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Gassers! You've got to love them. Take a pre-WWII compact car, stuff with a bored-out Olds or Chevy, or better yet a 392" Chrysler Hemi, add a GMC 6:71 blower, Hilborn injection, Vertex mag, B&M hydro, and Olds rear end, season with an Isky or Engle bump stick and prepare to witness pure straight-line, door-slammin' performance. A car that was meant to have 50 horsepower now has 950 horsepower and turns 150 mph in the quarter mile! Gassers were thrilling to watch because you had to be crazy to drive one and their out-of -control blasts down the quarter mile got everyone in the stands on their feet to cheer them on. They died because they scared corporate sponsors concerned about safety and their public image and they were less aerodynamic than a Mustang or Camaro run in the same class.
The '41 Willys Gasser has reached icon status reserved for a few rare cars: '23 Ford T bucket, '32 Ford roadster, '40 Ford coupe, and '55, '56 & '57 Chevys. Looking a lot like an 8/10ths '40 Ford coupe, this car became the most popular of the gassers and was campaigned by the likes of Stone, Woods & Cook, "Big John" Mazmanian, and Jr. Thompson. Except for the stock grille, Yat Ming's 1:18 '41 Willys gasser is a direct resize of a 1:25 SW&C Revell model kit produced in the late '60's.
At around $20, the black version is a nice representation of a street version of this car. (SW&C also had a black '41) I don't have much love for the purple version with or without the ugly graphics and the silver and red versions with the "made-up" livery that Yat Ming also produces. Details for this price range are generally good although the car has no brakes! Their use of orange plastic in places like the injectors, Vertex, and blower is stupid because it would have never been done on any real car. But overall the black car is a beauty and soon Slixx will be making decals to convert this to SW&C's "Black Beauty"(less Hemi). If you love '41 Willys gassers, this series may be your only chance to pick one up in 1:18.
(09/30/2001)
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