Mark Rudolph's T coupe is a brand new old style hot rod

Grampians Grease Monkeys founding member and President, Mark Rudolph has been into hot rodding since he was 15 years old.

- AL O'TOOLE

His first project was a ’48 Ford F1 Freighter that unfortunately didn’t get finished, but Mark then bought a Twin Spinner, then had an XP coupe and came back to pre-’48 rodding with a flamed Deuce roadster that graced the cover of ASR issue 122 back in 1998. That car was later sold and a magnificent Hudson custom coupe was built from a sedan to accommodate his growing family. Mark took that Hudson to the 2003 Kustom Nats where it won the top prize and funnily enough, after selling the car to Brian and Kyle Targett of Tasmania, the Hudson returned to Philip Island in 2016 and won the award for Koolest Aussie Kustom! That in itself is reason enough to believe that Mark knows how to put together a great car and his following project, a wicked 1940 Ford Standard Sloper with Buick Nailhead V8 power only backs that statement up further.

“I’ve constantly had a car in the shed under build from the age of 16 through to 57. People say oh you always sell your cars but I find that I actually enjoy building them more than I do driving them. I love pushing the boundaries a little bit with the style of cars I’ve built, I’ve loved being a bit different and without trying to be too far out there, I just like to do my own thing.”

When the kids got older and started to do their own thing, Mark decided a new project could be on the cards and since he had needed a car with a back seat for the last 15 to 20 years, thought that something smaller might be the way to go this time.