In the 1960s, the wild and colorful Willys gassers were among the most popular cars in drag racing. Here are five examples that are still fondly remembered today.
From 1933 through 1942, the struggling Willys-Overland Company of Toledo, Ohio manufactured a series of light, small economy cars with four-cylinder engines and minimal features. Less than stellar sellers in the showrooms, these models wouldn’t find popularity until decades later, when their dinky proportions and light weight made them ideal platforms for the new sport of drag racing, especially in the Gas Coupe and Sedan categories—better known as the gassers.
Originally intended by drag racing’s rules makers as dual-use machines for both street and track, the gassers quickly evolved into radical, all-out race cars with only the thinnest pretensions to road use. Soon, the class had its own large and loyal fan base. The Willys-based gassers, due to their short wheelbase and high center of gravity, were especially entertaining for the fans in the stands—all over the track, standing on their bumpers, never doing the same thing twice. In fact, the fans are still talking about these wild and crazy racers today. Here are five Willys gassers that left an indelible mark on the sport.
One of the best-known gassers to turn a wheel, the Stone, Woods, and Cook ’41 Willys from Los Angeles was actually a series of cars that raced under the Swindler A and Swindler B names all through the 1960s. First powered by a hefty supercharged Olds V8, the coupe(s) was later upgraded to a blown 392 Chrysler hemi stroked to 454 cubic inches. Drag strip legend Doug “Cookie” Cook performed the driving and tuning duties, backed by car owners Fred Stone and Leonard Woods.
Also hailing from Southern California, the ’41 Willys of Big John Mazmanian was built for maximum eye appeal with its blazing Candy Apple Red paint and chrome-plated everything. A champion at both show and go, the Willys was powered by a big, blown Chrysler hemi coupled to a four-speed GM Hydramatic transmission and wheeled by a series of drivers including Dick Bourgeois and Hugh Tucker. Big John (he was 6’5″) would later enter the funny car wars with an equally beautiful series of Plymouth Barracudas.
Charlie Hill and Porky Zartman of Hanover, Pennsylvania took the opposite approach with their small-block Chevy-powered 1940 Willys. The construction of this gasser was so rough it became known as the “Filthy Forty.” The sketchy presentation didn’t hurt the C/Gasser’s popularity with the fans, however. Old Filthy is still recalled warmly today for its violent starting line antics, including bumper-dragging wheelstands. Photo by John Durand at Capitol Raceway, 1963.
Built in 1968 using the latest techniques, the F Troop 1933 Willys of Detroiters Tom Prock and Jay Howell was a latecomer to the gasser scene. Unfortunately, NHRA technical inspectors looked over its flip-top fiberglass body and semi-space frame (Howell was shop manager at Logghe Stamping, a leading funny car builder) and turned thumbs down. The pair then campaigned the Willys on the match racing circuit, running low 8-second times at 180+ mph on nitromethane. This photo shows F Troop in its early form with green paint and a big-block Chevy V8. Later, the WIllys sported a rainbow color scheme and a 426 Mopar hemi.
Ohio George Montgomery’s 1933 Willys was a winner in NHRA national competition for nearly a decade. Pictured here at the 1959 U.S. Nationals in Detroit, the Dayton-based baby-blue coupe (also shown in the lead photo) continually evolved over the years, advancing from OHV Cadillac V8 power to a supercharged small-block Chevy and ultimately a 427 CID SOHC Ford V8. Today, the immaculately constructed racer is a proud possession of the Henry Ford Museum.