Back in the late '70s in the San Fernando Valley in So Cal I used to spend most of my weekend nights hanging out and sometimes taking my chances at the local street races. One of the 'heavy hitters' at the time was a guy known as 'Bottle Bob' who had a '68 4-speed Corvette roadster that was rumored to be a 10-second car.
I once had the pleasure of running against 'Bottle Bob', he was a short balding guy with a long pony tail. One of the first cars running nitrous that I had heard of at the time, his BBC engine was rumored to have had 500 cubes (I later found out it was a 454 with ported factory rectangular-port heads and an 850 Holley). I remember the body on that 'vette had stress cracks all over it from all the beating it was taking from the nitrous big block.
He was looking for a race to get a few bucks for an early morning breakfast, I was the willing victim.
At the time (on a Saturday night sometime in '78) I was driving a '66 bug with an 1835cc engine, it was a high 13-second daily driver and my only car at that time. I did a lot of street racing back in the late '70s, this was one of the times I was checking out the street racing action on Van Nuys Blvd behind the Bank of America.
We headed out to a pretty popular spot to race on Woodley Ave just south of Roscoe Blvd, right next to the Continental Can Company. Racing was done going south on Woodley.
Bob told me he wanted the inside lane close to the center of the street because his car was going to be all over the road and he needed the room.
He gave me 20 car lengths, he started 10 cars behind the line and I was 10 cars in front of it. He had a set of side-exit headers with sidepipes which were pretty much standard for a hot Corvette, he pulled off the sidepipes just before we ran (had restrictive glasspacks inside).
We went for it and I spun the tires a bit which was unusual and didn't get a very good launch, but of course I stayed in it and gave it all 130 HP.
By the time I was in 4th gear going about 90 he went past me like I was pulled over at the side of the freeway changing a flat tire
. He had to have been going 140+ MPH when he went by!
Just after he passed me and had the race won he let off. It looked like the sun came out of his driver's side header collector, damn was that backfire ever bright and loud!
The firemen at the fire station were cheering, I'm sure they saw quite a few races going down on Woodley Ave back in those days.
Best $20 I ever spent, I can remember that night 30 years ago like it was yesterday.
