Street Racing: Fact Vs. Fiction – (1973). Some people think the story, the 1932 yellow Ford known as The Milner Coupe and the street racing was real. The truth is that Lucus and his screenwriters made it all up.
Woodward Avenue, on the other hand, is organically real. The people, cars and races were as bona fide as the Sunoco 260 that flowed from the station where Maple Road crossed the famous thoroughfare.
Street Racing: Fact Vs. Fiction
In today’s sanitized, security-obsessed and litigious world, the stories you’ve heard about Woodward Avenue may seem too fantastical to believe. While decades have glossed over details or embellished accomplishments, the stories about Woodward are grounded in fact.
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Looking at the big picture, Woodward Avenue holds the official road designation as M1 (Michigan 1). The multi-lane road — an eight-lane boulevard in some parts — runs more than 24 miles from downtown Detroit to Pontiac. Then and now, the road functioned as a main trunk connecting Detroit and its suburbs such as Ferndale, Royal Oak and Birmingham, the latter of which remains a tony district favored by successful auto industry executives.
In the 1950s and ’60s, drive-ins and restaurants lined Woodward, attracting business from all over the area. It was only natural that customers drove up and down Woodward between popular hangouts like the Totem Pole and Big Town on the south end of Woodward and Ted’s on the north end.
The first racers were ex-GIs with hotrods and average Joes in family cars. But as the racing scene grew, it attracted the attention of the Big Three’s engineering and executive communities, not a surprise since many employed by GM, Ford and Chrysler lived in the suburbs reached via Woodward.
Michigan 1 became an easy place for engineers to test a new camshaft or carburetor setup. Managers could see the reaction of potential customers as they pitted their latest ideas against their competitors. As the ’50s turned into the ’60s, marketing departments learned that performance could help shift sheet metal from dealers, causing corporate focus to intensify on Woodward Avenue.
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“We were sitting on the grass north of Hunter on a Saturday night, heading north on Woodward. The racing was as good as you could see at any drag strip,” recalls Detroit’s Mike Koran.
Koran owns Specialized Vehicles, Inc., a high-tech engineering firm located just a few blocks from Woodward in Troy, Mich. His easy-going demeanor belies the fact that he often raced Woodward and later became the driver of the legendary Motown Missile pro stock. drag race team.
“I still remember getting a $500 drag race ticket in 1964; this was during one of the first official police crackdowns. I just included a guy in a Plymouth Satellite in a friend’s new overhead-cam Pontiac Tempest. My excellent launch performance was witnessed by one of Birmingham’s finest, much to the dismay of my father, who had to accompany me to court,” Koran recounts. The biggest disappointment? “I lost the race,” says Koran.
“Guys from GM and Chrysler seem to have focused more on Woodward,” says Koran. FoMoCo employees tended to race on roads west of Woodward like Telegraph.
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One particular 1967 Plymouth Belvedere GTX provides physical evidence to support the multitude of M1 anecdotes. Known as The Silver Bullet, this Hemi-powered car was the undisputed king of Woodward. The stock-looking hardtop can rip off blistering 10.5-second quarter-mile runs with a trap speed of 132 mph. Posted by Jimmy Addison out of Ted Spehar’s Sunoco station headed for Woodward, Chrysler engineering provided Addison with plenty of quick parts and insider knowledge. It was said that Addison never lost a race.
Addison and his GTX were Chrysler’s 1967 version of social media relations and arguably played an important role in Chrysler’s huge success during the muscle car era.
Decades after street racing became a public menace and curse, Detroit muscle car collector Harold Sullivan tracked down and restored the GTX, documenting the extent of clandestine factory involvement. The Hemi displaced 487 cubic inches, up from the factory original 426. Lightweight components trimmed 500 pounds from the Plymouth.
Addison’s wins on Woodward weren’t just because he was a good wrench and was lucky with the timing of the stoplights. And that is the truth.