Nostalgia. That word can mean a lot of different things to different people, but typically, popular culture seems to place things that occurred around 20-25 years ago in the “sweet spot” for what people miss from the past. Since we are all car people here, that puts trends that were happening in the early to mid 1990’s in the spotlight. One of the biggest trends that was going on back then was Pro Street. One can argue that Pro Street is more of a 1980’s thing that piqued with Rick Dobbertin’s J2000 build:
All that is good and bad about the 1980’s, in one convenient vehicle!
-Body colored trim and bumpers
Check. And it’s Teal, too!
Also, Check.
Don’t forget the braided hose covers!
Gray tweed ALL THE THINGS.
Bonus points acquired!
I mean, what else are you going to do with a 1985 Cutlass Ciera?
I can go on and on but I’m sure you get the point. For a long time, these cars were considered by many to an embarrassment to the car community, as these over-the-top builds were relegated to the show circuit and not subject to much street or track time. A lot of people saw them as a complete and utter waste of time and money, ruining perfectly good cars. In fact, we even asked you if Pro Street was dead and gone three years ago! But lately, a lot of these builds are coming out of the woodwork. In fact, we’ve featured a lot of them recently! It’s no secret that we love these cars for what they are and what they can be.
So, all of that leads me to this question: Is this flavor of Pro Street back for good, or is it our nostalgia for the past playing tricks on us?
For me, I think it’s pretty cool that these are starting to make a comeback. I didn’t always feel this way, but after seeing the antithesis of these rides (the Rat Rod) get played out enough that every rusty pile of scrap for sale online is now a “Rat Rod project”, I welcome the return of these cars. For one, a lot of these builds had an insane amount of money put into them, and even though some of these builds are getting up there in age, the quality of the components is still good by today’s standards. That means you can pick up someone’s insane 1990’s build for pennies on the dollar. And if that build has some run-of-the-mill, billet-slathered Chevy 350 backed by a TH350, you can always toss it for a more modern setup. You can almost make a “reverse sleeper” out of one of these: everyone will think it’s a Pro Fairground slow poke, but it’s packing some modern turbocharged EFI heat under that pastel hood! I say that it’s high time that you let that mullet flow, grow back that bitchin’ ‘stache you used to have, crank up the Ratt, and hop behind the wheel of one of these gnarly street machines! Well maybe not all of those things, but that’s up to you!
What do you think? Is it alright to like these again? Was it ever alright to like these in the first place? You know what to do… let us know below!
Oooh Gladys! I must go out and buy a pastel handbag….
I was just telling my wife yesterday how much I hated these cars back then after seeing that Chevelle posted. I was a kid/teen when these were in style, and were everywhere at car shows. I hated everything about them. The pastel blues, pinks, greens, and always some goofy graphics down the side. If the car was teal, pink graphics. Pink, teal graphics. I hated the chrome bits painted to match the body. I like chrome, and always had the opinion that chrome bumpers and such should NEVER be painted. Oh god, the tweed. It was on everything, not just pro street. The hot rods, kustoms/lead sleds, everything had tweed. I didn’t get it, I thought it was so ugly, and not a good material to touch. It looked super cheap to me.
And I was a kid. I had nothing from previous eras of rodding to compare it to, had no idea the cars were prolly very slow and the gigantic tires were for looks. I just hated the look. So much so, it got me out of getting car mags and going to car shows until my late teens/early twenties after the trend had finally died.
That said, I think it is cool to see these survivors popping up now, relics of a terrible era, like nazi artifacts from ww2. They are still ugly as hell, and I hope to god there arent people out there wanting to recreate this look.
Bring it on, I was one of those people that had a ProStreet car back in the day! Things change in life and now I’m into the late 50’s to mid 60’s customs.
I still think about building another Pro Street car some day as I was consumed by it! Besides everything is a revolving door as it all comes back around again, besides there are only so many 69 Pro-Touring Camaro’s you can look at!
I remember a couple of those cars back in the 80’s, except they weren’t pastel painted, there was chrome only where necessary, the chute was there for a reason, and yes, they had wipers, head lights, brake llights, etc. No one fucked with those guys. THAT, to me, was pro-street. Show poinies have always been show ponies, allthough Dobbertin’s J2000 was pretty neat – dual turbo, dual s/c. I think he put a rear 4 link (single) in it after he got shit from people about it not being a “streetable” car. His Nove a was pretty cool, too. Just remember, enons, pastels, checkerboards, and parachute pants were the norm in the 80’s.
As a builder/owner of various pro street cars through this era, my biggest reason to move on was the tire shake and rough ride . 4 link or ladder bars with coil overs have little control with this much rotational mass at highway speeds. And wait til you get caught in a sudden rain event. White knuckle time. But loved every minute of it, especially climbing out of a 12 point cage with solid door bars.
the goofy looking graphics gotta go
never was a fan of them, but then again… no my ride so to each his own
i’ve always personally like the 70s/80s street car styles, guess thats the era i grew up in
Anyone remember the magazine “Cars Illustrated”? They used to just blast cars like this, especially Rick Dobbertin.
I still dig them. I grew up reading the rags filled front to back with them. The hold a special place in my heart. But at the same time my favorite cars were not the obnoxious ones. Stock looking bodies with stock looking interiors with blowers and steamrollers….I was not a fan of tweed then nor am I fan of it now. I would not object to tweed and vinyl or something but the ALL TWEED ALL THE TIME channel is terrible.
The only Pro Street cars that were worth anything was the fastest street car shootout feature in Hot Rod in 1992.
Now those were the real Pro Streeters!
Hated them all, especially Dobbertin’s stuff. Seems to me the rat-rod trend is/was as anti-pro-street as you could get and I liked it for a while. Now that too has gone over the top. As far as trends go, I am finding I prefer barn find/day 2 muscle cars the most. Probably because the 1970’s muscle car I restored in the 1980’s is now looking more like a day 2 barn find… go figure.
I have always been into Pro Street… I love the look, just not the bad ride and evil handling on the street. Seems like people forget the street freaks that proceded the pro street cars…
I come of automotive age with these things, and a stack of Hot Rod and Car Craft magazines to drool over–a stack I still have somewhere. It seemed to me there was no reason you couldn’t make one of these look good and run just as good (which maybe makes it not Pro Street?). I would 100% nostalgia build/buy one of these if I could, graphics and tweed cage and all!