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By George…
There was a time when Funny Cars had doors, too.
But today when I look at a Funny Car, all I can think of is a
125-inch wheelbase, front-engine dragster with a one-piece plastic body on
it. It sure doesn’t look
much like a real car to me and the only door is a little emergency escape
hatch in the roof. There was a time when all fast cars, other than
dragsters and roadsters, had doors that opened and closed.
These were the original “doorslammers” and the class most
associated with fast “door cars” back then was called the Gas
Coupe-Sedan Class. Basically, this class was made up of stock-looking
cars with hopped-up engines. In
the late 1950’s and early 1960’s these were the fastest stock body
cars in drag racing. Cars of
all makes could enter these classes and the primary criteria was that it
had to have doors. The cars
of choice were typically Model-A Fords, 1932 through 1934 Fords, 1937
Chevys, 1940 Fords, early Studebakers, Henry J’s, and 1955 through 1957
Chevys.
The “Gas” class (short for Gas-Coupe-Sedan) was
divided into several categories. The
top category was known as “A/Gas”.
A/Gas had the biggest engines in the lightest body.
Other categories included B/Gas, C/Gas, etc. As superchargers became more prevalent in the Gas classes,
some type of adjustment was required to maintain parity. This was accomplished by having a supercharged entry
“advanced” to the next category.
For instance, a C/Gas entry with a supercharger was advanced to
B/Gas. It wasn’t until about 1960 that the supercharged
cars had their own categories. The
top category was A/GS, followed by B/GS and C/GS.
At about the same time, the serious Gas Coupe racers started to
concentrate on finding the lightest full-bodied cars for the class.
The vehicle of choice for the A and B classes was soon to be the
1933 through 1941 Willys coupes. These
were all-steel cars and light weight body parts such as hoods and fenders
were not available. The Henry
J’s and early Studebakers could still be found in the lower classes,
where the extra weight in the weight-to-cubic-inch formulas were not as
much of a factor. The Gas classes really took off around the country in
the late 1950s and early 1960s. One
of the more famous Gas racers was George Montgomery out of Ohio.
In many respects, “Ohio George” put the class on the map.
The first gasser that I recall George racing was a 1934 Ford with a
carbureted Cadillac engine. George
soon moved to a 1933 Willys and relied on a supercharged Chevy for power,
and later still, a 427 SOHC supercharged Ford engine.
Of course, in my area (Southern California), I was
more caught up with what our local Gas racers were doing.
In 1958 I remember seeing Junior Thompson at Santa Ana with his
1941 Studebaker Champion. Junior
ran in B/G and used a small block Chevy and a McCulloch (a forerunner of
the Paxton) supercharger for power. He
ran about 108 MPH. Another
local gasser racer was Doug Cook. Doug
also ran in B/G with his super-sanitary 1937 Chevy. On the A/G side, there was the Ward & Taylor 1935 Willys.
Originally built by Glen Ward and Carl Taylor, this car had a
supercharged Cadillac engine. It
was eventually purchased by Santa Ana track manager C. J. Hart and driven
by his wife Peggy. Peggy ran
127+ MPH with the car in 1959. Around this time two interesting 1950 Oldsmobile
88’s showed up at the local tracks.
The Olds overhead valve engine first appeared in 1949 (as did the
Cad OHV engine) and became the “big blocks” of their day.
The first Olds was the Dick Harryman and John Edwards fastback
driven by K.S. Pittman. The
second one was Gene Adams’ Olds 88.
Both had Olds power (naturally) and both had 4-71 superchargers on
top. These cars were HEAVY,
but ran like the dickens. Both
were running in B/G and could run 112 to 116 MPH. Another local gasser racer was Tim Woods.
Tim had a Chevy-powered 1941 Studebaker.
This was about 1959. In
1960 and 1961, “gasser madness” was just getting started.
These stock appearing coupes caught the nations fancy, with their
“high off the ground” look and super performance.
A lot of racers cut their teeth in the gasser classes.
I remember seeing Rocky Childs running his blown Chevy-powered 1937
Chevy at various tracks in So Cal. Rocky
went on to found Childs & Albert, the piston ring company.
Some of the other local names that eventually went big time gasser
racing were Chuck Finders, the Pisano Brothers and the Maillicoat
Brothers.
One race team stood out in front of all the rest,
however, and that was Stone, Woods and Cook.
If ever a team dominated the gasser wars, it was SWC. Tim Woods wrecked his 1941 Studebaker Champion in a
towing accident, so he, Leonard Woods and another local business man, Fred
Stone, decided to build a new car using the 1941 Willys chassis.
They stuffed a 425-inch Oldsmobile engine with a 6-71 supercharger
under the steel hood. In
those days, all of these cars were still using the factory sheet metal.
This was in 1961. Tim,
Leonard and Fred were able to get Doug Cook to drive the car.
The NHRA rules for gassers in those days required that they not
only look like stock cars, they needed to be actual street machines, with
mufflers, working head lights, etc. The new SWC car (called the “Swindler,” don’t
ask me why) had everything needed to run on the street, including a full
tuck & roll interior. Even
the trunk area had custom tuck & roll upholstery.
The “Swindler” was painted a beautiful shade of blue.
The Willys ran as a B/GS car and turned 128 MPH at 10.99 ET.
In 1962, a new Swindler (Swindler A) was built with a reduced
weight. The new SWC car ran
in A/GS and clicked off times around 142 MPH with a supercharged Olds
engine. It wasn’t unusual
to see both of the SWC cars running at the same track at the same time,
one in A/GS and the other in B/GS. Another California racer came on the scene in 1963.
Actually, Big John Mazmanian had been running at the local tracks
for several years in a beautiful candy apple red 1962 Corvette, using a
supercharged Chevy for power. His
‘Vette fit into a Sports Car class.
The only problem was that there was a lot more media and fan
attention directed at the gassers than at the sports cars.
So, John built a 1941 Willys (also candy apple red) and installed
the engine out of his Corvette. This
would have been around 1963. Big
John’s Willys ran great, and it ran even better when the small block
Chevy was exchanged for a supercharged Hemi Chrysler. The days of the Oldsmobile engine domination were
coming to a close. Even SWC
could see that. To that end,
and in a matter of a couple of years, two new SWC Willys were built, both
with Chrysler Hemi power. SWC raced a series of cars, including a 1933 Willys
called the “Dark Horse,” and the “black car.”
The black car was a very lightweight 1941 Willys and it was almost
unbeatable (and the only SWC car with a non-blue paint job).
You may wonder why so many new cars were being built for the SWC
team. It’s because they
were wearing them out on the match race circuit all over the country.
Just like the Factory Experimental Super Stockers would be doing a
couple of years later, the gasser guys were getting booked in all around
the country to match race each other.
SWC and Big John Mazmanian probably match raced each other several
hundred times. Same with K.
S. Pittman, Chuck Finders, Junior Thompson, George Montgomery and many of
the other well-known gasser racers of the day.
These guys raced for a living and were the first true professional
drag racers. Doug Cook would
take the SWC car out of California in the early spring and wouldn’t
return until November. He
would race every weekend and sometimes during the week, too. By this time, the A/GS cars were running over 150 MPH
in the mid 9’s. “Gasser madness” was at its absolute peak and it
lasted until the funny cars came out in 1964.
At that point, the funny car phenomenon took over, and a whole new
“door car” came into existence. Some
of the gasser racers went on to use the newer model bodies, to try and
take advantage of the funny car revolution.
Ohio George and SWC both built 1965-1967 Mustangs, that were
somewhere between funny cars and gassers.
George’s car had a SOHC 427 Ford engine under the hood while the
SWC Mustang stayed with the Hemi Chizler.
There was still a lot of money to be made by touring and nobody
wanted to let go. The newer gassers were either late model bodies or
the even smaller Anglia and Austin bodies.
These cars looked more like “race cars” by then.
The “high off the ground” look was evolving into the “low to
the ground” look. Sometimes it was hard to tell the difference between
a gasser and a funny car, they were so similar. Because of that, the gassers were soon passing into obscurity
as the funny cars took over. There
was more match race money available for the funny car racers than there
was for the gassers. So, what ever happened to Stone, Woods & Cook?
Fred Stone passed away around 1978 or so, and I know that Doug
“Cookie” Cook passed away in 1999.
Tim Woods also passed away some time back, but I see Leonard Woods
all the time. Leonard was
very active on the team and went to most of the races.
Leonard is also the owner of one of the largest Ford dealerships in
Southern California, Chino Hills Ford.
When I need to purchase a new Ford vehicle (with doors), you can be
sure that I only buy from a guy that understands “door cars.”
The big, bad supercharged gassers are now just a
memory to those of us that remember what it was like.
The sight of a nasty coupe, sitting high off the ground, with an
engine that was too large to fit completely under the hood, running on
tires that were too narrow, and with a wheelbase not much longer than a
Harley-Davidson, was truly something to see.
While it lasted it was like nothing else.
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© Competitionplus 2005
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