The Streetfighters Car Club

In came the email from Mr. John Dicksa telling me to give him a call, so i got my thoughts together and gave the man a ring.

We had such a great conversation about what it was like for him and others back in the day on Van Nuys Avenue.
I didn’t have a voice recorder so most of my notes are pretty choppy, but you can get some of the gist of it all.

I got to find out that the car had MUCH more done to it than i think most folks knew about.
Much of what was done to the car was out of necessity, and there just wasn’t anywhere you could just pull off the shelf
for those parts.. unlike we can now.
Many of his ideas spawned from his time at Willow Springs hanging out with the racers there and getting interesting
ideas on what to do with his Camaro.. which he brought to the street scene soon after.

The body was done by his good friend named Raymond.. he couldn’t remember his last name but back then Raymond was a
serious player in the Van Nuys body game.. He did the fender flares and cleaned up the body real well and molded in the rear spoiler.
If you noticed there are black rockguard-like protectant which was black vynil contact paper(used in kitchen applications)
that he got the look from a turbo Porsche and brought it to his car.

Probably the first to do this modification (which you probably wouldn’t notice right away) was the 2 inch
1st gen Camaro cowl mated to the hood of the 2nd gen, think that it was in the late 70s early 80s when that was done!

John also worked the lights on the Camaro, he liked the look of the red and yellow like a ferrari so he cracked open the lights
and tinted them himself. John also hated the egg crate grille so he replaced it with black honeycomb mesh.
The headlight covers were actually made because of a accident on the track which costed him precious money that at his age
that time he didn’t have too much of. He was chasing another car and a rock kicked up and destroyed the light, then they
fined him for trash on the track.. oh well.. answer solved.
The covers are snap on custom pieces which he took flat gauge steel and covered the inside with soft flocking.
they pop in and out with ease when he wants to roll at night.

The wild LT1 he had running in the car was by no stretch a stock engine.
It was fully built by TRAKO in Van Nuys a notable shop of engine builders responsible for badass IROC race cars.
As John stated he could rev the engine to 8 grand all day long and tear it out on the streets of Mullholland.
If you look closely there are tubes coming off of the valve covers they were tubes for blowby that went into a catchcan
in the firewall. John had steel ball bearings inside the tubes that blocks off on acceleration.
not to mention EVERY BOLT was safety wired in the whole engine!

Another wild move was the bodydrop of the car he did by cutting the body mounts in half
then made them out of aluminum.
Then he decided to work out some suspension goodies and put in a swaybar.. but the ones he worked just
didnt do what he expected so he fabbed up his own.. but this one had adjustable ends with rod bearings
and neoprene mounts!
John also noticed that some of the guys on the boulevard running duals
but could tell that the escaped fumes weren’t equal.. so he put in an H pipe in his exhaust.
The brakes on his camaro he could only do just so much to, being that he had to fit them behind the 15s of the time.
so instead he kept them fresh and stout by running braided steel lines the whole length of the system, which wasn’t common
at all at the time.

But John stated his favorite modification of the time was pretty his gas tank!
John took his stock gas tank and chopped it in half (hamburger style)
then he fabbed and welded in a metal mouse maze inside and a gap with cross flow tubes!
then welded all together with a 2 inch strip of metal to make it an overall bigger tank.. miles of fun!
and he needed it because the snarly engine took a bath in the petrol.

so that pretty much was the bulk of the talk.. but he did leave me with this story..
which i thought was pretty cool!

John said he was taking the Camaro out at a windy pass near where he lives.
This was before the LT1 engine was put in the car..
It was late in the evening and he was looking for a bit of fun.. then up in his mirror he sees a set of headlights
in the dark. Quickly as he saw them they come DASHING by him.. it was a red 66 Corvette, he decided to chase it down.
As he was trying to catch up to it it was slowly getting farther and farther away.
he thought to himself, damn that sucker really moves!
later on he caught up with the car at a redlight.. and to his surprise.. it was an OLD LADY!
she turned to him and said “pretty spunky, huh?… My son Vic built this car for me”
he said “oh yea?”
she said.. “you might know him.. Vic Edelbrock.”

haaaa….

But the real surprise came when after we talked i got about 5 or 6 emails from Mr. Dicksa..

and what surprised me was this.. CAR CRAFT September Issue 1977!!

What you know about this?… i guess im not the only one who thinks his car is a Streetfighter!

This was before its super wide red brawler incantation.

Cant be denied… Streetfighter.

Thank you Mr.Dicksa!

So as some of you have seen i did a pseudo Streetfighter style history spot on Mr. John Dicksa’s 73 Camaro a couple of months back.
I was in in japan for the time and when i came home i checked my email to discover an email from Mr. Dicksa himself!

The email was simple:

Thanks for the kind words. Won every car show and race ralley I entered, back in the day. Loved that car. My favorite times were out cruising Van Nuys Blvd at its peak, when that was popular. You have some awesome cars on your site…….John
Sent via DROID on Verizon Wireless

I thought.. wow.. is this really him?.. so i decided to reach out to the man and ask him a volley of questions about his ride that we all love so much.
His email back was proof enough that it was him with some nice never seen photos and some magazine shots that were of the those times.

pretty damn cool, huh?

so heres what i asked him.. and what the man said..

. Since the 1981 issue of HOTROD “Street Heroes” magazine what have you been up to?

By trade (now retired) I was an exercise physiologist. I trained pro athletes and actors for tv and movies. Also developed corporate fitness and pro public speaker……
Of coarse always a die hard car nut. I always wanted to build and design cars for a living.Back in my day, Chip Foose and others wer not doing it yet, so making a living at it proved too difficult.

. What inspired you to design your car that way?.. were there others with that style?

Growing up in the 60s, drag racing was everything.My dad used to take me to Lyons drag strip as a kid. By the time I had my first ride, I put air shocks in the back, raked up the rear, put big tires in the back and skinny ones up front…presto I’m a drag racer, like everyone else. I was in the pits of the Winternationals one year and watched the crew remove the shell of a funny car. It hit me—–the frame was low to the ground. Only the body was raked to clear the tires. We had it all wrong. I started going to Riverside raceway to watch SCCA, IMSA and IROC races. I studied the stance and function of the cars and suspention. Turning and braking required a more complete driver skill set, in my mind. I then attended Bob Bonderant’s driving school at Ontario Motor Speedway. Wow, I thought I knew how to drive before watching the instructor throw a van sideways and recover (at speed). Lower air resistance, better handling and braking and big front tires did not signifacantly slow down a street car in a drag race (if the motor is set up right). My launches got better, due to less weight shift and wheel hop. Presto, now I am respected by the drag racers AND the road race crew who knows what an apex is…..
I wanted my camaro to be the poor mans (or in my case kid) version of a Ferrari, and I beat plenty of them.

Strait up 80s business in the interior..

. Your car had a distinct road race/streetfighter look to it back then, what did folks think of it?

There were not too many cars like mine, in the mid to late 70s. Most everyone still wanted to drag race. I helped build and design several of my freinds cars at the time. We all hung out together. For the most part, I was different. I won every car show I entered, was featured in several magazines (even in Europe). But still no way for a 23 yr old to turn it into a career.

I was well respected out on Van Nuys Blvd cruising in the 70s (when crusing was the most popular activity on the weekends). It was packed out there, and fun. All the different car clubs had sections of the Blvd they would park on, during cruising. I knew I had “made it” when they gave me my own designated spot in which to park. Anyone else parked there, would move to allow me my spot, once I arrived on the Blvd. The respect felt great. Those were good times. I would stand out there for hours and talk about all the mods I had developed and/or designed (way too many for a magazine to even cover). Some I am pretty proud of (maybe another interview).
Man.. gotta love that 80s engine bay shine

. Do you know what happended or where your 2nd gen is now?
I did eventually sell it (had too for money), but still have the photos on the wall today.

. In these years your car would have been considered a Streetfighter( a built for road race no frills type car on the street)
with its widebody, wide tires, tacked on front spoiler, window braces, etc.. what do you think of the diffrent cars out now that have a kinship to your car?

I like the direction the modern muscle cars are going. It is nice to see the throw back models again. I like the blend of new high tech with old school look. I can’t help but look at the new mustangs, camaros and challengers with what I would do to them. Might be a new project in there somewhere. I have often thought of taking an old body and merge it with modern components, with my flare of coarse.

Heres a recent HOTROD magazine bullet point to Mr.Dicksa’s car and its styling so early in the protouring game.

this mag showcases a gang of camaros that influenced many after they were shown..

they titled it “the Mulhauler”

the excerpt reads:
One of the Jan. ’81 cover cars was what in retrospect looks like a progenitor of Pro Touring but that the staff might have called a Mulholland car back in 1981.
the story said “Mulhauler” Indeed, L.A.’s twisting Mulholland Drive was where Gray Baskerville shot John Dicksa’s ’73 that incluced Dick Gulstrand suspension, Essence 18×8 and 15×12 wheels,
Goodyear Blue Streaks, and a interior loaded with a fabricated dash, beard seats and a rollcage.

We love your car Mr.Dicksa.