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The Last Sandy Beach Outlaw
Drag Race; 1982
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Illegal and
dangerous only made drag racing at Sandy Beach more
desirable and its history can be unofficially documented
all the way up into the early 1980s, when the last
Sandy Beach outlaw race took place. |
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TALES
FROM THE ROAD
By
The
Kalama Valley Kid
THE STORY:
When I was 13 we lived in Kalama Valley, less than a mile from Sandy
Beach on Oahu's southwest shore. Sometimes late at night the rumble
of the surf would put me to sleep, other times it was the sound of
two engines screaming down Kalaniana'ole Highway next to Sandy's.
Some ten years later it would be me down there in a little deuce
three-window, unofficially marking the last, Sandy Beach drag race.
My deuce was chopped 4" inches,
channeled six over the frame and had no fenders, which gave cops
lots of reasons to pull me over.
I ran a 302 small block that came
out of a '69 Z-28 Camaro, dropped in a 350 stroker crank and
topped it off with a 750 Holley. An Erson 550 lift, 320 duration
cam gave it a raunchy beat at idle but at 8000 rpm the valves
banged the 12.5 to 1 Speed Pro pistons so I had the slugs
fly-cut to 0.30. I backed it all up with a Muncie 4-speed hooked
to a '55 Chevy pumpkin stuffed with 4:56 gears.
In spite of my limited
hi-performance knowledge however, street racing wasnt my thing.
I never really liked it even as a spectator. My passion was
makin Model A Fords and `32 coupes into stuff that twinkled.
And just hanging out at the old Hawaii Kai Chevron with a shiny
street rod parked under the canopy lights couldnt have thrilled
me more. But reminiscent to an old spaghetti western, guys kept
coming from around the Island looking for me and a maroon
painted deuce to race with. One guy in particular had a
lightning fast VW Bug nicknamed the Flea.
By November 1982 I had a pretty
good reputation for dragin' at Sandy's and decided to try a new
go-fast item called nitrous oxide. Back then the kits were
pretty pricey for a backyard rodder like me so I opt to borrow
one. On Thanksgiving afternoon I scored a setup from Guy Swift,
a good friend who had a notorious hot rod reputation. Up until
then I had no real clear picture of a nitrous system. All I
heard was that if you hooked it up correctly and pressed a
button placed somewhere on your shifter you'd go faster. Much
faster. And it really scared the hell out of me when I
eventually did.
CONTINUED
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