Art & Inspiration Gassers, a can of worms?

My straight axle Henry J. When I got it as a project, the axle and springs were tacked to the stock frame. I could see it was going to sit a lot higher than I wanted. I built a stub that raised the rear spring mounts about 3" and swing the shackles through the frame instead of on brackets under the frame. The axle it came with had camber issues so this spring I replaced it with one from WAC Customs (Thanks again, Bill). It wasn't bad before, but with the new axle, it's much better. It has about 11,000 miles and about a dozen track passes on it now.

Gary

 

Gas class cars were originally simply a car that had an engine that did not come from the factory in that model of car.
Not one swinging Richard in the US had a jacked up drag car until the Ramchargers High and Mighty showed up at the US nationals in 1959 all jacked up in the air but running in C altered and not gas class., Guys bought into that weight transfer thing real quick though.

 

Some people look down on them. Those people must be really tall. I'm sure the guy who builds one likes it.

 

Yeah. Me too

 

yea, i dont call mine a gasser, other people do. I call mine an old styled drag car..
I suppose technically mine would be an altered being i stretched the wheelbase 2”....
I didnt want that nose up stance, more two lane blacktop chevy stance.. i put the axle under there cos the axle plus 4 link bars is only 50lbs of weight and the coilovers give me waaay more control than leafs

 

duuuuude...
Ive never really been a fan of those but that one looks right!
Im a fan of the rocker panel level with the ground..
That front wheelarch implies nose up-ness without having to be “mile high nose up”, thats a detail often missed i think
Those rear tyres are perfect, and i like the front track width with that axle.. often times people use speedway kits and the narrow axle looks goofier the higher the front is.
Bill is the man!
Your car wins 5 out of 5 pizza slices

 

Nothing like mixing pleasures.
Good food outdoors...
Coffee and a cigarette...
Tits and gassers...

A good model "augments" the car.

 

Now that's a beaut... car ain't bad either.

 

I've been into gassers since they were running still in the late 50's and early 60's. My first car was a '57 Chev gasser, and I was pleased to see the resurgence of interest in gasser style cars the last decade. I was not pleased to see the street freaks, and cartoon type cars people called gassers. It confuses the younger car guys, and leads to them accepting these type cars as representative of what the Gas Class was. I'm fine with some updates here and there to make the clone gassers drive better, and allow guys to get more use out of their cars. Just not the extreme off course changes to make the cars something they never were.
I had a guy at a car event a couple weeks ago tell me my '39 Chev coupe couldn't be a gasser because it didn't sit high enough. I was polite in correcting him, but I sure wanted to laugh out loud at his comment.
These are my two "gassers".

 

Vall does not like mine, he pretends to, but I know better! LOL Just kidding!

 

I remember seeing 2 straight axle cars in the early 70s that I really liked.

One was a bright yellow 66 or 67 Nova with a straight axle and a 427 emblem on the front fenders. It sat in front of an auto parts store. I had a job 2 towns over and drove past it most days on the way to work. It sat fairly level and maybe an inch or so higher than stock because of the big meats on the back. I'd heard it was a hot street racer and was built by a guy that had worked at Nickey Chevrolet.

The other was a 66 Chevelle SS 396 cid 375hp 4 speed, that a friend of my brother owned. It had a straight axle, ladder bars and a lot of typical speed parts. It sat 2 or so inches higher than stock. I remember when he dumped the clutch and took off it didn't lift or squat in the rear, it just planted the tires and shot forward leaving 2 nice black marks.

Neither were high enough to be considered street freaks. As far as I know both were hot rods, built as a result of the influence that seeing real gassers at the track and in magazines had on street racers.

 

I just had a GTO in the shop for some quarter panels and wheel houses. The guy that owns the car was talking about how he didn't have an engine to go in it yet, i said to throw a sbc in it and hit the road. He told me that the GTO purists would have him drawn and quartered if he did something like that. I told him that those purists would shit if I owned it, because it would get a straight axle

 

Did you have to start CPR on him

 

No he agreed that it would be cool lol. He's not one of the purists. He owns a few of those early GTO's, all of them are convertibles. The one i had in the shop was the only one he has that isn't. I'm trying to convert him from the muscle car thing

 

There was a guy around here back in the 80's, he's deceased now, that put a Chevy pickup axle under a 70 GTO. Looked goofy as hell. Same guy put a mid 60's Impala body on a 4x4 truck frame. It looked goofy, too.

 

Never got the 4X4 thing....

 

I've seen a couple of El Caminos at one time or another with 4x4 frames...

 

Takes all kinds i guess.

 

Yep....

 

that I can understand...they're supposed to be trucks, after all

 

It's a Cruck squirrel, get it right

 

Oh yea, a perfect blown 57 chevy gasser. How common in 2021.

 

That is a great looking Gasser. Love it!!

 

Before I knew about the hamb, I wanted to build a Gasser out of a '68 Camaro....

 

In the late 60's I decided to build a jacked up Falcon, I don't think I ever called it a gasser but that was during the hay day of gasser's aand I was in my late teens.

I am in my early 70's and that look still excites me, I still have the passion and would like to build a gasser inspired street car, back in the 60's & 70's there was a drag racer that owned a junk yard and campaigned a 1954 Ford coupe, a pal found the car and has been working on it but progress has been slow.



I told him if he decided to sell it give me a call, at my age I need it like I need another hole in the head but if Len calls and the price is right it will be in my garage. HRP

 

I think I just puked in my mouth a little...

 

This one is unique -



'54 Ford w/t a '55 Chevy front clip. HRP

 

Not even a 56?