GASSER MUST HAVES and cant haves?

It really comes down to this, and everyone, on here at least, SHOULD be able to grasp this. A jacked up street car with a solid front axle and a moon tank zip-tied to the grill is no more a gasser than my wifes Toyota.

 

There is a guy near me with a crosley that has an extended wheelbase and a tunnelram and is lettered AA/G, so the wrong designation deal bugs me too.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 19-20 2014

 

The same goes for that Comet. When did the SOHC really hit the strip and what year is the car? I pretty much think the stance was coming down when the cammers were "popular". Show me a Comet powered cammer with that stance, wheels and scoop. We may agree both cars have a certain amount of the cool factor. Which car is really pleasing the crowds? I am not sure that the Comet is running any numbers today, if so what does it run?-Jim

 

Nothing spectacular, but thats real estate in the greater Vancouver area. That was at the absolute bottom of the slump, fall 2009, and I had 1/3 down, so I got a deal.Two years earlier, this place would have been well over half a mill. Couple years earlier, I made $40,000 in one year by buying a "right to purchase" on a condo when they broke ground, flipped it at lock-up stage, bought $20,000 in gold at $450, sold it at $850, viola, down payment. For a long time, real estate was wildly speculative here, I had a mixture of foresight and good luck, my day job is in the financial sector, and I saw the bubble coming. Funny thing is, when I flipped the condo, everyone I knew said I was nuts, and houses were just gonna keep going up. For you that wonder why I dont have a build thread, and dont have any money, you should see my freakin' mortgage payment!!! So yea, the world-wide crash of 2008 got me into my house. And honestly Moonrocket, I'd let you in my house. As long as you park that '56 down the street a ways...

Back to gassers.

 

I was around back in the day too. But I hung around with racers (My mentor raced a jackson injected sbc thames in C and D gas, I sure as hell never heard any of the local street car guys call thier cars "gassers" in front of him!), not the drive-in, and if guys were calling thier street cars gassers, they sure weren't calling then that within earshot of the guys I knew. Funny thing is, there are magazine photos of sixties solid-axle street cars posted on here all the time as "gassers", and when I go back and look at those articles, on the very same cars, in most cases, the word "gasser" isn't even mentioned.

PS: and the front end on the Thames was way lower than most of the hamb "gassers" I see.

 

The car is a 64. The SOHC 427 was also introduced to drag racing in 64 as well as NASCAR. NASCAR band the motor in 65 and they were then dime a dozen for the drag racers.

I don't know it Bob Johnson is making any passes in it or not. I do believe I heard he took it to Indy this year, but I'm sure it was just on display there. I know a lot of folks seemed to enjoy checking it out while on display at the HHRR year before last when it was first finished.

As I said earlier, "this car would not pass current NHRA tach" so if it ever runs I'm sure it would be at unsanctioned venues.

The only time I have personally seen the car run on a track was at Paradise Drag strip. a small track in north GA. On that occasion it broke an axel and never made a full pass.

Let me be clear, I'm not holding this up as a perfect example of anything other than what it is. If you or anyone else thinks it's a pile of squeeze, will then that's what it is! I'm not going to put myself in the position of defending another man's chooses! I said he is my friend, I didn't say when he was in the fifth grade that those three years weren't the best years of his life!

 

I believe he had this car for sale in Jefferson last Friday... almost could be considered a RR/G class car....hahaha....

 

Ummm, Moonrocket, thats a '65. Trust me on this...

 

Moon Rocket I think the car looks pretty cool but I do not believe it is really period correct. My opinion is worth what every other persons is -not much. It is a 65 Comet I believe and another Ford engine may be better at home with that stance in my opinion. I do not want to go into the whole Nascar deal but they never raced there that I am aware of. Holman and Moody had a bunch but they were not a dime a dozen. Kalitta ran one in 67 and so did Prudomme I believe,in their dragsters ( I am sure some of the other big boys did as well). When Bill Coon came out with his it was a big deal in my neck of the woods and that was Detroit which had a few nice Fords running. I believe Coon removed his side oiler in favor of the SOHC in 67 but he was one of the early guys. That mile high stance was starting to come down a tad in 67 and was down even moreso in 68. The SOHC was probably more available to us Fred Flintstone types that really wanted one in 68.

I am only saying it is easy to throw stones at one guys ride and guys could throws stones at my rides but you know what they say about glass houses-Jim

 

I stand corrected! Then that definitely puts it in the SOHC era.

Hell, if they'er not mine they all look alike to me!

 

I'm sure that if it were going to be set in period it would be well before 68. No one was running pie crust slicks on A/FX cars in 68. By 68 the a/fx crowed were starting to run flip tops weren't they?

And as far as SOHC engines, I guess we may have had a few more around here than some please. Al Moody lives about five miles from me and still building Cammers.. Hell if you got the cash, I think I can get you one shipped out before the weekend?

 

"I am only saying it is easy to throw stones at one guys ride and guys could throws stones at my rides but you know what they say about glass houses-Jim"


I don't know what they say up there, but I say as long as your throwing stones at my biddies house your letting me rest!

So you can throw till your arm hurts, I don't care, it's not my pile of shit your throwing at!

Your going to have to be slicker than that to get my goat! <!-- / message -->

 

I would think that it had to be pretty tough to get an over the counter SOHC engine at the local Ford dealer before 67 maybe even 68 if at all. If your name was Phil Bonner or Don Nicholson sure, but average Joe I'm guessing no.
That comet would have been a Match Bash car anyway not a Gasser even with the right wheels and scoop.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 19-20 2014

 

Mercury had flip tops in 66.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 19-20 2014

 

Wouldn't it have been a A/FX car? The rear is moved forward several inches. Just hard to notice from that angle and slick body work. That car doesn't look to me like something average Joe would have owned in the mid 60's?

 

"It is a 65 Comet I believe"


It's a Caliente, not that it's much difference.

 

But you enjoy watching it run, right?
The way I've read your posts is not criticizing the car, or cars, but criticizing people who are criticizing the cars. And in this instance, criticizing cars that aren't "right/period correct," yet having a car that isn't "right" or "period correct" in their group.

That's why I don't like the Trad Police. If a car is bitchin, a car is bitchin. I just want to see it run! I want to hear it make noise! And most importantly, I want people to have FUN around it! Either in the pits looking at it, in the stands watching it run, or in the seat behind the wheel.

Too many people only want others to have their particular brand of fun, and if it's outside the lines, they come in with the Hammer of Gloom and start swinging it.

-Brad

 

The AWB cars were not legal to run in NHRA Moon,that's why Ford forbid their factory sponsored 65 Mustang team cars from running against them at one point.
The Fords were built to the letter of the law regarding weight (3300lbs),wheelbase (stock,but it was fudged ahead 2" when they radiused the wheel wells),etc.Hell,they were as close to a production car with a Cammer as you could get.
The Mopars had radically altered wheelbase for better weight distribution and traction,and we're radically lightened to 2700lbs (in some cases less),all to combat Fords drag racing program.
When the 3300lb legal cars were put against 500lb lighter cars with altered body/chassis layout,they got beat.
Bonnet and Nicholson built AWB cars that spanked the Mopars every weekend on the match race circuit,and for sanctioning bodies other than NHRA


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A/FX was only allowed to move the wheelbase 2% total, but match race cars had little or no rules depending on where they raced. Most of the rules were either minimum weight or maximum cubic . Phil Bonner had one of each the Falcon and the Mustang the Mustangs looked like they had pretty much stock wheelbases as did the Mopars, bu the Falcon was "FUNNY" looking. That is also why you see cars like Bill Jenkins Black Arrow with screwed up rear wheel openings so that the car could run as a legal A/FX 2%er and as a Match race car like most of the altered wheelbase cars ran by moving the rear axle. Heres a legal A/FX Mustang, and Jenkins' switchable car, and a Funny Falcon .

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 19-20 2014

 

I better clarify that by stock like the Mopars I mean real A/FX Mopars not the ones with the factory surgery.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 19-20 2014

 

Exactly! I don't like hypocrisy for the lack of a better word. As an example, for someone to take the position that they wont run against some other car in an open event because they don't want any pictures to get out of them together, especially when nether car is "period correct", just doesn't sound right to me.

Hell, looks like we're all on the same page to me! Now let join hands.

 

Yep, here is one of them right here as a matter of fact! Would that not have been one bad ass SOB! (Those front tires sure look big!)

 

Next time I talk to him,I'll tell him he has your approval.The A/FX project I was talking about earlier.....It's cloning that car.Just working on getting Dick B's approval for the whole project.Im pretty excited about it.


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Moon Rocket let's stop this nonsense about the event being an open event. It was not a run what you brung event. Brad seems to be a straight shooter and has a vision for his event but their were specific rules for the "gassers" and Quain followed them. Plain and simple. If Brad wants to include other cars then so be it but don't blame Quain-his cars met the rules whether you liked them or not.-Jim

 

On the car I posted the picture of, I know they cut the complete wheel well out and move it, I think , 4" forward. the rear axel is located so the tire is centered on the relocated wheel well. The change in appearance is so subtle that unless your looking for it the average person wouldn't notice. And yes, the front end height is exaggerated as well.

The bottom line is, it's a show car!

 

What about lets just drop it! It a dead deal, why keep bringing it back up? Geeze!

 

Thank's Jim your right it was not advertised as an open event if it had been we would not have been there because we can run them every Saturday night at several tracks close to home. Now our group is the bad guys for only running each other still putting on a great show. I have been flooded with emails thanking us for running anyway.

 

One more time, I didn't say I didn't like any bodies car! The principals are done with it and so am I. Hell it's 4:20 lets burn a bud and chill!

 

The guys in the Carolina gassers DID, absolutely, follow the rules as published for what I wanted for the gas class. And as I've said, they had a very legit point.
We had two cars slip in that won't be in the gas class next year.
It is what it is... or was... whatever.

Next year, it'll be bigger, better, and more exact.

-Brad

 

So lemme see moon....You're calling Quain chickenshit for not running his cars in a class structure that changed from the original agreement..?
This from the guy who was too afraid to run his 13 second car because of some lame ass excuse like "my buddy with a similar tranny blew it up earlier in the day and I didn't wanna wreck mine.."...?
Now THAT,is by definition,hypocrisy!


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