Gassers with the 4x4 stance...

Lets not forget who started that look. A bunch of chrysler engineers known as "Ramchargers". They threw asthetics out the window, it was all about weight transfer. But it was that look that caught on. You were supposed to get the woman and children off the street when a gasser was coming!!!!!!!

 

I agree with Chili Phil , most were for weight transfer , somebody has to have a pic. of the Ramchargers Plymouth coupe . It was built by a group of Mopar engineers that were using brown acid . The idea caught on in the fuel altered ranks also ,ala Willie Borsch. The Malco gasser was a dual purpose deal , Ohio George could switch front stubs and sheetmetal to run 10% or 25% setback depending on his mood . The AFX cars which morphed into the aa/fc later replaced the gassers , too bad ! Highboys , such as the 554 coupe , the 15 Oz. coupe were holovers from the dry lakes days where you could swap QC gears and tires and do the lakes or the drags .

 

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I'm gonna say it also(not the coming out of the closet thing ) I like most of them also.

I got a 54 chevy not long ago that had been a inline 6cyl. drag car,ladder bars up almost to the transmission. Slicks in the back were outside the quarters.
Didn't have an axle but I knocked out 5 or 6 spacers out of the front springs.
Just found this 57 with axle.
I really the this 57 pic from the Keystone/Bison site. John

 

there was a passing fad in the mid to late 60s, that had STREET cars nosebleed high in the front and rear. i remember very few RACE cars that were high front and rear, most had cut out wheelwells, and were stock height or a little higher in the rear, and high in the front. there were a few exceptions.________dan

 

Well, I guess here's where I lose friends for my opinion. Street cars with the nose bleed stance are POSERS. It strikes me no different than painting numbers on the side. When you went to the races back in the olden days, there were a few faux racers in the spectator lot, but NO racers drove phoney race cars. Lots of customs and hot rods though. It's even worse now days, a lot of cars are built that get all the style points wrong. Don't hate me for calling you guys on this, but you ain't got bad ass hot shit engines, if you did, your car wouldn't hook up and once at speed wouldn't be able to stay in the lane. I'll bet that Fairlane pictured on this thread has a 289 or something and can barely chirp the tires. Of course you can drive what floats your boat, but that faux gasser deal reminds me of the Blingers with low profile tires and big wheels wrapped around drum brakes. Style over substance. Form not following function.

Normally I don't opine about other peoples stuff, but this is a sore point to me. Cool = doesn't look fast but hauls ass. Uncool = looks fast but isn't.

Remember, Run what ya brung and hope you brought enough.

 

BTW, Byron, who runs that site, was a crew guy on the Revell Kit Mustang that ProEnfo posted...I think he knows Gassers...

I also agree with 2Many that most of the cars with the High, Wide, and Handsome look were influenced by a mix of early A/FX and Gassers. I have a picture of the first A/FX Flying Dutchman (circa 1965) somewhere that'll flip your lids...

 

I've seen atleast 6 cars from back then with the same mile high stance and I've owned 2 built by other people a 55 ford sedan and a 62 ford falcon sedan with 327 Chevy also had a Austin 4 dorr sedan that sat pretty high

 

Yes, I noticed that also..with the ladder bar and front spring eye fixed, the rear end would have to try to swing in two different arcs.. any real power would have broke something.

CC

 

True and well stated Boones..a lot of street cars were 'drag influenced', sometimes to the extreme...

CC

 

Point well made 54, but discussing the facts that created "the look" with someone that wasn't there may be "so last week" to you but to someone interested in the cars of the era it may be informative...JMHO

CC

 

Exactly, they didn't look like 4x4's back then because the 4x4 crowd had not (yet) thought to do something so disfunctional or counterproductive. This is mostly about needing attention (as you said "style"), never serving any real function for the wannabe gassers or the 4X4's.

 

That was the point of this post actually. "When you went to the races back in the olden days, there were a few faux racers in the spectator lot, but NO racers drove phoney race cars.". That may have been true in the 50's and early 60's but based on this car from the late 60's and all of the pictures that Peter Pan posted, it obviously wasn't true of the late 60's and early 70's. The point of it is that I guess they weren't gassers...they were "axle cars", "sky-jackers", "posers" or whatever you want to call them. But they are authentic to THAT time period. The 66 fairlane at the top of this post was a 390 4v four-speed car with headers, dual quads, and a 4.56 posi. I bet it would chirp the tires just fine. Is the suspension set up for real racing? NO. He was just some dude scoping chicks at the local car wash probably. I just wanted to point out that the 4x4 look people hate really is old. Like it or not. We just maybe need to call them something else besides gassers if people are going to get bent out of shape over it like I've seen in other posts. I don't really care personally, I like em all but thought it was worth pointing out since there was a time capsule available here.

 

Good examples.

I apologise in advance to anyone who this may offend; but these were goofy in 1966, goofy in 1976 and are still goofy in 2006. They were the equivalent in their day of the suede pastels, painted trim, and billet era that most on this board find so hillarious today.

 

You're right... I think "the look" a lot of people are after these days when they say "I'm gonna build a gasser" is actually a late 60's, early 70's STREET MACHINE look.

If you look in the old magazines and talk to the guys who built them... they were after "the look"... same as today... and the jacked up cars were "street" cars.

There is a very interesting article in the 1966 Hot Rod yearbook, #6, That is called "Drag Strip Rub-Off"... it starts out "The Little Deuce Coupe is dead."

And then goes on to say "not really dead... just sidelined by the latter day street rod".

The street rod they go on to talk about is a "contemporary sedan" that "stands six feet tall" and can be found "in all 50 states"...

They go on to list the very same attributes that guys today are calling "gassers"...

The strongest evidence is " vainly concealed 11.00 x 15 Goodyears in stock wheel fender wells" In NONE of the pictures will you see those size tires "tubbed" into the fenderwells... rather, they are on 10" rims sticking outside the stock fender wells, on stock width rear ends, with the nose equally high...

Folks, I aint out to change what you-all call gassers... (but maybe we should take up the cause) but, you're not really building gassers... you're building late 60's street machines.

The GOOD thing about this all is that before I read this article, I used to think it was silly to build a four door Falcon Wagon or any other "Pony Car" into a "gasser"... but this Hot Rod article gives some validity, and historical perspective that I wasn't aware of until now. I always argued that if you were going to build a "gasser" it had to be of the type of car that they used to build... but alas, the article shows that guys WERE building cars like that into Street Machines from the mid to late 60's and clear up into the early 70's! Traditional hot rods if you will.

But don't call them gassers...

Sam.

p.s. I might also add that this article also validated the "silliness" argument in that it calls these cars "Rub Offs"... meaning, they were imitating the darg racers... not duplicating them. The SAME thing happened in the 80's with the Pro Street cars... Personally, I find it a bit easier to swallow the late 60's street machine than I do the Pro Street car... quirky and silly as they may seem... they were a part of modifying your car back then... and that, my friends... is what we are all about.

 

The Ramcharger's "High & Mighty" was a C/Altered..

CC

 

Tingler, I love your car. Someday when I get my '51 F-1 gasser style truck done, I will post it with pride as well.
Junkyard

 

Trucks are easy...Just DON'T lower them from stock!

 

They ARE goofy. But I grew up watching CHiPS and Starskey and Hutch. I'd cruise any of these cars anywhere with Huggy Bear ridin shotgun. They are goofy enough that I dig em. Like 60's vans! Some guys dig em, some don't. But they were wild then and wild now. Scarce too. I was glad to see one still around.

Tingler, I am all for ya man.

 

Here's my current truck and my last two cars so you know I like the stance...
The corvair ran a 426 hemi, the truck runs a warmed 390 and four speed, and the 54 Ford ran a built Latham Supercharged Y-block with a four speed.

 

Well as Sly Stone said, Different strokes for different folks.

Tingler, I learned a new phrase today, to snurl one's nose. Gonna use that one. Thanks. PS the blue Fairlane is bitchen, note the set back engine and useful suspension mods. The '54 Chev looks like a car that was set on a pick up chassis. Opinions are like buttholes, I know…

Scooby, the comment about CHiPs and Starsky & Hutch explains a lot. A lot.

But my nose remains snurled, cars that look fast should BE fast.

BTW, Tingler, I think your car would look badass with a set of Supremes, layed on the ground and painted a shiny color. For, I'll wager, less money than you have in it. Do you live on a rutted dirt road or something?

On the player: Land of a Thousand Dances - Cannabal & The Headhunters

 

I always thought the gasser, skyjacker, axled car, or whatever you want to call it, looked FUCKING STUPID on the street. Like a little kid in a Halloween costume. When I was a kid the car guys around my neighborhood all had their cars cranked up to high heaven, some so severely that they had to slow waaay down around corners to avoid tipping over. How gay. Form getting in the way of function to the point of comedy.

We excuse football players (gassers) for looking ridiculous in their team uniforms(lettering/striping/logos) with all that dumb looking gear(nosebleed front ends,etc.) because of what they can do on the field (strip). That doesn't mean it's cool to walk around like that!!! ESPECIALLY IF YOU DON'T PLAY FOOTBALL(DRAGRACE)!!!

Like Hamb Burglar said, that look was goofy in '66, '76, and is still goofy in '06.

 

Then don't look at 'em.

 

I did know the "Spy Machine" wasen't a gasser, it ran in Altered class, just thought you all would like to see it because of the stance.

 

I won't. I'll just snurl my nose at them.

 

They don't build things like so you won't look. They do it so you will.

I like the footballer comparo, Stiff.

 

I'm more of a custom guy, so feel free to tell me to "shut the fuck up because you don't know what your talking about"

BUT........... Doesn't the term "gasser" have more to do with what "gas class" you were running in and less to do with profile? Granted 99% of the gassers were nose high, but as pointed out earlier in this thread, that had EVERYTHING to do with weight transfer. IMHO I think people are hanging the gasser tag on a "look" as opposed to the true meaning of what one is. Am I wrong? Should I shut the fuck up now?

 

You are absolutely correct.

 

Thats one PISSED OFF looking Corvair! But damn I like it.

 

What, that I should shut the fuck up?