FORD ROADSTER (REPLICA)

and the aforementioned front-end set-up fitted, the chassis was ready to roll. All that was needed was a set of wheels, which, as we all know, would make or break the overall look of the car. The Rocket Racing catalogue was scoured time and time again before Ferg committed to a set of 15x5-inch Launcher wheels for the front and 15x10-inch Injector wheels for the rear. When wrapped in 25/7.5R15 and 31x12.5R15 Hoosier tyres, they would give the car the perfect raked stance that he’d long been dreaming about. To keep with the ‘everything will be polished’ theme of the undercarriage, polished Wilwood calipers were sourced for each end. Why discs, the retro-purists may be asking? The answer behind that is simple: this car was never going to be fitted with an underpowered flathead — far from it. Although Ferg’s list of previously owned cars may feature far more Fords and Mopars than it does Chevs, he’s all too well aware that the easiest way to get the right performance he was going for, without spending an exorbitant amount, would be to drop in a small block Chev engine. It was not just any off-the-shelf crate motor he wanted, so Ferg turned to Craig Hyland at Engine Dynamics. Craig’s known as a high-end race-engine builder, so applying his expertise to a street car engine is somewhat overkill, but here was done with good reason — Ferg didn’t want to be stuffing around with mechanical issues once the car was on the road. With this required 360ci small block Chev, four-bolt main block, GM steel crank, hypereutectic pistons, Callies Compstar rods, Competition Cams roller hydraulic cam, Brodix alloy heads, Ferrea valves, Inglese stack fuel injection, FAST EZ-EFI system, Block Hugger headers, twin 2.5-inch exhaust, Walker radiator

GM 700R4 transmission, nine-inch diff, Junior’s Kustom Rides casing, Strange head, 4.11:1 ratio, 28-spline axles, aluminium driveshaft

Aluminium Super Bell I-beam, stainless spindles, stainless hairpins, So-Cal front shocks, QA1 coilover rear shocks, ladder-bar rear

Single diaphragm booster, electric vacuum pump, Wilwood discs and calipers

15x5-inch and 15x10-inch Rocket Racing wheels, 25/7.5R15 and 31x12.5R15 Hoosier tyres

Brookville steel body, PPG Atomic green paint

Custom chassis

Ride Glide seat, Flaming River steering column, Flaming River steering wheel, Lokar shifter, custom leather retrim

Untested

reliability, and also a fair amount of performance in mind, Craig filled the bores of the 350 block with a GM steel Crank, hypereutectic pistons and Callies Compstar rods. The top end features Brodix alloy heads along with a Competition Cams roller hydraulic cam and Ferrea valves. The pièce de résistance of the engine combo is what sits atop that tough bottom end: an Inglese stack fuel injection system. The brains behind it include a FAST EZ-EFI computer, which was wired up by Ben Butter at Prospark Auto Electrical, along with the rest of the car. The result is the perfect look of old-school cool mixed with new-school reliability and driveability — exactly what Ferg was after. The various bits of fabrication that the build needed were looked after by Graeme Kidd of Graeme Kidd Engineering fame. Well-known in the Wellington region as the go-to for high-end fabrication work, Ferg can’t sing his praises high enough: “Graeme’s work is of the highest standard, and he was a pleasure to work with. Nothing is ever a problem with this guy. He’s a legend in his field of car engineering and modification.” That’s high praise from a guy like Ferg, who’s been around long enough and been involved in as many builds as he has. Speaking of top-quality help,

Ferg’s wife Lois was also instrumental in the build. “Lois has been very understanding through the whole process and has spent a lot of time in the garage on many occasions, helping me fit difficult bits and pieces when you needed two people,” Ferg says. “She also paid all the invoices for the build and never moaned once. Top lady.”

Part of that help from Lois was with assembling the whole car, to the point that it was driveable, before stripping it back down for paint. Once stripped back down, the rolling body and chassis were delivered to Gary ‘Choco’ Smith at Bodyworks, where the panels were given a good smoothing over before