Old Gasser Drag Cars

When I hear the word Gasser I think of those straight front axle drag cars of the 1960′s that had their front ends pointed so high into the air. I think that is the picture that comes to mind for most people who are into hot rods and drag cars, but what was the purpose of turning these nice looking cars into something that is just a little too far out there for most of today’s hot rodders?

The Gasser came about as a result the problems cars faced as they got faster and faster, there just were not any good tires that would allow these cars to hook up well. Even when guys would take recaps that were made into slicks, these tires were still made out of hard rubber that wouldn’t wrinkle or hook up. Granted they were better than the regular street tires of the day, but just barely.

So to fix this problem of their cars not hooking up on these not so great tires racers did the only thing that they could. They started raising their front ends in an effort to get the weight of the motor higher in the air to allow better weight transfer to the rear of the car on launch. As with most things that work well, people got a little out of hand and started going higher and higher. So NHRA decided to put a limit on the height of these cars. They set the limit to 24 inches from the ground to the snout of the crank.

Whether you love the old Gassers or hate them they are still a lot of fun to look at and to watch go down the local drag strip. Watching them is like looking back into drag racing history.