This thread is helping me with my identity, when I had my Hips replaced they gave me some really good drugs and I built a race car in trhe style of A/FX for rehabilitation, now everybody calls it a Gasser. I know It's not one, I wonder if I told them what the drugs were if they would see what I was trying to do.
I hope one doesn't alter the wheel base on a Willys - it already is ill handling the way it is - it'll now become EVIL!
Don't forget , back in the 60's ,all you had to do is remove the front bumper and you were automatically placed in a Gas class . That just broadened the description a whole bunch ,didn't it?
Providing the car met the other requirements for the Gas class. That was basically a bump for Stock classes.
That's true, but alot of the safety regs we have today weren't in place or enforced on the local cars. Seatbelts, helmets, catch can and driveshaft loop were the main items of contention. The stockers could get away with 301s in place of 265s, Crane, instead of Duntov, but no bumper? You crossed the line,buddy!
Especially at small local tracks they did not have the manpower or equipment to check cam timing, displacement etc. But anyone can see a missing bumper. So you are right there.
Some people get it right some just get close but at least they are doing somthing right or wrong. If i dont like a car i just dont look at it. The only person who has to like it is the one driving it....
NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN! Now I dont know what to call my car. Is my car still a 55 chevy or maybe now a 61 Starliner? Since its not RED or WHITE I am considering a new paint job. Could all you guys that are sure you know it all please suggest the proper color. I have my painter on speed dial waiting your reply.
40 years from now, Hambers will be arguing whether true "rice rockets" had rivited or glued on wings. So take you pictures now....
This a great thread and has lots of great information on FX and gasser descriptions and rules and opinions. The HAMB is a great place and we can freely discuss and debate the descriptions. At some point I don't know if you are like me but, I got lost in the data. The question boils down to what are we are really talking about and many of us think we aretalking about the same things when in reality we are actually light years from each other, the cars ppictured on page one of this post could be classified as a street rod and posser I I am not saying that they are but some one can come up woith those description easily from the information provided. I can build a gasser or a FX style car in many formats and I don't mean body and engine combinations but more of the intent of the car and how it comes across in the end. It's great to immulate the legends. The problem begins with what legend am I immulating. If I build an A/FX with an altered wheel base and drive it on the street and register it and make it street legal, have I done justice to the real A/FX to NHRA or AHRA specifications class of "Race Cars" that some of us are talking about? The same goes for a Gasser there were Gassers built strictly to NHRA/AHRA rules normally these cars did not run on the street. However, there were street Gassers also built strictly for the street and never intended for the track. Personally I would lean towards these as they are more streetable and more practicle and mainly because I was a street racer wrong as it may be. would that build be a true Gasser probably not, because I wouldn't build it to the NHRA rule book given the specific era but that's just me. It just comes down to having a plan and sticking with it and defining it as it really is. When I ran my straight axled Chevy powered Falcon on the street I didn't call it a Gasser. Now 30 plus years later everybody wants to call it something and put it in a class where no class existed previously it was a hot rod street car it looked like those that raced but was vastly different. I believe we are taking race car classes and trying to apply them to. in most cases. street car, and often it doesn't translate completely. There is nothing wrong with that in my opinion. I am a big believer in build what ever want, just do it with pride and excellence and to the best of your ability but, don't build a 59 Cadillac Gasser, please, please don't.
Okay, okay, okay... For what it's worth: Most of the cars I lusted over as a teen were the straight axle street cars - "Street freaks", if you will. I had a few. When these cars went to the local strip (not as often as you think), they were almost always classified as Modified Production cars. Having "M/P" shoepolished on the windshield was a real badge of honor then. Gassers and Altereds had serious engine setback, rarely seen on the street and were also mostly blown and/or injected. The A/FXers were running various mixes of nitro and alky and were light years away from a street car. Labeling these days reminds me of the thread on here a few years back about which hair grease is traditional. If people want to know, they can do a search and find out more than they want to know about anything. But most would rather argue about it in a forum designed for TECH discussions. I'm as guilty as anyone about going off track (like now). The majority of cars in this discussion would actually be classed as "Bracket 1" or something these days, if they ever went to a track. Bottom line: Bring your tin out to the HAMB Drags and have a blast, enjoying what's happening presently, here in reality. And leave the labels behind (or use them properly). That's just my personal opinion. Scotty PS: Gasser, Gasser, Gasser, Gasser, Gasser, Gasser, Gasser, Rat Rod, Gasser, Gasser!!!!!!
I took that picture back in 06 at mopars at the strip and yes it is a street freak, but I think it could have run Gas class back in the day, probably would not handled very well but could run gas class. wheel base was not altered and engine was not set back more than 10%
the Gas classes were initially for street driven cars but as technology and innovation developed and the NHRA continually changing the rullebook (to keep seats in the stands) the GAS classes eventually "morphed" into a class of cars that were purpose built for "Sunday driving only." The same can be said for the later "Modified/Production" classes but not on the same scale. Probably the only drag class I can think of that didn't "morph" into another purpose built class was the old "Cheating Four Barrell" C4B. Man that class had some dogs, ...but it was fun.
God knows, I hate to nit pick, but ........M/P cars couldn't have straight axles or slicks over 7" wide
What the hell movie was this from anyway? I was telling someone about it the other day and he looked at me like I was crazy. I saw it a long time ago....
I think the movie was Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, as I remember the guy driving the car passed Clint Eastwood & Jeff Bridges went off the shoulder of the road, rolled the car, got out opened the trunk, it was filled with white rabbits, then he started blasting the rabbits wit a sawed off shot gun, Eastwood came up to him , asked him what the hells wrong with you boy, then either knocked him out or shot him I can't remember. Great 70's movie
See my "20 Past Gassers" story in the new (May) HRDeluxe for comments on the subject, plus 20 shots of historic Gassers that are not Tri-Fives, Willyses, henry Js, or Anglias. Meanwhile, this thread is giving the non-descript "Gasser" treatment to "A/FX." What about Match Bash, Mod Prod, early Funnies, etc. There is no catchall phrase to desribe the myriad styles and classes of straight-axle cars.
Well Match Bash, wasn't that pretty much made up by you guys when Magnante built the Wilshire Shaker?. Best def I've seen of that one; What is Match Bash? Simply put, it is a building style that seeks to pay tribute to the glory days of the altered-wheelbase door-slammer Funny Car. Match Bashers are modern enough to be driven on the street but retro enough to conjure the smell of nitro and nights under the lights at Lions or Irwindale. Modern touches like overdrive transmissions, disc brakes, and EFI are welcome so long as they hide in plain sight and don't harsh the buzz. And Mod Prod run stock style front suspension - no axle cars there Of course then there are "Modern" Gas classes that allow wings and other such ugly crap and Pro Mod, whose only tie to the old cars is general body styles.
The Match Bash term is based on the historic AHRA race-within-a-race of the same name. It contained cars not deemed legal by NHRA. And the photographic evidence HRM archives disputes your statement on Mod Prod. I would agree with you other than the images I've got my hands on of late axle cars with M/P on 'em. But I'm willing to be wrong when someone can fill me in on what other class that could have been. BTW, the next HRD will have historic images of musclecar-ish bodystyle axle cars. It will shed some light on all this.
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