Besides, their engines are positioned right behind the driver, with bare suspension gears, low weight, and huge wheels at the back for power and traction.īecause of the immense power, exciting engineering approach, and unusual materials, open seaters are always fast with superb handling. These racing machines resemble low-flying fighter jets with pointy noses, aerodynamic aids, and huge wings at the rear. Since then, they have evolved into one of the fastest and extreme types of race cars. Open-seaters date back to the early day of the automotive industry.
What’s more, nitromethane was becoming popular on the race track. By the 70s, the cars’ chassis were being built from scratch with racing in mind. This meant that car manufacturers could move their axles, taking advantage of the benefits of weight transfer and gain traction. Gassers were popular during the early 60s, but eventually the NHRA changed their policy to allow altered wheelbases. Builders typically chose Willy Coupes, Austin and Anglia sedans, Chevy Tri-Five cars, Corvettes and Ford T-Birds. Showing them off around the track was a racer favourite.Ĭoupes and sedans were popular choices for Gassers. Equipped with their Halibrand wheels, their missing front bumpers, front fender exhaust pipes and front-mounted moon tanks, Gassers were flashy and audacious. They had a high front end meant to distribute weight to the rear wheels which became iconic for old school drag race cars. They typically had a straight axle front suspension which gave the cars their domineering, upright stance. Gassers looked much different than the other classic racing cars, too.
They ran on gasoline instead of race fuel (that is, fuel containing methanol or nitromethane) - this difference spurred a split, a division of drag racing. The term ‘Gasser’ references a type of drag race car from the 1950s and 60s - a period in time referred to as the “Gasser War Years”.
DRAG RACE CAR MOD
Things happened and we went with our instincts.”īefore Pro Mod or Pro Stock race cars, the A/Gas Supercharged cars (Gassers) were the fastest on the street. We weren’t planning or marketing geniuses or anything like that. Wally Parks, the association's first president, once said “We did have ambitions of it becoming a national sports entity. The NHRA took off like wildfire and now is comprised of 80,000 members. The NHRA created ‘order from chaos’, introducing much-needed safety measures and legitimizing the dangerous sport. Their fans crowded around the edges of the tracks, watching the dangerous sport unfold before them.Įventually, the need-for-speed grew until the underground sport started to gain national attention and the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) was born. They existed in a time before safety barriers or regulated track conditions. After World War II, cars ripped through abandoned military airstrip runways with complete disregard for safety. They set themselves apart in the world of drag racing by staying almost religiously faithful to their love for gasoline.ĭrag racing was born in the dry lake beds of the California deserts in 1930. What do you call the wheel-spinning, gear-smashing, gas pumping hot rods from the late 1950s? Gassers.
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