Customs Rear axle moved forward on '55 Chevy - why?

What is the purpose of the "alternate wheelbase" on this car? I've been around cars for a long time but have never seen one like this before. It's obviously a lot of work to move the rear axle forward and then redo the body work on both sides of the car. And the owner is trying to get $25k for it even though it looks goofy as hell to me. Is there less of a chance that it will do a wheelie on the drag strip? What's the point?

 

Ask @squirrel

 

That's not right.
Looks as bad as a chopped top on a '55-'57

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mmmm............a little too extreme for your typical altered wheelbase car

 

When you move the wheels forward, it puts more of the weight of the car on the rear wheels. You get more traction when accelerating.

works really well on my car....but that 55 does look kind of goofy. I guess mine looks goofy, too.

 

Ya...goofy 9's...

 

Sawzall went CCW instead of CW.

 

the 55 does not look good at all.

 

We should start separate forum with the name " Ask Squirrel"

 

True, but think of the trunk room!

 

I'm thinking the builder wanted to go A to B as quick as possible...does an engines sitting 1/2 way into the cab look good?...no...does it help?...yes.

 

I think the 55 is a little bit "more" than one would "normally" see in an AWB Tri-Five Chevrolet, not that there are a lot of them out there to start with. It would also be MORE prone to wheelie, than less. The entire car is shortened, not just the wheelbase. It looks like the door is actually the front door of a four door car, and the rear quarters of a two door car. Maybe if the driver sat in the back seat area, it would all "come together" better. JMO. I'm surprised you did't "caption this car", Lebowski!
I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I didn't notice the stupid front wheels at first. That tells you all you need to know about the builder.

 

LIL! Sorry man. Can t help but laugh. Reminds me of a clown car from the Circus.

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Looks about the same as these

 

the idea is weight transfer. are you guys so young that you dont know that?
lebowski, how old are you?

 

I'm 65. That's why I asked if that would make it less prone to doing a wheelie, which relates to weight transfer. How old are you?

 

More wheelie prone. Moving the rear wheels forward transfers weight onto them and off the front wheels. But it's done for traction, not wheelies. Started in the '60s.

 

The AWB cars started back in the 60's because the cars didn't have wider slicks and horsepower was on the increase. So move the axles up and let the weight of the car help plant the slick better. I have to say that anything before '63 with a AWB looks odd. Can't deny it doesn't work though.

 

For all you young guys,,The AWB cars were the begining of "funny cars" as thy looked funny..

 

Nope! It is a regular two door post body with the only change being the short wheelbase.

Roo

 

I think the shape of the rear wheel well and the lack of chrome or anything to break up the illusion of a 28 foot quarter panel makes it look awkward.-MIKE

 

This photo illustrates the difference between "goofy" and "functional goofy".

 

Now take this for example....

 

Where did you find that!

 

WBRW32 is correct he has been there and done that

 

To me the altered wheelbases look goofy on a street car. But on a track car with the graphics and decals they look right.

 

Blowby, on here somewhere I think.

 

Somebody wanted to look like the cool kids but had no idea or understanding of why this was done. Sort of like a guy in Idaho who straps a long board to the roof of his PT Cruiser because he saw one on a station wagon in a California magazine.

 

I have always understood that in the old days of skinny bias ply tires, when radials weren't on the market yet, and wide wide drag slicks weren't invented yet, the most race-like tires you could get were narrow street tire retreads, and you had to do whatever you could to "plant" them by weight transfer such as high front ends, low tail dragging, and moving rear axle forward to put all the weight on it that you possibly could.
That was also before engines became gigantic.
As a kid, I watched the fastest local hot rod racers even back a car into a service station stall, lower the long heavy rails of the car-lift into the car trunk to mash down the rear springs, then run a chain thru the trunk floor and around the rear axle to lower the rear end just before a street race so they could force the car to rare-back on its rear tires while the other guy who did not do it just spun his skinny bias tires.
Old old days, without todays hot rod speed stuff led to all sorts of rigs that would look positively goofy to people today who can buy stuff now that was not invented yet wayy back then.

Many ppl today will try to "duplicate" the old looks without understanding the "why" of it, and then miss the mark by actually creating a caricature cartoon of it without knowing where they went wrong in their re-creation.

why be ordinary?