BLACK BELT BEL AIR – ROHAN HUTSON 1955 CHEVY
When GM Design Chief Harley Earl and Chevrolet Studio Chief Clare MacKichan collaborated on the external design of the 1955 Chevrolet, aerodynamics was not a key consideration. However, guys like Rohan Hutson continue to push classic shoebox Chevys to their limits and have a bunch of old-timey fun in the process.
Rohan is the guy behind Australian Auto Air, based in Echuca, and has been outfitting hot rods and classics with air conditioning for decades. Never one to stay idle, he regularly works on his own projects, and this 1955 Chevy has been in his bloodline for almost 20 years.
“I bought that car off the original owner in San Francisco; it was a 71,000-mile car with a 265 V8 and a three-on-the-tree manual,” offers Rohan. “I lowered it and put Centerlines on it, and it looked good with its factory black. Then I thought, let’s put an auto in it, but because it had the early motor, I had to run adapter plates, and then it had driveline vibrations. We swapped converters, swapped flexplates, but couldn’t fix it. So I ended up buying a 350 out of a bus. We put heads and a cam in it, put a Turbo 350 behind it. We put it all in, and it went fantastic.”
With a seven-second, tube-chassis ’55 sports coupe in the stable, it’s not unexpected that Rohan wanted to make his black ’55 go that little bit quicker.
“We built an alloy-head 383 that made just over 500 horsepower. Then we put a 170hp hit of nitrous on it. It went 11.40 naturally aspirated and 10.60 on the bottle. We had that same combo for years,” he says.
The Bel Air had presence, tubbed with a Rod-Tech four-link, a reverse-cowl scoop, and Centerlines, and Rohan was soon mixing it up with the quickest on the Street Machine Drag Challenge in 2016. But tragedy struck that same year when he rolled his race car at Calder Park Raceway at more than 250kph.
“If you Google ‘1955 Chevy Crash Calder, ‘ you’ll see the video,” he explains. “The blower belt came off at three-quarter track and cut the bottom radiator hose, unloading a tyre at about 160-170mph. If you watch the video, when we went over the finish line, it was actually on its roof. It still went 8.60…”
Rohan walked away, but not uninjured, and still suffers some effects of nerve damage. Nonetheless, the spirit of the coupe runs deep in his sedan, since he transplanted the supercharged 540-cubic-inch Chevy and salvageable speed gear.
Fast forward some years, and we caught up with Rohan after the recent Nitro Champs in Sydney, to which he hauled all the way from Echuca and was aided by a loyal crew of mates. The ’55 laid down three solid qualifiers, but was back on the trailer after the first round of racing.
“It was a huge meet because it was a Top Fuel and nitro meeting. We were really just trying to get some seat time. The best it’s gone is 9.70 at 139mph, but we’d changed a couple of things, and the car was going backwards. We dialled 10.05 and broke out with a 10.03; we went too fast! But it’s not just about the racing for me; it’s about getting out there with mates, catching up, sitting around a fire with a few cans, and all that too.”
