Free Gas!

When Dulles Airport was being built in the late 50s and early 60s, my dad and his friends would watch people drag race at night on the runways (dad preferred to do his drag racing at Fairfax Circle).  After a while they realized that there was plenty of gas to be had in the 300-500 gallon tanks that were left there during construction.  Soon, everyone around Dulles was sneaking onto the budding airport to get some free gas.  According to my dad, “You could fill your tank up quicker than at a filling station.”


One night after his friend Ronnie filled his car, a black 1957 two-door hardtop Ford with a 312 engine, full of free Dulles gas, something went wrong.  The souped up Ford blew black smoke all the way from Dulles to the Sunoco Station at Fairfax Circle next to Tops Drive-in.

“They got wise to us an' switched the diesel an' gas labels on the tanks.”  Dad says, “Ronnie drained the tank an' filled it up with gasoline, but we still had to overhaul the engine.”