I would be stranded. No cell phones back then.

So paint, glass hood, gears, ladder bars,350 SBC, tunnel Ram, crash box and 11.50W slicks were all done in the winter of 75. The car was all back together and ready for the car show. Speed Sport was one of the largest car shows in Canada and I was in that show at least 10 times. If you look at the pics you will see the fork lift lifting my car to the upper level. A buddy of mine told me not to watch them lifting the car up. I thought he was joking. OMG!!! When the car got near the second floor that fork lift started swaying like there was a strong wind. I kid you not. I was actually shaking!!! The fork lift guy jokingly said don't worry. I have only lost 2 so far this year! Haha. I wasn't laughing.

You'll hear me say this a couple of times. There are certain times in your life when you get a "SPECIAL FEELING" that you might never feel again. We all know those special times. When I had to drive the car up on the platform for the fork lift was one of those times. The headers were open and I'm in enclosed building jammed with Hot Rodders. Everyone is setting up their display. First I turn on the the electric pumps. I have 2 660 Holleys on the tunnel ram. That means 4 fuel bowls to fill. The car starts easy if you know how to do it. And of course this is one of those times were it might not start. A few people are watching as I hit the starter for about 5 seconds and then hit the ignition switch. WAM! Just like I knew what I was doing;). Everyone drops what they are doing and turns and looks. I creep the car towards the platform which has a ramp/lip about 5" high. A perfect place to stall. The motor is cold so I bring the revs up to about 1500 as I slip the clutch. I get it on the platform and that is done. Of course I am totally straight faced as if I know what I am doing;). We set the display up and walk around checking out the rest of the cars.

That weekend I pickup The Toronto Sun Newspaper and there I am on the front page! Geez! How did that happen? The car is almost in the centre of the pic. When I get to the EX everyone I know and a few I don't know make a crack. So one friend says how did you pull that one off? I said what? YOUR CAR ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE SUN! Oh. That. Those guys have been bugging me for years to do a feature on the car.;)LOL.

The car show was the greatest part of the winter. It seemed like every year there was a blizzard on that weekend. It didn't matter. We were young and stupid. Always under dressed. We never wore a hat, boots or gloves. When you got to the car show there was always a huge lineup of cars to get in on the Thurs. That was setup day as the show opened on Fri. They had to get about 300 cars inside on one day. It took about 3 hours to finally get in.

I remember one guy asking does it have a heater? A heater? Of course the car has no heater. That's like asking does it have AC. Ya. It's called a window.;) The only heat the Vega provided was headers through the floor. lol. My cousin Dave had come down to help me. We would take turns sitting in the Vega or Dave's driver which did have a heater.

So one year I decided to go to The Street Machine Nationals. It was either the first one in 1977 or 78. Indianapolis. If you look at the pic of the white Caddy that was how we got there. Not everyone used a truck as a tow vehicle in those days. A big Caddy or Lincoln worked great. You could get a killer car back then for about $1200. Mint perfect. Get the proper hitch with trailing arms,Air Bags and a tranny cooler and you were good to go. Turn on the AC, plug in a tape and get out the map! Geez. No GPS. I don't know how we did it back then. Oh well. Even though we got lost more then a few times we arrived with out a sore back and a headache. I always remember arriving at a track for a big meet and seeing some guy who came from way out of state in a ramp truck. Some of them actually had to sit there for 10 or 20 minutes trying to get some feeling back in their legs. LOL. More then once we would pull into the local Steak & Shake and some guy would be limping away from his truck and say to me. How does that thing tow? I always said I don't remember I keep falling asleep! LOL. That one always got a good laugh. And after dinner I would walk by the same guy at his table and I would be faking a bad hip. Guys would almost choke on their food because they were laughing so hard! God. I miss those days so much.:(

Friday night at the motel was almost more exciting then being at the fair grounds during the show. After dinner we came out of the steak house and the streets were out of control!!! People were 6 deep on either side of the street. It was totally jammed. Remember those Special Feelings.

The streets were backed up with every imaginal hot rod/street car that you could think of. Don't forget this is 1977. Even though there were Cops everywhere we took over the city for the weekend! Actually the Cops were pretty good. They let us get away with murder. Well almost;)

We were just down the street from our motel. I grabbed a couple of lawn chairs and found a space. We were enjoying the show and a couple of bubblies helped pass the time. We ended up sitting by our neighbors from the motel. They were from Chicago. Street Outlaws? Who were they!!! These guys were doing it long before them. One guy had a Silver 70 Chevelle SS 454. This car had a clutch turbo!!! The motor was warmed over LS7 and it sounded like a Pro Mod with mufflers. We were all telling our stories and watching the show. These guys were serious street racers. I could tell just by the way they were talking. One of them asked me if had brought anything. I said. Ya that's my Vega on the trailer. The other guys says. The white one with the pro stock scoop? Ya. So after the 500 questions things had calmed down a little on the street. I had a few bubblies and was feeling fine.The cars driving by looked great but no real action as there were some Cops around. The crowd was cheering every time a car did a dry hop or some thing. So I thought it would be a good idea to bring the Vega down and do a couple of drive buy.Not a good idea. Burp!

So we pull the car down from the trailer.1ST MISTAKE I open the Nitrous bottle.2ND MISTAKE. I start to pull up to the road and a couple of guys stop the traffic.Everyone is standing now. I think that was how I missed the Cops in the crowd.OOPS! The motor is dead cold. 3RD Mistake. I do a couple of dry hops. The Nitrous is hooked directly to the throttle. No button.3RD MISTAKE. I bring the revs up to 5000, drop the clutch and hit the gas. Did I say the motor is dead cold? I think the tach does a couple of 360s. lol. Now I can't remember what the guys told me on whether the flames or the scoop went higher then the hydro lines when the car BACKFIRED!!! I shut the car down and rolled into a parking lot. I'm already flipped out with what has happened. I unbuckling my harness and just as I reach for the pin in the shoulder bar 2 big hands reach in the window and show me a new quick way to get out. I ask them if there's a problem. For some reason that makes them even madder. ;) They turn I mean spin me around and throw me against the car and award me with a new bracelet.;) So as they are giving me shit I see a small group of people come running over. So one Cop is blasting me and telling me where I'm going to be sleeping tonight when the other Cop taps him on the shoulder and motions him to turn around. Well that small group of people is now a large crowd that have surrounded the car. I don't know how many there were but they were easily 20 deep. One guy comes out of the group and hands me my blackened scoop which I swear was still smoking. LOL. I was going to hold it up in triumph to the crowd, but I decided the Cops wouldn't enjoy that. The Cops are not yelling anymore. They have a short little chat and one of them walks over takes my bracelet off and gives me a warning. That was it. I'm dumfounded. What just happened?

Next morning I am talking to the Chicago guys. I said I don't get it. I thought I was going to jail. They told me there was no way they were going to let them take me anywhere.

Man that was a great story and I loved the ending. I am sure it was a hell of a surprise for you to walk away from all the BS.

So did you ever get the car fired back up to show the boys in Chicago what it would do?

Paul

Yes i did. Stay tuned. : )

Ziggy, it's a small world. Not sure when you were around, but around '90 we raced up there out of the Weston/Finch lot with a Orange '73 454 Vette on nitrous. Raced a blue COPO '69 Camaro and a few others. Competition auto wanted to run us with there '69 Camaro and even Serge Longo came and wanted us to run his challenger.

Also, we had a Ziggy from my town. You had a tubbed sb Vega with nitrous. OUR Ziggy had a tubbed SB Arrow with nitrous. WHAT A COINCIDENT. 2 ZIGGYS both with tubbed small cars with nitrous SB's......

I also ran the streets in Brantford (my home town) from 78 - 85. We had a bucket of fun messing around on King George St, Brant Ave, Hardy Rd, the 403, etc.

I saw the Arrow out many times but never heard who he ran (maybe Proctor's Vette/Radawicki's Duster/or????). What times was he running?

Ziggy with the Vega, I need more of the Toronto race action. Did you ever hear of Jim Shimizu who ran a 69 Hugger Orange/Orange Houndstooth R/S Z/28 down at Cayuga from 1970 to approx. 1977?

What month did you buy the 69 and do you know if it had been sitting for a while? Don't see many SS wheels on a 69. Thx

I’m really digging these stories. Keep them coming!

Jim (RIP) was one of my best friends. He passed about a year ago alone. It was very sad. Such great guy. He lived 2 blocks from my place on Warden Ave. I stayed with him a couple of times in Kentucky were IBM sent him for a year. Jim's Z was fathom blue. I'm not sure but I think Zedder bought the car. He will probably jump in here soon. I'll put a post together soon of the guys I knew back then. Thanks.

I will have to dig up some paperwork but I bought the car in the summer of 1968. There were lots of 69 SS cars around back then but I never saw another one in silver with the hood louvers, hockey stick stripes and the SS wheels. I personally think the Rally wheels looked lame and should have been used only on the Vette. Thanks

Well since I'm STILL in Brantford, I know those guys you named. It was Al Proctor's Vette we took to Weston & Finch. That was also THE ONLY CAR to beat my car that ran those streets, BLACK GTX ragtop. Al now plays with motor cycles and a Late model COPO Camaro he races. Mark Radawicki got out of the scene pretty much after the Duster. Ya he had the '79 Blue Z28, but it wasn't a fast car. I bought the shell from marks Duster and parted out the body parts around '87.

Ziggy with the Arrow was Rodger Zigmond. Nice guy and still around. He was a good painter and painted Eddy Stern's Candy Blue '68 427 Firebird. Roger is out of cars now. I worked with him back in 2004 and still see him from time to time before covid. Eddy still has the Candy blue firebird, but now blown and street tubbed.

If you were around you should remember Greg Teasdale. He is getting back into it as he has a few car one being a LS6 70 Chevelle. But also bought a fats '68 (??) Camaro.

So back then I had the BLACK GTX rag, 440 4sp Dana. Fast car back then and I was only 16. Only had it 4 yrs but found it last yr out on east coast in the USA. Spoke to the owner and going to try to buy it in about a yr depending on life.

I DO still own Gord Sipost's old Red '69 Nova SS. That was a stupid fast back then. I seen it beat Al's Vette AND Ziggy's nitrous Arrow out on Oak Park rd. AND he mis-shifted 4 times against the Arrow, he missed 3rd TWICE that run, and still put a car on the 11.70 Arrow.

Doug from here (427 Strato) is also from Brantford.

Man those were fun days.............

John

Summer of 68 or 69? Earliest it could have been was fall of 68.
If you have paperwork that lists the VIN, that would be amazing... :)
Thx

Love these stories Ziggy, keep ‘em coming!!

Boy does that bring back memories! Did you ever do the cash on the dash trick? I won so much money...put down a $5 or $10 and bet the passenger he couldn't grab it when I shot out of the hole! I never lost! HOLY****! was a common response! LOL!

'67 Chevelle SS 396 L78, 4-speed (M20), 4.10 Posi:

It’s a small world John.....I took the liberty and reached out to a few friends of mine Al, Greg and Tim regarding your version of “the facts” and here is what I learned.

Its funny that you referenced Tims GTX rag top as Tim and I went to school together back in the day. I remember spending time in that car as we would head out to Hardy Rd and Tim would gladly show you how fast that car was as he ran the car through the gears and down the marked out quarter mile. I distinctly remembering the car running through the end of the quarter at 100 mph, time after time, like clock work. Based on those numbers, that pegs the GTX about a 13:30 car which we all thought was crazy fast, back in the day. So here is my delima, how were you able to take on Al Proctor’s Corvette which ran a 11.60 with a 13.30 car and have that to be the only car that ever beat you. If I understand the facts correctly then, that would have meant that you only raced your GTX against Al’s Corvette because there were a ton of faster cars running the streets in Brantford with much better times than your 13:30.

And to add some more mystery to your story, Al confirmed that he never ran your GTX. If you really do know Al well, you know that he is wicked sharp and smart as fox.There is nothing that man forgets……nothing.

Yes, Gordies Nova was quick with a 427/4 gear/4:88’s but once again, Al Proctor never ran Gordie……ever and Al also confirmed this as well. Not on Oak Park Road as you mentioned, not on any road. Nobody ever knew how fast the Nova was, even Gordie didn’t know because he never raced it. And you know why……

Regarding the Nova running Ziggy’s Arrow, it must have quite a night for you to remember because nobody else remembers it. If the Nova took the Arrow by car length after missing all of those countless shifts, that news would have spread like wildfire through Brantford. Funny how that story was also kept quiet.

So, at the end of the day, I am perplexed after reaching out to all of my friends, the guys who actually ran the streets of Brantford only to find out all of your discrepancies. If there is anything you would like to verify with my facts, please feel free to call Al, Greg or Tim and you can quiz them.

Paul

Paul,

He is some more info you can ask your friends. Al I haven't seen or talk to in 6 or 7 yrs and your right, Gord didn't race Als Vette, it was another guy from Simcoe or Delhi that came in with Ian and the 67 390 fastback mustang. It was an out of town car. I tired to run Ian a few time, just never happened. That's why I can't say if I was faster or not. I tried to race Ron Bennett's 71 T37 with the 455 HO. He wouldn't race.

As for me running Al? Yes I did at Oak Park. Al was right lane and I was left. I even went over more to the left so I wouldn't slid into his car. Al asked to me to run as a tune up test because the next day, we went to Sparta and Al won the Covette meet. I had no business being beside that car but there was no one out that night as fast as me, so Al asked me just for the hell of it. In fact, the next day after Al won at Sparta, the 10 of us went to Fluffys Pizza in London.

No as far as Gordies Nova. It was actually a standard bore 402/4sp w 4.88s. I still have that engine sitting after Jeff Chatterson rebuilt it. Yes the only time I ever seen that car run, he raced that one night. I was at the finish line with Todd Stebbe. And Gord beat Roger. After the race, we were at the line and Bob Sinden asked Gord about a scattershield? Gord said he didn't have one! Bob said YOUR FEET ARE FUCKED UP ALREADY ANYWAY!!! Gord even said he missed 3rd twice. That car then went to Dan Bellhouse who's wife took a hammer to the quarter panels and trunk. Dan sold it banged up to Russ Savage, who inter sold it to me after he crashed his motorcycle. Bellhouse to the 4.88s out and had 3.55s. Russ to out the 3.55s and put in 4.56s. Car now has a 785Hp pump gas 69 052 blocked ZL1 with a T400 and 66 Nova 12 bolt with 4.10s.

I only lost to Al. Never got to race Ed in the firebird and I think Ziggy was done by then. Only Al Ed and Bob were the top guys then. I was going to race Bob but cops showed as we were at the line. Bill Ambeau had bought Ziggys Arrow and purchsed the 302 out of the 69 Camaro from Competition auto. And Rod Daviault has Don Douglas do the bb Mopar stroker for a Monza?? That one fuzzy because I always thought Bill and Rod should have swapped stuff as the engine bodys were the way they were.

I haven't talked to Tim since I bought the car. I don't think he was ever out running the streets after he sold me the car as he didn't have another street car.Greg I spoke to last yr but nothing about cars it was boats. And YES I was a test pass for Al the night before we won the Sarta Corvette meet.

I do not have Als number, but if you PM it to me, I will call him. Or can pm you my number to give to Al. Also, my car was a CLONED GTX built by the guy from Simcoe who now lives out by Burford. I never powershifted that car with the little supershifter under the dash. It did run 13.60 at 108 FIRST 2 times down the TMP 1/4 mile. Then went through a wheel bearing in the Dana. Car was set up by Ed Van Der Tuin.

John

Paul, do you know Danny Bratinna? He had the stock 69 Nova SS 396/375Hp stars n strips. He told me that car 11.70 STOCK but open heads, recurved distributor and slicks. Carb was probably jetted too, but that I don't recall 100%.

Georgetown
 

Sun, Mar 13 at 1:53 p.m.

So the next morning I checked for any damage. I looked down the carbs and couldn't believe what I saw. The throttle blades were bent at a perfect 90 degrees. It was like someone bent them on a brake. I've seen all kinds of damage from nitrous backfires but never anything like this. I knew there was a Holley booth at the fairgrounds, so off I went carbs in hand. Luckily it was early and they weren't busy. I figured they would say forget it and sell me new carbs. One of the tech guys takes a look down one of the carbs. Are you kidding me!!! Hey Mike. Check this out. He was just as startled. I figured these guys had seen it all. What the hell happened? I've never seen anything like this before. I started to tell them the story. Mike says. Are you the guy with white Vega that blew his scoop off? Ya.WOW! I heard the story. Did the cops really try to take you away? Oh ya. He said you should go to the dog track and place a bet. Funny. I had already planned a trip to the Grey Hounds before we left for home. I didn't win. lol. So the tech guy tells me to come back at noon. I stopped at a parts store and picked up a piece of gasket material. During the backfire, the gasket between the 2 piece tunnel ram had blown out. I was all back together and running fine that afternoon. We had a great time.

The closest track to Toronto was in Georgetown. You could drive there without getting on the highway which was great for us nut bars that drove on the street with a 4.88 gear. There were many stories about that place. I was in the tower talking to the guys one night when I saw a 69 Camaro pulling up to the line. I knew the car and it was pretty quick for a streetcar. BBC 4 SPD I think it ran high 11s. He pulled into the water up to the lights and staged. It was a big meet that weekend and the rosin was down. As the lights came down this guy brought the revs up and drops the clutch on the last yellow. I kid you not. I saw his generator light come on when the car bogged really bad. I instantly heard a cling of something hitting the window on the tower. The guy blew his clutch and a piece of the clutch disc hit the window!!!. Even the track owner had never seen that before.

So after the track had been closed for a year we decided to drive by on the way home from our other track. There it was. So sad. Weeds growing up through the asphalt and remnants of the bleachers all broken up. One of my friends jokingly said. Hey. We have our cars here. Let's make a couple of passes.;)lol. Another guy says. I hope you're strong enough to carry the cars over the barricades. The cement barriers were blocking the entrance. I said I have a pretty strong tow rope. Another friend had a diesel dually. We actually pulled the barriers out of the way. Crazy. Everyone pulled into the pits and started to put their slicks on just like a regular Sunday. I wish I had more pics. Everyone was having a great time except me. There was no one for me to run. Boohoo.;)
Everyone pulled into the pits and started to put their slicks on just like a regular Sunday. Some other guys arrived. I have no idea how these guys found out what was going on. No cell phones back then. They showed up with a couple of cars. I think they lived in the area and heard all the noise. Within an hour more cars arrived and there were probably over 100 people. I should have charged $20 ahead. ;) I was getting nervous as anyone driving by would have easily seen and heard all the commotion.

A white Nova came in on a trailer. It was a big tire car and was all lettered up. I knew the car and it ran 10s. It was called the Polar Express. And of course, my bottle was empty. As you can see in the pic he was sleeping and I got him by about 2 lengths off the line. I couldn't see him but I did hear him as he was right on my rear bumper at about half-track. He started to pull me in high gear and passed me right near the end of the track. I didn't admit it at the time but I think he got me. The Cops arrived and that was the end of that day. I ran him 1 year later at the track. Instead of a street motor this time, "I was loaded for bear." LOL. Does anyone remember that saying! I now had Shafroft long rod 327 tunnel ram with NOS. I had also picked up a built 2SPD Powerglide with a brake and race convertor. Fairley new stuff for 1978.

The Glide and Brake really make things simple. I wait for the starter to guide me through the puddle and onto the edge where it is wet but not a puddle. The starter gives you the sign to spin the tires just enough to get them wet. Then he directs you 1'or 2' ahead and stop. As soon as the cars that just ran are off the track he gives you the OK to do your burnout. You step on the brake put the line lock on, let go of the brake and put the car in high gear and nail it. Some guys think if you do that the car will overrev instantly. It won't. It's hard to explain but imagine your car has rear tires that are 4' tall. You can't get the car to over-rev instantly. If you have short 26" tires and use first gear, sure. So after hitting it, you let the tach get to around 4000 the starter should signal you when the tires are smoking and to pull up. You let go of the trans brake ease off the throttle and let the car slide out onto the dry pavement and let right off once you are on the dry pavement. The car will slide about 2 feet and then squawk just as the tires bite. Even though you are now off the throttle the inertia of the tires spinning will keep them going until they bite. Back into first and you are ready to stage.

Back soon!

Sorry Ken, I just read your response to my question.

Jim sold the 69 RS Z/28 (Belmont Chev Olds car) to James Copeland in 83 and I purchased it off of him in 94. I purchased it in parts and pieces and stored it away for many years. Once I completed the restoration, I brought it to MCACN to get judged (989 pts) and left the Camaro with Nickey Performance (Stefano) and it was sold to a buyer in Chicago. The car is now in California and owned by a member on this site.

Here are some pics you will remember from the days......

[QUOTE=useless tony;1585640]I just remembered, I was a kid and riding my bicycle on Van Horne near Leslie and stopped to chat with a guy who had a primered 68-69 GTO in the driveway (his parents house). While I was there, a friend of his dropped by with a white '68 Runner with the Hemi badge in the hood. Was supposedly a hemi car but had a 383 in it at the time. I remember the guy with the GTO saying he and his buddies would go street racing. The GTO guy also had a '69 Camaro that he painted at the house (candy red) and as I recall, he had issues with the clear coat 'yellowing' the white stripes he had painted.

I can't help but wonder if these two were part of the Warden/Shepp, Weston and Finch, Harvey's Hot Ones crowd.

Sorry, Tony. I don't recall any of those cars.

We were setting up the suspension here to run this Stan guy in Oshawa. If I had to run anyone who I thought was a contender I would always test the car where we were supposed to run the day before.

Sorry for the late response John. I have so much on the go now. So Jim's car was originally orange? Have you got any pics of the car when you finished the restoration? It must have been amazing. I have some of those pics. Tom Wilson who owned B&T is still around. He's on Facebook. Thanks.

Wouldn't be Stan M driving a blue '68 Camaro would it?

Regarding testing the road/strip the day before ... does that mean you drove the Vega to Oshawa from Scarborough on slicks both times or did you swap tires once in the area?

Loving the stories :) and really cool you have pics too.

Maybe ;) I think I trailered it that night.

Back when I was still in High School I started to visit all the car hangouts. I kept seeing this orange Camaro driving around town. It was clean and simple. Orange on black buckets and Cragars all round (I hate those square ones);). Looking back it may have had stock exhaust. When you put a lumpy cam in a big block to me it sounds like it is choking. Mopar Hemis in a Challenger or Cuda had the same type of sound. I mean 2 1/4" exhaust behind 425+HP is a bit of a joke. I always thought GM engineers had a bit of a sence of humour. Maybe they thought there isn't much of an exhaust system that we can design that head office will and still work on these high HP cars. I think they knew that most guys were going to replace the mufflers and probably the whole exhaust system anyway.

Speaking of exhaust systems we sure did some back yard work in our driveways in those days. We had about 20 guys in our group and everyone had a piece of equipment that they shared. One guy had a welder, another had a tire machine and so on. I remember going over to my buddies house to help him put chambered pipes on his L78 Nova. I'm not sure which coins we used. I think they were quarters that we used to fill in the gaps between the head pipe and the chambered pipe. About 5 guys showed up and even after everyone chipped in we still ran out of quarters and had to raid my buddies little brother's piggy bank.LMAO. After a few beers and a handfull of quarters it was done. Of course all the jokes were flying and we were like a bunch of kids laughing our heads off. One guy said any power you picked up will not be enough to overcome the 200 #s of weld you used.lol.

So I couldn't understand why this car had no SS or 396 emblems to show it was a special model. All I did know was that I wanted it. The owners name was Angelo Colangelo. The only reason I remembered his name was that it rimed. My father was a manager of The Beer Store and he set me up with the stores bank manager. He more or less told me if I saved half the money that he would lend me the other half.

So much for that idea.It wasn't easy but I moved on and bought another Camaro. I figured I would never see the orange one again. One night hanging around Harveys a buddy of mine drives in with this orange Camaro. My buddy was a used car salesman. I knew the car right away.This was in 1972 and the car had changed hands a couple of times. Someone had blown the original motor. Ya. I know. Too bad. Back then the car hadn't reached a cult following and not yet a valueable collectable. People didn't identify the car as a COPO. It was a 427 Camaro. The car didn't sound the same as the last time I heard it 2 years ago. Who ever blew the 427 up had replaced it with a brand new crate open chamber LS7. Just for laughs they also replaced the 4.10s with 5.38s!!! To say the car was a handfull on the street was an under statement. On top of all that it was still a 4 SPD! Who ever owned the car when all these mods were done was not a nickel and dimer. The car had the best of everything and was built right. Other then all this someone had also painted the car blue.

So just to keep things interesting I bought the car. Without a serious tire a 340 Swinger could have beat this car. The car was dangerous to anyone who did not respect this kind of power. You couldn't nail this thing when ever you wanted to with real street tires. You had to get into the right mind set. Sit back in the seat and tighten up your seat belt. 1st gear was just not useable on the street. Even second was nuts and don't even think about a power shift. On a good road 3rd gear might hook but don't count on it.

A friend of mine knew the car and told me he saw the car run some low 11 second passes and had gone 11.1. The rear end was a stock 12 bolt except for the gear. It was guarantied the car would break an axle after 4 passes at the track with slicks on. The owner at that time would always have a couple of new axles with him when he went to the track. No idea why he didn't just buy after market axles he would scribe a line right down the length of the axle and check to see if the line had moved. If it had it was time to change that axle.

Gas was getting expensive and hard to find and with a 5.38 gear, 12.50 to 1 pistons, and a big cam, the car wasn't very streetable. I was also more interested in the Vega at the time so I built a low compression BBC with 3.73 gears. I drove it to the track and it ran low 12s in full street trim and pump gas.

I look forward to your stories. You have truly had some fantastic rides my friend.

Ziggy, was Ray Barton even a name runner on the street back then??

NP.....I understand.

Jim's Camaro was originally Cortez Silver, see below. These pics were taken at MCACN after the restoration.

Its funny you mentioned a orange Camaro. I am sure you would also be familiar with another Camaro I owned which was a Hugger Orange/Orange Houndstooth interior car (not Jim's). This car was another 1969 RS Z/28 "GM of Canada Show Car Account" that was displayed at the C.N.E. (Canadian National Exhibition) in 1969 to promote the new GM line up. And it too was used as a drag car for quite some time at Cayuga Dragway as well.

Paul

Beautiful Paul. They don't get much nicer. I'm sure Jim would be proud.

I decided to sell the Camaro as I read in Hemmings that guys in the US were getting very good money for them. Hemmings was the only real publication that talked about collectables and advertised suppliers for restoring cars. It wasn't the magazine style, it was the catalog style which was mostly black & white and was almost 1" thick. The last time I looked you can still buy them in most large book stores. Worth the read if you have never seen one.

I advertised the car in Hemmings and sold it 2 days later for 3 times what I bought it for as a roller. We made a deal that I would pick him up at the airport and I would trailer the car to a friend of his in Michigan. Turns out his friend was the president of the AMC club of America. It was the middle of winter and I was hoping for clear weather.( Oh ya sure. NP!) ;)

At the time I was having a custom trailer built, so I bought my buddies used, I mean well used trailer as it had a expensive winch on it and good tires that I wanted. It didn't have any axles. There were 4 wheel spindles from a car welded to the frame. (Oh ya. That will work) ;). I also had a 1973 full size Mercury wagon that I had bought from my brother in-law who was a Mortician. It wasn't the funeral car. Yes. That's right. It was the meat wagon. Boy. I got ribbed about that one for a long time. YaYa. I get it. Ribbed, meat wagon. lol. It was a normal looking grey wagon as there was no tinted glass or panels were the side windows were. It did have a black vinyl roof which sort of gave it away. On Saturday nights if there was rain and no racing we would go down town and do the Young Street crawl. Yonge Street was once considered the longest street in the world and it runs right through Toronto to Lake Ontario. The main drag.

So my Nutbar friends thought it would be funny to make up a phoney coffin and put someone in it going down young street at 3:00 in the morning. Dam I wish I had gotten a pic. He did a pretty good job on this fake casket. To finish off the car he got some white shoe polish that we used on the windows of our race cars for numbers and put a name on the sides of the car. He called it WACKEDOUT FUNERAL HOME!

So here we are driving down young street late at night. The street is jammed with cars and you can hardly get the car going more then a walk. You also had to stop every 100 feet or so. It was that bad. The music is blaring and people are acting goofy as it's Saturday night. I'm driving and I can hardly see the road as I am laughing so hard that I was crying. We had the tailgate down. So I'm looking for some older family to get in front of to enjoy our funny little prank ;)

So I go extra slow so people will pass me until I see the right group. People are driving up beside us and yelling your tailgate is down. So finally an unsuspecting family gets behind us. An older couple with a bunch of kids and a big dog. So we stop and my 2 buddies in the front seat with me turn around up on their knees and lift this aluminum ladder which is under the casket and the casket starts to slide out. It falls out right in the middle of the road. Now the first thing I hear is the screams of a couple of women and then the screams of grown men. So I go to get out and my buddie pulls me back and says just wait a minute. I turn around and watch Rick jump out of the box. More screams and now I hear people start to laugh. I mean all the cars and all the people walking are watching this whole deal. So Rick grabs the box and throws it back into the car and jumps in. He says drive man.

I saw a couple of cops on the other side. So I drive off and get off of Young and turn down a side street into a parking lot. Everyone piles out and falls to their knees, we were laughing so hard.

x2. All the crazy stuff my friends and I used to do back in the day, no one ever thought to have a camera along to record for posterity :dunno:

Awesome story.