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Being a guy who came of age in the '70's, this stuff never gets old. In the SF Bay Area, we has highway 9, highway 35, highway 1, Grizzly Peak, The Wall, Skyline BLVD, and Bear Creek Road. Racing up to the top of Mt. Diablo in my dad's '69 Opel GT 1900 crossed up and sideways on Michelins seems like yesterday. I road a '68 CB350 with low bars and K-81 tires, and graduated to an RD 350 with clip-ons etc. before I got my first car, which I traded the RD350 for at a party while quite well lubricated. The car? A jacked-up, faded silver '66 GTO with 4 speed, gauges, posi, and console, and a mint black inerior. The guy who had it said it was quicker than my RD, which I poo-pooed. We put down our beers, got in the goat, and blasted off. He was right....that old GTO was faster! I drove it home that night, realizing with a sinking feeling that I was going to spend a LOT m ore money on gas! Back in the '70's, there was still a lot of slack with youth fooling around on the street. With drinking, too. Things really clamped down in the late '80's and the party was over. I can read about 'remember when' all day long!
Couple movies online about this
Was a kid running around in my uncles Javelin or his buddies AMX back then. Might spot Supershops (re FourFather Eddie Hill) at some point
It really was like this , lots of other spots too only speeds were a bit uh higher.
Todayjust a bunch of meth heads, gangsters shopping carts, trash everywhere and bars over every single business and driveway
Few yrs later tried the scene I heard about in LA against better advice
Think the Mulholland crowd was rough, that was nothin!
Wound up driving my slammed 67 through the parking lot over the sidewalk and curb to avoid getting killed..some places ya just dont go. They take their stuff seriously if youre an outsider beware.
Because Whittier Boulevard and Turnbull Canyon were my home
I was trying to put together as much history as possible!
We considered the Whittier racers (KLOS crowd in my era) as the fast cars and the Van Nuys crowd as the show cars (KMET crowd)! But we knew there was honestly fast S$hit up there also! Both Boulevards had just a handful of true trailered in 9 second cars, that should have been on the tracks! Then a whole group of potential 10 second runners with about a third trailered and the rest limitedly driven! These level of cars usually were not cruised, my Father's Corvette being one of the exceptions! You didn't play with the Tourists if you had something that potent! But he at this stage wasn't taking on fellow street racers, having been arrested and booked a few years earlier down at the Sepulveda tunnel at LAX airport, so he sported with the Tourist mainly stoplight to stoplight!
This Tourist section was where Bob's Big Boy, Scotty's, the Pool Hall, Bully's Beef, Whirleys, the Supermarket Lot off Colima, Street Rods, some Pizza dives. A few other burger joints, but basically Ocean View was the Center of the Universe for this section and Painter Road down by the DerWeinerschnitzel and Taco Bell was the turn around point! The heavy dominate racers here were the Doug Thorley guys and Dyno Don Nicholson, the Mooneyes crew, and I called the old timers the Egge head gang! This is where the customizers showed their stuff like Boyd cruised here!
Also everyone is wrong on the demographics of Whitttier Blvd in that there were about five segments to the scene! You had the Tourist Hot Rod/Muscle car scene from around Colima down to Santa Fe Springs Road actually and not Painter, but most flipped around at Painter or where the Oldsmobile Dealership was! This was the area to be seen if you were imagine conscience! This is where the famous hangout lots were! Where you went if you wanted to get food or the girls at the places named above!
That train bridge was actually the dividing line and not the 605 Freeway! Between the Train bridge which is also called Five Corners (where Jones Chevrolet was!) and on down to the 605 was kind of a hybrid Hispanic area of a mix of the Lowriders and some truly old sckool Hispanic Hot rodders! They actually had some potent car groups that played off of the Lowrider imagine, but with some sleeper high horse mills! We had some match racing against a few of these groups, meeting at some arranged back industrial area chosen sites to go 1/4 mile! Those guys would come down to the Tourist cruise scene and pick victims out for races! These were the guys that drove them on the skinny white walled tires and also had Candy paint jobs, but match up with one, and out comes the full on Drag Slick tires on Halibrands, etc!!
The third segment was down on the east end of Whittier Blvd to Harbor Blvd where the famous Don Steve's Chevrolet was! This was the non-tourist Hot Rod/muscle car scene of the true area speed machines! This was basically in The OC (Orange County) where Stick City (largest used performance/hot rod lot in the entire County was located along with some of the local speed shops! Just about each gas station parked their sponsored altered hot rods in their lots when not in use at the real tracks! All of the automotive related businesses and the gas stations pushed their mechanics! Back then you could pull into some of those and their mechanic would install your tunnel ram set up! This was my home turf. If not up at Turnbull and then The Canyons became my thing completely! Our Alumi include the likes of John Force, the Pisano Brothers, Bill Thomas, John Mazmanian, etc etc etc and quite a number of the future famous top drag racers! We had basically Scott Avenue as the west turnaround a mile or so down from Colima and the Tourist cruise! We had the two Bowling Alley lots, the KMart, Green Burrito, Jack in the Box, Restaurant row consisting of the Cat N Custard down to El Cholo was one lot across from Don Steve's and quite a number of hang out retail strip parking lots! The mall was very tight security so we all stayed out of there!
Then we had the hardcore Lowrider scenes that split between the Montebello/Pico Rivera groups and the Los Angeles groups west of the 605 where the fourth and fifth segments!
The drag racing sites were numerous with SFS, Dice Road, Russels (I never went to this one, but I think it was Bell Ranch Road), Los Nietos East and West, Lambert called Train-Tracks, 2-Pee (Puente or Palms), 4 Lanes , and Nabiscos, etc. To name the common spots!
Last edited by TCracingCA; 04-30-2016 at 12:26 AM.
Near the end, all of the drag race sites were basically nicknamed because everyone thought undercover cops were placed in the lots to get intel on illicit street racing!
It sounds stupid in this day and age, if you said "I am going to go pee or I have to pee, everyone in the know got themselves down to the industrial area heading toward La Habra/Brea! Nabiscos was obvious being that you had the big Nabiscos factory down in Buena Park! Etc! Places like Dice Road and 4 Lanes were thought to be a little too remote for a quick match race and those venues were more organized between Clubs, Gangs, Groups to hold an event where a whole slew of races could be held!
If we got a race against tourists, then we would put one of our people in their car shotgun to get them to the spot and take one of them with us if room was an issue!
Last edited by TCracingCA; 04-30-2016 at 02:25 PM.
Nabisco was also referred to as Neff because it was behind the now defunct Neff High School.
Other nick names for streets used in the late 60's and early 70's in that area was the "box factory" which was a little west of Nabisco.
Nabisco/Neff was a large well lighted street but the shut off area was short. I raced there a few times from late 68 until about 73 or 74 and you really had to get on the brakes.
Around 1968 until sometime around 1972 Big Willie Robinson and the Brotherhood of Street Racers used to meet at York Field Saturday nights on Santa Fe Springs Rd. between Mullberry and Los Nietos in Whittier. It started to attract some really large crowds in those days until it got too much attention. Around 1972 they stopped meeting there and moved to a small shopping center on Brookhurst and Orangethorpe on Sunday nights. There were some big money races that were set up at York.
Nabisco/Neff saw a lot of action as did the "box factory".
There was a group of Ford guys that met at the Wienerschnitzel in the late 60's early 70's on Whittier Blvd. and Painter. A friend of mine was really into Fords (he had a 56 Ford with a 427 highriser called the "Dog Catcher") and he liked to meet there (he towed in). On occasion I'd take my Mopar and had a couple of good grudge matches with the Ford guys. Seems like another life time now. lol
Cool, you cruised/raced in the era before I got my Drivers License
Originally Posted by Bowlerdude
Nabisco was also referred to as Neff because it was behind the now defunct Neff High School.
Other nick names for streets used in the late 60's and early 70's in that area was the "box factory" which was a little west of Nabisco.
Nabisco/Neff was a large well lighted street but the shut off area was short. I raced there a few times from late 68 until about 73 or 74 and you really had to get on the brakes.
Around 1968 until sometime around 1972 Big Willie Robinson and the Brotherhood of Street Racers used to meet at York Field Saturday nights on Santa Fe Springs Rd. between Mullberry and Los Nietos in Whittier. It started to attract some really large crowds in those days until it got too much attention. Around 1972 they stopped meeting there and moved to a small shopping center on Brookhurst and Orangethorpe on Sunday nights. There were some big money races that were set up at York.
Nabisco/Neff saw a lot of action as did the "box factory".
There was a group of Ford guys that met at the Wienerschnitzel in the late 60's early 70's on Whittier Blvd. and Painter. A friend of mine was really into Fords (he had a 56 Ford with a 427 highriser called the "Dog Catcher") and he liked to meet there (he towed in). On occasion I'd take my Mopar and had a couple of good grudge matches with the Ford guys. Seems like another life time now. lol
I never knew the Neff thing, but Dice Road was the Box Factory! The other Russels spot was also named after a big business factory place that got its name from the big business name on the building! Dice has some business that made boxes, but the name also derived from drag box burnouts, guys were bleach boxing their pre-stage!
I never knew Big Willie came out our way, unless we were talking to different *******? Yes Big Willie Robinson (300 lb African American guy) based out of the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles (Ghetto dudes that quit the gangs to street race) and he started the terminal Island drag racing scene in the mid 1970! It was closed down for some years, but he got it going again! We had really no blacks living or coming to cruise our area, during my era! That would be an instantly bad thing! But since Whittier Boulevard was known more for its fast racers (far more so than Van Nuys Boulevard), I could see them coming out to race the best! Because guys were going to the brackets stuff at Lions and then would travel over the bridge to the slightly later night Brotherhood stuff! My Father from 1965-1967 raced different classes in his 1964 Corvette at Lions (NHRA and AHRA stuff), us living down in that area in Carson! The York field I had heard of, but Parks an Recreation locked that up tight, not quite being on board with Street racer recreation!
Last edited by TCracingCA; 04-30-2016 at 03:13 PM.
I borrowed one of my posts from the 2013 thread- Southern California guys-- remember
Whittier Boulevard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why we were known as one of the fastest Boulevards in the Country!
Stick City!!!! On Whittier Boulevard down in La Habra.
Even the Beach Boys staged a photo shoot and video at Stick City!
Just in a couple of miles- we had two high end Dodge Dealerships- West end Schenk and east end was The Charger Center with Hemi's!
Whittier Boulevard Sponsorship-- Don Steves Chevrolet. John Force had early ties to sponsorship originating from the Boulevard! Another one was sponsored by the Yamaha Dealership were he used to work! Here this one is sponsored by Don Steves Chevrolet on Whittier in La Habra!
Also out of appreciation to Don Steves, a little realized fact, but he maintained Don Steves Chevrolet on the front of his Ford based Funny Cars for some time until Ford made him remove it.
About three miles directly to the South of Whittier Boulevard were these guys!
Here's an old Hot Rodder-- Kugel!!! On Whittier Blvd., I liked the shop truck in this photo!
There are a lot of speed shops around here! Here is one other, a mile from the head of the boulevard!
And we can't forget the famous Corvettes!!!!!!!!!!!!! As with the two Dodge Dealerships, on the Hot Rod cruising section from Greenleaf clear down to Harbor Boulevard were Bob Sorenson Chevrolet; Whittier, CA. on the West end of the cruise route and Don Steves Chevrolet; La Habra, CA. on the East end!
I never knew the Neff thing, but Dice Road was the Box Factory! The other Russels spot was also named after a big business factory place that got its name from the big business name on the building! Dice has some business that made boxes, but the name also derived from drag box burnouts, guys were bleach boxing their pre-stage!
I never knew Big Willie came out our way, unless we were talking to different *******? Yes Big Willie Robinson (300 lb African American guy) based out of the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles (Ghetto dudes that quit the gangs to street race) and he started the terminal Island drag racing scene in the mid 1970! It was closed down for some years, but he got it going again! We had really no blacks living or coming to cruise our area, during my era! That would be an instantly bad thing! But since Whittier Boulevard was known more for its fast racers (far more so than Van Nuys Boulevard), I could see them coming out to race the best! Because guys were going to the brackets stuff at Lions and then would travel over the bridge to the slightly later night Brotherhood stuff! My Father from 1965-1967 raced different classes in his 1964 Corvette at Lions (NHRA and AHRA stuff), us living down in that area in Carson! The York field I had heard of, but Parks an Recreation locked that up tight, not quite being on board with Street racer recreation!
Yup, same Big Willie but it was quite a few years before Terminal Island.
When the Brotherhood was meeting at York Field in Whittier (1968 to about 1971 or 72) it drew huge crowds. There would be 50 to 75 cars meeting there on Saturday night around midnight. At that time the fastest cars around SoCal met there. There were many towed in cars and some big money races! Around 1970 Willie had a Hemi powered Dodge Daytona that his wife/girlfriend raced.
I ran my Mopar at Lions, Irwindale, and OCIR. I started out running class but as a 17 year old I really didn't have the money required to be competitive so I started running brackets. I had a 1965 Satellite with a 426 wedge motor that was very competitive in the bracket wars at the time. I bought that car from "Rabbit" at Stick City in 1968! lol
As I mentioned in my previous post the action got too big at York Field and drew the attention of the man, so Big Willie started meeting on Sunday night in the OC at Brookhurst and Orangethorpe for a couple years. By 1970 I was working a better job (I was 18 and making $4.88 an hour lol) sold the Satellite and I bought a brand new 440 Cuda that I slightly warmed over and ran Bracket 2 with (12.49 to 11.00). I dialed in at the very bottom of the bracket and had a ton of success.
I've actually stayed in touch with a handful of guys I raced with back then but I often wonder what happened to some of the guys like GTX John (John lived in Whittier near Russell RD.), HueBucket, and Johnnie Green Dart.
Last edited by Bowlerdude; 04-30-2016 at 05:42 PM.
Why we were known as one of the fastest Boulevards in the Country!
Stick City!!!! On Whittier Boulevard down in La Habra.
Even the Beach Boys staged a photo shoot and video at Stick City!
Just in a couple of miles- we had two high end Dodge Dealerships- West end Schenk and east end was The Charger Center with Hemi's!
Whittier Boulevard Sponsorship-- Don Steves Chevrolet. John Force had early ties to sponsorship originating from the Boulevard! Another one was sponsored by the Yamaha Dealership were he used to work! Here this one is sponsored by Don Steves Chevrolet on Whittier in La Habra!
Also out of appreciation to Don Steves, a little realized fact, but he maintained Don Steves Chevrolet on the front of his Ford based Funny Cars for some time until Ford made him remove it.
About three miles directly to the South of Whittier Boulevard were these guys!
Here's an old Hot Rodder-- Kugel!!! On Whittier Blvd., I liked the shop truck in this photo!
There are a lot of speed shops around here! Here is one other, a mile from the head of the boulevard!
And we can't forget the famous Corvettes!!!!!!!!!!!!! As with the two Dodge Dealerships, on the Hot Rod cruising section from Greenleaf clear down to Harbor Boulevard were Bob Sorenson Chevrolet; Whittier, CA. on the West end of the cruise route and Don Steves Chevrolet; La Habra, CA. on the East end!
Bill Thomas prepared!
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My little car!
X
How about a local car!
Another race shop in Whittier was Dale Armstrong's 10,000 RPM Speed Shop on Greenleaf near the Boulevard. In 1969 the then unknown Armstrong was putting "the bottle" on some cars. There was a very well known 67 Camaro that frequented York Field that had an Armstrong built 427 with the bottle that never got beat. It was towed in and ran legit low, low 10's at 130. Willie and his Hemi Daytona would never race the Bucket's Camaro for money. Marvin with his 409 powered ABC 55 Chevy took on the Camaro one night and lost big and I think that race scared Willie off. For a 409 Marvin's car ran real good but it wasn't a match for the Camaro.
Another Big Willie story.
I was was out at OCIR running brackets (about 1971 ish) with my Cuda when Big Willie pulled in with his Hemi Daytona on a trailor. Close by was the dude (I don't remember his name) that either ran or owned the "Service Center" on Atlantic blvd. with his 454 powered El Camino that was literally their parts chaser. lol Well the smack started and a money race was set up between Willie's Daytona that was driven by Tamika and the El Camino. The parts chaser shut down the Daytona which was a real surprise because most thought the Daytona would win, but that 454 El Camino was fast for a real street driven car at that time.
Ah the old days. lol
Last edited by Bowlerdude; 04-30-2016 at 06:17 PM.
Dale Armstrong headed up tricking out my Fathers 68 Corvette while he was working at Dana Chevrolet! My father after his big arrest and impound, loss of license etc., my mother made him sell the drag Vette, but thought she was letting him get a new one from the dealership! Little did she know that the Vette was A new one, but Dealership modified! But my Mom was piloting us kids around in a 427 1967 Country Squire wagon and hated Mustangs!
He Dale Armstrong was running prior to that with 10,000 RPM and sponsored by Rex White (famous name) Chevrolet down Torrance way in the South Bay by our house down in Carson! Dana Chevrolet folded up and that makes sense because 10k was trying to expand and Franchise and had tried a Drag and Nascar program! They wanted to get a location up near Whittier Boulevard to be in the heart of the action! But a few times I snuck Dad's car to the boulevard and antics!
I would say I missed the peak action years slightly!
When I first got to Whittier Boulevard (newly licensed), I was driving myself and younger brothers back to Carson to finish the school year in our second Station Wagon with a 429 engine, Ansen mags, and side exhaust, but the 429 blew up and in went a 460 warmed over! So I got use of the Wagon to make new friends, because I was being such a responsible young man! So I was ripping guys with a Station Wagon initially! Then I got the Buick Skyhawk which led me to visit the twisty's instead of the Strip! Then got the CAmaro and returned to the street, but couldn't touch the big time crowd with 4 speed mouse motor and 3.73! So I slowly built that to handle!
Whittier was more hardcore adults, or guys in college, so initially it was not normal for the High School kid to get invited to the shows! But I think some of those guys were winning bets on the Dragon Wagon is what we called it! I wasn't even setting up races for myself! The older guys were doing that for me! And they put up the money for me, and gave me a small cut! Mostly for gas and food! When I showed up with the CAmaro, they asked me if I could bring the Ford wagon!
Last edited by TCracingCA; 04-30-2016 at 07:06 PM.
The late 60's early 70's was rampant with performance cars of the day. Whittier Blvd on Saturday night was full of muscle cars that ranged from stock to highly modified. Almost everyone claimed their car was stock. lol As you mentioned in a prior post the Blvd. had numerous dealerships with any kind of factory hotrod you could imagine. All one needed was enough money and you could drive out with anything from a Hemi GTX, SCJ Mustang, GTO to a BB Corvette. Street racing was rampant even though by that time there were three drag strips to run at.
I got the racing bug from my uncle who was a hotrodder from the 50's who raced his 1950 Ford flathead at the airport before Lions was built. I remember going with him when I was about 8 or 9 and thinking that one day I would have a race car. When I was 13 I started working after school and on the weekends to save up for a car. At that time (1965) Mopars with big block wedge motors were killing just about everything at the strip so I decided that's what I wanted. A couple of years later with a pocket full of money that I had been saving I happened by "Stick City" on Whittier Blvd. and spotted a three year old 1965 Plymouth Satellite with a 426 wedge motor. A sales guy spots me and notices I'm liking the Satellite and tries to get me to buy it until I told him I was only 16 and needed to return with my dad before I could make a deal. Anyway a week later I returned with my dad and bought the car..the rest was history. lol
Were taking cars out, but all of the stock hipo cars were too slow for the top racing being done! Do you remember the Ricker Motors guys? They had two drag pack AMC AMX Super Stock cars one stock and one pure track car that they trailered around to race! Both painted Faxtory Red White and Blue!
Sounds like you had a cool Dad! Mine caused me to get a Buick Skyhawk when the time came to get my own, because I got a ticket with my cousins visiting in the Wagon!
Last edited by TCracingCA; 04-30-2016 at 07:18 PM.
I remember those red, white and blue AMX's..they were quick.
Yeah, my dad was a definite car guy but he never raced. He did like racing though and we made it out to Riverside to watch the 500 back when Dan Gurney owned it every year. As I look back on it I'm surprised he let me buy the Satellite because it was pretty fast for a novice like I was but I learned very fast. Those wedge motor cars of the mid 60's could beat any of the newer stock hipo Road Runners, Mustangs etc. of the late 60's early 70's pretty easy. Add a set of good headers and some traction and a well set up wedge could run mid to low 12's pretty easy..a Stage III wedge was a second faster! Most factory stock hipo cars would run anywhere from mid 14's to mid 13's maybe a little faster which was respectable but not fast enough to compete with guys that modified their cars.
You're right about stock muscle cars of the period. York Field was a good example of that. If you went there with a stock car you'd be best off if you didn't race anyone for money because you'd be lunch for someone. As for myself I never owned a stock car back then at least it wasn't stock for long.
BTW.. those are some great pictures. There were several good header makers like Doug's back then. I had John Marco of Marco's Headers, who was a Mopar guy, build me a set of custom headers for my cars..he bent his own tubes and used Hooker collectors. Mopar guys loved them!
About three miles directly to the South of Whittier Boulevard were these guys!
I like the Moon Equipment photo on Norwalk Blvd..the Ford guys loved the place!
When I was a teenager I liked to play a little golf and one day I get paired up with this really old guy..I mean really old. Turns out it was Pop Moon, Dean Moon's father..great guy!
Last edited by Bowlerdude; 04-30-2016 at 08:50 PM.
Cruising Van Nuys Blvd on Wednesday Nights was cool 1967 to 1971. Then unfortunately had to shut it down in 1981. Hated doing that.
Today, the 1964 Corvette coupe came from Bob Sorenson Chevrolet. That's my Whittier connection.
Sounds like somoe of you have a few yrs on me
Never made it out to Whittier, terminal island was the first track Id ever been too was fairly young man was I hooked
Anyone remember this place and those huge catalogs?
Lived close nearby spent a LOT of time and $ there. It was addicting. Still have a worn out Tshirt with their logo and a new one stashed in storage somewhere
As a young kid used to call Car Craft and pretend to be 16 just so I could get some of those license plates and bright yellow shirts, free stickers etc. Scared my Dad I was destined to be a greasemonkey or something like that
04-29-2016, 03:58 PM
