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Greg Shaw was the king of "Squeeze" (his nickname for Nitrous Oxide. Greg made a 300, 450, and a 600 horsepower set up for the race plane. We tested the 450 horsepower unit for a 30 minute flight duration. We carried a lot of squeeze we hardly ever used, but it was there if we needed it.

German innovation in WWII - War Emergency Power  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM-1

I don't have the time right now, however I have a great story about Greg Shaw, Dave Cornell, myself and old Nazi that used to work for Focke Wulf under Kurt Tank. It was the reason we could keep the Nitrous Oxide liquid while feeding it to a 3,350 Cubic inch engine making 4,200 plus horsepower for half an hour. Nobody else could because when a very small group of dedicated people share a secret, they stay that way.

John

At Car Craft Magazine in the early 90s, someone had the idea to do a series of stories about the "Real Truths of Street Racing Today" Or something like that.  We'd planned to report about L.A., Detroit, St Louis, and other lively venues. 

I was freelance at the time, and I (plus one other guy and a Petersen Publishing photographer) spent several weeks going to all the local SoCal illegal venues. We interviewed drivers and spectators who were typically paranoid/secretive/scary (sometimes all three.)  Or they proved to be total squirrels and racer-wanna-bes.

The whole experience was "interesting" to be part of, but the tactical mistake we made was driving a Petersen photo van, which was painted "undercover cop car" brown, with dog dish wheels, no side windows, and replete with giant roof rack platform.  No, we were not welcomed with open arms.  And, shooting flash photos out from the dark confines of the van's interior caused the people to scatter like roaches on a linoleum floor.

Night Two, we wore our Car Craft logo shirts, hats and jackets like they were some sort of gang-member-repellant shields, and it did get a bit easier to walk up to someone and ask if it's okay to take photos of them standing by their car. (But, only about 10% of those we asked, said okay. That's up from 0-1% w/o the Car Craft swag.)

The most memorable time during that story's production was one late night in Lennox area (aka South Central) when we thought the crowd was going to turn on us.  It was only because we knew one old-time racer's nickname (something like "Nitrous Bob") and said he'd vouch for us, that we survived...even though good ol' Bob wasn't there that night. 

We wisely headed back to the Valley, where the Hispanic gangs in low-riders gave off vibes more like PTA Moms in station wagons, by comparison. 

At San Fernando Road, as mentioned by others, the rowdy stuff sometimes did get out of hand...with spectators throwing food, drink cans and rocks at the racing cars. We never saw any guns, but did hear a "pop...pop...pop" once.

We went to Terminal Island and interviewed Big Willy, and he was the overlord, to be sure.  That was 30 years ago.

We ran two or three long stories in Car Craft, before we came to our senses and called it quits.  There was little chance that we'd get the real "full true story" of the inner sanctum of street racing.  Especially because the characters, the streets and the car setups vary, according to parts of the country. 

And, because no one wants to reveal/discuss/admit their knowledge of anything.

"Bottle Bob" ran a late 60s early 70s Corvette on juice, hippy reject cranky old man, was in the middle of swearing he didn't run squeeze on a pass. The solenoid stuck open and blew the mufflers off the back of the car. Sounded like a whole box of M-80s. LOL he was a character. NOT a friend, however I knew who he was.

My Chevelle had a bottle, I could disconnect it, crack open the bottom d prove it was disconnected. I could disconnect the solenoid under the hood. There was another bottle system that went through the frame rails, up through the bottom of the radiator out through the radiator hose, into the bottom of intake manifold and connected to a solenoid under the intake. That's how the nitrous oxide got to the intake manifold. The gasoline solenoid is the one on top nobody ever cared if it got disconnected.....that is how the gasoline got to the intake manifold. The radiator Greg Shaw had made over in a San Fernando radiator shop. The connections were all #6 stainless steel bulkhead fittings out of a San Fernando road surplus shop.

Greg Shaw was the king of "Squeeze" (his nickname for Nitrous Oxide. Greg made a 300, 450, and a 600 horsepower set up for the race plane. We tested the 450 horsepower unit for a 30 minute flight duration. We carried a lot of squeeze we hardly ever used, but it was there if we needed it.

John

throwing rocks at trains is a federal offense and the railroad police have power and NO sense of humor.

The 118 freeway before it was opened both on the West end of the Valley and on the East end of Simi Valley.

Woodley by the Van Nuys airport.

East L.A. scariest night if my life.

A friend of my parents was a railroad cop - never saw the guy smile. What he really hated was stupid employees who who'd break into a shipment to steal a bottle of shampoo. It cost $1,000s to do all the paperwork and investigations then the union usually got the guy his job back.

We used the unfinished 210 in the late 60s. There was also a lot of new housing tracts being built with fresh streets. I worked at the local PD when I got my Road Runner and we'd go to Via Verde after the night shift and use the nice 4 lane road they'd built. The Sheriff came since it was their area. The badges came out and he left.

We'd use the road along the north side of Brackett airport right next to the Pomona Fairgrounds. The cops always showed up after a couple passes. We finally figured out a guy in the control tower at the airport was ratting us out.

East LA was a no-go even in the 60's.

Agreed about the railroad police and definitely about East L.A. I had never had any problems with racism growing up. We kept our race plane in a hangar at the Compton airport. Local kids would climb the airport fence, hang out and learn about airplanes. One of the kids my age was graduating the sixth grade same as I was. He was so excited he was graduating! I askfed him where he was going to Jr. High. He told me nowhere, I'm graduating! My Dad and his Crew Chief took him home and talked this mother, they told her that they thought he was an intelligent young man that deserved the opportunity of an education. She wanted to know why did a couple of nosey white men cared about her son. They talked more and she kept her son in school. We eventually moved the racer to Van Nuys airport. Years later early in race week a black man my age came to the pit area and asked for my Dad, he went into the transporter trailer talked with him for a while. They both came out and came towards me. My Dad told me who he was, it was the kid I used to play at the airport with, all grown up with a college degree and a job with the FAA. He had come to say Thank You to a nosey white man that changed his life as well as his brother and sisters lives.  So race never had been a thought for me. But 5 minutes into the experience of getting out of the car in East L.A. was a life changing moment, I found out that just because I didn't have an issue with anybody there did not mean that someone there didn't have a problem with a young 20 year old motor guy there with a big mouthed car owner/driver. Scared the Hell out of me. As I said, luckily I had met and talked with Big Willey in the San Fernando Valley on a few nights. He stepped in defused the situation with my big mouth friend, we put up our money, took the loss and went home. Never to return to East L.A.


John

My biggest years in street racing in the San Fernando Valley were 1978 through 1981, after that I was so busy with the Unlimited Air Racing that it was very sporadic.

The initial years I ran a couple of different Chevelle's with big blocks.

San Fernando road was really big primarily because where we raced was on the border between Devonshire Division and North Hollywood Division. The results was that we were so far out there that it was rare that the police would travel to the limit of their boundaries just for stupid people in hot rods. That all worked great until a new group started coming out more into beer and partying and causing mayhem than racing. They started throwing rocks at the train full of brand new cars from the Van Nuys Plant......Yeah, the feds showed up, had North Hollywood throw out a net and there was a major bust. Stupid punks throwing rocks at trains is a federal offense and the railroad police have power and NO sense of humor.

Canoga and Nordhoff from the Lumber City parking lot. The stupid thing there turned out to be that two police cars could trap everyone in the parking lot.

Sepulveda Blvd. right were it went on to the freeway if the police showed up you just went straight on the freeway and left the area.

The 118 freeway before it was opened both on the West end of the Valley and on the East end of Simi Valley.

Woodley by the Van Nuys airport.

The North end of Woodley just south of Rinaldi...that was a great spot until one night the Desk Sargent came out of Devonshire, shut us down and told us all, "I know I am not going to stop you hoodlums from drag racing on the streets. But I AM going to stop you from racing on this street"! He then explained that there was a judge from Van Nuys courthouse that lived a block away from where we were. That ended that because the judge called the Division and said "End this noise".

Winnetka by the drive in.

East L.A. scariest night if my life. We went down there to race a friend of mine's Chevelle I had done the engine for and we looked the car over and agreed to race. The guy said he was going to stop and put some slicks on......A different car same color but really different showed up and my friend started calling him a cheater. I told him to shut up and take the loss. Things were not good until Big Willey came over and recognized me and straightened everything out. My friend raced got his doors blown off and we paid $1,500 for the adventure. I never went street racing in East L.A. again.....ever.

There were other places but that was long long ago in a far off land.

I would like to say my respects for Officer Larry Ball who pulled me over many times, always was firm but nice. He was blown up defusing a bomb in 1986 and that made me realize that these officers really had more important things to do than chase us away from street racing.

I still love hot rodding, not a fan of street racing.


John

Thank you for the link, I posted it over at the BOSS 302 website.... sometimes you have to just shake your head.


John

    There has never been a question that Ron brokered some of the world's rarest Ford parts. Jay Cushman would be his only rival if Ron were still in business.

The parts that went through Ron's business were phenomenal and the best variety of parts I ever saw were the private collections that showed up after hours. All of the remaining patterns that Art Francis showed up with. The day the pallet of medium riser new castings arrived. I found a ton , no actually of 427 and BOSS 429 stuff there. But the best things I ever got out of FPP was my friendship with Randy Gillis and Gus Tarrab.

John

My intention is to install functioning original headlights should I choose to enter the car into concours judging or include them should I ever sell the car.  Otherwise, I would have halogen lights installed for normal driving conditions.

Halogen lights will require a relay system to be installed.

John

FYI John Barnes (ebay name miamiviceshelby ) is the seller of the literature and not John Slack who posted on this thread.

Bob,
I am not claiming to be the seller, however, thank you for that point of clarity.

John (Not the other John)

I mistook you for the seller hence Bob's response. I have since modified that post. Gary

Gary,
Thank you for that additional clarity.
The internet is a great thing, but sometimes communication on forums is hard to interpret.

John (Still not the other John)

FYI John Barnes (ebay name miamiviceshelby ) is the seller of the literature and not John Slack who posted on this thread.

Bob,
I am not claiming to be the seller, however, thank you for that point of clarity.

John (Not the other John)

Thats an  original 70 shelby window sticker and very rare and john b. has an interesting story on how he found it. Remember all the 70 shelby paperwork was changed over from the 69 paperwork. The original window sticker is the rarest and hardest to find paperwork on any car as it was usually damaged when removed from car so yes it adds value to any car.

Two things that this thread has brought to me.

First and foremost, Provenance anything paperwork that is original to your car adds provenanc to your car and that adds value in my opinion. Surely you must admit that when you sit in your chair at some event be it weekend show, MCACN, a potential sale information exchange this would be a trump card  for a same to same car. Now is it worth $1,173.00. to you? Everything has a price to a person. Some would think Wow that is cheap! I'll buy it." Where as some might say "King's ransom for that old paper. No way." The fact of the matter is that piece of paper if real was actually there, even if you were not born yet.

The second thing was Tasca Ford, 777 Taunton Ave, E.Providence Rhode Island 02914 is now "Scott Volkswagen" that has probably been the case for a really long time. However Tasca Ford is a mecca that was on my list, visit Jay Cushman, drive to Tasca.......my wife would never let me live that down, ever.

John

John, it's hard to tell on my phone but isn't the last picture one of a Tunnelport block?

       Roy

No, there is not a passage for head oiling to the deck, There is material there to drill the hole but no hole.
John

These pictures show my BOSS 302 Dry Deck block

The first picture shows that originally the block was an SK45693 block, However it was later changed to the XE149282 block.
These designations on the pad on the front of the engine would give you the details of what the block was IF you had the SK log book

The second picture is the C8FE part number and date code November 29, 1967 Dated BOSS 302 block? No it probably sat unmachined in a pool of blocks waiting for a decision to be made on it's eventual configuration.

The third picture is an overall deck view.

John

Never had the opportunity to meet Gordon, got to read about the adventures that were his life. Met people who knew him and I would have liked to have had the opportunity. I hope they are racing cars with carburetors where he is now. God speed Gordon Chance.

John

It was quite possibly for an alarm switch. I have seen this on various cars over the years, especially those from urban areas where the only parking was on street.

bingo.

Yes, and you probably haven't found the switch under the hood and in the door areas yet.
John

Unfortunately the scammers have permanently changed the game. I never advertise that I'm looking for a part anymore, I now ask friends to see if they or anyone else they might know have "part X". Unless I know the person I have to get a reference from someone I do know. Failing that if the part is worth the expense I arrange to have someone pick it up in person that I know and trust. Times have changed and so have I.
John