I'm sure this has probabbly been covered on here before, but I would like some info on G***er cl***es from the '60's. I have a '57 Chev 2 door post car that I want to put numbers and a cl*** on, and I want to get it right. My car doesn't have a straight axle (yet!), has a 283 w/a decent cam and headers, single 4 bbl, 4 spd, and cheater slicks. Any and all info would be appreciated!
You would be pretty safe if you put on D/G, but alot depends on the year and weight break. Some guys could run D/G and then add some weight and drop down a cl*** or even two I suppose. I guess you could run C/G but that would be pretty early in the gas wars. The guys I ran with were in B/G with a big block early Corvette and I watched a number of small block Chevs run in D/G in the mid to late sixties.-Jim
Looks like the post count on this thread shrunk! Hmmm.. East Coast G***ers are on the other side of the the country from you, but you can check out thier site. Here's mine. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=12093&pictureid=123349
Probably E/G. A friend of mine ran his 55 in that cl*** in the mid 60's. You can see the cl*** on his windshield here. And probably 1 in 50 mid 50 Chevys were "axle cars". The rest ran stock suspension, most with ball joint spacers for more travel in the front suspension for weight transfer. Here's a link to the rules, I just bumped it to make it easier to find. Larry T http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=334715
Neat car........that's what I started with. The car would fall in the E/G-F/G area. It is a weight per cube formula to be exact, but for your purpose..... either E or F/G would be safe bet. You don't need an axel to qualify as a g***er, it was just common. A stock front end still qualifies as a g***er...... enjoy the car...............
Sounds like you have the car right. Go with E/G or D/G as this is where most of them fell into. Although straight axles are popular at the shows today Larry T is absolutely right that most had A arm fronts with ball joint spacers. The picture I attached was taken in '65 and shows what was typical of a low buck local gas car.
Thanks all for the info! I figured this would be the best place to figure out what cl*** it would've ran in. Here's a pic of the car, before I raised up the frontend...
hey SCOTT...trust me my friend, that little 57 283 would be in C/GAS.WHY? hell man i ran c/gas in 1964 witha a 55 283. NUFF SAID! call me POP...or the old FART!
what Larry T said--most never had straight axles around here--ball joint spacers,90/10 uplock shocks-would say possibly D/G--or E/G--as I recall, a friend's 301 56 was a D/G car in 61/63-but my memory is not what is used to be
hey SCOTT... 1 more thing. you were allowed to have a streight axel in gas cl***es, and it's true some strips had D/GAS on these cars. just depends on what year you ran. WHY gas cl***es were determaned by cubic inch per. weight. some rods had 327c.i. as we did later...POP.
What I did when I put my '55 back together (it's an old drag car, originally built in '61 or '62) was to pick a "build date", meaning the time I wanted to take the car back to (I picked '66/'67-ish), and then see what kind of times the cars were running back then. Figure out the times your car should run, and then see what cl*** your times match the best, and there you go! I opted to go D/G, and it's funny, because I see a lot of cars at shows around here lettered A/G or B/G, and I could smoke them without even trying. You don't want to be "that guy"... if you're gonna make claims, you'd better be able to back them up.
_________________________________________________________________ You could indeed be correct. You could always compete in a higher cl*** if you liked, you could have ran A/G with your car and knocked heads with big block willys and anglias or novas or falcons, or you could have ran in your cl*** that would have been E/G OR F/G unless that 57 has lost a ton of weight.
Gas cl***es were determined by weight to cubic inches. With what your running you would be in sad shape competing in a gas cl***. Headers, single quad, 4 speed, mild cam just don't get it when competing against injected 301's with a little lead in their ***. Terry
Hey Scott, if you really want to be differant, how abut lettering it up as a modified production car? You just might be the guy to start the next fad! With what your car already has on it you could easily have been runnin modified production in the 60's! That would be sweet..... I think the cl***es for modified production were: G/MP 13.5 lb/ci F/MP 12.5 E/MP 11.5 D/MP 10.5 C/MP 9.5 B/MP 8.5 A/MP 7.5 So if your 57 weighs 3200lbs and has a 283, you could run it as E/MP or D/MP if you wanted!!! Just a thought. Either way...post some pics of it after you get it lettered up.
Half Evil has hit the bulls eye. Modified Production was invented when G***ers, which were originally supposed to be true street/strip cars, became pure race cars. The cars I see here on the HAMB posing as G***ers are in real life Modified Production vehicles.
Rich, That's true, but it didn't take long for serious racers looking for an edge to take MP from street/strip to purpose built racecars too. Larry T
_________________________________________________________________ There lies the difference from you building a car, and let's see what cl*** I fall into as compared to a car that is built for a cl***. If I remember correctly, in the early days of MP, you needed all street equipment, wipers, operating lights, even an exhaust system hung under the car. So the only real difference between a street car and a MP car was engine modifications, which in the good old days were street driven also anyway. If you had a 100% stock 283 57 chevy 220 hp with a 4bbl, and the only thing you changed was to put say a small holley on that 283, that makes your car go from a legal stock cl*** car to a legal MP car, or just remove the front bumper, and leave everything 100% stock you are now a legal Gas car. Growing up.....I had and grew up where your MP, Gas and Altered cars were also street cars.
MP also did not allow straight axles, 10% engine set back, fibergl*** body parts, chopped tops and I believe the engine needed to be of the same manufacturer as the body. I hated the no fibergl*** rule!!!!!
Big Block Bill, I am not sure what year it started to change, but I think originally the g***ers also had to have fully functional street equipment and were plated street vehicles. I think it was around the mid sixties when they started to allow gas cl*** cars to become "real" race cars and dropped the street equipment regualtions on them. I just suggested the MP cl***ification because his car sits low and would be cool with some skinny cap slicks out back and some lettering up as a MP car without having to do much changing at all. I guess I was daring him to be different!!! LOL.
Just a few thoughts, as I've run 2 57's with a SBC 331 cu. in. 4/sp. in C/MP and D/G and D/A, back in the late 60's. If you are going to try for the C/MP you'll need a front bumper and be limited to 7" cheater slicks. I ran mine with dual quads on a Edelbrock tunnel ram manifold. I ran D/G and D/A with the second 57, had an tube axle and gl*** tilt front end. In gas you can move the engine back too. Ran a Magneto and Hilborn injection on this one. Modified Production was a bunch cheaper to run and IMO would be easier for you to do and have look correct. Hope this helps, best of luck with your project. Here's a peek at them both.
_______________________________________________________________ I'm not sure either about the g***er thing with street equipment aand plates......it was before my time for sure. I started working at a local track in 68 and g***ers were unregistered without interiors, bumpers, fibergl*** stuff etc. The MP cars weren't registered either unless they were multi purpose cars, which a lot were. Not a thing wrong with a 57 MP car........
_______________________________________________________________ Very nice cars......I wonder how many people you ****ered in with the one car then brought out the other.......... nice cars....good ole days
The Big NHRA rule changes happened in '62. Until then, this cl*** was for hot street coupes. The envelope was indeed being pushed by '61 with the likes of guys like Larry Teter & Pork Zartman & many others and in 1962 NHRA relented, loosed the rules and all hell broke loose. Terry
Modified Production cars all had bumpers and grills, g***ers were required to have grills and no front bumper was required , but on the back, a bumper and or a push bar was required.
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