The late 50's-60's drag cars. I keep seeing a 67 Falcon posted up on craigslist and it makes me think about how cool one would be.
So what goes into building one of these? I know you can use an econoline van front axle, but that's about as far as my knowledge goes. Can it be done cheaply?
Surely someone on here knows about them?
Watch all the Roadkill episodes around Blasphemy. That's all I got.
Leaf springs and solid axle up front. It could be done cheap if your fab skills are up to the task. That car would be a unibody and if its built like a mustang it wouldn't be the simplest thing to start fabbing up a new front suspension.
Im not a fan of the gasser movement. It seems to me like it is ruining an old car. When something becomes super popular fast it goes out just as fast, then youre left with a car nobody wants that is to hacked up to save.
I guess I should mention I have no intentions of actually building one, I just keep seeing that falcon and it got me wondering what actually goes in to building one.
Many were based on pre-war cars. Ford and Willys coupes were popular. Already had the straight front axle.
Great Cartoons, not sure I would want to autocross one. Maybe it would make for an interesting Challenge class?
I have built a couple, One T bucket bodied street freak with a 327 straight 8 from an old firetruck and one Gremlin with a Thunderbird SC drive train.
They are pretty cool to just cruise around town, Gets a lot of attention from little kids and old guys.
When you hit the throttle you cant be an athiest, You have to have some higher power to pray to.
The concept is pretty straight forward, Its just building a front section out of some 2X4 tubing, attaching it to the mid section of frame or just building the whole frame from front to back. Kits can be had pretty cheap from places like Speedway or you can go the old route and grab a front end from some truck or van.
Most here would probably not be too interested in the concept, hey dont handle that well and stopping is a thing that should be planned well in advance but they are still cool in my book.
I'm probably going to build another soon. I started with a 49 plymouth business coupe(see the original ramchargers car) and used a chevy van front axle with jeep cj springs. My uncle is continuing the project, and ditched all the period correct bits i used and puked the speedway motors catalog at it 
They weren't all solid front axle, either; some of them used a lifted IFS. '50s and '60s Mopars often had the torsion bars cranked up; other makes sometimes used similar techniques to donk builds. A gasser really needs three things. A tall stance to aid weight transfer, pie-crust slicks out back (which needed a lot of weight transfer to hook) and a potent, period correct engine.
Also, check out this article on the High and Mighty Plymouth; it was one of the earliest examples. It uses a coil sprung IFS with some mild lift.
I can hear Andy Nelson's spiddy-sense tingling.
How is this not the coolest thing ever? I love me some Gassers.
A 2WD Jeep whatever (XJ, ZJ, WJ) would give you a cheap, readily available, easy to narrow tubular axle with ball joints (rather than kingpins) and modern disc brakes. It can certainly be done cheaply if you know how to get the geometry right and have the ability to do it all yourself with a cheap junkyard front axle and a pair of trailer or 4x4 leaf springs.
My dad had a 36 plymouth with a small block chevy and a 4 speed. He ran it 2 weekends and had so many issues keeping it in a lane that he chopped it apart and went mustang2 front suspension. This car replaced an 8 second big block vega and it scared him more running 12s. While i love the look my childhood reminds me not to ever build one!
You don't just slap the axle under it, You have to figure out bump steer and roll steer and then get the instant center right on the rear axle.
That is what makes the difference between a white knuckle ride and something that is fun to drive.
Can someone point me to a "how to" on getting said geometry right?
http://www.gasserplans.com/
http://www.gasserplans.com/build-a-gasser/
http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/paint-body/1403-how-to-install-chris-hotrodz-straight-axle-kit-going-gasser/
This guy did a pretty good write up installing one on a 60 Falcar.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1960-falcon-gasser-axle-install-with-pics.626706/
I've thought about it from time to time. If I did it would be a Falcon and I want to have it lettered "Mister Falcon" in big gold leaf letters. When I was a kid a local tv station would play movies with the swear words poorly dubbed over and Mister Falcon was the replacement for Mother berkeleyer. Childish but the thought makes me giggle.
License plate YIPIKYA?
Do you need any more reason than this?
In reply to Appleseed:
Yes.
I know berkeleyall about gassers, but have wondered whether the ride height/weight transfer concept could be applied to the challenge for a better launch at the drags- for certain types of suspension, it wouldn't be hard to come up with a $20 solution that you can slap in after the autocross to raise the front end a few inches.
gearheadmb wrote: That car would be a unibody and if its built like a mustang it wouldn't be the simplest thing to start fabbing up a new front suspension.
It is a early mustang with different body on top. There's loads of better things to do to it then hang a straight axle. They can be made to carve corners and haul ass striaght line too. Early bronco 9" rear end is a close to bolt in swap to handle the power. add a nice 351w and rebuilt front end you got a nice hot rod.
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