chicago street racer names and reputations, late 60s

[black69]

i don't have the stories like some of you back then, as i was 9 back in 69, but being a car guy from birth, i was into everything that went on around me back then.

i lived not to far off archer avenue, smack dab in the middle between harlem and central , the usual gig was to go to back and forth between central up and down archer. then there was archer road (while driving through summit), which i thought was more fun and safer as I got older, and took my dads car out to race it til there one car would top out.

on my single 'soutweside' block, there were two brothers that had 2 brandnew new 69 darts and always were working on them to make them fast. there was a guy with a white big block 69 chevelle and another guy with a 67 gto. This was all on the same SINGLE city block. they all raced on archer a lot. some went to vietnam and did not come back. one of a scariest cars that would come around was a 67 gto that had a blower back then and scared everyone as he I would say would have had a street race name. i think it had a lace paint job. never was sure where that guy lived.

as i got older, finally worked on archer pumping ethel at gas city and phillips 66 while going to college, and saw so many drag races go right and wrong on archer. I remember one time the perfect candy apple red 57 chevy (chrome engine and blower) with pearl white flames that seemed to own archer that one night hit a pole during a race and was totalled and strewn all over archer. one time a vette exploded into a thousand pieces on a cold night in a drag race. i remembered more chevelles and corvettes, novas, and 55-57 chevys racing, and 65-67 gto's more than anything, don't really remember camaros.

fun times you all must of had in 69 driving the cars i dreamed of, seemed like a lot of guys got hurt from what i remembered, eventually.
There was this hemi mopar guy on archer that always had some wicked cars in the back of the local tool rental shop. he was right on archer.

so archer was cool back in 69-79 as with all those hot cars on so many city blocks next to it, it was the easiest outlet to race on from where I lived. My teenage highlight I will never forget was when I tool the owner's car of hinkley and schmitt water and raced it up and down archer. he left it sometimes for me to put gas in it for the next day. I did not know if it was a 71 ls6 or a 69 435, but it was so fast and it was that type of car. it had american wheels on it and headers, and i beat what every i came up on with it.

[kwhizz]

Bob...........Back in 68, one of the Guy's in our neighborhood (Belmont,Lincoln, and Ashland) got Killed racing somewhere on Archer.....He had a 67 Camaro 427 4 speed.....I wasn't there when it happened, but he lost it while racing and hit a Bridge overpass and died Instantly .........
More to follow on the weekend........

Ken

[hvychev]

There was a big article on Archer Ave. back in the day in Car Craft I believe. Growing up in Berwyn I would always hear about Archer.

[DarrenX33]

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There was a big article on Archer Ave. back in the day in Car Craft I believe. Growing up in Berwyn I would always hear about Archer.

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I posted that way back. I found the thread but the pictures are gone. It was in Car Craft July 1972. I am checking to see if I saved them locally.

[black69]

i talked to my father in law for a few minutes yesterday (he is helping me sell an engine to somebody he knows) and he said he has an actual picture of his nickey 427 engine 66 blue chevelle (streetcleaner) beating a guy in a green camaro called the 'tough rabbit' at us30. I will try to get that picture to make a copy and then post it. I cracked up when he said 'I had a car length on him when he was trying to find first gear'. Should be cool to see. he said he will write down for me all the names he remembers from the mid to late 60s, who had what, etc.

[wheelhop]

we used to go to 107th street to race. It was back in the forest preserves by the canals and junkyards off of highway 83 just south of Hinsdale and north of Lemont.