What makes a gasser a gasser?

Well, "The Flintsone Flyer" and "The Flintstone Flyer Too" were both oddball, and serve as quite appropriate examples that "Gassers" were not limited to just a half a dozen popular or "correct" makes or body styles.
There were a lot of "obscure" makes and models built into gassers, not everyone needs to build another clone of SWC et-al to be "correct" to the period and build style.
So here it is again, a Tri-Five Chevy with radiused wheelwells and a worked over 283 qualifies as a "genuine" gasser, while a Tri-Five Poncho running a built dual-quad 421 and 4 gear into a ladder-barred 4.88 rear and slicks is not qualified to be accounted equally as a "Gasser"? simply because the Chevy's outnumber the Pontiacs.?

 

I'd say this has all the right makings.

 

This wouldn't be considered a gasser under 60's NHRA or AHRA rules. Altered wheelbase, and sky high. He could have run the car at an unaffiliated track or a track that was sanctioned but didn't necessarily follow all the rules. There were a lot of those kinds of tracks in the 60's.

 

There is no one car that can be the epitome of a gassers. Cars from Model A's to 60's cars were all used as gassers, some really oddball ones. That said, I think the 55/56 Chevies came closest as they were plentiful and didn't need much prep work to make it a competitive car (and this from a Ford man).

 

what am I missing here, SWC, Ohio George, Big John etc all had raised cars.

 

has anybody ever thought that we sound a little like the snooty high brow set with our "oh that isn't period correct" bull?

 

How about building it as close to the era he is looking for. Then finish the thing the way he wants to. Build it the way you want! Its your car and as long as you think its BAD ASS thats all that counts! You will never make everybody happy so dont try.

 

The altered wheel base (rear axle moved forward) takes the car pictured out of the stock bodied gasser classes and moves it into an altered class. There were also limits to how much a car cold be raised, how far engines could be set back, etc. which varied from year to year. If a modification surpassed any of those limits, it would again move the car out of the stock bodied gasser classes.

 

Modifications like relocation of the rear springs and narrowed rear ends could possibly be found on an early '60s gasser, but were not likely. The cars that most folks were using (tri five Chevies, Willys, Ford Pop, etc) could be bought at that time in good running condition very often for $100 or less. A racer wouldn't think twice about cutting up a $100 car, even a cherry one. If a racer wanted to put on rear tires that were too wide to fit in the stock fender wells, he would be more likely to spend an afternoon cutting the sheet metal on the rear quarters and less likely to spend days or weeks of fabrication to move springs inboard or narrow the rear axle.

The practice of narrowing rear axles and moving springs inboard became more popular in the '70s and '80s, when the cars had become much more valuable.

I'm not saying that this guy's Pontiac will look not look good with wide tires stuffed under the stock fender wells and wider wheels and tires at the front, but each of these compromises takes the car farther away from the early gasser look he says he's after.

 

I'm not sure what Mike means by "early gasser look," as these photos are all gassers, taken in the early 60s (pre-65, which, if I remember correctly, is the time period for the HAMB). Not a one has radiused wheelwells, and the front tires aren't particularly narrow, either.

As for SWC, Ohio George, Big John, et al, in the first half of the 60s, their gassers weren't all that tall. If one bothers to look at the gassermadness website, there are hundreds of pictures of gassers from the early sixties that are raised very little above stock height, or not at all.

 

Another gasser pic taken back in the day. Someone forgot to tell him to cut the wheelwells, run a straight axle, and skinny front tires. Street legal, too, apparently.

 

Luckily for the hundreds of racers who ran the Gas classes in the 60s, there weren't all the HAMB "experts" telling them it was incorrect to build their cars the way they actually built them.

 

I never said that the "early gasser look" requires radiused rear wheel openings. What I said was that if they ran tires that did not fit in the stock rear wheel openings, they would more likely to radius the wheel openings than perform the complicated, time consuming, major skill requiring mods mentioned before. The cars in the pictures you have posted are running tires that do fit in the stock rear wheel openings (probably 7" slicks).

As for the front wheels, yes, many gassers ran normal sized tires at the front(yes, sometimes even on mags). The ones in your pictures have stock steelies. Some racers who switched to mags did so for looks, but I reckon that most did so to save wieght. More narrow wheel and more narrow tire equals less weight. A racer trying to save wieght would not likely switch to a pair of 15x6 Cragars that weigh nearly the same as a pair of stock 15x5 steelies.

 

Point well taken, and I apologize for having an attitude.

I was just trying make the point that the term "gasser" is pretty broad, if one uses the historical record as a guide.

I hope you have a great rest of the week, and even better weekend.

 

Hey, no sweat. You're right, gas class cars back then came in all shapes and sizes and were equipped many different ways.

Later, Mike

 

No they did not - while higher than stock, they were not raised the way some of these new "gassers" are being constructed.

 

Seperated at birth?

 

I don't think I'd kill for one of those '55 gassers, but I'd sure consider maiming someone!

 

oh gees, i guess my "j" isn't a real gasser. everybody at the drags comes up and tells me it's a cool gasser!!! they must be just trying to spare my feelings. oh crap!!! i guess my bantam isn't an altered either. it has a c4 in it. i am crushed. i am taking my bat and ball and going home.

 

I,m with you,the early cars shown are a shadow of the fire breathing monster they become;larger than life and exciting to look at.Gassers with the same size wheels all round????????Does not compute.Also,Willys and Ford Anglia have got to be the benchmark for gassers.I didn,t realise there was any kind of argument

 

In the beginning, any engine that had non-factory engine options automatically went into a gas class using a formula based on engine displacement versus total car weight. It allowed up to a 10% engine setback. I forget the breakpoint where rollbars were required.

 

I didn't think the Anglias were allowed in NHRA Gas classes until the late sixties because the 90"wheelbase was too short.

If chieftain55 wants to go for an early gasser look a 9.5" inch tire will fit in the stock wheelwell after the quarter panel is bowed out some. I have the racing history (1960-1975) on a '56 Pontiac drag car I own, the racer ran 9.5" McCrearys and 7.10 by 15 tires on the front; no straight axle.
-Tad

 

Wendy's chilli...

 

Judging by the pics posted by arkiehotrods above, I liked the first one on this page with the 55 on wide whites on steelies on front. My Cragars turned out to be 15 x 7, so I could run a 29 x 10 tire on those on the back and run some black steelies with wide whites on the front. I don't have a matching set of wheels at this point, but I figured thats as close as I can get for now. I've seen it the other way around also with the black steelies on the rear and cragars on the front, but my steel rims are 15 x 6.

And i'm thinking of leaving the center grill and upper bumper halves to help keep some idenity and remove the lower bumper- any thoughts?

 

another thing to concider too....i've had older guys tell me about times when they would take their car to the strip ...run the car as it was in say s/s or m/p....then pull the bumper and run gas ....little things could change the class of the car...i know one guy that would run his in a couple classes then drive it home.... those early shots of the tri 5 stuff are neat.... brandon