So what if we lived under a 55 mph national speed limit, pro street was big in the ’80s–well, at least that’s what the hot rod magazines constantly told us.
The basic formula: apply extreme drag cues to a street machine, meaning the standard equipment included part of the engine poking through the hood, giant meats out back and skinnies …
I still love a good Pro Street car. Not the pastel paint colors with heartbeat stripes. But the 15x15 rear wheels, low AF stance, and an 8-71 blower with an Enderle Big N Ugly on it, or a tunnel ram with twin Dominators, that's a look I never get tired of.
I have that kit, still need to build it. Might've lost some pieces.
They re-released the kit a few years ago, so shouldn't be hard to find for anyone who wants one.
Anyone else catch the fly-by laps of the Indy car through their neighborhood?
I have always been a fan of the rear wings on some ProStreet cars. Extending the body lines out flat does it for me.
As I've posted several times over the years, this was local to me:
Notice anything... suspicious here?
YUP - stock, FWD, automatic transmission... dragging that whole abomination around via the pizza cutters.
The TBird was the primary vehicle used in a Super Bowl commercial last year:
ekg Signal
EKG signal in green. Pulse ( blood pressure) in red
Will collect pedant of the day prize on the way out the door...
I would 100% rock a Pro Street something in full late-80's form, complete with retina searing teal with hot pink side graphics and a gray tweed interior. There was nothing cooler back then.
NOHOME said:
Always fascinated by "old but not historic" photos of car events like this. I wonder where they all are today......
Rick Dobbertin was a big player in the Pro Street movement as well. Look up pictures of the Pontiac J2000 he built, although his early Nova was a more realistic street car. These days he's working on a setup for narrowing late model Corvette suspensions for use in ProTouring cars.
Looks like the average attendee is about 60 lbs lighter in the old photos.
Duke said:As I've posted several times over the years, this was local to me:
Notice anything... suspicious here?
I can see the rear spring through the I.D. of the muffler!
In reply to GCrites80s :
Yep! That's awesomesauce. But I really like the solid pipe rear axle with no pumpkin.
Before he switched to the bolt-on "cowl induction" bump, there was a giant chrome bugcatcher that opened with the hood.
I miss pro-street. Granted, it was honestly just as much poser as the modern pro-touring stuff is.
But then hot rod did the drag racing stuff for them like optima did for pro-touring. And guys got serious and they became race cars with plates.
Eh
Still love the things! Maybe I'll actually build one.....
I have no idea why, but I thought this was the coolest thing I had ever seen in 1988 or whenever. I believe I had a model kit of a similar Pro Street Tempo.
Looking back, I still think the amorphous blob Tempo styling works for this look
Duke said:As I've posted several times over the years, this was local to me:
Notice anything... suspicious here?
YUP - stock, FWD, automatic transmission... dragging that whole abomination around via the pizza cutters.
The term for that is Pro Fairground. Because all that car was built for is idling around Fairgrounds at a shoe. Kinda like how a musclecar with 18" wheels but stock drum brakes and suspension is called Faux Touring.
In reply to GCrites80s :
Excellent catch.
Was never a fan pf pro street, but I can't stand pro touring
I always liked Scott Sullivan's Cheez Whix '55 Chevy. And he drove the E36 M3 out of that thing, cross country and everything. It had a pretty healthy big block Chevy built by John Lingenfelter.
Honestly, swap the wheels, and you couldn't tell that car was built in the '80s
He didn't believe in chroming entire engine bays either. He said you need different colors and finishes and textures, because when you chrome everything, you lose all the details in the reflections. So in the Cheez Whiz, the engine bay was orange, the block and heads and intake and valve covers were tan, he had stainless hard lines, the valve covers had black accents, the air cleaner was billet.
He recently did a Kaiser Henry J that looks awesome too.
A few years back, a shop built a new GT500 as a Pro Street car. Still had the 5.4L 4V, but with an 8-71 with a fancy nitrous setup and an Enderle injector hat (used as a throttle body, because it had port injection) with 20x15" rear wheels. I thought it was awesome. Hot Rod did gripe that it was a little too tame to satisfy their Pro Street dreams, no shrieking 4" Flowmaster bullets or insane blower surge or other holdover antics from the '80s.
NickD said:Duke said:As I've posted several times over the years, this was local to me:
YUP - stock, FWD, automatic transmission... dragging that whole abomination around via the pizza cutters.
The term for that is Pro Fairground. Because all that car was built for is idling around Fairgrounds at a shoe. Kinda like how a musclecar with 18" wheels but stock drum brakes and suspension is called Faux Touring.
I used to see it driving around the street on many weekends. I'll give him credit for that.
NickD said:
He recently did a Kaiser Henry J that looks awesome too.
I'm not gonna lie, I love Kaisers / Henry Js, and I would rock that thing. All I would change is the wheels - not a fan of chrome wheels in general, and those in particular.
Duke said:In reply to GCrites80s :
Yep! That's awesomesauce. But I really like the solid pipe rear axle with no pumpkin.
Before he switched to the bolt-on "cowl induction" bump, there was a giant chrome bugcatcher that opened with the hood.
See that silver crossmemeber thingy tricked my eye into thinking there was a fake pumpkin too
Duke said:NickD said:
He recently did a Kaiser Henry J that looks awesome too.
I'm not gonna lie, I love Kaisers / Henry Js, and I would rock that thing. All I would change is the wheels - not a fan of chrome wheels in general, and those in particular.
It had ultra-wide steelies and white walls on it
From what I've read, he cut and sliced the body up on that pretty good, even changing character lines, but it all looks stock.
In reply to GCrites80s :
Bluetooth exhaust.
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