Dedicated to Preserving Classic American Car Culture
GASSERS
The Baddest of the Straight-Axled Warriors
WHY THERE’S NOTHING TO LAUGH AT ABOUT “THE JOKER”
December 24th 2022
Why there’s nothing to laugh at about “The Joker”…
Gassers are a dying art-form, however the days of the straight axle dragster are far from over thanks to people like @gregsspeedshop. He owns one of the biggest car shops in the country, and with that level of know how and resources, it’s easy to see how his ‘57 Pontiac is on the fast track to being the quickest A/GAS car in the country!
The car was a true race car back in the 60’s and early 70’s, but was put into hibernation until a man named “Dan Smith” found it. He brought it back to being a race car, and painted “Joker” on the door before shelving the project before it could hit the track. Fast forward to 9 years ago when @gregsspeedshop found the car for sale on Craigslist, and built it into the “Top of its Class” performer that it is!
He stuffed a built, Naturally-Aspirated, 477 cubic inch, big block Chevy and G Force 4 speed transmission into the car, bolted it up to a heavy duty Moser rear end, custom created his own chassis, and took the car from 4,100lbs to 2,750lbs with driver! He then custom fabbed the doors and trunk and even built his own custom full tilt front end!! (Which landed him in the national pontiac magazine “Smoke Signals”) After all this he became the first man to race it under its “Joker” name! Its fastest quarter mile time is an 8.63 at a blazing 155 MPH! And it’s expected to run much faster next year.
This season @gregsspeedshop will be competing along side @southeast_gassers and says he will do whatever it takes to be number 1!
“The gassers run the 1/8th mile so it’ll take some adjusting, but “The Joker” should be dialed in by race 3” - @gregsspeedshop
THE HARD PULL OF “THE CHICK MAGNET”
December 29th 2022
“We’re not jumping our Schwinn bikes over garbage cans anymore.. this is getting really serious”.
“AA” Doug Becker, crew chief for “Nitro Neil” Bisciglia…
I can only imagine this is pretty much the feeling the @chickmagnetracing_sega has when he’s sitting at the light in his over 1000 horsepower, Naturally-Aspirated, Tri-Five Chevy. Things couldn’t be more serious this season, considering he’s the car to beat in the A/GAS class of the @southeast_gassers . He’s fast, ungodly so, and he’s quick on the light, frequently coming out of the hole on the back wheels before the other driver has time to react. On top of all that, he’s intimidating. That all black Chevrolet has a no nonsense demeanor about it. It comes, it wins, it leaves, and it does so without mercy.
This attracted attention from many directions, so much so, that @southeast_gassers invited @gregsspeedshop to compete amongst their ranks! @gregsspeedshop has the fastest A/GAS car in the 1/4 mile and @chickmagnetracing_sega is the fastest A/GAS car in the 1/8th, you can see where this is headed…. This is slated to be the ultimate drag racing matchup and only time will tell who the real victor is going to be, but for now we can only hope that @gregsspeedshop will be able to dial into the 1/8th mile very quickly, and that @chickmagnetracing_sega will run the fastest times we’ve seen from him yet…
“THE RODSLINGER” FORD FALCON
January 11th 2023
It doesn’t take an outrageous amount of money to build an extremely competitive car, as many of the great racers of the late 60’s proved, it takes an equally high amount of know-how and tuning ability. What @amxlowhorn and his father lack in funds, they surely make up for in skill. And While their car may be home-built, it’s not the type of father son build you’ll see on “test and tune” day at your local strip!
The car in question is a 1961 Ford Falcon lovingly called “Rodslinger”. You ford fans may want to skip the next section, because this Ford shell is powered by a 355cid small block Chevy! That 355 is topped with a Tunnel Ram and two Holley 660’s, while a Hightower “H-pattern” 4 speed transmission handles the gears. All that runs back into race prepped Ford 9” rearend packing 5:83 rear gears!! If that doesn’t sound budget, thats because the expense was spared elsewhere, the car rides on the factory 4 wheel drum brakes, it has air shocks, and hooks up like it does thanks to a 60’s style Ladder bar setup!
@amxlowhorn “Me and the ole man ain’t got Nothing fancy, we’re just having fun with what we’ve got.”
I can’t wait to watch this thing run in Knoxville this year, hope to see you guys there too!
SLINGING “BIG IRON”
January 25th 2023
The last time we got to glimpse into the @rynothepope collection we looked at his 283, 4 speed 1960 Corvette. This time we have something slightly different…
This is his 1956 Chevrolet Gasser. It previously had a 11.75:1 compression 355cid small block in it that propelled it down the 1/8th mile at 6.79 seconds. Fast enough to compete with the @southeast_gassers however some people can’t be satisfied with a perfectly good racecar. @rynothepope is one of those people, so he stuffed a new 13:1 compression 372cid race engine that is good for roughly 140 horsepower more than its predecessor. It runs a GForce Clutch Assisted GF5R and a 40 spline Ford 9” rearend! With this new setup @rynothepope hopes to run 9.9’s in the 1/4 mile!
I can’t wait to see how this car does this season, and we’ll be watching very closely for a new low E.T…