trapin
01-11-2012, 06:11 AM
If you grew up on the east-side of Detroit, Eddies Drive-In was Mecca for all of metro Detroit's street racers in the late 80's and early 90's. Every Friday and Saturday night in the Summer. The memories...so many of them. "Top Hat" John Jendza makes a cameo; one of the finest people you will ever meet in the Detroit car scene, he did the appraisel on my '68 Camaro. When my car is done I'm going to take the boys up there for some Eddie burgers. I only stopped going because I dated one of the Car-Hop girls and we had a bad break-up. Gee...I hope she isn't still there after 20 years. LOL!
From the video it looks like the place has changed a bit, a lot of older people with moderate cruisers. When we went there it was a younger crowd and the cars were all burning race gas and had thundering loud exhuast systems. Everyone would meet up there, get someting to eat, pop the hood, and then the negotiating would start. You'd pick an opponent, find out what his car had, set up the race (how many car lengths you or he were going to get, determine if it would be flagged or if somone got to leave the line first). People would bet on the side too, sometimes for big money. We would then all leave right before closing, all cars roasting their tires as they burned down Jefferson Ave. Eddie Cather (the owner) would cheer us on, he loved it. We met up at the entrance ramp to I-94 off Hall Rd. (not too far from where I live now). It was a long 1/2 mile stretch that cut behind a patch of woods that was perfect and safe for racing. In the mid 90's after Eddie Cather passed away, Hall Rd. was widened and the Township purposely did away with the entrance ramp in favor of a new one closer to the highway that was much shorter, bringing to a close one of the greatest era's in the Detroit car scene. The old entrance ramp can still be seen from the Highway, they never tore it out and it is now overgrown with weeds. Still, I'm glad Eddies is still around, something for me to look foward to.
Enjoy.
http://www.detroitnews.com/videonetwork/558135520001/Eddie-s-Drive-In
From the video it looks like the place has changed a bit, a lot of older people with moderate cruisers. When we went there it was a younger crowd and the cars were all burning race gas and had thundering loud exhuast systems. Everyone would meet up there, get someting to eat, pop the hood, and then the negotiating would start. You'd pick an opponent, find out what his car had, set up the race (how many car lengths you or he were going to get, determine if it would be flagged or if somone got to leave the line first). People would bet on the side too, sometimes for big money. We would then all leave right before closing, all cars roasting their tires as they burned down Jefferson Ave. Eddie Cather (the owner) would cheer us on, he loved it. We met up at the entrance ramp to I-94 off Hall Rd. (not too far from where I live now). It was a long 1/2 mile stretch that cut behind a patch of woods that was perfect and safe for racing. In the mid 90's after Eddie Cather passed away, Hall Rd. was widened and the Township purposely did away with the entrance ramp in favor of a new one closer to the highway that was much shorter, bringing to a close one of the greatest era's in the Detroit car scene. The old entrance ramp can still be seen from the Highway, they never tore it out and it is now overgrown with weeds. Still, I'm glad Eddies is still around, something for me to look foward to.
Enjoy.
http://www.detroitnews.com/videonetwork/558135520001/Eddie-s-Drive-In