Griffin Steinfeld has never been one to play it safe with his builds, but this latest machine, crafted in collaboration with renowned fabricator Rat Rod Jeff Jones, might be his most unhinged creation yet. It’s raw, it’s loud, and it’s fast. Built from a ’32 Ford Model B shell and powered by a Top Fuel-derived supercharged big block, this rat rod is a rolling piece of industrial art with dragstrip credentials.
“This was a team effort for sure,” Steinfeld said. “My dad and I always loved rat rods, and when I found Jeff on Instagram, I knew I had to work with him.”
Steinfeld, as some may know, is the older brother of pop music star and Oscar-nominated Hollywood actress Hailee Steinfeld. But Griffin doesn’t hang his hat on his sister’s well-earned fame, and instead has carved his own path by following his passion: fast cars. Griffin, is no fly-by-night guy that’s out of his league: he got his start in NASCAR’s lower-tier stock car series and then took up drag racing, campaigning a 2,000 horsepower, twin-turbo Apache pickup in competitive drag radial events, and assembling a daily driven supercharged LSX, 1,200 horsepower Volvo. He’s even piloted Jeff Miller’s 3.6-second Radial versus The World car.
Needless to say, he doesn’t do anything halfway.
The Rat Rod project started when Jones unearthed a half-buried 1932 Ford body from his property. What followed was a 10-month, ground-up fabrication effort that included a hand-built chassis, Pro Mod-level rear suspension with QA1 MOD shocks, and intricate sheet metal work, even down to custom wheel tubs with Steinfeld’s logo hand-rolled into the panels.
“This whole thing started as a sketch on the floor,” Steinfeld said. “Every week, Jeff sent me photo updates. He built the car from scratch.” The finished project could best be described as a mashup between a boulevard-cruising rat rod, a Pro Mod, and a classic drag-race Altered.
At its core is an all-aluminum 565-inch tall-deck big-block Chevy with AFR 385 Magnum heads and 16 injectors managed by a Holley Dominator EFI system. The blower? Straight from Don Schumacher Racing’s Top Fuel program—an ex-11,000-horsepower supercharger reconfigured for street and strip use.
“It’s got traction control, individual cylinder tuning, and a fully manual Turbo 400,” Steinfeld explains. “Right now, it’s making low 900s at the tire, but with pulley changes, 1,700 horsepower isn’t out of the question.”
Despite the madness, nothing was left to chance. The chassis is NHRA-certified, and clever packaging with Kirkey race seats fits Steinfeld—at 6’4”—comfortably inside the chopped shell. Fuel range is minimal thanks to a 13-gallon cell, and visibility is equally scarce at just 4 inches of windshield height. But Steinfeld shrugs it off.
“I’m basically sitting in a chair bolted to an engine,” he laughed. “It’s stupid, in the best possible way.”
With only a few street miles and no track passes yet, the car’s full potential is still untapped. But it cruises well, and it’ll shred those big 33-inch meats at a flick of the throttle pedal. But one thing’s already certain: this is a rat rod with literally no equal.
