History What is the big deal with Gassers???

or harleys

 

A vid I took at the HAMB drags a couple of years ago...

 

^ ^ ^ This is absolutely correct! ^ ^ ^

 

watch my incar gopro video of my built in 65-66 modelA gasser still running at the drags today.......

see it on youtube at ... a30gasser ...titled... Model A vs Henry J Eagle Field 2012...

also in a featured article HotRodelux March pg42 43 44 45>

was in dave wallace story about Eaglefield in HotRod

after ride along you better get it

 

^
Hey bud, will you be at Eagle Field in May? I'd like to meet ya and check out your car. I'll be there with my Willys pickup.

 

I was discussing Gassers. Read the "words" that went along with the pictures in that post.

 

OK, I mis-spoke. I know the words were about "gasser', I just didn't see any pictures of "gassers"! I know "gassers" look kinda like those cars.... but different!

 

Now tell the truth, when you were going down that strip back in 55 you didn't see cars built like any of the four below, did you?

 

my son will bring car to both may&oct drags.......his name is jeff/stop by

 

Ohio George's gasser before 1959 (when he went to the Willys).

And the Willys in 1959.

 

And that's a loooong way from being the same car in the other picture.

About the only thing in common may have been the frame rails.

 

The "tall" picture is the one in Don Montgomery's "Supercharged Gas Coupes" book. According to him, the picture was taken in 1961. It still has the same blown Caddy engine and if you'll look, he's still running the same banjo rear end. Fenders are cut the same. Not as many changes as you may think.

 

Save all your money and buy a GTO

You oughta see her on a road course or a quarter mile
This little modified Pon-Pon has got plenty of style
She beats the gassers and the rail jobs, really drives 'em why-ee-eye-ild
C'mon and turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO

 

i liked them then and i like them now---the ones i like the most are the ones that look like they did then--most were street driven older cars with newer engines 40 fords with overheads--tri fives with extra carbs or cubes, etc--there were no gasser police and if you got it too high or low you lived with it----but bench racing (like we are doing ) was a lot of pure B.S. still is only you get a lot more posers on a keyboard than you do face to face

 

They are just cool looking.
oh and they are fast too

 

SWC's first Willys was licensed for the street, had mufflers, windshield wipers, etc. Note the license plates on the rear deck...

 

...boy, never seen that cool Ford wagon push car before, any more pics of it?

 

Up until 1964 (maybe 1965) all Gassers ran in the Street Section and "must be capable of being driven on the street". So all of the street equipment was required to run in the class. They were still in the Street Section in 66, but the rules loosened up and some of the street equipment requirements were dropped.

It's in black and white here.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=334715


I always figured that the Gasser class was originated for Street/Strip cars. I think they got out of hand in the late 50's and NHRA changed the rules (to include all street equipment) to try to make them dual purpose cars again. Didn't really work, they were race cars with street equipment. Then NHRA came out with Modified Production for Street/Strip cars. Same thing all over again.

 

Just my opinion, but I think what killed the Gas class was match racing. Many gasser class cars competed in match races that let their cars be setup in a manner that was built for maximum performance, and not restricted by the rules of Gas class.
The crowd demand for winner takes all match races was great, and guys did all sorts of changes, and eventually if they had enough money at stake they built specific match race cars. Eventually this ended up with cars that no longer had factory modified frames, and also had one piece liftoff bodies.
The crowd went wild for the match race cars, and the newer funny cars. True gassers that met the class rules eventually faded away when big sponsor money got behind the big name cars that bent or broke the rules to match race.

 

All true. We have to remember that in the late 1950's and early 1960's, NHRA was not a place for most racers to make any money, even if you won the event. Match racing was much more lucrative. Promoters of even the smaller tracks offered more cash for "match racing" than most racers could get by racing in class racing. Plus, the promoter could advertise that Joe Blow was going to be racing John Smith in a 2 out of 3 match race, etc. Match racing rarely required that the contestants had "legal" class cars, it was almost an "anything goes" deal. Leonard Woods (of Stone-Woods-Cook) told me that the primary reason they went to the Mustang body was to be able to do both match racing and NHRA AA/GS racing, but after doing a little match racing, they rarely went back to NHRA competition.

 

I think Ohio George is getting blamed for something that was done before him. I have an issue of Rodder aand Super/Stock with a 65 Mustang gasser powered by a small block Chevy that had the name "the NUMISMATIST " painted down the side. I will look when I get home, but I think its a1965 isue.

 

Herw it is thw January 66 the car is lettered C/GS so in nhra that would be from 65 because 66 was CC/G.

 

It ran a 287 ci chevy with 327 FI Corvette heads a racer brown roller cam and a 6-71 with a Hilborn two pot injection.

 

Dug up the Car Craft mag from 67 and found this picture in the article.

 

What was the most common rear suspension setup used in the early days with Gassers or was it just beefed up stock stuff???

 

This just makes me want to turn my 77 potal jeep into a gasser.

 

Well it does have a straight axle and the rockers are above the center-line of the spindle so some on here would consider it to be a "real" Gasser.

 

more of a bracket car ---might be cool---you could run all the mopar events...