Australia's Best Chevy Hot Rod

Brian Imlach's 1934 Chevy sits today as what can only be described as one of, if not the very best Chevy Hot Rod built in the country. The original plan was never to take the car to the incredible build standard it is today, but to build a pretty cool street cruiser he could get out on the weekend. Brian scored the car through a mate somewhere in Victoria, and what he got was a fairly neat full steel-bodied Australian delivered model. Admittedly, Brian was never a rodder, he grew up in the muscle era, and a long time GM Holden fan. When the Chev came up for sale though he couldn't resist the challenge.

Once Brian got the car back to his hometown down in Tasmania, he started pulling it apart but soon found the job to be above his own skillset. Eventually, the job was entrusted to Steven Alldrick from Deluxe Rod Shops. No stranger to some monumental builds, (bringing cars to events like Summernats and MotorEx for over a decade) Alldrick was pretty pumped to see a car of this condition. 

Brian was drawn in by Steve's workshop and his passion for building great cars. Brian, said:

"It was more intended to be a nice four door hot-rod just to drive. It's gone a little bit further than that, because Steve and the car builder told me the car is just so good. Steven said that I should it justice and build it as a bit of a show car first, and then you can get it out on the road. And seven years later, that's exactly what we did." 

What you see now is a labour of love that spent six-years in the Deluxe Rod Shop stable with countless hours on intricate details that'd often be overlooked. At first glance you see a full-bodied, unchopped four-door rod, which still has many of its factory parts. Take a closer look, and you'll see the workmanship in some of the hand crafted parts. The stunning grille up the front is one example of this, handmade to order from Alumicraft Street Rod Grilles, and then further tweaked by Steve's team to ensure all the gaps were perfect. It's truely a car you could walk around for hours, finding new details all around the car. It's no wonder it took over six years to build.

The power-plant of the whole deal is a LS2 with a PWR blower that puts out about 500-horses. It's paired up to three pedals and a H-pattern shifter, something you don't see all that often with builds like this one. Brian said he had the transmission lying around and thought "Why not!?". Of course, the engine looks spectacular sitting up the front with a gorgeous mix of paint and chrome that matches the rest of the car. There really isn't much on the car that hasn't been painted or polished, with the whole colour way developed by Steve and Brian at PPG's lab in Melbourne. It took over eight hours to get right, but we reckon that's time well spent.

We caught up with Brian on the final day of Meguiar's MotorEx 2022 for a quick chat. Check it out below and be sure to subscribe to the Performance Garage YouTube channel for more.