Drags at Coffin road

[alshotride]

Remembering these old experiences is fun.
In 1964 just north a ways from Santa Clara , Calif is a road named Coffin Rd. At that time it was in the country and the kids all used to go there to drag race , What a name for a drag road !!! A match was struck up at the A & W drive for pink slips no less !. :deal (Yea we realy used to do that just like in the movie Grease ), between a friend in his 55 Chevy. and a sworn enemy in his F**d. :cuss We all piled in a few cars and were off to the races. :p The line was drawn and the cars brought up. Both drivers were glaring at one another :cuss and the signal was given. Tires squealing, smoking , cars fish tailing, gears banging and the 55 was ahead by half a length. :cheers Then my good buddies trany blew and the F#*d blew by. :cry The winner came back and my buddy with a tear in his eye offered his pink slip to the winner. The guy just laughed and said I don't want a broken down :evil C***y and drove off . We had no tow chain so three of us sat on the hood of a car and with our feet on the 55's bumper pushed the car to a gas station about 3 miles away. Wonder if that Coffin rd. is still being used like that..

[Wild Bill Burge]

In the summer of 1965 I still had one of the fastest cars around, a 1963 bench seat Impala 340 hp 409 with 456 cogs. The 425 hp engine had puked long before that. We used to race on a long zoom surface in Wheeling West Virginia just across te Ohio line. Every kid who'd purchased a new muscle car wanted to try their luck, usually without much success. Until one night a 1965 yellow tri-powerd GTO, I had beatn' off the line, came on me in third gear, and I could here him coming; literally blew past me, and I new then that the old 409 glory days were over.

I've wrote a book five years ago about growing up in the 50's and 60's and has many car storys and first loves. If you want a copy, e-mail me and I'll send you one.

Wild Bill Burge

"The Living Legend"
x-1963-Z-11 racer

[409Biscayne]

Mr. Burge,

I apologize for butting in on this line of posts but I remember your car from the 1987 Super Chevy show at Indy. And I still have the Feb. 1988 issue of Super Chevy with your '63 Z11 featured.

I was a very impressionable youngster at the time and your car, along with the Schaffer's "Obsolete Missile" and the rest of the '09 cars there that year hooked me for good.

[jim_ss409]

Wild Bill.

Welcome to the site. :cheers I'd love to get a copy of your book. :deal It souds great :beerbang I'll e-mail you right away. By the way what's the title of the book?

Wild Bills e-mail address... burge1@nwonline.net

[jim_ss409]

Here's a racing story I came across on Gasser Madness. http://www.gassermadness.com/ I think I might have posted it before. :scratch

Back in '64 I had a '57 Chevy BelAir 2dr. Hard top ....Arrest Me Red in color...
Came with a 283 4 barrel, I drove this till late '65 till Graduation....
Any way, everybody in school knew it had a 283 in it all those months....
There was this Guy who was the School Bully...you know...with the Vitalis oily hair in a D/A..(for the younger readers :ducks ***) hair do..
He was a senior with a '63 Max Wedge.. 413 or a 426..? Don't remember what they had for that year....[LD...Max wedge was a 426 in 63] He was the King of the hill back then....
Well anyway, This friend of mine (Bill) worked at a Sunoco station then.....
He had a '62 409 Chevy...that this kid got killed in when it rolled....
We were talking one night when this guys name came up..he mentioned wouldn't it be great to stick that 409 in my '57....We laughed for a while then got to serious talking...We started on our project that same night.
Well, it sure took some doing with the Cast Iron headers an the steering an all..but working on it at night we had it done in a week.
You should of seen my eyes the first night we started it UP..! My 4-speed, Dual Quad, '57 - 409.....!
Well any ways...we didn't want to go to the expense of an exhaust system..so we tried to figure out how to get it to our favorite spot ..so we could challenge this grease ball for a race against a 283 - 4-barrel....Tee Heeeeee!
We made the date...Took the '57 out to Morgan Johnston Road, after school
on a flat bed...
Then we all went to Lums Restaurant, A&W, The DrumStick, McDonalds serving only 250,000 people then..Ha! Ha! & Burger Queen back then....An proceeded to tell every body about the Race on Friday night....
Well this Guy got drift of the race he never knew about, from all the Kids at these Hangouts....BOY..! That's all he had to hear about his bad *** wedge running a 283 4-barrel.....He Was HOT....! We saw him at the A&W...he comes up to us an says he's never been beat...an especially by a so called 'Chevy'.....An would we like to put $100.00 bucks on it....
Well between the 4 of us we had enough to buy a cherry coke.....So (Bill) my friend from the Sunoco station steps in an says how bout $200.00...? He even got Hotter....How dare you, you bunch of punks..an took the bet.....
So we set a time, an told him the Place....Bill an all of us, plus 1/2 the school, an hang outs..proceeded to the spot....
When he got there...Hey where's that 'Bad *** Chevy'...? I said I had to go down an get it out of the Garage, be right back..
Bill an I went down to where the '57 was parked...We looked at each other for a second..an just burst out Laughing. Ha! Ha! HA! HA!
Then I preceded to fire this 283 4-barrel up.. Now you have to imagine this..its 10:00 o'clock at night 1964...Out in the Boonies, Cow Pastures...And all of a sudden the SOUND of a 425hp 409 Open Exhaust breaks up the Dead Silence of the night.....WOW!
Here we come up the road with this beast...never drove it for a test ride, or even around the block to see if our welds held up.
The Guy says No Big Deal, so you undid our Dumps....I'll still run Ya....
We lined up the cars...A guy with a White shirt got us ready...I brought up the 'R's..let the clutch have a load on it...And then down came the white shirt......HOLY **** JUST BROKE LOOSE....This Frigggg'n '09 put 4 cars on him in 2nd gear..Thanks to the Bu'Crons Tires..
Here we GO..3rd Gear another car length ....I remember looking out the window to see if he was coming up on me...
An all I remember was Laughing so hard at all the 'COW's' I was scaring the Hell out of running for Dear Life, away from that Road.
Needless to say, we collected our $200.00 bucks an was the Hit ,& Talk of the School for many years after......
I Wish I Still Had That '57...'The Good Ole Days..When Sex Was Safe & Drag Race's Was Dangerous....!
LD