Gasser Madness ~ Photos by Tom "X-Ray" West

I know a lot of photographers who are better than I am...Tom's one of the best, and I'm happy to call him my friend. He's also an extremely talented artist who's work you have probably seen in a magazine or two. All of the comments below are his unless they're in red, in which case you can blame them on me, or in blue, in which case we again owe thanks to Bill Duke. Byron

	This is one of the active SoCal Gasser contingent from the mid 70s. The Agitator (Paul Day) was around for a couple of years, and I have to say that this shot, not one of my best technically, would be from around 1967, maybe early 1968. I always liked the aggressive look of these Willys pickups. This was shot with a camera that ended up getting stolen fairly quickly. This was about as sharp a photo as I ever got out of that setup, so whoever grabbed that thing probably did me a big favor, although it didn't feel like it at the time. Agitator P/U, as depicted at Irwindale, was being raced in AA/GS by Gene Hicks and Sons. They sold the car to Paul Day in late 68, who plopped 327 Chevy in it, and ran BB/GS. He crashed the P/U in 69.
	This is the Ambition Willys Coupe twisting the hides against Ron Bizio's pickup at Irwindale, probably around 1968. This was a really pretty car, for those of you who never saw it. Ambition roadster was raced by the Zellar bros. , who were employed at Keith Black. Willys body was removed and roadster body was mounted in 1970. Boys then ran the Midnight Skulker flopper following year.
	This was one of the forerunners of the very strong Braskett and Burgin team, their 40 Willys AA/GS Coupe. This shot, from Irwindale, would have been shot with one of my earlier cameras that didn't seem to give very good results unless you had absolutely perfect light. As you can see, this was one of those overcast days that the Southern California Chamber of Commerce never tells you about ... or it could have just been a bad smog day in Irwindale. Can't say that this was the most impressive car out there, but those guys really made an impression with that Buttera Funny Car later on.
	This is not an award winning shot, but shooting a slow shutter speed so the strobe will sync gives you this type of thing around dusk. This was shot with my 6x7 Pentax and a stove, at Long Beach. Not sure who it is, but it is an Opel GT BB/GS that is really launching in a fun way. This is one of those shots that you get where 75% of the time there is nothing sharp. I have just always liked this as a neat little speed shot from the digs. The "unknown" Opel GT belonged to the Storck Bros. Car was powered by blown 350 Chevy.
	Not exactly the prettiest appearance of the car, but this is the Bones, Dubach, Pisano Willys Coupe running at Carlsbad. Of course, the primered door is completely out of character for a car that was really good looking. Balough should be at CHRR again, and this is one of the reasons for his being added to the Hall of Fame.
	The Ron Bizio Willys Pickup. This was shot at Carlsbad, probably in 1969, I believe. This was one of the many distinctive cars that made the old Gasser wars something sort of cool to see. Bizio was 68 points champ. He raced the truck through 1970. he succomed to liver disease a few years later. (RIP, Ron)
	This is the Blair's Speed Shop Anglia, but I am not sure what class of GS car this ran under. (Probably BB/GS) This would have been from the Winternationals, probably in 1972. Just sort of a neat shot. Blairs Anglia was 71-72 So-Cal BB/GS circuit points champ. 331 inch Chrysler was used.
	This is a shot of one of those offshoot AA/GS cars that were tried. I don't remember any of these T GS cars making any kind of real impression, but they seemed like a good idea at the time. This is Bryan Raines taking a shot at Lions, probably around 1968 or 69.
	This is another one of those shots with the soon to be stolen camera, thank god. This is Gene Ciambella, later to become Gene Conway, in the little C&O Austin Pickup. Taken around 1967 or 68 I would think. C&O Austin of Ciambella (Conway) was sold to Hicks and Sons in 68. They raced under the Agitator banner, at the same time they raced the 40 Willys P/U. BTW, the 40's P/U was a former C&O car as well. The Austin was sold to a guy, forgot his name, who campaigned the truck from 1970 to 2002. It is the Capt Crunch super gasser.
	I am not sure whose car this is, but I am sure that we have gotten the response earlier. Byron can take care of the details (or not...heck, I don't remember!), but this is from one of those Irwindale Gasser shows, probably from about 1969. The Classical Gas was a blown Anglia that I don't remember being all that hot a performer, but it deserved a little late coverage here. The Classical Gas Anglia was Lou Gasperrilli's car. 426 Mopar wedge was the means of power.
	This is Steve Korney in the Goldfinger Anglia, from Irwindale around 1968 or 69. This was a pretty typical launch with the wheels up and the car twisted up a bit. Must have been a day qualifier as the stands were not very full, and the weather looked great. Later in its career, Korney got a sponsorship from a stereo manufacturer or installation place, and had a lowrider quality sound system added, along with a lighted hand in the door. I never shot it in color, unfortunately, so I never got the full effect on film. Neat little car, as with a lot of these things. Gold Finger Anglia had the taxi cab body (Bill's comment...not mine! <G>) removed and Vette body installed. Car was raced all over the country under the Stone/Wood/Cook/Korney banner.
	This was one of my favorite cars of the Gasser wars. The Herrera and Sons Austin, driven by Manuel Herrera was one of the prettiest of the gassers to begin with. It was also one of the better running cars. This shot if from the Hot Rod Magazine race at Riverside, probably around 1969, I would guess. This has always been a sentimental favorite for me personally as it was the first car that I ever did my own X-Ray drawing on, and the first that I got published. It showed up in the December, 1968 issue of Popular Hot Rodding, just to show you how long ago this thing ran ... amazing. As a special note, the car still exists, and is part of the Keith Harvey collection at PAW, although they haven't restored the paint back to that lace scheme that the car was known for. It is probably in a storage and resto area within 100 yards of where I am sitting at the keyboard at the moment. Funny how certain cars just sort of stick around, isn't it?
	This is that classic King Kong Anglia of the Kohler Brothers. I think this is my favorite shot that I ever got of the car. This is not the best camera system that I ever had, and this could have been one of the few decent shots that I ever got with this stuff. I seem to remember this day race Irwindale being a GS meet, with a special Wheelstander show along with it. I am guessing that it would have been in 1968. This was one of those days were you had to be determined to be a Gasser fan, rather cold, overcast ...typical horrible winter day in So Cal. OK, so it isn't December in Green Bay, it was bad for out here.
	This is another King Kong shot, probably the run where the previous shot was the dry hop. This was a bit more standard an angle, so I like the other shot better, but the two will give a decent look around the car anyway.
	This is the psychedelic Corvette roadster AA/GS car of John Lombardo from around 1969. This is from Irwindale, as you can tell. John ended up running this as a funny car quite often in some of the large funny car shows of the day.
	This is the original version of one of the current nostalgia gassers, the Mallicoat Brothers Barracuda at OCIR around 1969-70. This was one of those strong running cars that pretty much destroyed the class by making them look less like hot rods and more like slow funny cars. The old gas coupes just couldn't really stand up and look the same as they did against the newer, more aerodynamic, and lower cars.
	This is one of the newer generation gassers, Ernie Nicholson with the Flower Power Barracuda. This shot, from Lions, was from about 1970, I would guess. It is interesting to see how this setup is still the typical old gasser configuration, using the high nose but with the newer body. This thing could have been an early funny car, but was really a last gasp at maintaining the gasser look.
	This is the replacement for the Skipper's Critter Anglia, the Mustang AA/GS car of Skip Hess, probably from around 1969-70. This car was obviously somehow sponsored by Revell, but was never modeled by them during that large model kit-sponsorship deal that was so prominent in the mid-70s. The Skippers Critter Anglia was modeled, as many of you are aware. I never quite knew how the Hess-Revell connection worked, as they tended to do the bigger-name cars from the time.
	Oops...couldn't find Tom's comments on the Vicious Vette of Dale Pulde...sorry.
	Wondering why he's called "X-Ray"?