Pro Street – Pro What?

Remember Pro Street?   Remember seeing those obnoxious drag racing equipped cars with full custom interiors driving on the street?  Those wide 33” tires crammed under the wheel wells with rollbars to slide over just to get into the car.  In addition a 500+ horsepower engine complete with blower pulling up next to you on the stop light on Saturday night only to leave you staring at the wheelie bars.

Obnoxious I tell you – CarToons® turned into reality.  Well I was a teenager in the 1980’s and I just loved those cars.  Nothing was neater than a set of Hurst Lightning Rods sticking through a center console, 5 point harnesses laying on the seat, and a fully removable front end.  That was the ultimate in hot rod, street machine, cruiser, and horsepower rolled into one package.

Where did they go?  They went to the wayside for those interested in a fully driveable (yes, driveable) road car.  Pro Touring at its best.  A vehicle with horsepower and handling.  Handling – what?  Pro Street didn’t mean handling.  If you call ¼ mile straight as fast as you can handling, then yes – they handled.  Today we like “cornering” – we like firm shocks at every wheel and instead of ladder bars we like panhard bars and front stabilizers.  We like cars that can perform in a multitude of performance tests – cornering, braking, acceleration.

I understand it, but I can’t seem to ever get enough of a 33 inch Mickey Thompson’s stuffed neatly into those low ’55 Chevrolet rear quarters.  Hail to the tubs!  Who cares how hard it is to turn a corner – it is after you straighten back out that you are back in your comfort zone.

Guess what – they are coming back!  I am starting to see the return of ladder bars, wheelie bars, wheel wells the size of laundry tubs and large Mickey Thompsons.  Yes, there is room for all of us hot rod lovers out there!  The main difference today – aftermarket fuel injection instead of large Holley Dominators.  More and more are returning at car shows.  Now, Hurst – please bring back the lightning rods!

Yes, my friends – Pro Street is Still Neat!  Ridiculous, but in its own, unique way – simply neat!