When did you feel the Need for Speed ~Tell us ~

I was 10 years old.. Dad built me this wood dragster..



Just kind of stayed with me over the years..

Pulley for a steering wheel?

Thats a sweet ride at that age!! Its cool your Dad built that for/with you.

Mine started around 7-8 when Dad bought a Rupp mini-bike for me from my cousin. Had a rope starter and I pulled my heart out getting it going every day!!

Bill

in 3rd grade a buddies uncle took us to US 30 union grove drag strip for races and it was the coolest thing i have ever seen. my uncles were on a stock car pit crew, my grandfather had an auto shop since the 50's that my dad took over and i had worked at since i was 12........doing minimal things (i thought i was important at least and a key mechanic haha). in 8th grade i got my first dirt bike, and started on a CR250......i weighed about 110 lbs and was 5'1' ish. thats a mean first bike, even if i had to coast it down the hill to jump on because my feet were a foot off the ground when on the seat. started racing motocross so i needed a pickup for bike hauling . then at 15 put a lincoln HO motor in my 88 F150........my buddy got a shitty pickup and bought a '70 plymouth roadrunner with a 440 and a stick.......................done deal....that thing ripped....never looked back. have been sitting in the shoulder many a summer nights for 13 years now watching street races, and going to car shows in the area ever since. the drag strip is about 1.5 miutes away too so that just makes things real easy....they used to do test and tune 2 x a week.

8yrs old, seen a water ski race. Speeds over 100mph, thats what made me a boat freak!

blown86hallet wrote:8yrs old, seen a water ski race. Speeds over 100mph, thats what made me a boat freak!

Those dudes are a special kind of crazy!!!

Bill

It all started raceing big wheels at the boys club then i moved on to bmx bikes where i ruled right off the bat and got sponsered then at 15 it was raceing motorcycles on the streets of winter haven,fla for money then at 16 cars on the streets then johnny law spanked that ass more than once and then finaly went to the drag strip to race in 94 with bikes which i hated for some reason and switched to cars after two trips there and here i am today a raceing nut with cars every weekend

nuclearcobra wrote:It all started raceing big wheels at the boys club then i moved on to bmx bikes where i ruled right off the bat and got sponsered then at 15 it was raceing motorcycles on the streets of winter haven,fla for money then at 16 cars on the streets then johnny law spanked that ass more than once and then finaly went to the drag strip to race in 94 with bikes which i hated for some reason and switched to cars after two trips there and here i am today a raceing nut with cars every weekend

i can relate to the big wheel deal then the bmx, but then here comes uncle Bob in his 57 chity with two 4`s n i was hooked

I would have to say most all my life my dad always have had at least 1 fast car or truck and I have always liked speed ever sence I can remember and always like racing (drag racing and stock car) but I perfer drag racing and building a drag truck now.

Started when I was about 8 years old in the late 50s. Grew up with boats and one fellow had a beautiful V-drive flat that was Pontiac powered. Most of the boats in my neighborhood were of the Christ-Craft ski boat type. I lived 4 houses away from the guy who built 'Philbrick' boats, beautiful mahogany planked 19-21' family ski boats that used 354-392 Hemis and later 413-426 wedge Chryslers. I had a few outboard boats that I used to run around the Oakland/Alameda estuary so I aquired the "Need for Speed" at a early age. I got into water skiing and soon the outboards were not powerful enough to pull me out of the water on a single ski so when I could afford to buy a V-drive I bought a Stevens with a 331 Chrysler in it. Kicked a rod out of the Hemi and replaced it with a 390 Ford. That got replaced with a 427 and then that boat got replaced with a Howard flat wood deck that I installed a mule 429 in it as I wasn't sure I was going to keep the boat. Also along the way I bought a Hondo flat that was set up for a FE so the 427 from the Stevens went into that. I did the usual car drag racing as I now lived only 15-20 min. from Fremont Dragstrip [Baylands Raceway] At the risk of getting long winded and boring there is more to my story but I'll end here.

Id have to say that it started for me at around 14, my step dad had a quad that he let me and my brother ride once in a while, well once we could kick it over by ourselves we raced the snot out of that thing. Moms cactus garden had a few unfortunate run-ins with that thing, then my brother turned about 1/3 of the yard into a little motocross track (we lived on 6 acres so it wasnt that little) We finally broke the quat one too many times but by then Id already moved out and my brother had gotten his hands on a couoke dirt bikes and thus began his first attempts at head modifications at the age of 14 and the only kid I know that milled a head down to the point that he was running 28.5:1 cr on a single cylendar 2 stroke bike, he finally nuked that thing. My first "fast" car was an 86 camaro with a v6 and 5 speed, I then sold it for a 72 Ranchero GT with a 351 cleveland 2v which blew the headgaskets after about 3 monhts. Now Im working on dropping a 429 with a 5 speed into my 72 Torino and kicking some ricer a--!!!

In 1968 my brother was drafted and I was 13. He new I loved cars so he left me his 56 Chevy w/401 Buick and 3 speed w/FoxCraft (knucklebuster) tranny. We live in the boonies 1/2 mi. off the main dirt rd. That 1/2 mi. was my first dragway