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Thinking of the old days

oldbee

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Trying to wrap my head around the old days. Was B/gas more or less the same as N/SS today! Looking for dvw,Gaines, IQ52. Just something to quit thinking of cold temps!

E8D1BD1F-5635-4A69-AD98-25A305412908.jpeg
 
Vanke pic had to be 70's/80's?
 
No B/Gas was a modified type eliminator. There were alot of Pro Stockers that would bump down to B/Gas when NHRA factored them out of Pro Stock.
You have to remember back then Pro stock was basically an unlimited Super Stock class
The Vanke Picture is from the early to mid 70's.
 
Was just looking at time on windshield. Thinking of Doug running 9.20's at Quaker.
 
No same era. Modified Prod. were usually small blocks. Gas was the same but different.
Remember the classes were based on weight to CI ratio.
You could see a 383 CI Hemi running in Gas class... depending on where they what class they wanted to fit in, they would take weight out or add weight and or de stroke the motor so they could take more weight out of the car.

For sure Mike could tell you how it worked. His AWB would have fell into a Gas class back in the late 60's.
 
No same era. Modified Prod. were usually small blocks. Gas was the same but different.
Remember the classes were based on weight to CI ratio.
You could see a 383 CI Hemi running in Gas class... depending on where they what class they wanted to fit in, they would take weight out or add weight and or de stroke the motor so they could take more weight out of the car.

For sure Mike could tell you how it worked. His AWB would have fell into a Gas class back in the late 60's.
My AWB Mopar would have to had to run C/Altered because of the 25% (26 inch) engine setback.
I didn't really run any "class" with the car as almost 100% of my competition was "Match Racing"....like 2 out 3 or maybe sometimes 3 out of 5. When we did the Match Racing our 2 cars were kinda of the "feature" of that day of racing at the track.

And yes, the GAS Classes were always cubic inch to weight for classification. Started out with A/GAS, B/GAS and on down if believe to F/GAS (6 cyl maybe if I remember). If the car had a Blower the class was then A/Gas Super, B Gas Super or also called AA/Gas or BB/Gas, etc.
Just Google NHRA Nationals results and you will see all the classes shown.
 
Trying to wrap my head around the old days. Was B/gas more or less the same as N/SS today! Looking for dvw,Gaines, IQ52. Just something to quit thinking of cold temps!

View attachment 1067921
This picture of Arlen was 1970 possibly 71. Division 3 race at Columbus. N/SS is pretty lenient with the rules as compared to class racing.
 
I think of N/SS as Match Race mentality. At the beginning they looked the part, but engine combos were hopped up over the factory offerings. Obviously today its not heads up. Engine, converter, tire and shock technology has far surpassed days gone by. That being said the trans, suspension and weight are very similar. Who would have thought that my car would have been able to ET/MPH similar to the 73 Pro Stock record?
Doug
 
There is a pic of Ronnie Sox in his 68 Cuda with fuel injection stacks sticking up in the Hemi scoop and its running B/G. So it did not take much mods to put many Super Stock and Pro Stock cars in B/G or Mod Production classes as many did. Ron
 
I know you all have seen them already
don't mind the date stamps they were from when
I took digital photos of old photos & Polaroids

Super Comp S/C 8.90, at Femont Raceway 1978-79
Budnicks 23 T Ford Altered 301ci SBC Alky Inj Fremont Raceway 1980 #1a.jpg


Comp Eliminator
A/Altered at Sacramento early 80's
Budnicks 23 T Ford 427ci BBC Alky Inj Altered A-A Sac Raceways.jpg


AA/A IIRC it was 6.15 # per cid (blown 301cid Donavon) at the time
I was just 18 1st time I ran in AA/A (took every penny I had)
summer of 1977 Nothern Nationals
car weighed 1855#'s wet ready to run
onboard battery/starter
the puke tank under rear deck
& a 10 gal front fuel tank to help for ballast
& another 250# with me in it
(weights are different & index is different today too)

I was way overweight for the class,
min. 100+#'s over without ballast & me in it
but it needed 100+ to 150#'s ballast to run the #'s,
keep in on the ground, depending on the track prep/altitude RAD

The national index was like 7.50 (ish-IIRC)
you had to run like 7.15-7.20 to even be competitive,
car could also run in S/E 7.90 NHRA Super Eliminator too
with a mechanical throttle stop on the Enderle Bug Catcher hat
to slow it down
later had a 526cid Mastadon Hemi
about the same weight without ballast
a wing off the top of the cage over the turtle deck & dual chutes
it'd run 6.90's @ 190 at it's best, for years
a hand-full to say the least
even just 468-477 cid BBC injected/alcohol, far tamer too
Budnicks 23 T Ford Altered AA-Gas 6-71 Blown 301ci Donavon (1).jpg


Super Eliminator 7.90 early days
Iron 427cid ported rect. port, alcohol, alum rod combo etc.
Budnicks 23 T Ford Altered Crower Inj. #1.JPG


or Pro-Gas 8.50 class mid 80's
A or B/Gas, Comp Elim.
even tried AA/Gas with the Mastadon out of my Altered
a real handful on/for a full suspension car of that era
best of 7.20 @ 188, it was to much gear 4.88:1 or 5.13:1
with the blower combo for 1/4 mile
nosing over at 1000' & letting off the throttle
org. built to do some match racing on 1/8 mile tracks, door slammer stuff
usually brought the car along
on long trips with my other T/S car 89 Camaro or 92 T/A
I'm sure you have seen before too
Budnicks 49 Ford Business Coupe Pro-Gas #4.jpg


Budnicks 49 Ford Business Coupe Pro-Gas #7a Hilborn Hat & tunnel-ram.JPG


Budnicks 49 Ford Business Coupe Pro-Gas #6 rear wing & adj. wick.JPG


All steel 49 Ford Tudor Business Coupe
wet with me in it appr. 2650#'s, without any ballast
but it usually had 75# to 100#'s of ballast in a couple places
Sorry, most the shots I have are when it was being built in my garage
I have to get some stuff converted to digital someday
car went to Germany
 
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If you take Doug's (1964) car as an example, at the 1964 US Nationals, George Montgomery won A/GS with a whopping 10.20 at 138 MPH. Time and technology has taken care of all that.
If you are talking about taking most of the NSS cars of today back in time, then because of the lack of engine restrictions, they would be forced to run a comp eliminator class such as Gas or even Altered. They might have been able to run Modified Production when they started that class sometime in the 60's but I don't remember the M/P rules.
 
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