GASSER MUST HAVES and cant haves?

Landseaandair do you have part three to post?

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 19-20 2014

 

The finished weight was 1550 lbs. according to the article.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 19-20 2014

 

I hope he has scans of the third article. Here are some highlights of it. The radiator looking gas tank, the frame horns were removed to save weight and had chromoly tubes in place, aircraft naugahyde cuz it weighs less and the gas tank that holds the coolant.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 19-20 2014

 

I will if I have the issue. Don't know what month it was in.

Hot Rod

Part I Jan. '66

Part II Apr. '66

 

September 66 I dont have a scanner or I would post it.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 19-20 2014

 

I have that one somewhere.

 

Found it.

 

You guys are way too organized.....

 

Part III

 

I got lucky, oddly enough it was the first one in the stack.

 

This is the coolest rule bending article I have ever read.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 19-20 2014

 

I'm halfway through it right now.....absolutely awesome.
That car
Must have cost a fortune back then!



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Well I'd like to say yes but the truth is, he and Dick Jones looked for a 39' Chevy business coupe, but couldn't find a nice enough one for what little money they had. Jones had the '56 sitting with a dead engine in it and offered so they could build a car together. Crazy, the '56 was only 5-6 years old when they cut the fire wall out for the engine set back! They built a car out of what they had between the two of them and dad was a pretty good fabricator/welder.

 

That's how my Dad and his best friend built their first one too.....by torching the firewall out of a '59 Austin Healy his buddy got cheap because of a junk engine,then they put in a 283 motor my Dad scored someplace.As far as I know,it never made it as far as any type of class racing,just street racing.
We've never been rich,so I totally understand building what you have at hand.




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It also sounds like your Dad was crafty enough to close the gap on the weight difference by figuring out that stroker combination.
With the fabrication and welding and porting,there isn't much he didn't do,is there...?


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A few local lightweights, not as exotic.





There was a good article on Knutsens car with its use of fiberglass and Loper would go as far as grinding all unnecessary bosses from the engine.

 

A CT stroker wouldn't have been cheap, would it, even in early 60's?

 

Yes, they were. Dad was able to trade his complete 327 C/Gas engine to his buddy John Ward for the 400 short block minus the camshaft. He originally planned on using a McGurk roller cam, but when he drove to McGurk's, they would not sell it direct, and said he HAD to go to a dealer. He got pissed off, went Sig Ersons a bought the biggest flat tappet they had, he figured at 400 inches, it would need all the cam he could get. Funny thing when Dennis Coker was racing our red car, he had a little sponsor deal with Isky. He had been running a .480 lift early Isky roller cam, when Isky called and said, " I gotta new flat tappet you gotta try! Dennis said wait a minute, you want me to take the roller out and go back to a solid lifter? Isky said yep, new grind hot off the press, we call it "The 505". Dennis said, believe it or not that 505 picked me up about 2 tenths and 2-3mph! Dennis said the other big improvement, came from a set of long tube Jardine headers. So sorry, powershftr, dad didn't figure the Stude striker crank on his own, C&T, or some other smart person/persons had already figured it out
Crazy with stock stamped rockers too, if you check them the real ratio averages about 1.38. When Chevy went to valve stem guided rockers in the late 80's, they made them lighter/smaller anthe averages are 1.46 or so.

 

Here's a funny footnote about those Jardine headers:
I spoke with Jerry Jardine a couple of years ago about headers for another car I was building,and one thing led to another,and over an hour had passed,with him telling me about prototyping headers for some really important factory cars,etc,but his BEST story by FAR,was about the "Gasser Wars".
He said that 90% of the big name guys were running his headers,because they made more power than Doug Thorley's,but he said about 90% of the cars were lettered up with "Headers by Doug",because Thorley's paid really good contingency money,and Jerry couldn't afford to.....Just thought you might get a kick outta that one.
Kerry is actually back in business now,so if you ever need a set of headers done,give him a try!

Scott


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Wow! I've been out of town at the Eagle Field Drags for the last 4 days, and came back to about 8 pages of catching up on this thread!
Just wanted to comment on a couple things. They ran a flag start and a flag finish all weekend, and everyone loved it! They planned to use a timing light heads up start Sunday, but some idiot in a Cobra clone Sunday ran over the lights during his burnout, so they went back to the flag start/finish and had fun.
The racing was heads up all weekend, and no prize money for ANYONE, and still had plenty of fans and competitors. Which proves to me that people who race or watch are happy to attend, regardless. Yes, occasionally a car was a lot faster in one lane or the other, but I didn't hear a single complaint about the difference in ET's. We drove over 12 hours to enjoy the race, and I loved every minute of it!

 

Ha HA - Yeah, Doug tells it a little different. There were many race cars that you will see had Header's by Doug on them in their early days that have Hooker or Cyclone or some other brand on them for decals in later years. Why? Because Doug couldn't compete with the bigger companies on the contingency front. There is plenty of photographic historic proof of that!
Funny how some folks remember things one way and others a different way some 40+ years later.
Don,
Director of R&D, Doug's Headers

 

That's awesome,and a perfect example of why I love getting this stuff right from the horses mouth so to speak.
If you guys that were there don't give us the inside scoop on stuff,all we have to go on is heresay and less than accurate info passed down through the grapevine.
Don,
Can you shoot us some more info on your car,and how the setup evolved,or do you already have a thread detailing some info about the car we can go to?

Scott


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Thanks for sharing that!

 

I've looked for it and didn't find much information. I'm guessing Larry T is right, but here it is.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 19-20 2014

 

Looks like somebody had a little "Oops" with the front end at some point too...


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That 200? pound rear bumper was sure out there a ways. Bet it spent some time on the wheelie bars.

 

I have talked about it's history a little bit on here before. It is 99% done that there will be an in depth article done on the car in the coming months, we know the history of the car from when it was a stock Anglia to today (there have only been 4 owners) - I'd rather not say the magazine in case it doesn't happen - but you guys will love the story, I hope

 

That picture reminds me of the one with Don Gay holding the front of his GTO up in the air. Weight transfer sure can have some profound effects on how the car launches.