Pro Street’s Greatest Builds Honored at 2024 Grand National Roadster Show
The 2024 Grand National Roadster Show paid homage to the wild and creative world of Pro Street, with nearly an entire building dedicated to that style of hot rod.
If you aren’t already familiar with them, Pro Street cars bring the loud, big-tire look of Pro Stock drag racing to the street with massive wheel tubs, wide, tall rubber, and rowdy engines that are often supercharged. Born in the ’70s and reaching its zenith in the ’80s, Pro Street included both street-driven muscle cars that looked like they had just left the dragstrip and fairground-cruising show cars that were detailed and polished to a nearly absurd degree.
The arms race of these show-oriented Pro Street cars was apparent in the dozens of builds on display, a gathering that included some of the most famous examples of the breed.
Pro Street royalty Rick Dobbertin had two of his most famous builds featured prominently. His nitrous-burning, twin-turbocharged, supercharged Chevy II is an engineering and creative marvel in its own right. Built in 1982, the Chevy made a huge impact in the hot-rodding world. Twin draw-through carburetors, one per turbocharger, feed the Roots blower by way of a dummy injector hat. Those throttle butterflies are a ruse.
Four years later, in 1986, Dobbertin’s Pontiac J2000 blew every other Pro Street car out of the water. Often described as the pinnacle of Pro Street, the turbocharged and supercharged car features a tilting body over a tube chassis, and its rear tires are so wide that there was no room left for a real suspension. (Dobbertin mounted a set of valve springs atop the rear axle in case anyone went looking for one.) Wholly impractical, this J2000 is more art than machine—and people love it. The Pontiac drew a crowd all weekend, with many fans of the car remembering how it wowed them when Dobbertin unveiled it almost 40 years ago.
Another famous Pro Street build at the 2024 Grand National Roadster Show was the 1987 Chevy Celebrity Eurosport of Mark Grims. The formerly FWD two-door is now decidedly RWD, with a triple-supercharged big-block V-8 stuffed partially under the hood.
If you grew up attending car shows anywhere in America in the ’80s or were a fervent reader of car magazines of that era, these cars will be a major blast from the past. They don’t appeal only on grounds of nostalgia, either: Kids of all ages were ogling the intricate mechanicals and highly polished finishes of these Pro Street machines all weekend.
Today it seems that the most popular type of street-legal drag car is the kind built for drag-and-drive events, but there’s always a place for an over-the-top Pro Street build. Choose your favorite from the gallery below!
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A 1987 Chevy Celebrity Eurosport. Words I never thought I would type let alone see someone converted into an interesting RWD car. Congrats on coming out of nowhere.
I still have my Rick Doberttin J2000 model at home 40 years later. What a car!
We encountered this red mustang at the show and it STOPPED us in our tracks.
The work on the car was amazing inn EVERY detail. Well done. A candidate for the Smithsonian…
The Mustang with the 7-foot-tall engine reminds me of women who grow their finger and toe nails out to a foot or more in length. Way too much of a good thing……and totally nonfunctional.
I was never a fan of pro street. These are nothing but street legal race cars. While I do appreciate the quality and craftsmanship of the build, they are totally worthless. I remember reading an article years ago of some bonehead that took an original pristine fuel injected 63 split window Corvette and made a pro streeter out of it. He should have been in jail.
I remember when the J2000 came out. I’ve always said – it effectively killed the pro-street movement. It couldn’t be topped – an amazing piece of machinery, workmanship, and history. It also made everyone step back and go… “shouldn’t we be driving these?” And that is when you started seeing more practical builds – still over the top, but you could driving them 50 miles if you had too.
Come drive with us? Not a one of those cars are street drivers. Fully illuminated chrome plated and useless from any functionality.
Interesting stuff, some insanity, but who am I to judge. If it floats your boat, do it. I’ll look, appreciate the workmanship and look again. Hopper cars for example, not my thing, but the workmanship on some of them is incredible. Same here.
Dear Gaud…Oh my Gaud…Holy Mother of Gaud…Gaud Almighty…Gaudness Gracious…Too much?
I bought a complete 671 BDS setup for a BBC. Sat on my desk for awhile then found a 454 4 bolt main block, Brodix heads, kept getting parts & set it up to run pump gas. Sat on stand for a bit then my friend was selling his 68 Camaro Pro Street as a Roller. Bought that with Turbo 400 & narrowed Dana 60. Last thing I got a Vertex Magneto. Did this one about 20 years ago. My Fastest Camaro. Next project 69 RS Z/28. Happy Cruising!
IMO those cars are just an exercise in who can spend the most money.
Not my “cup of tea”.
Nice blown C1 Corvette, except for that Pepto Bizmol pink paint job. It would look far better in a different color. (candy apple red, metallic blue, pearl white, etc.)
About half of those cars are totally absurd. As in not driveable.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t pieces of art, but they really can’t be called “cars.”
We had three Pro Street cars and various de-smogged cars at a place I worked in Rochester, NY. We also had a shop that would perform New York State inspections for a slightly adjusted “fee”. Once a year, there would be a parade from our parking lot to the “Inspection” station.