Im not asking this question to offend anyone here by anymeans....But why were gassers even created? I really dont get them or what is so signifigant about them. As you can see Im still kind of new to this genre of cars and was just asking because im curious. Thanks in advance! Jeffrey
It was a popular drag racing class in the early 60s maybe late fifties. The drivers of the BIG class, supercharged hemis and big blocks, were as famous then as the Funny Car (didn't have 'funny cars' like today yet)/Top Fuel, etc. drivers are today. The lower gas classes were often driven to the track raced and HOPEFULLY driven home. It was considered cool, at least where I lived, to leave the shoe polish number and class in the window when you drove to school or work Monday. And hope it didn't rain! One of NHRA's attempts at a class the average guy could run his modified street car in. At least the lower categories of the class anyway. A lot of history and innovation in that class. At least that is how I remember it. I had a B/G 1939 Ford coupe. Even won 1 trophy. Bill
It's like anything in this hobby, if a little is good let's go overboard! but like labrat said, it was originally for weight transfer from the line when racing...
It started off as a class for street driven cars that had been modified past what could run in Stock class. But not turned into real race cars. Of course over time they got out of hand. All race cars do.
if i remember right it started with some dodge design boys wanting to get out and play, so they raised the front of thier vehicle to help with weight transfer to the rear wheels,
As LabRat pointed out the nose up was for wieght transfer, As were the set back engines almost in the front seat & Then moving the wheels forward. But i think of the same Question when i see Air Bags & scraping rocker's on everything from Corvairs to Cadillac Escalades. Everything gets Outta Hand eventually !
And it's popular now because it's a throw-back to better race classes, a time when drag racing was much more popular, and it's the complete opposite of the lowered cars trend with big wheels and brakes. "Refined" ain't in it. They're bulls running loose in the Westminster Kennel Club show! -Brad
Wasn't the dodge boys the ones with the "High and Mighty" Plymouth coupe with the homade intake and weird ass headers? They were the Ramchargers they ran stockers to. If thats who you were talking about fatcaddi. 1shot
Well when I was growing up, it was called the Altered Class, and the class was broken down into two catagories, based on whether they ran on pump gas or more exotic fuels. Gas altered got shortened to gas class and then gasser. The altered part came from the rules allowing altering the location of the engine. Originally I believe the cars needed to be street legal though not necessarily street registered. The set back of the engine, led to wheestands, wheelstands led to straight axles to take the pounding of landings, as Lower A arms and ball joints typically failed with dangerous regularity. The Gaser class was the impetus which took Super stock to factory expiremental, to Funny car. For 10 to 15 years, they were the fastest fullfendered and doored cars on the strips. If you considered low tens and 140 quick and fast. They were also the one of the first classes that started doing national tours of what were basically match races.
Well, Gassers and Altered (even the gas powered ones) are two completely different classes. And The "High and Mighty" was an altered, not a gasser. There have been enough threads on this subject to keep you up all night if you want to do a search. And Byron's Gasser Madness (link above) has LOTS of information on the gasser classes from the 50's until NHRA killed it in the 70's. Larry T
i think its safe to say that they look meaner than all hell <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7x68ZHe0hM4&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7x68ZHe0hM4&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
There is just something special about those gassers. Just like a great steak or a hot babe - very enjoyable...
Gassers were just stock bodied cars with major engine mods. Jacking up the front came in during the early sixties when somebody discovered the weight transfer gave them a big advantage. Like everything else in Drag Racing, they were just one more step in the evolution of todays Funny Cars. Zltereds were another class that allowed engine set backs and altered wheel base.
there were way more than two classes. gas, altered, modified production,factory experimental,. each of these were broken down into letter designated classes based on vehicle weight to cubic inch ratios. some cars were naturally asperated, some injected,some blown. some ran gas ,some ran fuel. some had altered front suspension, some ran stock,some had altered rear suspension,some did not,some had altered wheel base, some did not. this was in my opinion the greatest time for dragracing because it fostered inginuity and diversity in the cars and the people involved. all of these classes were similar in design, and they eventually gave birth to the funny car. the best source of why and to what specifications these cars were built are old HHRA,IHRA and AHRA rule books if you can find them. that is where you will get the very best discriptions of what these cars were. what gets me is how everybody thinks a gasser automatically has to have a straight front axle or has to be a slab sided fifties model. was not that way when these cars ruled the dragstrips. i have photographic evidence to support my claim(dad's pics from 54-84). when i get a chance to get them transfered to digital i will proudly display them and argue that it was possible for a hemi plymouth and a t bucket with a crossrammed small block to be in the same gas class, and the plymouth had stock fron suspension. until then ; raise em high and drive em hard.
In the 60's downunder, gas and altered classes were probably the most popular 'serious' drag racing classes. Gasser.. Stock wheelbase, engine setback max 10% of wheelbase, body was to remain basically 'stock' as in a street driveable look if not ability. Altered.. Wheelbase alteration allowed, engine setback max 25% of wheelbase, body could be a ripped out shell on a tube or box chassis. That's how I remember it anyway.. Cheers, Glen.
One contributing factor to the demise of gas classes was the simple fact that the average guy in his engine swapped street car had to run heads up with the full on race cars in the same cubic inch to weight class. Pull up to the line in your street driven 39 Chev coupe with a 301 in it with an AFB on a highrise and in the next lane is a full on 39 Stude with a built to the nines 301 Chev with a tunnel ram and 2 fours, B&M hydro and three national championship class win stickers in the quarter window. Real quick a lot of guys decided that they had better things to do than go out and get beat by what amounted to semi pro racers.
Some things are not meant to be questioned!! Gassers are major cool! I wish I could afford a real one! This one (sadly not mine) was built for daily use! I'm lovig it!! Klaus
i think the ban on nitro at the time had alot to do with it. after all, that's why they're called gassers...because they ran on gas. i think once the nitro ban was lifted, we started seeing the fuel altereds.
Wasn't part of the straight axle swap due to it weighing less than the control arm type suspension it would have replaced?
nothing cooler than a mean ass Gasser rolling up. 99% of the people that see it are like "WTF?". i was trying to explain to some dude the other day the concept of a Gasser... he just didnt get it. then he asked if it was like a Donk, and i quickly exited the conversation. one of the cleanest Gassers around -
Street legal. That was the difference between altered and gas. If you were legal, you ran gas, in not, you were an altered. That means headlights, taillights and fenders. And that look that everyone pairs with with the word "gasser" these days has little to do with what the cars and the class were like back in the 60s.
I shot these at the Turkey Run this past year. The first two were claimed to still be "as raced" back in the day. They haven't been repainted or restored. I don't know any details on this one.
During the "Gasser wars" most of the big players had '41 Willeys cars. The came with beam axles. When the A/FX cars started raising the front end fir weight transfer, the gassers followed along. And some SWC- Montgemory and others went to Mustang and other current bodies. At that time people saw almost AFX cars and stopped caring.
GlenC got it mostly right and Four Thirteen's comments about street legality were mostly right too. My Anglia had to run Altered first time out as it didn't have lights. They added some little headlights and 48 Chevy taillights and now it was a Gasser. Held the record for B/Gas at Irwindale for a while in 1970. Like many other "Hot Trends" it has been bastardized now to any silly car 10 feet in the air with a straight axle and an owner who says that's the way it was back in the day, even though they don't know what the hell they are talking about. Many gasser's didn't sit all that high, it was more about front to rear rake in those days to help with weight transfer. Which is funny because once rear suspension and hooking it up got figured out the rake went the other way for areodynamics. The Gasser and Altered Wars were still the most exciiting time in Drag Racing along with early A/FX and the first funny cars that actually looked like the cars they represented.
Hotroddon, what you're saying goes directly hand-in-hand with what Duke182 said earlier. I have seen Dukes dads scrapbook. His dad started putting it together in 54. The photos in that book are pretty awesome and prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that todays "standard" of what a "gasser" was or was not is BS.
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