We love gassers. Some Johnny-come-latelys might think that the gasser movement during the mid-1950s all the way through the late-1960s was a failed experiment in drag racing technology, but they’d be dead wrong. The gassers, while proving to be a stepping stone in the development of faster and faster means to an end, paved the way for altered wheelbase A/FX’ers (or “Altereds”) and funny cars.
The concept was simple, near-complete weight transfer over the rear wheels. This was accomplished by articulating the rear suspension to carry the unloaded (or “sprung”) weight of the typically-leaf spring, straight axle front end. Tall tire was the name of the game with gassers, so radiused rear wheelwells were par for the course, as were fenderwell headers and weight-saving punch holes found across nearly every square-inch of the front suspension and frame.
We cobbled together some pretty cool videos of some of our favorite gassers – who have been welcomed into the fold of rat rodders, drag racers and hot rodders alike. In fact, it’s the only genre of classic that we know of that is universally welcomed. We’ve seen ’em cherried out, ratty, or completely vintage dressed with hand-stenciled lettering and colored Lexan glass.
Any way you cut it, the gasser movement was an unmitigated success, whether on the 1320 or in people’s hearts. While they’re a handful to wrangle down the quarter-mile and drive like a 1930’s cattle truck on smooth roads, the gasser is one of the last true “wild ones” to come from these tentative days of drag racing.