ROD ALMIGHTY

MIKE ROHAL DROVE HIS TURBO LS-POWERED ’37 FORD PICK-UP ALL THE WAY FROM ADELAIDE TO PARTY AT DRAG CHALLENGE 2019

- CARLY DALE

AN OVERPOWERED pre-1948 hot rod may not seem like the most sensible car to take on Street Machine Drag Challenge, but then again, sensible doesn’t have a lot to do with DC! We’ve had a small but growing number of entrants turn up in rods each year, and Mike Rohal’s 1937 Ford pick-up is one of the wildest yet.

Mike, the proprietor of engine shop JH Southcott in Adelaide, got his first taste of Drag Challenge in 2018, running a twin-turbo LS-powered VS ute. The stealthy VS ran a best of 10.6 seconds in the Haltech Radial Blown class, and Mike was hooked.

Five months before the 2019 event, Mike decided to turn his crusty-but-cool 1937 Ford shop truck into a certified Drag Challenge weapon. “I bought the ’37 a few years ago from the late Phil Hart of Special Interest Autos,” Mike says. “Phil had a talent for sniffing out amazing cars, and the ’37 had the most amazing patina I’d ever seen. I put it on the road with an I-beam front end, 283 Chev and nine-inch.

“I like hot rods, and I found that LS turbos are addictive. So I combined the two.”

To get the truck ready for duty, Mike stripped it back to its jocks, boxing and strengthening the original chassis, recessing the firewall and building a new floor. The front end is a Rod-Tech IFS, with coil-overs and a Subaru rack. Outback, Mike knocked up a beefy four-link rear using some Rod-Tech components, Nolathane HQ-style bushes and an Enemies Everywhere anti-roll bar.