(Photos from the BangShift Archive) — We love all different types of cars but the bombastic pro street machines that have bee prowling car shows, cruise nights, fairgrounds, and rumbling down the highways and byways of America since the early 1980s really capture our imagination. This is a collection of 20 pro street cars as captured from the vast BangShift photo archive. There are completely outlandish sub-compacts with huge blown engines hanging out of them, there are traditional pro street muscle cars and then there are show stopping beauties like this Monte Carlo and Mustang below. Back in the day, these cars were mostly bark and little bite, but times and have changed. While it doesn’t hold true for every pro street car out there, many of them are capable of incredible performances now to go along with their over the top looks.

At base, hot rodding is about personal expression and that expression is displayed through the cars that people build. We’re guessing that the men and women behind all of the pro street cars in this gallery are pretty damned fun to be around. Loud motors, loud paint, chrome, huge tires, and chin scraping stance. This is pro street….and we still love it after all these years.