OP
Official Pirate 4X4 Thread!
- Thread starter astjp2
- Start date
That was pretty much it for us too. Between 16 and 21...not a lot to do. Go to the movies, go to a buddies and play cards, or go cruise. We watched a lot of movies and played a lot of cards in the winter. Cruising was the spring and summer activity. Try to catch the eye of a cute girl or two, hang around the ice cream stand or hot dog shop and watch the other cars, etc. I had a 4 cylinder S-10...so I wasn't racing anyone!
We had a crew with rigs right out of American Graffiti only a bit more modern. Scotty had a 70 Chevelle with a blown 454 in it, blower sticking out of the hood and a very pristine car. There were 20-30 others in the same category all built to the hilt drag racers at the time. They ranged from my roommates 60's split window Corvette we cruised in to several kick ass Camaros, to Mustangs, Challengers, Chargers, and similar. Very little street racing for the most part, cops didn't put up with that shit at all.
The opportunities to own one of those cars here in Michigan is rare as a High Schooler...Not that I didn't want something like that, but anything I could afford was full of rust. Quite a few guys had fox bodies and I-ROC's, but those were and are only Meh, to me. An 80's "muscle" car didn't trip my trigger. Even then, the Jeep lust was strong...My parents talked me out of a VERY nice (at least, I thought it was) CJ-7 because my college plans included a 500 mile "commute." Still wish I had bought it anyway...
They called it "Dragging Main" at my High School (which was on Main street), but I wasn't involved with it at all, nor - like you - understood it.
OP
Bought 30 years ago and still have not finished it
My first opportunity to buy my first car was 800 dollars for a 68 big block Camaro. My dad wouldn't let me buy it because someone told him it would nickel and dime me to death. Fuck, hurt me some more why don'tcha? I may never not be pissed about that.
So you need me to call you an asshat and to eat a bowl of dicks?
American Graffiti, Hollywood Knights great movies!!!
Had a 73 Camaro, 83 Fox Body, 74 Nova, 65 Chevy truck we converted to 4x4, 78 F250 highboy, 73 CJ5, 78 CJ5, 82 CJ7, 84 CJ8, all of them Cruised Brainard road in Chattanooga. At one point and time.
Had a 73 Camaro, 83 Fox Body, 74 Nova, 65 Chevy truck we converted to 4x4, 78 F250 highboy, 73 CJ5, 78 CJ5, 82 CJ7, 84 CJ8, all of them Cruised Brainard road in Chattanooga. At one point and time.
I was on Pirate for a while, seems I remembered @Jerry Bransford had an avatar at one point in time on one of the Jeep forums with a patch over one eye!!
Thus the joke came about in that 6,000 page thread... If jerry didn't have that eye patch on, he wouldn't have gotten stuck on this rock!
To all my fellow old farts who lived the cruise
This was my dream car as a high school senior. Didn't own it til my 40s, way too late for cruise nights with any potential, but I enjoyed & improved it for 23 years and sold it 2 years ago due to lack of use. Sorta miss it.
Photo from Bremerton Drag Strip, Bremerton, WA. c.2007
Not ROTM fodder but I'll bet no more than a few can tell me make and model first guess.
Hint: my handle here is NOTNSUV, my handle used to be NOTNSS.
This was my dream car as a high school senior. Didn't own it til my 40s, way too late for cruise nights with any potential, but I enjoyed & improved it for 23 years and sold it 2 years ago due to lack of use. Sorta miss it.
Photo from Bremerton Drag Strip, Bremerton, WA. c.2007
Not ROTM fodder but I'll bet no more than a few can tell me make and model first guess.
Hint: my handle here is NOTNSUV, my handle used to be NOTNSS.
Buick GSX...What do i Win? lolTo all my fellow old farts who lived the cruise
This was my dream car as a high school senior. Didn't own it til my 40s, way too late for cruise nights with any potential, but I enjoyed & improved it for 23 years and sold it 2 years ago due to lack of use. Sorta miss it.
Photo from Bremerton Drag Strip, Bremerton, WA. c.2007
Not ROTM fodder but I'll bet no more than a few can tell me make and model first guess.
Hint: my handle here is NOTNSUV, my handle used to be NOTNSS.
View attachment 291873
Close. But at least you said Buick. GSX would have had hood stripes and side stripe. Plain jane GS Stage 1. The GSX spoiler I added is what got you. LIkely would have had a hood tach as well. And I had nothing to offer but hijacking the thread.
As far as Pirate, I used them very little building my XJ. Felt a bit like an interloper there. Not as welcoming as here.
70 455 Stage 1 from the factory. 464 with rebuild. Wildcat was the name for the earlier Buick V8, before that, the "nailheads", and of course the early straight 8. That Wildcat went away with the 400/455 in '68 or so. By the time I was done with it, it had a Tremec 5spd manual, Holley throttle body injection with integral ECM, tubular a-arm suspension, etc, etc. Ran 12s and had it to 140mph with throttle remaining, handled like a dream.
OP
Sure, if that is how you see me, I know of a supposed god fearing Christian engineer who thinks that of me…but he is selling an approval for an airplane part that I build under a special rule, for a lot of money, and he is lying to everyone and telling them they need it…liars and thieves come in all forms.
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It would be hard to not say BUICK since that is the front license plate. That said, all I knew was that it was a Skylark. Only then because I had a buddy that was fascinated by them and would point them out any time he saw one. I always saw them as wannabe Chevelles sorta like the Malibu along with the Olds Cutlass. My cousin had a 442 that he butchered up. 20 years later, he fully regretted selling it cheap. Don't take any of that as picking on your very nice dragster.
I always felt as though I grew up in the perfect time, at least as related to muscle cars. We came of driving age in 81-82 which put us in perfect position to afford the then ‘worthless’ late 60s & early 70s muscle cars which for the most part were just cars then, grocery getters, commuters… people didn’t think all that much of them so they could be had for a song. Seriously you could pick up an old Chevelle or goat from Mr. Johnson down the street for $1500, then in went cams & carbs & gears & tires & all the other bullshit… As such our crew was stacked deep with these 10 to 15 year old ‘junkers’ with all variety of modifications, when I think back to what my high school parking lot looked like it reminds me of an episode of Jay Leno’s garage, we just didn’t know what we had 40 years ago.
We cruised every night, locally we drag raced from the Burger King to the mall, about a 3 mile stretch we could hit speeds in excess of 100mph and often did. Those days are long gone, there’s probably 4 traffic lights littering that stretch that would make such fuckery infinitely more dangerous that it was back then. We ‘rat raced’ all over town too, pick a destination & it was every crew to themselves to beat everyone else taking whatever route you thought was the winner. Seriously don’t know how we all survived the dumb-assery we committed on such a constant basis.
For more excitement we’d head to Philly which was completely out of control in the late 70s/early 80s, Front Street was locally famous, just a hotrod show with races all summer long. Our favorite was close by JFK stadium, the parking lot was filled with kids & their cars partying while the drag races took place on the adjacent street. Police sometimes would try and intervene but ultimately just let us be. I grew up & moved on but I heard in subsequent years they were able to shut it down, I think a few people were killed & eventually the city said enough is enough. I pissed away a goodly amount of my youth down there though, great memories. I found one video, says 80s but the video says 90s, not sure, I didn’t watch it all the way through, but it was (through my now 55 year old dad eyes) a complete shit show. I steer far clear of the city these days & I'm given to understand there's been a huge resurgence, though I'm not sure if its racing so much as those little tuners spinning around in circles & making noise plus swarms of motorcycles & quads wreaking havoc on the city
We cruised every night, locally we drag raced from the Burger King to the mall, about a 3 mile stretch we could hit speeds in excess of 100mph and often did. Those days are long gone, there’s probably 4 traffic lights littering that stretch that would make such fuckery infinitely more dangerous that it was back then. We ‘rat raced’ all over town too, pick a destination & it was every crew to themselves to beat everyone else taking whatever route you thought was the winner. Seriously don’t know how we all survived the dumb-assery we committed on such a constant basis.
For more excitement we’d head to Philly which was completely out of control in the late 70s/early 80s, Front Street was locally famous, just a hotrod show with races all summer long. Our favorite was close by JFK stadium, the parking lot was filled with kids & their cars partying while the drag races took place on the adjacent street. Police sometimes would try and intervene but ultimately just let us be. I grew up & moved on but I heard in subsequent years they were able to shut it down, I think a few people were killed & eventually the city said enough is enough. I pissed away a goodly amount of my youth down there though, great memories. I found one video, says 80s but the video says 90s, not sure, I didn’t watch it all the way through, but it was (through my now 55 year old dad eyes) a complete shit show. I steer far clear of the city these days & I'm given to understand there's been a huge resurgence, though I'm not sure if its racing so much as those little tuners spinning around in circles & making noise plus swarms of motorcycles & quads wreaking havoc on the city