When you were in high school what was the fastest car in the parking lot?

[carbking]

1960~1964

It certainly was NOT my 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne 6!!!

I remember a 1956 Ford 292 stick, and a 1958 Ford 352 that seemed fast at the time.

In rural Missouri during this time period few high schoolers had cars. I was one of the fortunate ones (that worked all summer).

Jon.

[Guest]

Rocketraider reminded me of another car in my high school. It was a 1969 Nova with a 396 that would lay smoke down for a half block. That was one fast little car.

_________________________________________________________________

Little quickie story you reminded me of. Of the cars I mentioned in my thread the 1964 426 max wedge Dodge Polara comes to mind. The guy who owned it (a retired L.A.P.D) Harry, graduated the year before me. Anyroad we had a spring sports assy. and all us kids were in the bleachers. The bleachers looked down on the football field and beyond campus a long stretch paralleling the field. On command from one of our friends in the bleachers with his girlfriends mirror just as our principal is about to kick off his speech old Harry torques up that 426 with a 727 torqueflite and 10" slicks and smokes off about 500 yards. We sure got a hoot out of that one! The field & street looked as if a top fueler went by.

Don

Edited November 21, 2011 by helfen (see edit history)

[Guest MidTNDawg]

Class of '54. Mine in qtr mile, 1941 Ford flathead. 3.375 bore x 3.375 stroke, heads shaved .060", dual carbs, street race cam (between 3/4 and full race), adjustable tappets, headers, Mallory Magspark ignition, Zepher transmission with 4.11 / 1 rear end, Auburn racing clutch. May be leaving something out. The hot set-up at the time was Olds 88 engine warmed up with transmission adapter into Fords, Chevys. I had no problem with them. Really I was just blessed to have had a fast set-up which just came together.

[rick60]

In 1971 I watched Bill Venturini lift the front wheels about a foot off the ground in the high school parking lot. At the time he was driving a '66 Ford Galaxie. This is the same Venturini of Venturini Motorsports.

[dei]

1971, all black Dodge Daytona 440 six pack four speed pulls into the back parking lot, gets out, opens the hood for show, closes hood, gets back in and........... let's it go doing a 180 only to meet the Vice Principle! Fastest car around? Never saw that car there or around again as the guys dad owned the Dealership where he grabbed the keys from. Wish that was mine today.

The other one was my buddies father's 1970 Mustang Mach 1 with 351 Cleveland, shaker hood and 4 barrel all factory stock. We took that out one day and even though it was an automatic shifted from 1st to 2nd at 54mph and 2nd to 3rd at 93mph! Waaaay to fast for 17 year old kids!!! He still has that car with only 48,000 miles on it. Wish I had that one too! (sigh)

[Dave Henderson]

In the early post WWII days, very few students at my high school had cars. All the vehicles I can remember being owned by members of my 11th grade class of about 350 were a Model A coupe, a ca. 1930 International truck, a Model T pickup, and mine, a '35 Pontiac. By a large margin, mine was the fastest. Fastest also at gulping oil. Probably the fastest car there, albeit owned by a young music teacher, was a 12 cylinder'37 Cadillac. Well, at least it must have used gas the fastest.

[huptoy]

In September 1959 a classmate, who worked construction, came to school with a 1955 Chrysler 300 with a Hemi engine. The odometer went to 150 and he claimed he had pegged the needle. In Iowa, I-35 only went 30 miles south of I-80 and we set up a flying mile to using a stop watch. Car was clocked at just a little over 130. The course came down a low hill into a river valley about 2 miles long with no exit ramps. Obviously, Chrysler didn't have the speedometer calibrated correctly but few people would check it out.

Edited November 22, 2011 by huptoy
Keiser, you are correct, it is 150 MPH, I don't think the engine was modified.k. (see edit history)

[keiser31]

Here is the 1955 Chrysler speedometer.....150 MPH max.

[R W Burgess]

Keiser,

I sent you a private message!!! (PM)

Wayne

[Barry Wolk]

Mine, at least for one day.

Prom was a very special thing growing up back in the '60s. If you didn't have a prom date you were nothing. If you didn't have a prom car you were a dork. I was that dork. I had one of the prettiest girls in the school, but had to share the ugliest car with my mother. It was a 1968 Delmont 88 in Canary Yellow with a White painted top. It came that way from GM. Some dummy executive ordered it that way and wanted to dump it as soon as he could as soon as he saw it. To top it off it had a baby puke-green interior. By far the world's worst date car, let alone a Prom car. My father drove Lincolns at that time. Not a cool Prom car either. That and the fact that I was never allowed to drive it, but that's another story.

This story is about the Prom car that I ended up with. A neighbor of my parents was the manager of a Dodge dealership. He needed to have a fence installed around his new pool and I needed a Prom car. All I asked for was a nice car. I completed my task in about three days. He was very happy. The day of the prom I still didn't know what he was bringing home, but he said it was something cool.

I got a call to come across the street to pick up the keys and saw a new Polara in his driveway. I wasn't happy, but I wasn't mad because it was miles better that the POS I had to drive. I walked into the driveway and said, "Nice car." He burst out laughing as he hit the garage remote in his pocket. My jaw dropped and I got a severe tingling in my nether parts.:thumbup:

It was a brand-new 1970 Dodge Challenger 440 RT 6-pack in Plumb Crazy with a white interior, top and stripe.

As he dangled the keys in front of me he said, "Two rules, no drag racing and no taking it out of state!" I was still speechless, so I just nodded my head as he gave me bad ideas.

My date, who is now my wife of 38 years, was, and is, a huge Mopar fan. In fact, the first time I got to see her bedroom I was expecting to see posters of movie and rock stars. No, she had blown up photos of mid-'60s Mopar hotrods that she had taken at Autorama in the '60s. I was stunned. I think it it was that moment that I fell out of lust and into love. OK, the lust was still there. The woman still has 30wt running through her veins.

OK, her reaction. Silence. That was unexpected. She was actually dumbstruck. I never honked the horn picking up a date, but this time I had to. I laid on it and I see the garage door open and her bruiser Puritan father exit with an evil look on his face. Honking for a date was considered very bad form. She however, opened the front door of the house and stood like a statue on the front porch, unable to move, or talk. As her father approached me I pointed to his daughter, and he stopped dead in his tracks. It was quite a sight to see.

Her sisters came running up to the car as my girlfriend screamed out, "Don't touch it!!!!!", and we all started laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Pops mellowed, as he was a Chrysler engineer at the time. Once everyone started breathing again all was right with the world. I think she and her family were as surprised as I was.

Now, this was early on Prom Saturday so I had all day to burn up some gas. I lived at the corner of 13 & Southfield, 2 miles from the famous Woodward Avenue. Remember, this was the heyday of the muscle car and I had an out of the box race car at my disposal. I picked up my tux and went cruising up and down woodward, stopping at Ted's, Maverick and the Totem Pole. The car drew a crowd everywhere I went. I was approached by a cop and asked for ID. Luckily the dealership manager gave me some documents that made him go away.

I went home after burning up a whole tank of gas and was confronted with angry 'rents. Couldn't figure out why, didn't care, didn't stick around long enough to listen. Something about telling them what my plans were, who I was going to be with, where I was going to sleep. Walked away, took a shower, went down stairs, told them that they were not entitled to that information as I was already 18 and if they didn't like it, I would just keep driving. That shut them up because they knew I was right.

I picked her up, sans honking this time. She was lovely. She had just had her hair done, Prom style, but insisted that I put the top down. We drove to the banquet facility and was waved into the absolute "A" parking spot. Sat in the car talking for about 15 minutes while our classmates walked in. By the time we got in we were surrounded with admirers. I thought it was pretty damn funny since I didn't own the car. Maybe that was my first taste of 15 minutes of fame, but I loved it.

We ate an institutional, but filling meal and then the mirrored ball came on and the band started playing. I hate dancing but I fulfilled the obligatory dance requirement. We went back to the table and I excused myself to go to the bathroom. When I didn't come back in 20 minutes she went looking for me. She asked some people if they had seen me. The banquet hall had 10 men's room, it was so large. She enlisted some help to check them all. I was nowhere to be found. She saw one of my friends and asked if he had seen me. He told her, "He's out on Telegraph Rd. drag-racing for $20 bills". Telegraph was the second hottest road in the Detroit area for Westsiders.

She walked out of the facility and found our "A" spot empty. As I returned after what I thought was maybe 10 minutes she was standing in the middle of the spot with her arms folded, Ice Queen style. She move out of my way and was about to chew me a new one when I said, "I won enough to cover the prom tickets so we have money to go to Cedar Point tomorrow!" That melted the chill. We went back to the dance and had a nice evening.

The next day we loaded up the car, disconnected the odometer and drove from Michigan to Ohio. Had a great time, got the worst wind burn of my life but generated some great memories.

Now that I had broken both of his rules I reconnected the speedo, washed all the freeway bugs off the grill and returned the car.

Now, I'm not advocating that kind of stupid behavior. Had something happened he would have had huge problems with his insurance company. He would have had had huge problems with the sate as it had a dealer plate. Had something really bad happened they would have gone after the dealer, the deep pockets. However, my other brain was doing most of my thinking at 18, and that was really stupid.

Still have the girl. Wish I had the car.

[Guest]

Barry, that's not a problem. At least you have a wife that wouldn't mind you having another! That usually is the problem and you've got it made!

Don

[mrspeedyt]

in 1968 in upland california the fastest car in the parking lot had to be a classmates 1962 gasser style 'vette with a 396, 4 speed and straight axle. my car was the slowest... a '59 fiat 600.

[Guest steve283]

wonderful his-tory...

[Guest Marideth]

'69 cherry red Buick Skylark-- and I got to drive it. The Skylark was a real beauty and she sure handled well! This was actually in 1987, and my Dad was in his "convertible phase" (as opposed to his early Packard phase, etc). At around that same time he also had two very early Mustang convertibles and a couple of other big 'boats' with huge motors.

We didn't have 'new' cars, and drove all of the antiques he bought and restored. I was incredibly lucky to have this car; my sister had to learn how to drive in an Edsel!

[rons49]

Hey, I'm jealous of all you guys. I lived in NY City and graduated high school there in 1966. We either walked to school or took the bus since there was no student parking or street parking for over 4 hours. Never had a car or license until I turned 18 and was in St. Johns Univ. A 1959 Buick Conv.

[Vila]

I lived near Camp Hill / Mechanicsburg, PA and graduated from high school in 1968.

The fastest car in the parking lot was a 1959 AC Bristol owned by one of the students.

Vila

1933 Chevrolet

1962 Triumph TR4

1984 BMW 633 CSi

[Guest Backburner]

When I graduated in 89 I remember the fastest car at my High School being a 1987 Buick GNX. A buddy of mine had a very quick 68 Chevy II and I held my own in a 75 Big Block Cutlass

[g-g-g0]

Graduated in 1958. Depending whether you are talking top end or 1/4 mile. My '39 Buick Special Business Coupe was the fastest top end at 125+. The fastest in the quarter was a '57 3 duece Pontiac.

The fastest car I ever drove (and want to drive) was an early 240Z Datsun which topped out at 140 +. Pretty scary!!!

[Guest]

Graduated in 1958. Depending whether you are talking top end or 1/4 mile. My '39 Buick Special Business Coupe was the fastest top end at 125+. The fastest in the quarter was a '57 3 duece Pontiac.

The fastest car I ever drove (and want to drive) was an early 240Z Datsun which topped out at 140 +. Pretty scary!!!

___________________________________________________________________

That must have been some Z car because if you look back at all the articles done from 1969 1/2 to 1973 (240's) the highest top speed for a stock Z is 125mph. I have driven more than five hundred Z's over a period of thirty plus years on the street and track and never seen a stock 2.4 Z over the 130 mark.

D.

[Lebowski]

The fastest car I ever drove (and want to drive) was an early 240Z Datsun which topped out at 140 +. Pretty scary!!!

I had an '85 300ZX Turbo 5 speed that hit 135 between LA and Vegas back around '93. It had more to give but I wimped out and slowed down....

[kevin1221]

I graduated in 1974. Fastest car was probably a 1970 Plymouth Superbird. Also had friends that drove a 70 Mustang Boss 302, 1969 Camaro Z28 and a 409 Impala. My 1966 Impala SS convertible (327) couldn't keep up with any of these.

Kevin

[mfmccagh]

My '58 Plymouth with the built 350" Fury engine until I got my '61 Corvette. Barely, before the GTO's came out. Been outta school 47 years now

a smurf-mobile?

[Guest Dick Whittington]

a smurf-mobile?

Welcome Doc. A little before the smurf moniker. You missed a lot of mid year parts last weekend

[Bob40]

Graduated in 1977 and the fastest car was Bubbles Johnsons 1971 ex-Minnesota state patrol Mopar.That certified speedometer was well north of 120mph on numerous occasions.

The "quickest" car was John Fogelburgs 1971 Malibu.That was one of the few cars I have ridden in that off the line passed the $100 taped to the dash trick. I dont think he ever lost at our out of town unofficial 1/4 mile strip.

[Terry Bond]

Fast was always debatable and often switched between the 65 GTO and the 32 duce coupe rod, but for pure smokin of tires, that GTO was awesome! Although I was drawn to the original 29 Model A town sedan owned by one of the auto shop students a year a head of me in 65. It wasn't until 66-67 in college when some friends began driving/street-racing their 66 Olds 442 and the 66 396 Chevelle that we saw some exciting stuff. The next two years in the community college had the back row of the parking lot traditionally filled with stuff I've seen only at car shows in recent years. I used to park my 66 Poncho right between the 64 and 65 GTO, next to the red Chevelle SS, next to the 66 Corvette and alongside the red Pontiac 2+2 with the 421 Tripower and 8-lug aluminum wheels. Occasionally would trade my 66 Pontiac Convert with the Corvette guy for an evening when he needed a back seat for a date. I think best of all though was the blue Nickey Camero that came along just a bit later. Ah-those were the days!

[1912Staver]

I graduated in 1976. Lots of potent muscle cars in the hands of teenagers by that time. In grade 11 one of the grade 12's had a 1969 C.O.P.O. 427 Camaro that had been bought new by a local Dentist. My MGB couldn't catch it if it was stopped. Grade 12 was at a different school, and the best the new neighborhood could muster was a 340 Dodge Demon, {well worked over by one of the mechanics at the dealership my classmates Father owned} there was a tunnel ram big block 71 Chevelle that would prowl around after School but it was owned by a guy who had graduated a year or two previously. I had moved up to a 1966 Mustang fastback; 289 2 Bbl. , so still left in the dust.

All the best Greg in Canada

{1969 Cyclone CJ}

{1969 Buick GS 400}

{and a bunch of OLD cars}

[Lawteachr]

I believe it was my last year in HS (1963), a guy in the class of 1964 (Bryan Healy) had a Nash Healey coupe, maybe not the fastest but the most unique.

[Guest Rob McDonald]

Class of '72. Working class neighbourhood in a working class city. Fastest car in the high school parking lot was a young social studies teacher's '68 Firebird 400. Fastest student's car? Choosing from a mid-60s Beetle, Envoy Epic, or a '63 Valiant V100, who cared?

[chrysler30]

My '49 Anglia with a 389 in the front seat held it's own. Those were the days!!!!

[countrytravler]

In 1968 in 10th grade. a 12 sec 1965 Impala SS Conv. 409-400 4 speed. Not actual pictures. They got destroyed.

[hidden_hunter]

Probably a Tickford Falcon or VL turbo commodore 

[maok]

It came out a decade before my high school years but I dreamt about it all my teens. 

Australia Charger.

[Pilgrim65]

Diiferent league for you guys , Mid 60s ,me even with part time job a 52  A40 Somerset , 60/65 mph top ,but 200 yard stop ! Pretty scary coming up to lights. Had the chance of. 54 D type jag , but dad wouldn't lend me the money and couldn't afford insurance bonkers price, would have been the fastest by about 50 mph ?

Edited July 17, 2017 by Pilgrim65 (see edit history)

[John_S_in_Penna]

"When you were in high school what was the fastest car in the parking lot?"

 

I grew up in snow country, where a 10-year-old car was a rarity.

And the performance era was long past.  So my answer to the

question would have to be "none"!

 

To this day, having never experienced the muscle-car era, I have

no interest in muscle cars.  Today's run-of-the-mill compact is probably

faster than many of those.  But there are many, many other

antique cars from all eras that I do enjoy.

[Restorer32]

No idea but I doubt it was my '60 Corvair 4 Door. I had trouble out racing the buses.

[Mike36]

I grew up in a very small town in farm country. Class of '64. Nobody had any money, so most had no car. Fastest was probably my '52 Olds Rocket. Cost me $60, and took 60 hours in a hot hayfield to pay for it.

[auburnseeker]

Nothing stood out in the parking lot.  It was 1992/1993 in a small town in upstate NY.  Probably one of the fastest cars would have been my Dad's 1979 Camaro 305 (still not a barn burner) or my 1956 Olds stick shift 2 door hardtop with the  rear gears out of an Automatic.   Not a screamer from the light but  nice top end though I don't know exactly how high that is, seems like it does 10 MPH at idle with the clutch out.    My one friend had a 79 Pinto, the other a crotch rocket (that would have been the fastest but not a car)  and a Honda CRX?  that was about it.  

The salt and Rust ate everything else away and most people used their cars year round. 

[RansomEli]

Hilltop High School in Chula Vista, CA. 1968.

 

Fastest car was a black 1963 Corvette fastback owned by a sophomore. Forgot his name. Sadly, the driver was not up to the car and he killed himself in it. Took a curve too fast and went into some trees.

 

On a lighter note, one of my best friends owned a 1948 Ford 2 door sedan (equipped with a 3/4 race cam!). He decided to show off by burning rubber in the parking lot after school. Instead, the rear end and several mounting bolts broke and left the rear axle assembly partially detached from the car. We never laughed so hard in our young lives. 

 

[60FlatTop]

1966.

'60 Invicta. Vertical rise of 6" while power braking. 85 speedo read on measured 1/4 at the end of my street.

 

Pegged the speedometer regularly with summer tires.

 

My Father said "You;re not getting one of those 327's or 409's." "Well, this black Buick is a pretty nice car."

 

Edited July 17, 2017 by 60FlatTop (see edit history)

[vermontboy]

Fastest in our school lot (only for a couple of weeks) was my friend's  brand new 1967 Camaro Z28 (his dad worked at the local Chevy dealership).

 

Before that I would have to say it was a toss up between my neighbors 1957 Pontiac tri-power convertible and a rich kids 1963 Dodge convertible..

 

After 10 years of salt the Pontiac was obviously just a beater, large rust spots and a tattered top but when he skipped his last class you could hear it start in the parking lot and he would lay two long patches of rubber going down the school driveway. In the spring with the school windows open it added to the desire for the rest of us to get out.

 

The Dodge was a sleeper, also a convertible. He never did open the hood and it wasn't loud, just a touch throaty. But when he took off he would keep it just on the verge of losing traction with a good solid chirp between gears. Probably faster than the Pontiac but he probably picked up less tickets.