Do Kids Still Cruise in Their Cars?

[raeken45]

We used to cruise main street here in Claremore but the cops shut it down. So we started just hanging out in the auto zone parking lot for hours at a time. They shut that down too even though we were very respectful and even kept the place cleaned up. After us it just kind of went away. A couple years ago I heard a few cops saying that they really missed kids cruising. I just bit my tongue.

I think another reason kids don't cruise is that it's so much harder to customize newer cars. You can't just put a new carb or exhaust or traction bars or anything on the new ones and go show it off. I don't even think you can put a new stereo head unit in new cars because they are all integrated into the dash. You pop the hood now and it's just plastic engine covers.

 

[FRISKY]

Cruising and illegal street racing has definitely changed thru the years, but some of us still do it a couple times a week weather permitting.

 

[MacFromOK]

Yeah... I had a '65 Galaxie 2dr hardtop, 352ci (bored .080"), 4bbl, and dual exhaust w/glass-packs. I really miss that sound.

I'd run with the AC on and windows down so I could hear the rumble echo off the buildings on Main street.

 

[SdoubleA]

We used to cruise main street here in Claremore but the cops shut it down. So we started just hanging out in the auto zone parking lot for hours at a time. They shut that down too even though we were very respectful and even kept the place cleaned up. After us it just kind of went away. A couple years ago I heard a few cops saying that they really missed kids cruising. I just bit my tongue.

I think another reason kids don't cruise is that it's so much harder to customize newer cars. You can't just put a new carb or exhaust or traction bars or anything on the new ones and go show it off. I don't even think you can put a new stereo head unit in new cars because they are all integrated into the dash. You pop the hood now and it's just plastic engine covers.

Yep....couldn't put an Offy three deuce set up on many of today's standard fare. Same as today's hemi when compared to a real hemi from the past. Times have changed.......damn.

 

[mightymouse]

Cruising was good back in the late '70's to early '80's. Muscle cars were 10 or 12 or more years old then and could be picked up cheap. I paid $950 in 1979 for a 1970 Charger RT with a 440 magnum. Friends had big block Challengers, Road Runners, and Super Bees, GTOs, 442s, Camaros, Chevelles, and Mustangs, all of them bought for a grand, give or take a couple of hundred dollars. It was the perfect time to buy them--they were often well used, so the price was relatively low, but it was before they became "collectable". Fun times.

 

[TwoForFlinching]

Last time we cruised main in Ponca City, I think it only cost $17 to fill up the truck. But that was vack when lowered trucks were popular, and 20" wheels were rare.

 

[MikieG7174]

When i was a kid living on the southern tip of Lake Michigan, cruising was the thing. It was normal to be out on a warm Saturday night in a 78 camaro with Def Leopard Pour Some Sugar On Me blarring on the Pioneer and the 3x9s. Hot girls with tight jeans and big hair. Maybe a fist fight or two down at the beach. Cruise up to Burger King and do it all over again.
I remember going out with my buddies and by the end of the night i ended up in a totally different car with different girls and in a different town. No alcohol involved!
One time i got stuck in a car with some less than desirable females. When we got to McDonalds (the turn around in the cruise cuircut) as soon as we got in the looong line around the resturaunt, i told these girls, i was going in to use the restroom and i would meet them at the other door on the outbound side.
Sheeeeit. Once inside the resturaunt, i walked straight to the other door, got into the first car load of girls i saw and was outta there!!!
Once me and my boys were all out on our crotch rockets trolling for tang, we were at the B K. I was up against the curb with all the other bikes around me.
All of the sudden every body was starting up and leaving. Well... what was going on was this bigole girls was bouncing down the walkway yelling "i wanna ride". I was trapped. Against the curb and all. As i was starting up, the back on my bike litterally dropped down away from me as she hopped on. Damned near dropped my ZX6. I told her to get off so i could get the bike menouvered away from the curb. As soon as i was clear, i propped 1st gear and was gone. I bet her leg was in mid air as my bike dissappeared from benieth her!
Those were crazy nights. Cops were always givin us crap. But then again there were fights (sometimes shots were fired), 140mph chases, hot puntang, and AC/DC.
Man, these kids just dont know what their missing!

 

[Biggsly]

Dragin Main and street racing was the big thing when I was 16. I have been trying to find pics of my truck. I had a 1979 SWB Chevy that my dad 4 linked and built a SB 406 for it. It was a screamer. I think I put a million miles on it just cruising The drag.
I know it is nothing to the cruising of the 50s and 60s. They would not allow the cars on the street that they did back then. I would have loved to see the strip back in those days.
This is the 1946 Ford that my dad and his dad built when he was 16. He cruised it every weekend in STL. This was the truck that he street raced. His dad was a street racer too. I can only imagine those days.
I can only imagine the LEOs today if I tried to take this down town .

 

[mightymouse]

Cool truck, Biggs! "She's real great, my 3-48"? Those W-motors were really neat.

 

[dennishoddy]

The cruisers on Peoria in Tulsa during the late 70's got pretty insane. We went a couple of times. Cars that never saw the street, only the strip were hauled out to the parking lots and unloaded for one or two trips down the strip. The sound was deafening. Everything was just fine with LEO as they had everybody confined in one area, and could control the situation.
Unfortunately some gangs showed up, petty theft, intimidations, muggings, vandalism to businesses, and finally shootings, etc started happening on a regular basis so they shut it down. Sad, it was a great party.