Gassers are
really popular right now, they look cool and they have a lot of room for
creative building. I really enjoy seeing
gasser style builds on the table because they are fun cars that border on silly
looking. Even though they can have an
element of fun to them, you have to remember, everything was done for a
reason. Racers don’t do anything to
their cars just for fun, they came to win and if it doesn’t make the car go
faster, they are really not interested.
The idea of racecars looking like show cars is really a modern
phenomenon. Even though you can point
out the exception from back in the day, most racecars were built to race and no
one cared whether they looked like show cars.
Measure it with a yardstick, mark it with chalk and cut it with a torch
was the rule of the day. So I decided to
write a little primer on what is a gasser and what ain’t, er, isn’t. Here’s a list of 20 things you should know
when building a gasser. I chose the 1965
NHRA rulebook as a guide and then went a couple of years either way to explain
changes.
1. Classes
– Those letters on the window mean something, they ain’t there for
decoration! Not every car ran A/G (A
gas), that was the top of the heap, a light car with lots of horsepower. The class designations are based on the car’s
weight divided by cubic inches. The reason guys ran Willys, Austins, and other
assorted old coupes, is because they were lighter than the current production
cars. That’s why A/G cars are usually
old classic coupes with big motors in them.
The behemoths of the 50’s are not light and no matter what you do to
them short of cutting off all the body panels, they will never be as light is a
car from the 30’s or early 40’s. So, if you took the same motor from “Ohio”
George’s 33 and put it in a heavier car, it drops a class or so. Superchargers moved you up a class at first,
so if you ran your car in B/G and then threw a supercharger on it, you are now
in A/G. Then in 1965, they added an “S”
to denote a supercharger and you ran in a separate class, such as B/GS. To make things worse, in 66, the doubled the
class letter, in this case the “B” to BB/GS, and in 67 they dropped the “S” to
BB/G. Classes went from A to H. One of the most famous gassers was the
“Flintstone Flyer”, it ran a 292 and weighted 4600 lbs and ran in E/G.
2. Nose
Height – Get the nose down! The rules
require that the crankshaft centerline be no more than 24 inches from the
ground. In 1/24 scale that’s about an
inch, not 5 inches. You need to
understand the idea behind the high front end, it’s about weight transfer to
the rear for traction. The prevalent
thinking of the day was to have the car sitting like it would while
accelerating, i.e., the back end squatting.
3. Rear
Height – Get your butt up! As the 60’s
wore on tires got better and taller and the cars began to sit closer to
level. The rear was still a little lower
than the front, but there was no “cowboy” rake to gassers by 65, and it was
never all that prevalent outside the stock classes anyway.
4. Street
Legal – These cars fall under the “Street” section of the rules, they must have
all the equipment required to drive them on the street and they must be able to
start on their own, which means batteries and starters, radiators, lights, and
all of that cool stuff. No body
modifications unless approved, so watch the chopped tops and no altered
wheelbases.
5. Driver
– must be in the stock location
6. Roll
bars – required
7. Frames
– cannot be raised to gain weight transfer (channeling)
8. Bodies
– Full fenders required
9. Engines
– only one and in the stock location
10. Suspension
– Must have one shock per wheel on a functional factory type suspension
11. Interior
– NO gutted interiors! Rear seat is
optional, buckets can replace front bench, full upholstery required. Cars must have a passenger seat, remember,
it’s a street car!
12. Anglias
– Anglias can only run a small block Chevys without a supercharger
13. Windows – Can be replaced with plexiglass
13. Windows – Can be replaced with plexiglass
O.K., enough of just the rules, now for the stuff that most
guys did or didn’t do. These are the
things that most people think cars had on them like they were rules, but they
are just common practice or not.
14. Batteries –
Big honkin’ truck batteries over the right rear wheel for ballast and to aid in
traction. The battery in the trunk puts
more weight on the rear tires which improves traction on the launch, it was put
over the right (passenger) side because the torque from the driveshaft causes
that side of the body to “raise”, the weight helps to keep it down. This torsional motion is what causes drag
cars to lift the front left wheel first when they pull a wheelie.
15. Ladder bars –
Long “ladder bars” were common in the 60’s to help keep the rear axle from
“winding up” on launch and when shifting.
In short wheelbase gassers they often connected to the transmission
cross member. Until the later 60’s they
were made from 1 piece of large square
tube and had a pivot on both ends to facilitate rear axle movement in an arc
but limit axle twist. The idea comes
from the “wishbone” design of 30’s cars and the later habit of hot rodders to
put “split ‘bones” on their cars. The
“ladder bars” most people think of are a much later design, the long triangle
shape with the zig-zag reinforcing that looks like a ladder. These became popularized on “Street Freaks”
in the 70’s.
16. Straight
Axles – Straight axles on a sky high “gasser” just looks cool! But not as common as you think. By the time the straight axle craze was
taking off, the Funny cars were taking over.
Early gassers ran stock suspensions and it just so happens that the old
30’s cars had straight axles on them stock.
There are light, strong, easy and work really great in a straight
line. By the time later body styles were
getting in to the gasser act, the class was dying. “Ohio” George modified his Willys chassis to
accept a 67 Mustang body, so it had a straight axle. Later gassers looked like little funny cars. The “Street Freaks” movement in the 70’s made
people think that all gassers were jacked up to the sky with a straight axle
under them, it’s not how it was.
17. Tunnel Ram
Intakes – Nope. These are a Pro Stock
item, they belong in the 70’s. The first
commercially available tunnel ram intake was in ’68, there were some around before
then, but they were rare. These were more
common on “Street Freaks” than real gassers.
18. White Wall
Slicks – White Walls were done by 1962, if your car has anything post 1962 do
not put white walls on it, it just looks wrong.
I know you can find exceptions out there, but it’s wrong. In 1959 tire makers started making “pinwalls”
which are the narrow white wall tires from the 70’s you remember. Everybody had to have them and the “gangster
walls” quickly fell out of fashion, then the raised white letter tires took
over from there. Another thing to
remember, slicks back in the day were recaps, nobody spent the bucks on white
walls except the top teams.
19. Modern Stuff
– AHHHHH! I hate this! Even factory
funny cars didn’t run AN fittings and braided line at this time. Billet fuel pressure regulators came around
much later than the gasser era. Big tube
welded pro mod headers don’t fit either.
Billet valve covers are out, finned covers were the coolest thing ever
back then and chrome was king! Billet wheels are out too. Most guys ran
steelies, especially on the rear. Real
magnesium slotted wheels were common for those that could afford them and
Cragar S/S’s came out about 65.
20. Scrub Line –
The scrub line is an imaginary line from the bottom of each wheel rim to all of
the other wheel rims. Nothing can be
below this line and be legal for competition.
As a matter of fact, if it’s too close you can’t run. The idea is if you blow a tire the only thing
that should make contact with the track is the wheels, anything else is
dangerous. No header tubes, no ladder
bars, no steering arms, no body panels. Nothing.
Last thing I want to mention, rear bumpers were often hollow
tubes that could be filled with water or cement to add weight to “make the
minimum”. This way you added weight
where it did the most good, water could also “accidently” leak out in the pits
after a weigh in. Barbell weights were
also common in the trunk of gassers for the same reason.
There’s my
little primer on gassers for you, it’s not complete and the rules changed from
year to year. I picked 65 because it’s
right in the middle of the era. If you
have any questions, let me know!
“Rat Fink” Ron
