Hot Rods GASSERS GOOD OR BAD?

Oh Yeah, I know about Project X. My Dad bought a 57 Belair hardtop off the showroom floor, so you could say I kinda grew up with a tri 5.

 

GASSERS ARE SO BAD ASS. I am thinking about turning my 1962 CORVETTE into a GASSER. nothing like a gasser.

 

you should sell it to me cheap, and I'll do it

 

No problem. Don't you have a 427 in your nova?, That would be the best motor for my corvette. BUY IT. I am coming to Tucson soon with the vette. I will show it to you.

 

I guess I will call my gasser a Hotrod!??

 

I have always called all of mine Hot Rods... through the years all of my cars have always not really gone with traditional even when they where built back in the days to what now would be traditional ... seems like like what ever I was driving at the time nobody ever called it what it really was anyways...and I have owned about everything at one time or another...the one that digs at me the most is one of my more recent ones a 50 Studebaker Champion Starlight Couple drove the car as for three years basically the way it was found sitting in a field for around 20 years ...all stock and original...then I put some wide whites on it and a few primer spots as I started cleaning up the body a bit and still driving it people would say hey cool barn find ..old ladies would pull up and ask is that a Studebaker...or just the what is that....then I went and lowered it alot with a slight rake kept the White's and pulled the caps painted the wheels black....and that's when it hit ...the f"::&[emoji769][emoji768] term Rat Rod ...every place I went hey cool rr or hey nice Patina ... I parked it been sitting couple years now ..had some health issues..delt with that ...better now time to bring the Stude back to life ...liked the look and stance of the car but needed more power so now it getting tunnel rammed 327 set back 10" m-22 Dana 60 with a spool housing floater 54 " lift/ladder bars and up front a Speedway 4" drop tube axle with 4bar coil-overs..and yes a street driven car it will be...and like I said I like the low down stance the car had last so thats how I'm setting it up ...then it starts hey you building a gasser ..got to be with that straight axle ..then explain no it's going to be low....then how can it be a gasser.... I never said it was going to be one ....then my parts from speedway show up ...well my original plan was to not cut the frame and install the coil-overs up into the original upper parts of the coil spring pockets I figured save some unnecessary frame cutting and aid in keeping the low stance....then I open the box the axle and parts came in and there was a instruction sheet...so I thought hell I will look it over first thing I see is jack up car ..level it and remove suspension..OK...then it says you can do the frame two different ways ....first method ..leave frame the way it is if you are wanting the "Rat Rod" look....What!!!....or do the most popular way and remove the frame stubs and build new ones.....next morning I went out and chopped them f%::** frame rails right off and the work on my "Hot Rod" continues on ...

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This is NOT truly historically correct. First when the Gas Coupe and Sedan class was first started (1958 if memory serves, although it may be 56) there was no such slang term as Gasser, that didn't come along for another 5 years at least, and it was magazine and advertising hype. But more to the point, the classes were based on Cubic Inch/Weight with a supercharger bumping you up one class. There wasn't a Separate class for supercharged versus naturally aspirated! Check the early rule books. 1960 was the first year of the Supercharged Class designation, so you are correct from that point forward, but NOT in the beginning and not how it started - to me this is a small but Important distinction.
Supercharged cars were also not "Primarily Gassers" - Street Roadster (a very popular class), Altered Coupes and Sedan (more radical than the gas classes), Modified Roadster, Competition Coupe and Sedan ALL allowed and ran Superchargers. In later years some of these cars had a class for Supercharged Only cars as well, including AA-M/SP (Modified Sports Production), AA/SR (Street Roadster), AA/A and BB/A (The Altered's). So they are NOT the "only drag racing class in history to be designated as superchargers only".
It might seem nit picky, and if so I apologize, but this is something that is near and dear to me, having owned and driven a Real Gas Class car, and would hope that some folks would appreciate the history. I also hate seeing the term bastardized (which is not what you were doing) and just want to try and keep the proper history alive for the next generations to understand and not just call any jacked up, axle car a "Gasser"
As a side bar;
It is generally accepted that the first Drag Race car with a Supercharger was Barney Navarro who put a 3-71 GMC blower on the flathead in his roadster in 1950 and ran at the first Santa Ana drags. He had been running this combination for a couple of years after he bought that blower from Kong Jackson for $60.00 and had run it the Lakes (147 MPH in 1948 with his '27) and even in some circle track races (Probably the Only guy to have run a blower in dirt track racing at that point). The first known roots style blower fitted to a "Hot Rod" (as versus oval or road racey stuff) was the Spalding Brothers (of the Spalding Flamethrower Ignition fame) who put a Mercedes roots blower on a flatty in the late 30's Don Blair (of Blair's Speed Shop) bought the setup from Spalding after the war and ran it at the lakes in 46-47 and ran 141 MPH in Unlimited Roadster, but that car was never drag raced.
Rant over

 

This one has a really good article, story , some history on the subject that was being discussed.... I think...

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Some other info ... hopefully it's not too distorted to read...

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And another ....

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OK ..just one more little tidbit .... I like this old stuff.... I will go away now....

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The first Hot Rod magazine I bought, still have the drawing I made of the Chevy with the Potvin blower.

 

Hey HRD,

Very well said, with a topic named like this, how could one not write about true facts vs hearsay? GOOD/BAD… It is the generation difference. (or it is like the game we have all played at one time or another: a secret whispered word or words passed on to the next person in a line that gets passed on and on and on, until the end person hears a different take on the original words.) The guys that were there in the early history know the era and actual designations.

But as our society goes on, words crop up and become what is known to that new era as fake, "actual fact." E.G. The Rolling Stones "Satisfaction," is/was a very popular song. In the 90s, some girl, pop star did a cover of Satisfaction and it became the "origin" of Satisfaction... "I can't get no...etc." Wow, how warped was that?

Here is a good thread by HEMI 32 about the same topic: Actual rules and designations. post 288-290 June 14, 2018

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-1958-nhra-nationals.265313/page-10#post-12606703

The term has been worked over and given too much exposure as fact. But, to each his own, in knowing the real start of the Gas Coupe and Sedan Class in drag racing.

Jnaki

We (PRIMER 1940 WILLYS 671 SBC in 1960) also happened to be one of the reasons that the Moon Tanks were taken out of the inside of cabs and put in the rear or in front of the motor. After our explosion and resulting fire from the Moon Tank inside of the cab, in August of 1960 at Lions, the safety committee and dragstrip management gave the racers two weeks to get all Moon Tanks out of the driver's compartments, thus moving them elsewhere. They originally wanted them in the rear, but did not designate where, so a lot of people put them close to the motors. The neat /no drag installations were in front of the radiator and inside of the grille.
photo by Don Hale

1940 Willys B/Gas Coupe in the Gas Coupe and Sedan Class.

 

The oldest one I have is from '54....

 

Senior gasser owner driver here, back in the mid/late 60s. Low budget for sure, but a ton of fun. Our plain Jane little 55 Chevy D/G did get to square off against some awesome Willys and Anglias from time to time.
Got to agree that the term "gasser" has been greatly abused over the last few years. I get nauseous when I see soooo many Moon tanks in front of the grill, straight axle under anything (the must be a Cadillac hearse "gasser" out there some where), the altered style spoke front wheels, car jacked up so high you can walk under it and change oil. Look more suited to off-road driving. But, to each his own, for sure.
My gasser style street build should have been on the road years ago, but that's a long story. Definitely missed the curve on the renewed interest in gassers. Mine will not be exactly "period correct", but will be pretty close to how they were equipped back then.

 

A previous HAMB thread(informative) on the subject.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/gasser-must-haves-and-cant-haves.822149/

 

My car is and was a real hot rod from the 60's its built similar to the storming bull 55 chevy except its a 57 chevy I hope to get it out to some events this season to some we are not real gassers with out that strait axle this 55 is proof 100% not all were strait axles. I could easily change my 57 from gasser to modified production classes if I can find a group to let me run with intake and rear end swap is all it would take.