GASSER MUST HAVES and cant haves?

Zane, I am no authority but I have read most of the 58-68 rule books.

Body modifications in the "stock" classes were limited to channeling and chopping. Both had dimensional limitations.

 

There is no rule that says you can't but if you don't want to get laughed at by the guys that try to do it right and preserve the history of the sport don't do it because it was not popular in the mid 1960's when the gassers were most popular. Bill Jenkins Vega (early 1970's) was the first car I ever seen with a really big tire under the quarter and a narrowed rear end. A straight axle gassser style car with a big tire (over 11" wide looks really confused. It don't know if it's an old school car or a modern car.

 

Not sure if you mean an original or restored Gas Coupe and Sedan, or what is passed off as a "gasser" on Facebook.
As stated, in the case of the latter, you can have anything you want, even if people who know better see it as a rolling joke.
As to your Customline example, narrowed rears, billet air filters, shift lights, adjustable ladder bars, aluminum coil overs, all don't belong here. Modern , fake spindle mounts and rear wheels and cartoon stances still get a pass here , but are not accurate in the original Gasser era. There were limits to how high you could raise the crank centerline.

 

As Quain stated, Jenkins' Vega and other early Pro Stocks , Modified Eliminator and Super stocks were allowed narrowed rears, starting in the early 70's. We did a bunch of those back then.
Later on, this look was emulated with the magazine driven Pro Street craze.
Much to the dismay of a few here, I'm sure , those are not allowed here either.

 

I agree. All one has to do is look at the 1966-67 hot rod mags to see what a real gasser
looked like. We can now even watch some of the restored video from those days to
see what it was really like. Remember, that was HALF A CENTURY AGO!
Old guys like me have either a good memory or an album of pictures...

 

Hey Quain, good to hear from you. I guess you heard about Rocca?
I did get the body back to the shop and working on the frame design but haven't started to build anything because I don't have space. But here's the body:

I have the rest of the sheetmetal and replacement door. I'd say it'll be a natural for a blown 392 hemi, what'dya think? 104ish W.B.

 

The thread about gasser "must haves" is the last place I'd expect to see a statement like this

 

You, my friend, are the exception that proves the rule. And, I mean that as a compliment.

 

Thanks.

But what I meant was, that the Gasser class was for race cars with full street equipment. The whole point of this whole discussion, is how to set up a race car so you can drive it on the street, is it not?

 

Because it looks wrong. A gasser back in the day never had narrowed axles. It's a pro street or pro touring look to narrow the axle and tuck in huge rubber. So doing it to a gasser type build just doesn't work for me. I also think rear tires hanging out too far looks bad. So I try to get them as close to the opening as possible, but not too far out or too far in. Took a lot of work on my last 3 gassers to get tires exactly where I wanted them.
My '63 Falcon rear.


My '37 Austin.


And my current build a '39 Chevy coupe.

 

The picture of the K.S.Pittman car is the modern 1990'S version and is I believe the car that's in Garlits museum. The Stone Woods and Cooke car is as it was towards the end of the original gasser days when the whole bottom of the car was cut off. The other three are all modern interpretations. All way past your 1965 rule book

 

Exactly right the pics were way past the 1965 heyday of the gasser era. This further proves we are fighting a loosing battle. The modern versions confuse the uninformed new comers. The gasser name is almost ruined and don't carry the cool factor it did just a few years ago because everything is called a gasser now days. The pics that were posted is a perfect example of what most look to copy in today's world because every face book page is calling them a gasser so the problem keeps getting worse and the history will soon be lost, if not already lost.

 

tried to build mine old school

 

Not required or very useful on a blown car.
The K.S. car is a modern, tribute car. Those look like new era Goodyears. Maybe 13x31?
Don't go by this one.
BTW, it looks liked you edited out the last three? Should have axed the Ford too, while you were at it.

 

Okay, thanks.. I have a theory as to why that modern wheel, cartoonish stuff get a pass ..sometimes.
Not MY site though, so it's out of my hands.

 

http://www.georgeklass.net/index.html

Look at this site for inspiration, and not Gasser on google images or regular searches...

 

..And get a hold of the Don Montgomery Gasser Wars book.. You'll be looking long and hard for any spindle mount wheels...Real or FAKE!

 

This post will most likely muddy the water, but axle narrowing was done, it just wasn’t common. Every dragster running by the mid sixties had a narrow axle. And this Willys had a narrowed rear axle and four link suspension in 1960. It’s also low, and in my opinion ugly, but it won the Nationals in 61, so it obviously worked. Don Long also built an ugly 33 Willys in like 65/66 that had a narrowed rear too...another ugly car. The wheelbase was modified because Don found some loopholes in the rules and variations in wheelbase from willys coupes from 33-36

 

Here’s the Don Long car...

 

Mark
The only possible explaination (to me) is that the moderators flat get tired of having to deal with it for a while thinking they will get back to it.
That's where the "policing our own" comes in, the "report" button is your friend!

 

I shot these photos at FAMOSO in 2016, I would assume these qualify, if not, just delete them.

 

The gas class was for cars that went past super stock and most people running the class were working stiffs that probably would rather spend a bunch of money on the motor and not having a rear end narrowed and tubs. May be the reason that very few were ever done back then. Weekend warriors. If you look at some photos from back then and look at the builds, it is obvious that most were back yard builds and budget builds.

 

I am pretty sure most of the name brand Willys racers narrowed their Olds rear ends. I narrowed the one on my car 8" and still have an inch or so rear tire hanging out. Without that almost the entire tread would be outside the fender.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention I chose 4" per side to trim because that is all I could do without tubbing and narrowing the frame, neither of which I wanted to do. Some guys fixed this by slitting the fenders longwise and welding in an inch or two wide strip of 20ga.

 

Yes you muddied the water LOL. You are better at the history of this stuff than anybody I know and I have had you do research for me from time to time, so I could be wrong.
The don long car was built in 67 and I don't think it was ran until 1968 but I might be one year off. Most could care less about anything gassers related after 1967. Ollie's car did have the tires under the quarters as did many in 1961 because the widest tire they made was about 8" wide. Even if I'm wrong on both accounts lets work together on keeping the gasser name and history some what correct and to do that just promote what was most popular in the heyday of the class. All the haters need is info like this to finish destroying the history by convincing the new comers it's OK to have a 4 link and a narrowed rear end in a 1961 gasser. They ain't going to tell them the tire was only 8" wide.

 

I have 9 inches tucked on my 56 Pontiac BUT it's not tubbed nor is the axle shortened. Back in the day the quarters still likely would have been cut for ease of changing the tires but I couldn't bring myself to cut near perfect quarters LOL

I've seen a lot of pics of cars without cut quarters BUT as noted, they aren't running the really wide tires of today that many want to run that would require a shortened axle and tubs.

 

Back in the old days, no one cared a whit about the sanctity of a nice pair of quarter panels on a 56 Pontiac

 

That is correct and I at least acknowledge that. LOL.........all the same, not all were cut.

I've been told by more than one person that I ruined my car as it is. LOL

 

We live in a different world today, you just do the best you can, and don't worry about it.