Photos by Jonny Wooddell
We tend to think of hot rodding as a quintessentially American passion, but as Sergio Shifman will attest, automotive enthusiasm knows no borders.
“My family immigrated to the United States from Ukraine when I was very young,” he explains. “During the move, we lived in Italy for a few months, and my parents have told me stories about how we’d walk down the streets of Rome, and as a two-year-old, I was naming off all the cars we’d see.” During his formative years, Shifman’s vehicular interests naturally broadened, but it was clear early on that American muscle cars would become a lifelong obsession.
“I had a Lamborghini Countach poster back in the day, but I definitely gravitated toward the V8 stuff and drag racing in general. I’ve been watching NHRA races on the weekends for as long as I can remember.”
Shifman joined the team at ProCharger in 2001, and today he serves as a senior technician for the iconic, Lenexa, Kansas-based supercharger manufacturer. It’s a gig that has helped propel some of his own projects to new heights over the years.
“Before this Roadster, my main project was a 1970 Camaro, which evolved significantly over the two decades that I owned it. It ended up on the cover of Hot Rod magazine in 2017, which was an incredible milestone for me.” The former drag car went through several iterations during Shifman’s ownership. Initially powered by a naturally aspirated 496, by the end of his time with it, the F-body was outfitted with a ProCharged 525ci Chevy big block that put out roughly 1500 horsepower.
“After it made the cover of Hot Rod, someone approached me with an offer to buy it,” he recalls. “That wasn’t part of the plan, but suddenly the Camaro was gone, and I found myself looking for a new project. That’s when I decided to pursue a long-standing dream of mine: building a traditional highboy-style roadster.”
Although he had initially planned to build a roadster from the ground up with the help of Pete & Jake's Hot Rod Parts in Peculiar, Missouri, Shifman came across a partially completed project being sold by a shop in Pennsylvania. It offered him a significant head start on the build.
“What they’d done so far was pretty much exactly what I had planned to do, so it presented a great opportunity to fast-track the project.”
Purchased in 2017, the roadster features an all-steel 1931 Ford body from Brookville Roadster, sitting atop a custom ’32 Ford frame. Power comes from a 341ci DeSoto Hemi, a choice that aligns with Shifman’s vision of a 1960s-style aesthetic. Outfitted with an Isky camshaft, ported heads, and baffled headers from Gear Drive Speed & Custom, he estimates the engine produces about 400 horsepower and a similar amount of torque—plenty to keep the 1800-pound car lively with skinny bias-ply tires.
“Early in the project, one of the big challenges was getting the engine running properly with those six Stromberg carburetors,” he says. “But I have a lot of experience with EFI tuning from my years at ProCharger, so I reached out to Holley about creating a ‘hidden’ EFI system that would allow me to keep the carburetors as functional throttle bodies.”
The setup features six Strombergs paired with a Weiand Drag Star intake. Beneath the intake is a custom-built spacer to accommodate the fuel injectors, all managed by a Holley Terminator X ECU.
“Everything is in the engine bay, but it’s tucked down low on the driver’s side, so it’s really only visible if you’re specifically looking for it,” he notes. “For me, the car needed to look traditional, but I wanted the kind of responsiveness and drivability that EFI provides.”
The Hemi is paired with a TH350 automatic transmission, which sends power to the rear wheels through a Ford 9-inch rear end with 3.55 gears. The custom reproduction ’32 Ford chassis comes from Pinkee’s Rod Shop in Windsor, Colorado.
Sharp-eyed readers may wonder how this car combines the extremely low look of channeling—where the body sits below the frame rails—with the body-on-top-of-frame configuration of a highboy roadster.
“The secret to the car’s height and stance is the Pinkee’s Rod Shop chassis,” Shifman explains. “Their chassis allows the front and rear suspension to move way up, giving it that super low ride height without the need to channel the body. And keeping the frame visible is always a cool look. Not being channeled also allowed me to run a low-chopped windshield while maintaining a relatively normal seat height, so I can sit comfortably below the windshield.”
Mounted to this chassis are a wishbone front suspension, axles, transversely mounted leaf springs, and rear suspension hardware from Super Bell. Stopping power comes from reproduction 1939 Lincoln 12-inch drums up front and 11-inch Ford factory-style drums in the rear. The steering setup features a sprint car box from Schroeder Racing Products—a modification popular with hot rodders in the 1960s.
Inside, custom upholstery, bomber-style Speedway seats, and Stewart Warner gauges dress the cabin, which also has a clever secret.
“A lot of these Holley EFI systems come with touchscreens that provide real-time gauges and other features,” Shifman points out. “I wanted to retain those functions without disturbing the overall aesthetic, so I mounted the display on a motorized platform that slides out from under the dash when you turn the key. It slides back under the dash when you turn it off. It’s visible when you’re driving, and hidden when you’re not.”
Shifman says the Ford was finished and on the road in 2021, and since then, the car has won multiple best-in-show awards at regional car shows and cruises. But, as with many projects, it remains a work in progress.
“As a hot rodder, I’m always looking to upgrade, change things, and think of new ways to improve it. But it fits the bill of a traditional roadster so well now, I have to stop myself from messing with it in ways that might compromise that style. That said, there are still some finishing touches to be done on the trunk, and at some point, I’d like to upgrade the transmission—either with an overdrive unit like a 700R4 or by swapping in a five-speed manual. I haven’t decided which way I want to go yet.”
As the car show season comes to a close, Shifman is already planning the events he’ll bring the roadster to in 2025 and beyond.
“I’d love to make it out to Los Angeles for the Grand National Roadster Show—that’s been on my bucket list for a long time, so we might do that next year. Once we have the new gearbox in, I’d like to take the car on a long road trip. Next year marks the 100th anniversary of Route 66, and I know there are some big cruises planned to celebrate it. That’s exactly the kind of event this car was built for.”
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