If it goes as well as it looks, you’d have to agree. Peter’s ’34 Ford suicide-door roadster is a masterpiece and was no accident as he did heaps of planning before turning a spanner for the first time. The initial inspiration came from photos of Bobby Alloway’s superb black ’34 coupe. It was super-low with an aggressive rake, emphasised by its combination of big and little wheels, which is exactly what Peter wanted. There was one proviso, though, and that was the car had to drive well with no compromises.<\/p>\n

The project began in 1997 with an original ’34 chassis and a Deuce Customs fibreglass body. The chassis was handed over to Rod City Repros who boxed it and grafted in some tube cross-members for strength. At the same time they sliced off the horns for a smooth front look.<\/p>\n

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Rod City also supplied and set up the stainless front and rear ends. The front end is fully independent with Rod City upper and lower arms running urethane bushes, Shockwaves adjustable shocks and Air Ride bags. Steering is Commodore power rack and pinion. The rear suspension is also fully independent, fabricated by Rod City around a Corvette centre, and uses Shockwaves adjustable shocks and Air Ride bags.<\/p>\n

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Lots of work has gone into the brakes to get them biting strong. He’s used Wilwood calipers front and rear, the fronts being massive six-spot units clamping 330mm ventilated and grooved DBA discs, while at the rear the brakes are inboard with four-spot calipers working on solids. Rod City pedals push on a Wilwood twin master cylinder without power assistance. The pedal’s hard, Peter says, but they work really well.<\/p>\n

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Peter was well on the way to getting his great-handling and driving car but he didn’t lose sight of the fact that a street rod needs to have plenty of get up and go, so for mumbo he turned to Ford and bought a ‘going’ 351 4V Cleveland. Nizpro was called in to modify a Weiand tunnel-ram manifold and accept a Motec throttlebody, and air cleaners were built into a hat that cleaned up the top of the engine. Meanwhile, Rod City Custom fabricated the 2-inch headers and 2¼-inch twin system, which is HPC coated.<\/p>\n

Dyno sheets quote 400hp, a figure Peter says is not as high as he could have got if he’d really gone all out for power. The manifold set-up isn’t optimum, he admits, but it looks good and 400 horses gives it enough grunt to make it a fun drive.<\/p>\n