Editing Gasser

{{youcanedit}} The term "gasser" refers to a specific class of drag racing cars. ==Genesis of the term "gasser"== In the beginning, Gas class was instituted to allow the guys with modified motors or engine swaps a class to run in. I used to run a '48 Ford with a modified '51 Mercury flathead in F/Gas. These were still fully functional, street legal cars with full interiors. I also used to yank the back seat out and run in C/Altered. One of the problems with hotter cars in that era was that there were no good tires. Even the recaps made into slicks of the time were capped with hard rubber on truck tire carcasses that wouldn't wrinkle up or hook up. They were better than treaded street tires, but not by much. The crafty hot rodders did the only thing they could do and began raising the motors up in the frames to get more weight transfer to the rear of the car on launch. Check out photos of Fuel Altereds of the era. As with most things, this got out of hand, so NHRA put a limit of 24" crank snout to the ground. Raising the front of the car did the same thing, transferring weight to the rear on launch in an effort to gain some traction. I love to watch some of the old videos with the fuel rails and altereds smokin' the tires the whole length of the quarter mile. As tire technology improved, the nose-up attitude disappeared into history. ==Evolution of the term over the years== The term "Gasser" is a vulgarization of NHRA's classification that was originally "Gas Coupe/Sedan." The main purpose of this classification was to have a place to race cars with seriously modified engines. Virtually anything was legal, right up to supercharging, but the cardinal rule was that the number one sparkplug had to be within ten percent of the wheelbase, as regarded the front spindle. That is, if the car has a 100-inch wheelbase, the #1 sparkplug could legally be no farther back than ten inches behind the centerline of the front spindle. Gassers had to have all their basically unaltered fenders, but bumpers could be removed. Gas Coupe/Sedans were classified by weighing the car and dividing the weight by the engine displacement. In the beginning, and "A"-class car was 0-9 pounds per cubic inch; a "B" was 9-11, a "C" was 11 and up... The following year, an "E" class was added for cars with over 13 pounds per cubic inch. Flathead and ibline six-cylinder cars (there were no V-6's back then) were kept separate, so they didn't have to compete directly with the OHV V8's. The next step up was "Altered" or "Roadster" class, which allowed a 25-percent setback. "Altereds" and "Roadsters" cars could move the body back on the frame, and run without fenders. No interior was required. Yhere were just race-only cars. "Street Roadsters" had the same basic rules as Gassers, but the fender rule was more flexible at times. It changed, periodically, but motorcycle fenders were allowed in lieu of stock fenders up front, at some point. It was a "ten=percent engine-setback" rule class, like the Gas Coupe/Sedans. ==Gasser websites== *http://www.eastcoastgassers.com/ *http://www.gassermagazine.com/ *http://www.midwestgassers.com/ *http://gassermadness.com/ ==Gasser articles== *http://gassermadness.com/Gas_Classes/index.htm

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