Ross Fortuna’s EH Premier is a truly special car in the here and now, but its long and storied history only increases its appeal. You see, this Prem has been a tough pro street car for over three decades.

When it first hit the scene in the late 1980s, the EH was a ’caged, three-quarter-chassis-equipped beast known as TUBBED, owned and built by John Lang of Street & Strip Engineering.

First published in the November 2024 issue of Street Machine

It was then sold to Greg Read, who gave it a birthday, renamed it WHYME, and had it featured on the cover of Performance Street Car, April-May 1991.

It resurfaced in Geelong a few years ago, this time under the custodianship of Gav Dowling, who put his own spin on it again.

Our man Ross stumbled upon it at the Bright Rod Run in 2020. Having been immersed in the car scene for years, he knew exactly what he was looking at.

“I’d always been around cars thanks to my cousins,” Ross begins. “I did my mechanic’s apprenticeship with my cousin Joe, and his brother Paul had a custom EH wagon that did the show scene in the 80s. Years later, my cousin Elvis and I built a Capri drag car that we had some fun with.

“I knew the history of this EH very well, so I purchased it without even driving it, knowing it would need some work. I got it home and the old ladder-bar rear end made it drive like a tram,” he laughs.

The car came with a 327 small-block Chev, but Ross quickly pulled that out. “I was looking for a second-hand 350, but by the time you find one and machine it, it worked out cheaper to just use a brand-new Dart block,” he says.

The Dart-based mill the EH now houses is a 383 stroker, good for 610hp, and Ross assembled it himself. It’s one of many engines he’s built over the years, having picked up the trade as a 14-year-old apprentice. “Everyone is going LS, and I get it – I’ve built a couple and they’re easy horsepower – but a tough, aspirated small-block was the only choice for this car,” he says.

The secret to the EH’s power is Ross’s fanatical attention to detail. While assembling the Scat-based bottom end, he deburred any errant casting marks and obsessed over his tolerances. The AFR alloy heads have been tickled and port-matched to the Victor Jr intake manifold, while a solid-roller cam spins through the guts of the operation. “A lot of the lifters available today are just junk; they don’t make it much past the first start-up,” Ross says. “It’s so much safer to go with a roller cam, and it helps tame an engine like this for the street.”

The stroker’s strict diet of 98 pump fuel means the amount of fun Ross and his family can now have in the car is only limited by the amount of go-juice they can keep in the boot-mounted tank.

With the powerplant sorted, Ross turned his attention to updating the suspension with a view to improving driveability. A McDonald Brothers four-link equipped with Viking coil-overs replaced the ladder-bar set-up out back, but the original Rod Hadfield front end remains.

Part of the EH’s journey back to the streets included removing the rollcage and replacing the racing seats to make it more comfortable to cruise in. EH Premier buckets were installed in their place and wrapped in HZ Holden-sourced tan vinyl, designed to complement the Saltbush Green paint adorning the exterior.

Speaking of which, Ross was keen to keep the EH’s outward appearance understated, despite the hunk o’ grunt in the engine bay. “I’ve seen EHs with bonnet scoops, and it just doesn’t look right to me,” he says. “I wanted to keep it all under the bonnet to help with engineering, and this is the style of car we used to see at the drags when I was growing up.”

Thanks to its stance and the 15×10 rear steamrollers, it looks every bit the tough-as-nails classic it is, but Ross’s choice of wheels adds a nicely modern touch. “It had Center Lines on it when I bought it, but I think the black and polished Weld wheels go better with the colour of the car,” he says. “Plus, I love the beadlocks!”

Now that the build is complete, you’ll often find Ross and the EH at cars-and-coffee meets or events like Showcars Melbourne, where it never fails to draw a crowd.

“It drives so nice now; it never gets hot or plays up,” Ross says. “It gets plenty of attention, and everyone knows someone who had an EH, so people are always chatting to us at shows or giving us the thumbs-up out on the road.”

No doubt about it: Ross’s goal of returning a legendary pro street car to Melbourne’s streets has been well and truly achieved.

ROSS FORTUNA
1964 HOLDEN EH PREMIER

THANKS
Con and Jimmy Sideris at CJS Performance Engineering; Altona North Smash Repairs; Brent Johnston at Auto Trade Transmissions; JB Barbieri for the rewire and his help with the whole build; Stef at Westernlink Automotive.