GASSER MUST HAVES and cant haves?

I think those were called "funny cars"

 

No, I think the funny cars used more modern bodies, and came a little later. The first match race cars were just Gas class cars that didn't meet the rules, and were paid to show up and race heads up. SWC, Mazmanian, Ohio George, etc. all competed in these match races. Some like SWC actually built a car specifically for match racing that looked like a twin to their gas class car.
Later on they all went to modern bodies for match racing, and those were flip tops, not door slammers like their earlier match cars. They were the first cars to get the title "funny car" due to their stretched out frontends, and altered wheelbase.

 

Thats the way I remember it to Vall

 

Just saw this on the Collector Car Nation email.

http://www.collectorcarnation.com/Other/181963799/1955-Ford-Fairlane.html?aid=32469

$27K

 

Fiberglass discussion.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=330058&highlight=herrera+austin

 

Please don't take my response to this as a slam, but there are very good reasons why a car with a rollbar that is not "legal" should not race even though it technically does not go fast enough to require one. An improperly installed roll bar can be more dangerous than not having one at all.

Also, as for relaxing rules for "period correct" cars... does anyone honestly believe that it won't hit the guardrail or wall hard just because it is "period correct"? Or maybe the fire won't be as hot because it is a "period correct" race car?

If it goes down the track, both car and driver need to meet the same rules as any "modern" race car ....period. If it is a static display, then it can be built fully "period correct". To me, there is no middle ground.

 

Didn't Big John build a glass Austin around mid 60's, how did he get away with that ?

 

[
A-men Rusty........Alot of guys get hurt and killed every single year from drag racing, pieorid.......
And most have approved saftey items mandated by the sanctioned racing group they run with.
Sadly more mishaps happen in the sportsmen rank(slower cars) insted of the pro ranks(real fast cars)
I have never seen a racecar that was too safe.
Its your choice but its also your life, chose wisley


QUOTE=Bad Banana;9484735]Please don't take my response to this as a slam, but there are very good reasons why a car with a rollbar that is not "legal" should not race even though it technically does not go fast enough to require one. An improperly installed roll bar can be more dangerous than not having one at all.

Also, as for relaxing rules for "period correct" cars... does anyone honestly believe that it won't hit the guardrail or wall hard just because it is "period correct"? Or maybe the fire won't be as hot because it is a "period correct" race car?

If it goes down the track, both car and driver need to meet the same rules as any "modern" race car ....period. If it is a static display, then it can be built fully "period correct". To me, there is no middle ground.[/QUOTE]

 

The black Swindler 'A' car I posted earlier was one of those!
If you look real close,both the front and rear wheels were moved forward roughly 4-6".Must have helped traction a bunch.

Scott


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

View attachment 2118578


Posted using two Dixie cups and a medium length piece of string.

 

Lets try this again....the first time my iPad trainwrecked trying to post this up.

Scott


Posted using two Dixie cups and a medium length piece of string.

 

....

 

Here's a little info on the Swindler's .
"There were actually several Swindlers during the period from 1961 to 1966 that Stone, Woods & Cook raced-the original Swindler was Tim Woods' 41 Studebaker with a blown Olds V-8. Swindler II, the first Willys, was initially built to run in the A/Gas class with a bored, stroked, and blown 448ci Olds V-8. It was a show-quality car with blue-and-white tuck-and-roll '58 Thunderbird seats with matching door panels and headliner and a chromed rollbar. The first Swindler II was destroyed in a towing accident returning from the '61 Nationals at Indy and replaced with another virtually identical Willys body. With its familiar light-blue paint, this is the version that gained S-W-C's initial fame, and in 1963, Revell immortalized it by creating a plastic model kit in the Swindler's image. After an NHRA weight-break change in the A/Gas class, the team built a second, lighter Willys in 1964 with a fiberglass front end to take advantage of the new rules. They continued to run the Swindler II in B/Gas, at which time the cars were renamed Swindler A and Swindler B. At first, Swindler A was painted black; both cars were later resprayed in a darker candy blue. After a narrow victory against Big John Mazmanian at the '64 Winternationals, both cars' blown Olds engines were switched to blown Hemis. Swindler B was later traded to fiberglass manufacturer Tex Collins of Cal Automotive for a load of lightweight parts, and the car eventually found its way into the hands of an East Coast street rodder. That car still exists and is currently being restored, according to Doug Cook's son, Mike Cook Sr.

The Swindler A was nearly 1,000 pounds lighter than the Swindler II, with a Spartan black naugahyde interior, a single fiberglass bucket seat, Plexiglas windows, and a bigger 467ci blown Olds. After it was wrecked in a racing accident in 1966, S-W-C built a second Swindler A and continued to run it in A/Gas until 1967, by which time the Gasser Wars were nearing their end. Newer, more aerodynamic body styles were replacing the archaic Gassers, and after a brief effort with an A/Gas '67 Shelby GT350, S-W-C built a '66 Mustang dubbed Dark Horse 2 (the original Dark Horse was the lesser-known '33 Willys campaigned by S-W-C as a third car in the early '60s). Late-model factory experimentals had begun to evolve into early Funny Cars, and Stone, Woods & Cook decided to move on. In 1967, the blown Hemi, Hydro transmission, and all four wheels and tires were removed from the rebuilt Swindler A Willys and transferred to Dark Horse 2 Mustang. Doug Cook was nearly killed driving this car at a race in Alton, Illinois, in September 1967 when it flipped at the top end doing about 180 mph. That crash led to Cookie's retirement from racing."

 

The story I heard is that they caught wind that Chuck was towing this car out to the street races and Tim and Leonard snapped,and sold the car....
Dunno how much truth there is to that story,but it sure sounds fun.Can you imagine arguing over how many car lengths a SWC car is gonna spot you out on some access road at 2:00am....?

Scott


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Hi Baron

It was Curt Hamilton who owened Cal Automotive and his glass man Mouse that made the glass parts

In 63' I had a brand new steel front end for my 38' chevy that was 37' and that is how I changed the look

Then Curt & Mouse used my new steel parts and built the tooling to make glass 37' front ends and they were perfect

You could not tell it was glass except looking from the rear at the hood louvers as they were solid with no air vents like the steel hoods had

Even made the headlight shells out of 2 oz cloth that you could push in the side with your thumb when putting wax on the car and had to be careful

For a few years they sold a ton of glass front ends to a lot of gasser guys to save a bunch of weight, I even had their glass bucket seats too

G Don

 

I appreciate your response, and don't take it as a slam at all. My thinking is that a badly built/installed rollbar is dangerous also, but a well built rollbar with a main hoop and one or two rear supports wont meet tech, but it doesn't mean it will kill you in a crash. I haven't heard of very many people dying from their rollbars back in the 50's and 60's, but their rollbars wont meet today's rules.
As for relaxing the rules at some nostalgia events, I don't see that as a big issue either. We have one event at Woodburn, and another at Riverdale, and the rules allow for some old period cars that would either stay home, or be the static displays you mentioned if the rules weren't relaxed to allow them to make some passes. To date nobody has died or gotten hurt, even when a few of them ended up on their roof.
Rules should never be relaxed for the weekly drags, but for one event a year that's built around the older cars, I haven't seen any danger or harm to anyone yet.

 

"Yet" is the key word here. You are entitled to your opinion but I stand by what I said. It only takes one serious accident to ruin a lot of lives. And if injury or death occurs because a rule was "relaxed" who is to blame?

 

Hey Don. Thanks for all the info. It really is great to hear all this stuff "first hand" from you guys who were lived it. I was in the in the 6the grade, building Revell and AMT models, just dreaming of the day I could build the real things for real.
Baron

 

I have a good one maybe this has already been asked on here but my question is the hole idea of the gasser stance alittle nose high for weight transfer for more on the rear tires. Well my question is why the 2 gallon spun tank bolted up front.Why not a cell in the trunk is it a safety thing. Call me what u will does any body know?

 

I forgot to mention the glass front ends,holes in the frames as well. The lighter up front the better right. But lost on adding the few gallons of fuel up front

 

The small tank up front was to have the fuel supply just enough to make runs, and keep the fuel line length short. They used to actually have them sitting on the passenger side floor and used a hand pump to pressurize them so they didn't need an electric or mechanical fuel pump. NHRA made them move them out of the passenger compartment, and up front was just the closest place. Later they were required to be behind the frame horns, so got moved into the grille, and eventually a cell in the back.

 

Thanks for info my freind I have pondered that for awhile now.

 

The holes, glass frontends, fenders, doors, etc. were not just for weight transfer, so that's why holes were in other places beyond up front. Since classes were based on pounds per cubic inch, the goal was to get light enough to be as light as you could be within the class you raced. A gallon of gas was about 6 lbs. and gone during a run, so really didn't make a huge difference to help traction if it was out back, or hurt if it was up front.

 

I have ran many of demo derby cars with the tank inside with me but front floor boards plus little pump now & then to keep fuel flowing now thats good stuff.

 

Interesting info. Didn't know there was any auto sport that still allowed the fuel tank to be in the passenger compartment and not have a barrier to protect the driver?

 

...don't tell anyone about my old truck, with the tank in the cab...I've made probably 600 runs down the strip with it. But it's been a while since I ran it.

 

Western MD PA we run demo derby here Battery front floor board and gas tank behind back seat been this way since high school to me and I am 32.No barrier between cell and driver. We have rule if you run alcohol you run a color on your flag for flag man to know if driver is running alcohol or gas in case of a fire.Driver flopping around in a car is most likely not to be haveing a charlie horse but to be on fire. Most to know color of flame with alcohol is not to be existance.Therefore we run a blue color on flag. The reason for running alcohol in this motor sport most of you know is a car can run very hot temps with out any raditors just blocked off water in blocks it is very cool 200 degrees all daylong.

 

Didn't the injected cars run the tank up front and high because it gravity fed the cam driven fuel pump on the front of the engine ? Now of course that doesn't make sense for a front engine dragster though.

 

yes and they still do...

 

Hi Swade & guys

I hated those outside tanks, so I made a stainless rectangle tank to fit between the Hilborn pump and the radiator

Very simple as the gas came out of the tank and into a aircraft type filter on the frame then right into the pump, then the pump return line were short also

In the early 60's most gassers out here in the so-cal area looked like mine that were akin to a street car with no junk hanging all over it, just nice paint - mags - M & H slicks and go race

Now when you see junk like that dumb 57' ford gasser that Galpin ford built, people think that is what they looked like

In 64' when I started running my 37' if a car like that came in the pits they would get laughed at big time, seeing all jacked up with all the junk hanging all over it as they were just not like that at all

As the years went by guys started to get away from the true gasser spirit of a clean street car that you raced and the stuff started to get bolted on and that led to what you see today

With all kinds of looks, ' Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ' so what ever lights your fire, plus in my mind the cars that set close to level are going to be a lot safer at speed than one that traps air under the front end and starts to move around and fly !!!!!!!!!!!

G Don