GASSER MUST HAVES and cant haves?

That was one of the hardest things I had to do with mine. If you think of something write it down right then or you will forget if your like me. I had over 30 names that friends and I had come up with before I made my decision. We are now in the process of trying to come up with a name for our group so here I go again.

 

yep, agree, the spiral book will always outlast my memory!

 

This one sure has the front wheels stretched forward!
And it looks like the guy is sitting in the center of the car.

-Brad
edit: dammit, didn't we used to be able to quote pics?
It's the red Garten and Brasket (spelling?) '33 Willys.

 

You know what,you're right....I was so tunnel vision on the wheels,stance,lettering and paint that I totally failed to notice that...it's set up more like the Prock And Howell car.
Still looks Bad frickin Ass though...


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Im stuck for a name for my A coupe too...like Quain said,I started out with a batch of about two dozen,and have narrowed it to about ten real solid contenders.....just take your time.It will come to you at the weirdest time.Its like naming a band:You can't find the name,the name has to find you...

Scott


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time to make friends and influence people. As the comet sits (pretty much the poster child for HAMB "gassers") its pretty much a bogus fantasy ride. I assume the fake shotgun injector hat is intended to give the impression that the car is blown, right?

Ok, so Nicholsons Comet at its most extreme, note that it is an injected cammer on fuel, not blown, and the nose is STILL a solid 8" lower than the Comet in the photos above...

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Chrismans car, blown cammer on fuel, about the same ride hieght as Nicholsons, much more engine set-back, stock wb. I dont think I need to mention that even without the nitro, NONE of the cars in this post were even REMOTELY legal for Gas class, even without the nitro...

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Got a lot lower shortly after the above photo, for reasons we will cover in a minute or two here, this is the car as restored in the eighties, but the resto replicates the stance of the car later in the '65 season dead to nuts...

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Sullivans Pandemonium Cuda, another blown fuel car from the '65 season that started out jacked up pretty good, still slightly nose down, still nothing close to current HAMB "gasser" stance or the comet at the top, within a couple months, the nose was lengthened and the ride height dropped...

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Now we get to the "why", and anybody who knows squat about drag racing in the mid-sixties has been sitting there waiting for this, The Tom McKewen Hemi-Cuda. I can hear all the voices from the peanut gallery, "yea baby! yea! Thats more like it! Totally f*ckin' BADD-ASS man! GASSER!! GASSER!!!

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Couple months later at Lions...

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When the Hemi-Cuda was rebuilt, it was a LOT lower, and oddly enough, McKewen didnt really seem to be interested in driving it anymore. Even before this happened, none of these cars had a class to race in under NHRA sanction, a couple ran B/FD at NHRA meets. Even before McKewens cuda shook off the surly bonds of gravity at around 160 mph, there were a lot of pretty smart people that were sounding alarms about blown fuel cars running 150+ mph jacked up 2' in the air (and NONE of these examples are anywhere near as high as the comet in the photo) and after McKewens short flight at Lions, those voices of alarm started being listened to, and the noses started dropping, and wheelbases started growing.
The cars in this post existed in the form seen here for a couple short months at the start of the '65 season, by the next year, blown fuel full-bodied cars were a lot lower and longer. Even most racers at that time werent really interested in getting a pilots license...

 

I got a half dozen super stock magazines from Muttley earlier this year,all 1965 issues,and all varied from January issue,to late in the year...November I think.
It's pretty much exactly as George laid it out as far as attitude and stance are concerned.Early on they were snout-high for weight transfer,then,as the cars got faster,the mechanics figured out how to hook em up,and slightly wider tires became available (S/S explains the then-current trend of running an 11 inch wide slick on a relatively narrow 7" wheel instead of a wider wheel)....
That McEwen Cuda was one hairy little ride.That,and Petty's 43jr,but that ended in tragedy,so we don't really need to cover that in depth.
Anyway,just wanted to second what George said,as it was refreshing to dig into Muttley's collection of goodies and see what drag racing was really like in 65,play by play.

Scott



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I remember an old car magazine article circa 1965 talking about " flying funny cars" and how their design needed to change in the interest of safety. It stated that these cars were exceeding aircraft takeoff speeds and had more surface area than many small aircraft wings. Maybe someone can find and quote the actual article. Heck, I was still in high school driving on a learners permit, and memories nearly 50 years ago get a bit foggy.

--- Steve ---

 

It REALLY WAS about them taking flight as well. McKewens flight at Lions wasn't the only one, just the most famous. Somewhere I have a period article about safety concerns with the early funny cars, I'll see if I can find it and post it. Really, you would think that funny cars would be off-topic on a thread about Gassers, but the waters are so muddied at this point in time by guys who figure any reference to history is "harshing the vibe", so most guys really don't know a gasser from an FXer, from an Altered, from a match basher, from a Modified Sports, from a NASCAR Ultra Stock. from an AHRA MP car...ect. ect. ect.

 

Good info falcongeorge I have learned a lot from this thread some I wish I hadn't like the tunnel ram didn't come until later than I thought but good to know. Is it possible that some of the younger people trying to build gasser replicas are looking at old pics with the cars leaving the line with the front suspension extended not understanding that it don't set that way static.

 

Yep George, you're right about this thread being all over the map. Gasser "correctness" to funny cars to event coverage to street freak cars with an embedded urinating contest mixed in. Well, at least it is interesting. Seems like most of us older dudes who were actually around the strips in the 60's know a real gasser from something built to resemble an Ed Roth T Shirt.

--- Steve ---

 

I didnt say it, but my thoughts exactly...
You know, alot of us guys that keep spoiling everyones fun by talking about the history were fascinated by this stuff back in the sixties. When I was a kid, and other guys had pics of Mickey Mantle or Bobby Orr on thier walls, I had pics of Jerry Stahls '56 Chevy, Wild Willies T, and Chrismans comet on my walls. All of a sudden, the late nineties hit, and a bunch of johnny-come-latelys say "hey, GASSERS WERE COOL!" and want to re-write the history that a lot of us have revered since it was actually happening. And people wonder why some of us get a little cranky about it...
And the fact is, the real story is a lot more interesting than the re-write. the problem with re-writing history is the real version disappears...

 

= Is it possible that some of the younger people trying to build gasser replicas are looking at old pics with the cars leaving the line with the front suspension extended not understanding that it don't set that way static.

Not only that...but apparently every gasser had to have a straight axle and moon tank to be a gasser......NOT!

 

HEMI-CUDA Flight

I was standing on the starting line at the Beach on the Sunday when the Hemi-Cuda took its airborn ride

When they built the car they used 16" Top Fuel rear tires with the B & M Torquemaster drive unit

The tires were so tall it would not smoke the tires with that drive unit [ No HI stall speed ]

So the powers at be decided to go to a shorter 15" Top Gas tire witch lowered the rear of the car quite a bit but smoked the tires better

Now the car had a nose up attitude and in the lights it packed air under it and Just took off

That is the real story folks as I saw it in person, that is why I keep harping about the sky high front ends on some of these cars cause they are really un safe at speed [ just ask Tom ] about his short flight on a Sunday at the Beach !!!

G Don

 

You know, I keep hammering on the history, one thing we need to remember, its not "my" history, or "the old guys" history, its OUR history, our collective history of the sport we all love. It DESERVES to be revered and respected, because SERIOUSLY, if we dilute it, and re-write it to suit, it WILL be lost forever. Its not about pissing matches with me, I LOVE the history of OUR sport, and I have held it in the SAME high regard throughout the seventies and eighties, when virtually no one knew what the HELL I was talking about when I would talk about "the Mallicoat Willys" or "Isakowski's Biscayne" or "Stahls Plymouth" or "The Ratican & Stearns Fiat". There was a time, and a very long time, when the few guys like me that talked about this stuff were thought to be obsessive wierdos, even by other drag racers. It really is our collective history, and it needs to be preserved, respected, and revered, or it will disappear. I REALLY AM passionate about the history, and I hope some of the younger guys will eventually start to share that passion and respect, or it really will disappear.

 

Yup, thats about the size of it. Theres a reason why you dont see very many nose-high cars that run over 125 mph. And when you look at some of the numbers some of these ultra jacked up, nose high blown alcohol "gassers" are starting to run, the thought crosses ones mind, how long before that history that everyone is so gleefully ignoring starts repeating itself...A little food for thought there.

 

Ok, here's a cool gasser story. At the tender age of 22 I met and started working for a guy named Dick Gazan. For some time in the 60's he worked for B&M transmissions, and according to him, he had a fair bit to do with bringing Hugh Tuckers famous blown gas street roadster out of one of its hybernations behind B&M shop. Gazan & Tucker also toured the country with the roadster, many times in the company, of Stone Woods & Cook, KS Pittman, John Mazmanian and a host of other friends/B&M customers. One year at Indy (I believe '63 or '64, NHRA's rules had been slightly abbreviated to say you must have windshield wiper "arms" and you must have mufflers. Sooo, KS shows up with the wiper arms sheet metal screwed to the roof above the windshield, and for mufflers, he had run a sheet metal screw through little Briggs & Stratton mufflers right into the tubular rear bumper to mount them. The old rules had stated something like," there must be complete wiper assemblies, and a complete exhaust system. Well.., KS's Willys passes tech, and all hell brakes loose cause every one else still has the complete systems hanging on their cars. A big protest ensues, and NHRA declares KS legal again, as well as his interpretation of the rules. Gazan said there was an instant frenzy of guy striping out all the unecessary stuff, the pits were littered with wiper systems and exhaust systems, and he says there was a sell out on Briggs and Statton mufflers in a 30 mile radius of the race track. KS used to go to lunch with us and (a great group of old racing warriors includind CR Axtell, Doane Spencer, Rod Pepmuller, Diamond Jim Annin, Frantic Fread Badberg, Jeff Courtie, Randy Scoville, Rick Creasy, Dale Pulde every so often many others. Every lunch was full of old race stories.

 

engine in the rear had more to do with that wreck than ride height---front ends were high in the old days nhraphiles , why do you think they needed that crank height rule ? and save your crap about Lions there were plenty of other tracks and cars that us other geezers are very familiar with and they were and are just as authentic as you seem to think your anecdotal evidence is. I know my owncar was 4 inches higher than stock in front and two in back but others were higher , i'm talking pre 1965...

 

8 lug? Half tons were six lug

I have a Dana 60 from a half ton 63 GMC, six lug...been thinking about putting it in something.....

 

On the subject of odd rear lug patterns on Gassers, note the "Wide 5", Safety Racing wheels and floater hubs on Jeg's Austin, most of the time he ran Cragers didn't he ?

 

"That McEwen Cuda was one hairy little ride.That,and Petty's 43jr,but that ended in tragedy,so we don't really need to cover that in depth."

Wonder how many of those mid engine set ups were around?

And Petty's crash (when the guy was killed) happened at our local track. Dallas GA about 8 miles up the road.

 

I guess things haven't changed much, because back in the day it wasn't uncommon to see the same car running different classes at different tracks and times ether.

 

Kind a like the cowboy/cattle drive wild west era ain't it. Only lasted a few years compared to the impact it appears to have played in history. Hell, how many people wear western boots but have never been on a horse and the closest they have come to poking cows is eating at LongHorns steak house. I'll have mine medium well please!

 

I believe that some "gasser" events held on NHR sanctioned tracks only run 1/8 mile to keep the mph down, even though they are 1/4 mile tracks. I think HHRR has done this, but I may be mistaken.

Personally I enjoy watching 1/8 mile racing better. The racing is closer between the cars, the stands appear fuller and you get a better look at the race start to finish. Plus, most of the exciting stuff to watch happens at the small end anyway, unless your inside the car!

While the subject is top speeds, airo lift and stuff like that, has anyone seen a panel used like this on axel car to (I assume) smooth the air or improve aerodynamics?

 

Don:
Information like that is why I love reading your posts.Only someone who was there would know information like that.Thanks for giving us insight into the way things really were,and please keep the stories coming!

And Panneton Bros:
When I was younger Dick Gazan was featured in a series of articles in Hot Rod magazine that were a major influence on how I build engines.Did you ever catch any of those?Some of them had him installing an engine he built into Specter Racing's 66 Chevelle and running it,the next series stacked the deck against him and had him build a brand new,untested car.
Both times he was a major badass.
I had no idea who he was at the time,but I remember thinking to myself:"This old man is freaking scary!"
It seemed as if he had a plan for everything as if he had just built one last week,and he was one hardcore old son of a bitch!
You are one lucky dog to have worked with him!

Scott


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I would say that the time period this message board covers you could have anything from nose high to fsctory stock stances. Some of these could be from 66, but I have no way to know for sure. I went by the slick type which isnt a perfect way to judge.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 19-20 2014

 

Some of those fellas weren't shy with the tubing when they built a set of headers,were they..?


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I'm looking forward to building the headers for my A.Back then they took a little more artistic license with stuff like that.Cool stuff.


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2funny: Great pic's , that 5w Chevy with "the" headers and the silver blue '33-'34 3w are the kind of stuff that blew me away long ago at Maple and Cecil Co. Oh, an FalconGeorge : I had the Prock & Howell, one arm Willie , and Magiccar Fiat "trans" pic's on my bedroom wall. Marty Strode : I'm thinking those might be Ken's saftey wheels? DND :as always thanks for your insite. Fun stuff!

 

You're right, the car is bad-ass as hell!
But here's what I don't understand: Why is that car NOT a gasser, while Lamar Walden's '71 Vega, 'glass body, center-steer car WAS a gasser?
Lamar raced it all over the South East, at sanctioned tracks. And he was pretty tied in with the drag racing world, being a factory-backed Pro Stock racer with Chevrolet up through the '80s--including getting one of the '69 ZL1 Camaros, and he built and drove the Barry Setzer Vega.

This Vega ran A/G according to the lettering on the car, this story by Jon Asher from when the car was new, and Lamar himself.
At a glance, wouldn't this car have competed right alongside cars like the Prock n Howell car and the Willys I pointed out?