Hot Rods where do you draw the line on faux gassers?

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/car/760772434.html

 

Anybody remember this '47 Olds? It used to run in the late 60s - world's fastest woody - 10 seconds and it's all over!

 

build your car the way you want it.if you like that look do it .also if its a street car it needs front brakes.my car was raced in the 60`s and now has front brakes so its not a gasser?i drive it as much as i can it run`s high 9`s so it up to you how much racecar you can stand in your street car.in the end its you thats has to be happy with your car not the purist!

 

yep, I have em on my race only, non street driven, money winnin willys fauxgasser

 

here is my faux gasser to ad tothese guys..

 

desoto - well some of us weren't around in the '60s and not even much of the 70's.

I use the term gasser because of the exact reason you say.. Everyone instantly knows what I am talking about. Since I wasn't around to see what was going on back then, and I have limited photos (most of them never showing what's under the body), I wanted to ask what was really done. I see plenty of faux gassers, gasser replicas, straight axle conversion etc and wasn't sure how accurate these cars are or not to the real thing.

I can't afford a real authentic straight axle car from the day, so I have to create my own. Of course at the very bottom of it all, it will be a fraud, but 90% of the cars on this board are frauds cause they never actually existed in that form in 1955 or whatever. They are all imitations or recreations.

I just wanted to build it and not have something obviously wrong and out of character. Things like that just bug me. Like a car so period correct that the builder goes to the trouble of getting braided plug wires and raja terminals, but then has a 700R4... why?

roadsters.com .... what?


but anyway.. Here's what it looks like I'll be doing. Early 60's 389, 4spd, straight axle with drums.

 

Thank you! That post took the words right out of my mouth.

Some people tend to "over-remember" how good things were decades ago and how nice cars might have been in the old days when they were often not that nice and often not as "correct" as today's tributes to the old days. (Think of all the Pebble-Beach quality concours restored woodys we see today with $3,000 surf boards sticking out the back and surf shop decals all over the back windows. Real '60s surf woodys were usually rotted-out heaps whose next stop was the wrecking yard.)

"but anyway.. Here's what it looks like I'll be doing. Early 60's 389, 4spd, straight axle with drums." Now that sounds cool.

 

Revhead, I understand what you say... I was just refering to the large number of people talking of "FAUX GASSERS" & refering to just about EVERY car built today with THE LOOK as being a Poser pile of shit.

I Support FULLY what you are doing if its built in GOOD TASTE as the one i am doing is as close to a late 60s early 70s street car as i can get.

All early parts, DeSoto Hemi, Pontiac rear end, '60s Chrome Tube Straight axle, 5~Spokes, Drum Brakes... ETC.

I also agree that if a person is going to be so Anal as to say these cars are FAKE than they need to look accross the board that all the NEW Old style Hot Rods & Kustoms are equally FAKE.

I couldnt car less WHEN it was built, As long as it is done in good taste & as true to the ERA as possible.

And i here ya Loud & Clear about the ERA CORRECT builds and then They get fucked up with say.. Automatic Transmissions, Disk Brakes, S-10 rear ends, tilt coulmns, ETC.

 

That is just right. Looks just like 90% of the drag-raced street drivers of the day.

 

the big difference between a gasser and a street freak is the front wheel and tire combo. gassers should have skinnies up front, but a street freak might have tires so wide they wouldn't fit in the stock rear wheel opening...

 

Looks like the old AMT '65 Galaxie with a Revell '54 Chevy front axle and leafs, a parts-pack blower and scoop, Monogram slicks from a Lil' Coffin or a Blue Beetle, and Revell Bantam drag car front wheels. Basically, the typical over-the-top 1/25 model car most of us built when we were little kids and where a lot of us who were kids in the '60s got our love for cool cars. I like it in the same way I like old Roth or Starbird creations: I might not do that myself but the creativity blows me away.

 

This is what I call building a hot rod like we did back when. I like this attitude and devotion. FIVE STARS! IMO.

 

...and there it is.

 

I generally agree with most of what has been said but one thing to remember is 1970 is after the cars started ending up nose down or level by three years.

Pick a class, pick a year and do some research that is what will really make the car. There are too many general statements on here many are right and wrong at the same time because we are covering a span of time from 55-67 in most cases. Mommy's car with some tweaks didn't cut it for long so if you don't have a something very early styled or low in the ranks its not a good recreation without an axle. Ball joint spacers are for Super Stocks and street cars. Depending on the class and year there are many changes such as height, brakes, engine set backs, chutes what was legal or not depending. Many times a car was sold and run in a lower class with last years parts so the first guy could move on to new advances in his class. The thing that kills these cars is if you don't pick one style you like and stay with it. Details make a big difference you just have to decide how far do you want to take it.

With the race cars just as they did in the 60's they keep being updated to be competitive but I hate going to a Gasser meets just these to see these overly modern cars run. There is no point to the nostalgia factor of a vintage meet when the cars are the same at any other weekend race and the show cars aren't even close.

Its split up between the guys restoring and replicating the past, the guys trying to run numbers and win races, and street cars trying to look the part. Basically, its a me too sort of deal, everyone making their own version of what was but its gotten very generalized with too much of whats not really related thrown in.

Now I know, I really don't care what a guy with a bad memory or a modern racer thinks of my car and you shouldn't care what I or anyone else thinks of yours as long as you are happy with it. I hate the updates, mass reproduction parts, aero wings, bolt-on twelve spoke posers, and unrealistic silly shit like the Fairlane but thats me, I bet he has a blast in that thing so good for him. The only time it really bothers me is when a really rare part ends up on one of them otherwise I'm more for the do it your own way vote.

 

I couldn't agree more - since when is a plastic pro Mod fake "Willys" a gasser - like the ones you see at the CHHR? I still go, but those are NOT the cars I want to see and NOT what it started out as in 1992. About as traditional as a '60s convertible with 26" billet hoops with rubber band rim protectors. Thank goodness for Dragfest.

This thread is actually bringing up some interesting points and is one of the best currently active on the HAMB.

 

I am sort of old fashioned..so I draw the line at "faux"...

 

Right here

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=257672

 

My 2 bobs worth;cars like those shown are so wrong to the original rules,but you can tell they,re gasser bred and are 2000% more interesting than any late model stuff,ain,t that good enough without nit picking?

 

Sorry - Not true. My Anglia held a B/GS record at the original Irwindale earned during an NHRA meet and Never had front brakes (until about a year ago when I decided I really didn't like the way it stopped after a low 9 160mph run with old drums and throwing out the laundry, just too squirrelly with a 90" wheelbase) .

I also have to agree that too many of the cars you see at current nostalgia events that have stretched bodies, 14-71 blowers, patio table sized wings etc are not Gassers, just Pro Mods. I think the Pro Mods are insane and enjoy them - just don't call them Gassers!

 

great fun

 

OH yeah...my old 56 with a '60, 389 and the original slant-pan hydro. No gasser but I like 'em better without the front bumper.
If your 40 is a 4 door, forget the gasser look. If it's a small body [25 series] tudor or a coupe, bolt an axle under that puppy!

 

I've seen this car in my neck of concrete Jungle and this guy drives this car everywhere! He never pulls in to a local car shows at night on a trailer. He drives the shit out of it!! He ok in my book!

 

Street freaks, Gasser, Faux, build what you want. Be safe and enjoy that is what it is all about!

 

amen!!!!!!!!!!!:d

 

Now, I fully agree with this statement even though I have strong opinions on what is and is not a Gasser or plausible for a given time . If you want something build it. If the car is what you want, cool.

The part where I don't get it is, this is the Hamb right? Now I don't make the rules here or claim to but my interest in the Hamb is preservation of what was and I thought that was generally the point of 1964 cut off. I mean it would be cool if this was a this is how we slammed an old gas car on the ground in 1986 and made it prostreet because it was trendy but I still call it a gasser because it sounds cool forum.

Generally you don't see yellow, fiberglass, 32's with stretched bodies, sporting 18 and 20 inch billet hoops and LS1's on here. What is the difference that makes the modern Gasser thats not even close acceptable ?

Here are a few shots from early to mid sixties...

 

More from 66-67 on when the noses started coming back down but they still don't look anything like todays average "its a gasser" add justification here build.

 

Now this is a gasser.

Wow!

Dave
http://www.roadsters.com/

 

I second that....