Detroit dragway

**black gold man** · March-15-12, 04:59 PM

Lets see your film, pics and hear your story.
Know of a car show lets hear about it.

**NewportNic** · March-15-12, 05:19 PM

At one time I believe there were three parts to this on YouTube.

**Downriviera** · March-15-12, 07:26 PM

Detroit Dragway shirts available here:

www.lostdragway.com

**luckycar** · March-15-12, 07:52 PM

Sunday,Sunday at Detroit Dragway!

**Lowell** · March-15-12, 09:52 PM

Originally Posted by luckycar

Sunday,Sunday at Detroit Dragway!

When the German invaded Netherlands in WWII they parachuted in some of their soldiers wearing Dutch army uniforms. The Dutch had to resort to vetting each other and the Germans by having them pronounce the names of the Dutch cities of Groningen and Scheveningen.

If they landed in Detroit we could have shouted, "Sunday, Sunday…" and made them finish the line. That line is so branded in the Detroit phyche right up there with "I will give you 5 pounds of coffee if I can't …" or "Get on the right track to Nine Mile and…"

Unfortunately I never went to Detroit Dragway, but I will never forget that echoing sound.

**Wheels** · March-15-12, 08:53 PM

suuunnndaayyyy!

**Bigb23** · February-23-19, 06:36 AM

Originally Posted by Wheels

suuunnndaayyyy!

Well said!

**Zackdog** · March-15-12, 09:54 PM

Where was Detroit Dragway?

**DetroitDragway** · June-26-12, 05:56 PM

Sibley Rd just W. of Dix. In Brownstown Twp.

**zephyrprocess** · March-15-12, 10:30 PM

“Sibley at Dix” [[or am I just taking the bait)?

**mikefmich** · March-15-12, 10:48 PM

Had cousins that lived in Melvindale....he took me once circa 1964. No biggy...I had more fun & memories from Motor City Speedway.

**Smirnoff** · March-16-12, 07:03 AM

Detroit Dragway was allot of fun to watch the "big names" in drag racing come to town, all of the kids in my neighborhood who were old enough to drive "drag raced" their cars or their parents' back then.....1966 was the best, the year of Don Nicholson's Comet Cyclone Funny Car & Doug Nash's Bronco Buster Funny Car [[Truck).....

Attachment 12317

**Ronjm23** · June-30-12, 02:32 PM

Originally Posted by Smirnoff

Detroit Dragway was allot of fun to watch the "big names" in drag racing come to town, all of the kids in my neighborhood who were old enough to drive "drag raced" their cars or their parents' back then.....1966 was the best, the year of Don Nicholson's Comet Cyclone Funny Car & Doug Nash's Bronco Buster Funny Car [[Truck).....

Attachment 12317

I spent a lot of Saturday nights, yes, they also raced on Saturdays at DD. I have fond memories of Roger Lindamood’s ‘Color Me Gone” Plymouth and the Golden Commandos Plymouths as well. Loved the smell of the burning rubber and the spent niro-methane. I remember TV Tommy Ivo’s 4 Buick engine dragster. Lotsa smoke but not as fast as the blown Chrysler hemi’s. This was from 63 – 66 and a great time to be living downriver.

**shovelhead** · February-23-19, 10:56 PM

Originally Posted by Smirnoff

Detroit Dragway was allot of fun to watch the "big names" in drag racing come to town, all of the kids in my neighborhood who were old enough to drive "drag raced" their cars or their parents' back then.....1966 was the best, the year of Don Nicholson's Comet Cyclone Funny Car & Doug Nash's Bronco Buster Funny Car [[Truck).....

Attachment 12317

NHRA would not let the Bronco Buster race in 1967, it got parted out and some of it recycled, some of it scrapped.

In 1970 I was offered the Fiberglass body shell for free, while most of the lettering was sanded off there was still enough of that and the graphics visible on it. Person who owned it was moving out of state and could not take it with him. My problems were mainly "where the hell do I put this thing?" As is I had one car stored at a relative's farm, a blown up motorcycle in the back yard of the upper flat that I was renting and barely enough money to to live on while trying to finish HS and work part time in the city commuting 40 miles a day in what was to become my vocation for close to fifty years.

I read that someone had found the original frame, restoring it and was seeking the original body for it. I answered that it was once in my grasp, I had to decline the offer. The person that had it has passed, none of our mutual friends that are still alive knows where it ended up either. I would hazard a guess that it is buried somewhere in the landfill outside of Salem, in the bulk residential customer dropoff area.

Wonder how much that body would be worth today? Don't even want to think about it.

**Smirnoff** · February-25-19, 10:04 AM

Originally Posted by shovelhead

NHRA would not let the Bronco Buster race in 1967, it got parted out and some of it recycled, some of it scrapped.

In 1970 I was offered the Fiberglass body shell for free, while most of the lettering was sanded off there was still enough of that and the graphics visible on it. Person who owned it was moving out of state and could not take it with him. My problems were mainly "where the hell do I put this thing?" As is I had one car stored at a relative's farm, a blown up motorcycle in the back yard of the upper flat that I was renting and barely enough money to to live on while trying to finish HS and work part time in the city commuting 40 miles a day in what was to become my vocation for close to fifty years.

I read that someone had found the original frame, restoring it and was seeking the original body for it. I answered that it was once in my grasp, I had to decline the offer. The person that had it has passed, none of our mutual friends that are still alive knows where it ended up either. I would hazard a guess that it is buried somewhere in the landfill outside of Salem, in the bulk residential customer dropoff area.

Wonder how much that body would be worth today? Don't even want to think about it.

When the Buster was sold....it raced under another name. Frame wound-up somewhere near Chitown where a Hemi was installed, unsure whether it ever raced again or not?

**shovelhead** · February-27-19, 09:28 PM

It may have been, I'm not sure. I never was really interested in Funny Cars anyhow. Altered wheelbase FX classes were more my style together with gassers. All I know, the body was there, paint was dull, had been sanded down, metalflake IIRC. The graphics were still there but thin and dull. Maybe the Nash team had multiple bodies if one was damaged, don't know. But supposedly this one was from the race truck. The friend that had it knew the whole story, back then it was just another piece of junk that nobody wanted, If memory serves me correct he worked for Doug Nash and that is how he got the body. He wanted to build it into a street car but never got to it and moved to the West Coast about 1971.

Building that into a legal street car would have been a challenge back then to me, I was piecing crashed and worn out cars into drivers and racers at the time.

**black gold man** · March-16-12, 07:56 AM

http://vintage-nitro.com/the-ramchar...troit-dragway/

**DetroitDragway** · June-26-12, 05:46 PM

Get your offical Detroit Dragway shirts from us. www.detroitdragway.com or www.detroitdragway.biz

**DetroitDragway** · June-26-12, 05:45 PM

Did you ever race at Detroit Dragway? Share your stories & photos with us. www.detroitdragway.com

**ndavies** · June-26-12, 09:18 PM

Actually, it was east of Dix. On the south side of Sibley between Allen and DIx. There's an industrial park there now.

**DetroitDragway** · June-27-12, 12:59 AM

You are correct. As the ads said 1 mile east of Telegraph. I usually took Dix Rd to Sibley, then Allen Rd back. I lived off Allen Rd.

**Gannon** · June-27-12, 06:28 AM

You never know someone's misinterpretation of rock music lyrics until they sing 'em out loud.

One day, my sister and I were driving Downriver, and when we passed Sibley I called out the old ad line for the Dragway.

She was shocked. For years she thought it was "Simply at Dix."

Made sense to a girl who'd witnessed the drag racing on Telegraph Road through Dearborn and Redford during her formative years...LOL!

I've never been, but we went to the Flatrock Speedway to see the Figure 8 races one time with a fellow my mother used to date from her AA group. He was a hoot, with one of those old Monte Carlo's with the round headlights...which he let me drive home from the races! In retrospect, I suspect he was drunk, so yielding the keys to a fourteen year-old might've been his best choice.

But I suspect those two are almost the most diametrically-opposed forms of car racing, at least geometrically. I've never been able to appreciate straight-line acceleration racing alone...the Figure 8 was a much more appropriate approximation of everyday driving!

Cheers

**douglasm** · June-27-12, 07:47 AM

Before you do your immitation Detroit Dragway commercial, drag out a copy of Ray Charles Greatest Hits. I believe the music bed was a version of the piano into to "What I Say", wasn't it?

Wonder what ever happened to "Art Arfon's fire breathing, flame throwing jet powered Green Monsterrrrr, roaring down the track at over two -- hundred -- miles -- an -- hour!"?

**DetroitDragway** · June-28-12, 09:36 PM

The Green Monster. That was the car my cousin took me to see on my first visit to DD in 1961. I think your are correct on the music. Here is a link to some of the old radio spots http://www.detroitdragway.com/detroi...y/radio-spots/

**kahnman** · June-28-12, 02:48 PM

Some of my greatest memories are of my dad taking my two older brothers and I to DD in the mid to late 1960's. From getting the hair burned off of our arms and legs from the gasoline burnouts [[courtesy pit passes) to meeting some of the greatest legends of the day, I could not have lived a better life anywhere !!

Some highlights: The Little Red Wagon wheelie stands the entire length of the strip, meeting Big Daddy Don Garlits, Jungle Jim, the "Snake" and the "Mongoose". Seeing all of the great cars - the Hawaiian, Chi-Town Hustler, Color Me Gone, etc. and the jet cars and drag bikes.

For an seven year old kid, living in Detroit during the inception of Hot Wheels cars and going to the DD for pretty much every event for four seasons was Nirvana, plain and simple.