BangShift reader Dustin Salsi gets credit for tipping us off to this totally wild 1956 Ford gasser project that is currently for sale on eBay. The wild engine set back, the suicide spring front end, the home made watts link setup on the rear axle, and just the general attitude of the thing are totally awesome. To clarify, they are awesome for us to look at from afar, because we’d not be driving it, but you get where we’re going.
The engine is not some weak suck little small block. Nope, this baby is packing a bored out 390 equipped with a 428 crank, and old school Edelbrock FX66 cross ram, worked over heads, a COMP cams solid roller with big boy lift numbers, and a top loader 4-speed. The driver (and passenger?!) will be riding in buckets where the rear seat once lived, and there is some huge plumbing that appears to go from the carbs to an exterior cold air source to feed them. Is it us or does the front crossmember, which has the suicide spring attached to it, look like a transmission crossmember from an unknown car? The look and attitude of this car rule. We’d love to see it run down the strip when completed with someone else driving. It sure seems like it will be a handful!
Scroll down to see photos and then the link for the eBay ad!
This pos is the exact reason why the whole wannabe “gasser” theme thing needs to be stopped. This is hideous beyond all definition.
“very little to be ready to race” I suspect a tech inspector might disagree. Still, this could be a fun car once the problems are sorted out.
I’m …uh, speechless… The concept is kinda cool, the execution is less so. Is that a gate latch from the hardware store on the door interior? Also, I’ve never seen bars extend from the upper roll bar hoop to the front of the frame.
GEICO may want to remove the free Insurance quote link!
are those 60’s Chevy pickup coil spring/trailing arms used for makeshift ladder bars?…wow……………………
wheww……neat to look at, I look back at some of my old race cars and wonder, but this sure seems “unsafe at any speed” to me….
The crossmember for the front spring is an early 60s Galaxie engine mount/lower A-arm mount crossmember. It should be stout enough. I have old articles in Hot Rod Magazine showing how to do this front end swap. Those are Chevy pickup trailing arms and probably coil springs, too. Look under any NASCAR race car from the late 70s to today and you will see the exact same thing, design-wise!
this car is not your every day tri five or willys. its experimental and wild. and i give it to the builder for the set of balls for building somthing with out a kit and un-mundane 350 and real ford speed equiptment . and tracy is right about the rear suspension and front crossmember. and for those sceptic negative nellys out there it looks unfinished so you can talk down to this guy when you see him in it yourself. and there is un sanctioned racing were people build cars to go have fun. go build what drives you. or just sit in the back seat with your lips shut.
What back seat?
If I recall, the legal engine setback for a gasser was 10% of the wheelbase. This pile might have a tad more. That low tech intake is elbows out of the big truck exhaust catalog. 17k? I’d buy the 65 Plymouth trar for $5600 before I’d buy this thing.
All you bad mouthing it are probably chevy guys,ever look at some of the millions of tri-five chevy “gassers” , that 56 Ford is not any worse than some of that crap!!! I agree it is “ROUGH”,but it is unfinished and done the way a lot of cars were built way back when!! ROY.
I think it is cool. Every body has their preference. Some like rat rods that can’t cross speed bumps and the top chopped low enough that if you sit up straight your head will be through the rag top. Others like Street Machine Muscle cars with 20’s and neon. I like 80’s Chevy trucks and can’t get enough of them. This guy wanted to build what he wanted to biuld. It is a statement that is all his own. That is what our industry is all about. Not the Poser who has it for no other reason that to sit behind at the car shows and it has no real meaning for him.
Im not sure what’s an approved set back but I know
Don nicolsons eliminator 1 comet had as much if not more
Set back then this. And you guys talk about safety like
Old race cars were safe. That’s why the diff in old dragsters
Sat in your lap, for safety right. And also why the engine was a arms
Length away, safety. If this guy wants to build something
Fast and scary do it but don’t let these farts get u down by
Bad mouthing cause it makes them feel like what they have
To say is truth cause its not.