Friday night cruise spot.

I grew up in the Saratoga/Albany area of upstate NY. Got into drag racing with a sbc powered '78 Trans Am in the early 90's. Got my a$$ handed to me a bunch before I started to figure out what worked and what didn't. We used to go to "the Lot", a Kmarts parking lot on Central Ave in Albany. I upgraded to a '93 Formula which got stroked to a 383 LT1, a th350, 9", cage & bottle and was running it in the high tens by the late 90's on a 150 shot. Did an absolute TON of street racing with some no shit fast cars at 2-5am on deserted stretches of I-5 in Scotia, NY and the Washington Ave extension in Albany. Action guaranteed every friday and Saturday night. That was all I lived for 6 months out of the year. We tore down and rebuilt the other 6 during the snow. I managed to get a little reputation going with some of the cars I was able to clean up on. By 2000 the local police really clamped down on it and between that and the economy I moved to Houston seeking better job opportunities.
In Houston, I quickly got into the street scene and was running the '93 up on Rankin Rd and on the south side of the SHTW on the feeders with a bunch of guys that met up at a large mall lot down there. It was good, but mostly modified late model injected stuff and no classic stuff like in NY.
Now I'm in Albuquerque. The street scene here is weak (mostly rice), but I'm older and running a much quicker car that would need a bunch of room to run on the street anyhow. In the last 2 years the street scene seems to be growing stronger. Sometimes I run my wife's Roush 428R vs. the local rice crap.

New Orleans has cruise nights on Friday and Sat nights. Back in the day after those were over we would always be street racing somewhere. There were probably 10 or so places you could find street action at anywhere from say Thursday to Sunday nights. There was even a King of the Street race one year on Mardi Gras Day out at one of the streets in an industrial area.


I took part in my fair share of the action. I had my license, registratio and proof of insurance on the hood of may cop cars over the years... I raced guys for cash, prise, bragging rights, pizza, beer... you get the hint. I also got my fair share of tickets to go along with it too. Ain't it strange how you can plead down a drag racing ticket to an obviously lesser charge? Even with all of the street action we always seemed to keep it safe. I couldn't tell you what it's like out there now. I haven't been to a street race in about 10 years...

There's a few New Orleans area guys on here that are a few years older than me. I'm sure they could add to the story...

1974.. I owned a 1969 Cougar XR7 with a 351 4 bbl auto trans. One day I was visiting an old friend and he had a 1967 Ply Cuda Type S. At the time his wife was expecting and the Cuda was a 4 spd car. She couldn't drive the 4 spd so he asked if I'd trade.

I did.. I never even opend the hood of the Cuda. It was a rainy night when I got the car. Traction wasn't there! The next day I opend the hood and it had a Factory 340 6 PAK Motor. Before my friend got the car it had belonged to "Bobby" the brother of Gary Dyer. Gary Dyer was the driver of the Grand Spalding Dodge Funny car.

We use to have a cruise spot called Dukes. I ran against a 340 4bbl Purple Dart one night and beat it.

I like the car as much as my GF liked the fold down rear seat!

The car ran a best 13.90 @ 97 mph at US30 in Indiana. It had BFG Bias ply G-60 tires!

There were some Mods done by Grand Spalding Dodge to the car..

Sure miss it!



^ ^ Gary Dyer's Grand Spaulding Dodge Charger ^ ^