Some of you say Gassers can't be driven...

here's my chance to put a plug in for Hot Rod Drag Week. Classes to fit just about anybody. Drive 2-300 miles each day, then race. Goes on for five days. GREAT time, did it myself. Third place if you don't mind my saying so (68 Nova). I am seriously considering running the 56 Chevy this year. It separates the men from the boys...and even the men have issues. I think this applies very well to the discussion in this thread. IMHO

 

Hey Bob,
Do you know how fast the diesel Mustang (Mike Woods) went. I got 2 different stories on it.
And as long as I'm asking, how fast is your Nova?
The Hot Rod Drag Week sounds like a blast.
Larry T

 

Larry T: due to a wedding in the family (and now she's PG), I could not attend this year's HRDW. It was in 2007 that I ran. I hang with some Aussies that come over. it is a blast. The Nova runs 11.2's. Ran in Big Block, No Power Adder.

56 has a blown big block, so the cars will be faster. But you have to FINISH to have a chance. It only runs low 12's, but if there at the end, you never know. It will be a hoot, no matter what.

You can learn more by going to www.hotrod.com and click on events. Lots of room for any gassers that think they want to run the streets.

 

Some of you say Gassers can't be driven...

Says who?

Who be these naysayers? Is there a thread on here somewhere w/ folks going blah blah blah about "you can or you can't" do "this or that" w/ a "gasser" other than this one?
I am no authority on what IS or is NOT a so called "gasser" but I am often amused that
so many on this board seem to come off as experts on the subject. Folks seem to forget that "gasser" classes started as a "street car class".
According to Larry Davis who IS an authority on the matter, the gas, or "gasser" class was simply drag cars not running exotic fuels. Just gasoline.
If ya look at his book titled "Gasser Wars, drag racings street classes, 1955-1968" as I hope SOME of you have, then you will know that:
Most of these things started life as street cars & some of em turned into barely streetable monsters.
So.........can you drive one one the street? I should fucking well hope so. They ARE street cars.
Aren't they?
If not, I may go get a "barn find RatRod" & build me a "Gasser"
Sheesh

 

Way to go Yancy !

We kept in touch during his entire trip. Slicks stacked where the back seat would go,clothes in the trunk, he drove that damn thing from Indy to VLV, from VLV to Huntington Beach California,then all the way back to Indy.

Good stuff dude.

Rumor has it that next year he's driving his lowered 60 Caddy to VLV and going to tow the Stude with it.

This i gotta see !

 

HAha! hey look! this is me....

"Well actually, "gasser" is defined as.......haha

 

Well said my friend!

For those that don't know Yancy - you need to know him, He supports single moms,lives,eats,breathes ( and FARTS) old cars and good ol fashioned RocknRoll,his pops is in to old cars, and he treats out of town guests VERY well at the local Indy strip clubs.
Oh yeah, one more thing, he loves to Moon people - ALL THE TIME.

Keep doing what yer doing my friend. That was an awesome thing you did last April,and don't let anyone on here tell ya different !

Axle

 

was it hotrod mag that had the article on the bataam roadster with blown 426 hemi drove it across the states in rain ...ran rather slow cause the blower was worn out from the trip....

 

It was some pretty cool shit following his journey here on the board.
Axle, next April expect to also see a chopped '55 Desoto and a blue hot rod roadster pickup cruise in the gates at Viva. Mike and I (Dustin), are going to be making the trip as well with Yancey.

 

My '57 Vette was 409 stuffed..when I exploded the '09..I found a 427-435 and built that...two AFBs..on a ram..wheel well headers with dump and gpacks at dumps hangin..
I-beam front axled..9" Ford (IIRC from 1967-8)..4.88 then 5.13 gears..T-10 then a Muncie..everything gutted to save weight.
That BBC was angled front high so the fan actually protruded from a slot in the hood..a real meat slicer if you didn't know.

I could drive it..to Skips or Super Dog in Chicago..or McDs on Waukegan to pick up a run..but any further and it just didn't like it. Mostly I trailered it..night runs.."timing nights"..match runs to pick up gas/beer/parts money

Plugs fouled on the street..nasty solid cam..about 12:1 on Sonoco 260 (280?)and race fuel.. A nice date car..
MT slicks..small 5.00 fronts..bump steer out the ass..and rear steer in any type turn with the locked rear..
It would torque lift..twist that frame..without effort..nasty..crude....a hard on with wheels..

But on those nights..it was everything.
On Sundays it was life..
On a trip it was a near death experience..

Loved that car...

 

That's the truth. Back in the mid 50s my buddy had a 53 Merc, basically stock. He wasn't running a front bumper so they put him in a gas class. something like H/G maybe even lower. That's all it took back then on an 1/8 mile track. Oh, it also was a tail dragger.

 

I just built this 55 to street it. It runs awesome on the freeway. 406 sbc with dart alum heads, dart intake, Callies crank, Lunati rods, roller rockers, girdles, 750 double pumper, 539hp on the dyno and a 2 speed glide. Can you say FUN!!!!

 

Back in the 50's Gasser didn't mean straight axle it meant that the engine was modified beyond the limits of stock class or it had been swapped.

My stepfather traded for a 52 Vic hardtop with a 312 Thunderbird special engine in it that had run C gas and held a couple of track records at the time. Lowered all around and fast as all hell at the time.

I like the idea that the Studebaker that started the thread was built to fit the class as it was at a certain period in time when many gassers in the same class at the time were daily driven cars that raced on Sunday and took the owner to work on Monday.
Any car that is driven on a daily basis and can run 11"s after being driven to the track is ok in my book.

 

Driving ANY old car across the country is a feat in itself... add to that it has a solid axle under the front and it's just COOL.

Who cares if it's "correct" or not... runs 13's... hell... it's a lot further than I've driven any of my junk!

Sam

 

hey axle, you know me, i could give a shit less what people say or think about me. like i said before i did this run FOR ME... sure there were some of the weekend car guys round the indy area that laughed and actually took bets on if id make it outta the state or not. soo ya there was a part of me that was pushed by these comments. and yes next year, the caddy with the stude in tow will be on the highways and byways headed west. as we speak the caddys being over hauled for the journey along with the building of a single axle trailor for the 'baker. i have some plans for the lil motor in the stude,, makin it a lil less streetable. kinda like the evolution of the 'gas class cars of yesteryear.'

 

hey docc do u have any pictures of the ol vette? i kinda hve a soft spot for the solid axle vettes. my ol man still has his car that he ran in the mid sixties. its a 61, olds rear, now sports a 69 l-88. ill get some pics of it up soon

 

Well said dude. People were getting a bit side tracked and missed the whole point. You say you are "GOING" to drive a gasser across county and they say it can't be done. Then you "DO" it and are happy about it, then people say, well that aint shit, it's been done before and not a big deal. Damnest thing I ever saw.

Cool as hell if you ask me.

 

Way to go Dustin...four pages and counting. I know these guys personnally. They are both young guys full of piss and vinegar just like I was in my early 20's. They live and breath their hot rods and customs.
I could'nt care less what any ones defination of a gasser or hot rod is or is'nt. I've ridden in the 'ol Rudabaker and it is definitely a stripped down gasser type car and I would'nt even think of taking it on a 6000 mile road trip. Course I'm a 60+ year old man now. When I was in my early 20's a trip like this in a car I built would be a trip of a lifetime. Good on 'ya Yancy...keep doing what your doing. just try to keep the rubber side DOWN!!!!

 

I don't think anyone has said anything bad about anybody. And I've already stated that I'm not man enough to have made that trip in that car. It's cool that you did. I've never had a chance to make a cross crountry trip. I've always wanted to though. Even if it's in my S10.

 

Actually, I just made the observation that it didn't handle the mud puddle very well. The spin cycle was the after effect. ha ha ha I don't think you were doing 100 otherwise we would have been picking up pieces of you. Nonetheless, I think it is a cool car, and cool you drive the shit out of it.....

I'll bet it is a lot more comfy than the POS I drove out to Bonneville last year though....

 

I tried Hilborn injection on my 37 Ford running a full house Caddy on the street. You gotta keep the revs up around 3000 grand to pull out or it would bog like crazy.

 

Got a kick out of this post Docc. Pretty much sums up my car too. I run race fuel into a crossram with 1000 cfm of dual 4's. Solid lift cam with way too much duration and spring pressure. 4.88 gears and a Rockcrusher Muncie. The setup is pretty much a mirror image of Project X from the mid 60's.

Sweet action for a 1-2 hour cruise on a Saturday night or banging through the gears to 7500 rpm out in the country. And I drive it 40-50 miles to a cruise-in or whatever, but take some extra spark plugs with ya just in case, and be prepared to experience a little additional hearing loss after 40-50 minutes of listening to the engine at 4 grand.

Love it too.

 

That's what I always thought.

 

Thanks Don. Even though we give ya some shit every now and then, and yuou belong to a gay car club (we won't hold that against you)... You're pretty darn cool.
Get that damn Ford going, its become a land mark in front of Tom's shop.

 

Although I totally agree, I think that as a style that's designed for compatition (form follows [intended] function), a 'Gasser' would not be my choice for general transportation. That said, I'm sure that many a wild street trip has and will be had in one. Often the best way to ensure that something gets done, is to tell someone that they can't do it.

 

Everybody knows that you cant drive a straight axled Gasser as daily transportation .Mine sees rain whenever its raining , sun whenever its sunny, and yes i have driven it in 8 inches of snow.It hasnt been down more than a day or two in the last year and half and that was because i broke it from time to time (clutches, rearends ,etc.) I like to bragg a little ...

 

Yeah, the trip was definatly magazine worthy. Congrats Yancey!

 

This thread is what the Hamb is all about to me and almost makes me want to keep my car.Im glad to see more Gasser style hotrods being driven down the road ,instead of being trailered down it ...

 

Very cool car.
That's the exact type of conditions that Yancey's Stude goes through 24/7, 365 days a year.
Its okay to brag a bit

 

Here we go again. Call it what you may but if he drives the shit out of that Studebaker thats what its all about. I drive mine too, no wipers in the rain, no heater in the cold. Hell, in Colorado this summer they even let me off without a ticket for speeding and open fenderwell headers, in town! I like my rides shiny clean, its a bitch to keep em that way drivin the roads everywhere, but I gotta drive mine. Thats the reward for all the work we put into them. So call them what you may, after all, are we not all here for the same reason?