I recently spoke with Steve Carpenter, the 48 year old manager of Galpin Auto Sports in Van Nuys, CA about his very cool 56 Ford "Galpin Gasser".

The Galpin Gasser started life as a 1956 Ford Mainline 2-Door Sedan. It’s now been resuscitated it into a fire breathing street legal naturally aspirated 525-hp daily driver.

While GAS has managed 11 covers of various Mustang magazines with cars out of his shop, Steve considers himself an "Old School" guy and wanted a Gasser style car.  Since GAS is an adjunct of Galpin Ford, the world's largest Ford dealer, a tri-five Chevy probably wasn't going to be his pick! 

After a few months searching the web, Steve found what he was looking for.  It was an old 56 Ford Gasser, originally called "Bad News".  Making the deal, Steve anxiously awaited the car's arrival but it lived up to its name and he was pretty disappointed when it showed up in much worse shape than he had anticipated and with the big-block Ford engine shown in the ad swapped out for an old Y-Block Ford.

Time to get to work.  This is the first time the GAS has done a proper old-school hot rod rather than custom or tuning of some modern car, and in true GAS fashion, after 4 months build time, they’ve gone above and beyond.

Since this is an old Gasser, Steve didn't want it "perfect"  .He told his body guy, "bring it up to 80% then primer it and spray some semi-gloss clear over it."  After sort of a "Huh?" look from the body and paint guys, Steve is extremely happy with how it looks.  Continuing in the old school vein, those aren't the typical vinyl graphics and stickers on the car.  Those are actual hand-lettered signs!

Those of us Gasser guys who understand the old Gasser classes may look at the injector stacks sticking out of the hood then look at the A/GS class designation on the car and figure that he doesn't know what's what.  We'd be wrong.  Steve told me that the car was previously, and may yet again be, a blower car.  I can hardly wait!

He's really only had a couple of "issues" with the car as it currently sits.  First of all, it has drum brakes on all four corners, and he'd like to put discs in front, but hasn't been able to find anything that will work with the Econoline axle.  If anyone has any ideas, let me know, and I'll be happy to pass the info along to Steve.

The second "issue" is the lettering.  Not what you think...he is happy with it, but it seems that many of the local gendarmes are not.  Since Steve drives the car almost daily to and from work, he getting a bit tired of being stopped by the police!  As one told him, he'd be okay, but the lettering is a bit too much for some of them.

Well Steve, about all I can say to that is "Joke 'em if they can't take a..." Oops, better stop there, this is a kid-safe site!

Steve ya built a beauty.  Personally I love it, and I think a lot of the visitors to this site will too!

 Here’s the stats:
· 1956 Ford Mainline 2-Door Sedan
· Ford Racing 302 stroked to 331 built by M&R Racing Motors producing approximately 525hp
· Hilborn EFI with 22" Staggered Stacks out of the hood.
· C4 Transmission
· Hurst V-Matic2 Dual-Mode Shifter
· 9" Rear-end 3.90 Gears
· Aluminum Heads
· 66” Chrome Ladder Bar Suspension
· Econoline front axle
· Front Wheels: 10 spoke ET Mag Wheels
· Rear Wheels: American Racing 5 spoke
· 4-point Roll Cage
· Custom Diamond Tuck’n’roll Interior
· Custom Graphics by Venditto
· Mooneye gauges

The cell phone video sucks...but it sounds great!