In The Beginning

[Stihl]

I look forward to your stories. You have truly had some fantastic rides my friend.

[EZ Nova]

Ziggy, was Ray Barton even a name runner on the street back then??

[ZiggyL78]

I decided to sell the Camaro as I read in Hemmings that guys in the US were getting very good money for them. Hemmings was the only real publication that talked about collectables and advertised suppliers for restoring cars. It wasn't the magazine style, it was the catalog style which was mostly black & white and was almost 1" thick. The last time I looked you can still buy them in most large book stores. Worth the read if you have never seen one.

I advertised the car in Hemmings and sold it 2 days later for 3 times what I bought it for as a roller. We made a deal that I would pick him up at the airport and I would trailer the car to a friend of his in Michigan. Turns out his friend was the president of the AMC club of America. It was the middle of winter and I was hoping for clear weather.( Oh ya sure. NP!)

At the time I was having a custom trailer built, so I bought my buddies used, I mean well used trailer as it had a expensive winch on it and good tires that I wanted. It didn't have any axles. There were 4 wheel spindles from a car welded to the frame. (Oh ya. That will work) . I also had a 1973 full size Mercury wagon that I had bought from my brother in-law who was a Mortician. It wasn't the funeral car. Yes. That's right. It was the meat wagon. Boy. I got ribbed about that one for a long time. YaYa. I get it. Ribbed, meat wagon. lol. It was a normal looking grey wagon as there was no tinted glass or panels were the side windows were. It did have a black vinyl roof which sort of gave it away. On Saturday nights if there was rain and no racing we would go down town and do the Young Street crawl. Yonge Street was once considered the longest street in the world and it runs right through Toronto to Lake Ontario. The main drag.

So my Nutbar friends thought it would be funny to make up a phoney coffin and put someone in it going down young street at 3:00 in the morning. Dam I wish I had gotten a pic. He did a pretty good job on this fake casket. To finish off the car he got some white shoe polish that we used on the windows of our race cars for numbers and put a name on the sides of the car. He called it WACKEDOUT FUNERAL HOME!

So here we are driving down young street late at night. The street is jammed with cars and you can hardly get the car going more then a walk. You also had to stop every 100 feet or so. It was that bad. The music is blaring and people are acting goofy as it's Saturday night. I'm driving and I can hardly see the road as I am laughing so hard that I was crying. We had the tailgate down. So I'm looking for some older family to get in front of to enjoy our funny little prank

So I go extra slow so people will pass me until I see the right group. People are driving up beside us and yelling your tailgate is down. So finally an unsuspecting family gets behind us. An older couple with a bunch of kids and a big dog. So we stop and my 2 buddies in the front seat with me turn around up on their knees and lift this aluminum ladder which is under the casket and the casket starts to slide out. It falls out right in the middle of the road. Now the first thing I hear is the screams of a couple of women and then the screams of grown men. So I go to get out and my buddie pulls me back and says just wait a minute. I turn around and watch Rick jump out of the box. More screams and now I hear people start to laugh. I mean all the cars and all the people walking are watching this whole deal. So Rick grabs the box and throws it back into the car and jumps in. He says drive man.

I saw a couple of cops on the other side. So I drive off and get off of Young and turn down a side street into a parking lot. Everyone piles out and falls to their knees, we were laughing so hard.

[69M22Z]

Originally Posted by ZiggyL78

I decided to sell the Camaro as I read in Hemmings that guys in the US were getting very good money for them. Hemmings was the only real publication that talked about collectables and advertised suppliers for restoring cars. It wasn't the magazine style, it was the catalog style which was mostly black & white and was almost 1" thick. The last time I looked you can still buy them in most large book stores. Worth the read if you have never seen one.

I advertised the car in Hemmings and sold it 2 days later for 3 times what I bought it for as a roller. We made a deal that I would pick him up at the airport and I would trailer the car to a friend of his in Michigan. Turns out his friend was the president of the AMC club of America. It was the middle of winter and I was hoping for clear weather.( Oh ya sure. NP!)

At the time I was having a custom trailer built, so I bought my buddies used, I mean well used trailer as it had a expensive winch on it and good tires that I wanted. It didn't have any axles. There were 4 wheel spindles from a car welded to the frame. (Oh ya. That will work) . I also had a 1973 full size Mercury wagon that I had bought from my brother in-law who was a Mortician. It wasn't the funeral car. Yes. That's right. It was the meat wagon. Boy. I got ribbed about that one for a long time. YaYa. I get it. Ribbed, meat wagon. lol. It was a normal looking grey wagon as there was no tinted glass or panels were the side windows were. It did have a black vinyl roof which sort of gave it away. On Saturday nights if there was rain and no racing we would go down town and do the Young Street crawl. Yonge Street was once considered the longest street in the world and it runs right through Toronto to Lake Ontario. The main drag.

So my Nutbar friends thought it would be funny to make up a phoney coffin and put someone in it going down young street at 3:00 in the morning. Dam I wish I had gotten a pic. He did a pretty good job on this fake casket. To finish off the car he got some white shoe polish that we used on the windows of our race cars for numbers and put a name on the sides of the car. He called it WACKEDOUT FUNERAL HOME!

So here we are driving down young street late at night. The street is jammed with cars and you can hardly get the car going more then a walk. You also had to stop every 100 feet or so. It was that bad. The music is blaring and people are acting goofy as it's Saturday night. I'm driving and I can hardly see the road as I am laughing so hard that I was crying. We had the tailgate down. So I'm looking for some older family to get in front of to enjoy our funny little prank

So I go extra slow so people will pass me until I see the right group. People are driving up beside us and yelling your tailgate is down. So finally an unsuspecting family gets behind us. An older couple with a bunch of kids and a big dog. So we stop and my 2 buddies in the front seat with me turn around up on their knees and lift this aluminum ladder which is under the casket and the casket starts to slide out. It falls out right in the middle of the road. Now the first thing I hear is the screams of a couple of women and then the screams of grown men. So I go to get out and my buddie pulls me back and says just wait a minute. I turn around and watch Rick jump out of the box. More screams and now I hear people start to laugh. I mean all the cars and all the people walking are watching this whole deal. So Rick grabs the box and throws it back into the car and jumps in. He says drive man.

I saw a couple of cops on the other side. So I drive off and get off of Young and turn down a side street into a parking lot. Everyone piles out and falls to their knees, we were laughing so hard.

Awesome story.

[CamaroNOS]

Ziggy you hit it out of the park with that story. I am sure some of those folks who saw the casket literally on Youngs St. are still traumatized today.....lol.

You mentioned the Georgetown drag strip. I think that is the track (Toronto International Dragway) that Dick Harrell crashed and unfortunately died at.

So you sold the Vega and the 69 Camaro. Now we will wait for the next chapter in your escapades.

Just keep them coming.....

Paul

[Ryan1969Chevelle]

Originally Posted by CamaroNOS

Ziggy you hit it out of the park with that story. I am sure some of those folks who saw the casket literally on Youngs St. are still traumatized today.....lol.

You mentioned the Georgetown drag strip. I think that is the track (Toronto International Dragway) that Dick Harrell crashed and unfortunately died at.

So you sold the Vega and the 69 Camaro. Now we will wait for the next chapter in your escapades.

Just keep them coming.....

Paul

I think Georgetown used to have a drag strip, and Toronto International Dragway is actually Cayuga….. (correct?)

Ryan W31

[Tracker1]

Originally Posted by Ryan1969Chevelle

I think Georgetown used to have a drag strip, and Toronto International Dragway is actually Cayuga….. (correct?)

Ryan W31

Ryan the Toronto International Dragway is indeed (was) The Georgetown/Acton area dragstrip (now it is all residential housing). Started out as the Golden Horseshoe Dragway. It is where Dick Harrell lost his life 09/71

I think Cayuga was known as 1320 Dragway and Toronto Motorsports Park Dragway or something like that.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

Cayuga 1320 also Golden Horseshoe names were both 1970 only.
Below are a few facts from the Canadian Racer site Database as this link...
https://www.canadianracer.com/track-select.asp

~ Pete

.

[PeteLeathersac]

'



.

[PeteLeathersac]

'



,