Cruisin Whittier Blvd. Stories Thread....

[johnl]

Whittier Blvd!!!   Where do I start?
I've piloted several cars down the Blvd on a weekend night.
I (and everyone else) would wait in line for an hour just to cruise through the Bob's car service. Of course, you wanted everyone to notice you so you had to do a burn out while looking cool and then just chug out the exit like it was no big deal. I had a corvair powered bug which got a lot of attention but after waiting so long in line I got a little anxious when it was my turn and punched it a little too much.......almost hit a car hop and nuked the trans. It's not cool trying to push a broken car out of the way while everyone is laughing at you!
For a while (different car) I would take out my steady date and after dropping her off would head up to Whittier
Blvd and if I couldn't find a party or get into some other trouble would pull into Bob's just before 1am (when the car hops got off) and give one of them a "ride"  <grin> I was such a bastard!

Anyone remember Howard Muse's (supercharged "Mouse Trap") cruise car? He basically took an H gasser and hung lights on it and went looking for some action. The Whitter Blvd traffic jam wasn't a good enviroment for a race car, though. LOL

At 10:00 the police would start walking the Blvd and busting people for curview and loitering. Someone in our club knew the owner of Marvin Reality which was on the blvd and we all had notes saying it was ok to be there on their property........pretty cool.

I could go on and on.......most of the time I got into trouble, it started on Whittier Blvd.....sigh!

Marc Buehler

Anyone remember Howard Muse's (supercharged "Mouse Trap") cruise car? He basically took an H gasser and hung lights on it and went looking for some action. The Whitter Blvd traffic jam wasn't a good enviroment for a race car, though. LOL



This is off the Blvd. thread, but with Marc mentioning the name I thought you all might enjoy the following.

I certainly remember Howard Muse and one story in particular.  One Wednesday night at OCIR (Orange County International Raceway) Howard and his crew had the Mouse Trap or as we use to refer to it as the "Trap".  He wasn't pleased with the way the car was running and proceeded to get out of the car while in the pits and storm to the engine, move the mag with no tools and profoundly announce to anyone within hearing distance "that should be about 10 BTCD". 

Back in the car for the next pass which resulted in the car running much slower.  As I remember the Haydon's, Fleming, possibly Aronson and myself were there when this went down.

[Fastbrit]

I dropped by Johnnie's in the 1980s when it was being revived as a 'cruising spot' – all organised parking and sh*t like that...



There was even a sign saying "No Volkswagens", but there were still some cool cars...

[jimi323]

NO ALCOOL? NO ANIMALS? (people.. =) NO LUOD RADIOS? NO BURNOUT?
what kind of boring cruise was it???

they block every fun???



 


no VW

[marc1951]

Yeah we used to say Howard Muse had a trap door in the car and when the car didn't run as well as he had bragged, he would open the door and toss out a few parts to blame the lackluster performance on bad parts!
Actually Howard was very creative and wasn't afraid to do something different. His downfall was his constant bragging and pulling stunts like the magneto adjustment.
I once spent an all nighter at his shop helping him get the Mouse Trap together for the races the next day. I'll be dammed if I can remember why or how I got there. The guy doesn't sleep! I was dragging my ass and he was going warp speed. He had his own way of doing things, the inside of the motor case was polished a high lustre, He ran an old split trans and originally had the Paxton supercharger pusihing air through a pair of 48s.
He became the laughing stock of the VW community with his outragious actions and his constant bragging but I have to give him credit for not being afraid to step "outside the box".......oh, and that he did!
I wonder what ever happened to him?

And now back to Whittier Blvd. Some one was asking when the cruising started, I don't have that answer but I started in '64. I had a 1940 Chev 3/4 ton panel truck that I paid $30 for (that gives you an idea of what condition it was in) I had built a transmitter using war surplus stuff and had a whip antenna from a tank. Everybody used to listen to the radio station KRLA (I think that's right) and on game nights (High School football), everybody headed for Whittier blvd after the game. I would park my truck down the street from Bob's Big Boy, fire up the transmitter and flame the visiting team. My setup was so powerfull and "dirty" that it didn't make much difference what station you were listening, the only thing you could hear was my voice and as I look back on it now, I said some really stupid childish things. I was afraid the FCC would find me so I only pulled this stunt a few times but everyone was talking about the mystery voice..........and I thought that was cool.



Marc

[OgCalLook]

That is cool - Pirate Radio

Can't get away with that kinda shit nowadays!!

[Fastbrit]

Marc, that's awesome!

[Brian Rogers]

I used my Dads Corvair on occation that had a factory FM Stereo radio in it to cruise Whittier Blvd. I remember listening to KPPC in Passadena and KMET out of Orange County. KPPC exposed me to a lot of music. There was a record store/head shop I bought a lot of music from on the south side just before Colima Rd. Got rousted pulling out of there a few times. Wonder what they were looking for then. 

[low oval]

I (and everyone else) would wait in line for an hour just to cruise through the Bob's car service. Of course, you wanted everyone to notice you so you had to do a burn out while looking cool and then just chug out the exit like it was no big deal. I had a corvair powered bug which got a lot of attention but after waiting so long in line I got a little anxious when it was my turn and punched it a little too much.......almost hit a car hop and nuked the trans. It's not cool trying to push a broken car out of the way while everyone is laughing at you!

That tradition carried on to my days.  there was one time this van was at the shell station and started to light em up on that smooth cement, when i guess he hit one of the filling covers, anyway busted his driveshaft, that van sat behind the shell station for months.

I used my Dads Corvair on occation that had a factory FM Stereo radio in it to cruise Whittier Blvd. I remember listening to KPPC in Passadena and KMET out of Orange County. KP
only remember a couple of those head shops, one up town painter, one by the quad, and music plus out by the whittwood.

what was it paraquatt kelly used to say back in the 70's?

Question for you old timers he he he, how bout nixon's drive in, was it up and running when the cruising started, or had it been shut down by then.

[louisb]

Cool thread!

--louis

[Dave Rosique]

what was it paraquatt kelly used to say back in the 70's?

Question for you old timers he he he, how bout nixon's drive in, was it up and running when the cruising started, or had it been shut down by then.
[/quote]



Your license plate gives the answer
... "Little bit 'o heaven, 94.7, KMET, tweedle-dee"

~DR.

[OgCalLook]

what was it paraquatt kelly used to say back in the 70's?

Question for you old timers he he he, how bout nixon's drive in, was it up and running when the cruising started, or had it been shut down by then.

Your license plate gives the answer
... "Little bit 'o heaven, 94.7, KMET, tweedle-dee"

~DR.
[/quote]

Wow haven't heard that name in a while "parquatt kelly"

when he did the weather he would rattle off the name and temp of each city .....and instead of saying Simi Valley
it would be Simi, touch me, feel me - loosely pulled from the Who song

...and rember the fish report? tuna facial smelt?   sorry... I digress, guess you had to be there

[Fiatdude]

THe fish report -- the one-eyed trouser trout -- went to school with Cynthia Fox -- announcer for KMET

Anyway -- I was part of the San Berdoo crowd that cruised and raced E Street (remember Super SHops started as San Bernardino Racing) -- I started hitting E street in '67 with a '49 Chevy panel and worked my way up from there -- Before I went into the navy in '72, I had a '60 Ford F100 pickup that I had stuffed a Blown Ford 427 SOHC (cammer) motor into -- The whole motor was hidden under the hood and other than all the noise the motor made it was a sleeper. Use to buy High Test for it for 25 cent a gallon and would run thru 10-15 gallons a night cruisen and racing at such places as Cajon Blvd and Riverside Ave. Wish I had that motor back, I could retire. Occassionally we would go down to Whitter or Van Nuys or OCIR to pick on people -- made a pretty good living racing that truck and never had to work LOL.

When I got back from the Navy in '77 -- started living on E Again -- Had a '71 Mach 1 mustang with 351 cleveland 4 speed -- numerous 2180 VW's and some VERY FASTmotorcycles -- We had such a reputation people who come from all over to race our group -- and sometimes we would go to G street in Ontario where the BIG money races would occur -- I had a '51 Austin Pickup with a 540 ci BBC in it 14 x 32 slicks, glide, etc. -- I'll post a link of a pass I made at Riverside raceway where I did a 11 sec pass with no high gear -- but I raced some dude that came out from New York for $5k in '82??? But all the cruise scenes were being closed down about that time  and we all moved on with our lives LOL -- Still miss those days

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Pgt4ziwljzw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Pgt4ziwljzw</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/eR5EcN7fzEw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/eR5EcN7fzEw</a>

People started figuring out how fast the Austin was when they made me line up with the Dragsters -- blew my cover -- never got a street race with it after that LMAO

[Fiatdude]

VW story from this same era -- --

about 79-80 the VW's were getting a reputation as being sneaky fast and it was getting harder and harder to hook up street races with V-8's LOL

Well, John Sanders about this time was one of the first to put together one of the really large autocraft motors -- man that thing with 48's on it sounded like no other VW at the time and it Hauled ASS -- He put this motor into a white '67 Cal-look and went street racing -- one look under the deck and no one would race him -- So John finds another VW with a license plate number just one off from his white one and builds it to look indentical as the fast one but this one is a total stocker with just a header so they look similiar. Soooooooo, I'd drive out the stocker to the street races and John would park a little way aways -- I'd act the asshole (pretty easy for me LOL) say I had this wicked fast VW set up the race even showing the stock motor to these guys set up a race for a couple Hundred dollars and these guys thinking they had some easy pickings would jump on it -- Then I would say I wasn't a very good driver and was it ok if a friend drove my car for me since it was for so much money -- So everybody would run back to the cars -- we would switch cars -- run them -- beat them -- take their money -- come back park a few cars behind the stocker -- they would come running back to look at the motor again we would stop at the stocker again and they would be scratching their heads -- we did this to alot of guys for over a year before somebody finally caught on -- But it was fun while it lasted LMAO

[jhicken]

what was it paraquatt kelly used to say back in the 70's?

Wasn't that Jim Ladd? And wasn't it spelt Whoo-A?

I was actually more of a KNAC guy back then.



-jeffrey

[vwcab]

Cool story's fiatdude,keep them coming.
BTW,that Austin pickup is f#@kin' awesome.  

[low oval]

fiat dude,
man those are some great stories.
jeffery, pk said it, at the time he couldn't even get the plate cause it was already taken and such a popular phrase.  I've just kept it for nostalgic reasons now, it's on my 69 elky.

used to love the fish report, forgot about all the sexual inuendo's they would throw into the daily fish count, and then the sound of the hellicopter they would use to transition to the traffic report.

what about dr. demento on sunday nights? fish heads?

[Fiatdude]

Cool story's fiatdude,keep them coming.
BTW,that Austin pickup is f#@kin' awesome.  

Some night when I'm lit up I'll tell the story of us going done to Van Nuys and racing the Blower Bike -- the race didn't happen but the trip still brings smiles to the faces involved --