Two Gasser periods - early and late. Early did not allow short wheel base cars and require accessories like lights and wipers, at least two seats, etc. All Gassers from both periods require stock wheel bases for the body in use. Crank center line not more than 24" off the deck. A thru C Gass made enough HP to whack small tires, so the guys running these classes wanted a cheap way to get traction. They were $150 chassis to start with so a fender well cut was no big deal. Saw them out so you could get more rubber under there and a BOP axle so it would hold together. Late era Gassers could run short wheel base cars so Anglias and such started to show up. The cars usually sit a little lower, have better suspension to hook and run harder. Early period Gassers were for cars that could not qualify for Stock class because either the body was to extensively mod'd or the engine/tranny was changed to non-OEM spec. Earlies were still street cars (barely ) and a lot of them drove to the track, bolted on the slicks and ran, then went home. Late period Gassers were almost all trailer queens or at least got towed in. The reason the front bumper was off was because of the tow bar, not to save weight mostly. The fender well cuts were an area specific thing. Around SF Bay Area and down to Santa Cruz the cops busted for rear tires outside the body work (checked with a board) so it did not make sense to whack them fenders and try to run on the street. Making a pick-up axle fit was not that hard narrow and that's where a lot of low gears were for cheap - especially the hydro guys that could run hard on 3.70's and 4.11's. The stick guys needed deeper gears, so they were into BOP rears and the Zoom catalog. Basic deal was cheap, frame based (easier to mod) and medium sized so you could work the weight vs cubes rules as close the class break as possible. Every thing eventually showed up in Gas Class - everything you can imagine D Class down used 8" or narrower rear slicks because they were not hitting the tires that hard. So that was not that hard to fit into fender wells that had been "rolled" with a baseball bat. You need to know what class you are building for and which period? It's not about a look - that's a by-product. It's about weight breaks vs cubes vs power adders like blowers to get you into a class.
Not 100% correct. Hell this will be too much to type for me. The best thing to do it go to gassermadness....here is a link.... http://gassermadness.com/ go to the section titled history. It is spelled out pretty much clear there.
The Jalopy Journal
