According to You: What vehicle took you to prom?
Wow, your feedback was certainly impressive for this question! Seems like everyone participating in the latest installment of According to You had a vehicle worth sharing: a car that was worthy of a special night spent dancing as a teenager. Our prom memories are just as diverse as our tastes and life experiences, so we’ve selected some examples from the Hagerty Community to share with everyone. (You can have a look at all of them here.)
Let’s get into it, and see what vehicles took us to the big dance!
The Deuce and a Quarter
@Mike: For my 1973 prom, I took a 1970 black Deuce and a Quarter [Electra 225] that had Dad recently gotten as a trade at the Buick dealer. Beautiful ivory-colored brocade interior. I did 120 mph and got the car airborne! (On a 35 mph street, no less.) No damage, and we lived through it. My date was surprised. Tough car–I drove it to the junkyard in 1982.
A Sterling mode of transport
@Mr. Ed: Mine was a Lynx Bronze 1988 Sterling 825 SL that my dad had purchased the previous fall. Connolly leather–wrapped seats, Recaro front buckets, reclining rear seats, authentic burl-wood interior trim—the works.
The Brits know how to put an interior together and build a great suspension, but they can’t make an electrical system to save their lives. Still can’t believe Rover went with a Lucas electrical system instead of the Honda/Denso system in its Acura Legend cousin.
Even more luxurious yachts
@Steve: My uncle had a brand new, 1968 Continental Mark III in triple black that drove my date and me to the senior prom in 1967. We were stylin’!
@Bob: To both junior and senior proms, I took a 1950 green Olds 88 coupe with the big, four-barrel engine. After a few wrenching sessions, it was the fastest car in our town.
@WAB: Junior prom (in 1977) was in a 1972 Chrysler Imperial Coupe—super impressive, and comfortable luxury everywhere you looked. My [ride to] 1978 senior prom was a 1977 Monte Carlo, triple Firethorn Red, that I had inherited from my father a couple years ago with 3000 miles on it. Wish I had that Imperial Coup … have been looking for an excellent one for years.
@Tom: I had a 1941 Series 61 Cadillac Sedan (in very good condition) that had been sitting up on blocks in a neighbor’s garage for 15 years. When my friends and I were young kids, the owner would allow us to play in the car as if we were driving it. As I approached my 16th birthday, the neighbor said that, if I got it in working order, I could have the car for $100. I was able to do so under the guidance of a local service station owner. When I received my license in 1967, I became “that guy” who all my friends wanted to double date with as it had a very roomy back seat. Needless to say, there was no double dating on prom night for any of my friends.
High five for the Tri-Five
@DUB6: A 1955 Bel Air hardtop with stock 283 and three-speed floor-shift. Green interior—bench seat up front. The car was mostly white but with a tan hood and one blue fender, plus several spots showing my early attempts at body work, protected with yellow primer. (Where/why did I get yellow primer? Hey, it was the psychedelic ’60s, folks!)
After the dance, we headed downtown, where I promptly got pulled over for drag racing, which was an automatic $50 fine in those days. Not having that much cash, I got to spend the night in a cell, with my Chevy parked out front—minus my date, who had had to call her father to come get her. (Needless to say, we never dated again after that night.) When I scrounged the $50 from friends the next day, I in my powder-blue tux with white bucks sashayed out to the ’55 to the hoots of my assembled buddies and—quite red-faced, I assure you—headed home to face my folks. Memorable prom night? Yup!
@Ray: 1957 Chevy Bel Air 283. It was the family car, but during my high school years, after I got my license, it was mine pretty much any time I needed wheels.
Greatest Of All Time?
@Ken: I took a 1967 Pontiac GTO in 1972. Two proms, two girlfriends at the same time. Too much fun, too much car for a 17-year-old kid, and did not get into too much trouble (with the car or the two girls).
@Frank: In 1975 I drove a 1967 Pontiac GTO, Fathom Blue with black interior, Hurst dual-gate automatic, no power steering/brakes, and no air conditioning. Bought the car in December of 1974 for $700 at age 17. My first car. Remember everything about the car, and it was in very nice condition.
@DUB6: Ah, the days when you could buy a “very nice condition,” seven-year-old GTO for $700—please, please, please take me back!
The bench-seat Monte…
@Tim: I took a 1986 Monte Carlo SS, and it was one of the few I have seen that came with a front bench seat. It came in handy that night! Drove it to my prom in 1987.
A Pinto punchline?
@Jim: 1978 Ford Pinto wagon, four-speed. Beast!
Mopar muscle
@John: 1967 Plymouth GTX, midnight metallic blue, white interior. 440 Commando, dual quads, and A-727 Torqueflite.
@Steve: For my 1970 prom I took a ’66 Plymouth Satellite with a 440, 727 auto, Keystone Klassic wheels, and redline tires.
@Patrick: 1960 Dodge Dart Phoenix: monstrous fourdoor with a 318. Great beer wagon.
Dumps like a truck?
@Richard: In the early ’80s my son was going to a prom with no date. The company I worked for had an ole Mack dump truck. He asked me if I’d drive him there in the ole beast. I said, “Hell yes.” He worked on that truck until it looked like a rough show truck. We made a statement for sure; some 40 years later, when he sees old classmates, they say, “Hey, you’re the kid that came to the prom in the dump truck!”
@Steve: A 1966 Chevy C-10 stepside–I had pulled out the six-cylinder, dropped in a 327 V-8, and added a nice set of oversized aluminum slots with a fresh paint job in Corvette blue. The best part was the bench seat! Ended up getting married to that girl.
@Gred: In 1979, I took my 1971 Ford Ranchero GT, 351 Cleveland 4V carb, light green w/wood paneling, skinny rims, and tires w/dog-dish hubcaps. That car was such a sleeper.
Down to Cougar town!
@Steve: In 1977, ’78, and ’79 (with the same girl) I drove my ’67 Cougar (my daily, but I was proud of it). Girl is still a friend, and I recently bought the car back after a 15-year absence. It was partially stripped and almost hopeless, but it’s been fun to try to get it back to what it was when foolishly sold.
Stay in your (Fair)lane?
@John: 1974 or 1975 (can’t remember which) prom, drove the 1965 Ford Fairlane my father bought for me to drive when my aunt was going to trade it in. Visualize a shoebox, you have the styling for that car (1966 and 1967 models looked a lot better). My brother got to drive our parents’ 1969 Galaxie 500, a nicer ride. Anyway, it wasn’t an impressive ride, I was a hopelessly shy and awkward nerd and she was quite a looker, so she moved on to more impressive guys.
She heard he had a Mercury …
@Len: I took my own car to the 1956 prom, a 1951 Mercury convertible.
Malibu with my ‘bu!
@snailish: Mid-’90s prom, and I got to borrow a driver-quality 1970 Chevelle Malibu (dark blue with the black Malibu interior) convertible for that. Sadly the car was sold away from the family while I was away at college (for cheap, too). The next owner did a $50,000 restomod (in late ’90s dollars) to turn it into a red-with-black-stripes SS clone.
Prom-prom-prom?
@Sam: I took a 2004 Mazda 3 for junior prom. Hopefully I get something better for my senior prom! LOL!
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I was dating a doctors daughter in high school. Doc didn’t mind my rough looking 59
Chevy for dates. When planning for the prom came up, he said I had to take his car, the
Bentley!! I thought he was joking. Prom night I pulled up in the 59. I even washed and
waxed it. He told me to park it on the street, not in his driveway and tossed me the keys
to the Bentley. His parting shot, have fun, have her home by 1 am and don’t hurt the car.
My chariot to my 1975 prom was a $300 Olds 98. No muffler, holes in the floorboards, vinyl roof half torn off and flapping in the wind like the sails of the Black Pearl. Electric everything but none of it worked. But the girl. My god, the girl. I would trade all of the classic Detroit metal in the world for just one more kiss…..
Went to 2 proms with 2 different girls. Styling in a 1974 Chevy Van. One of the girls dad owned both a Chrysler and AMC/Jeep dealership. He offered me anything on the lot to drive. Honestly, just wanted to relax and have fun, didn’t want to worry about the responsibility of driving someone else’s vehicle.
1974 Dark Metallic Green Pontiac Grandville. Car was so big you could lay down fully extended on the back seat.
Cool car, looked like an old man car but packed a 455- 4 barrel that kicked A** (and sucked gas).
In 1975 I drove Mom’s brand new ’75 Coupe deVille to Junior Prom. It wasn’t more than a week old. Harvest Gold (non-metallic) with dark brown leather. Just a gorgeous car. Seven mpg. Eight if you really light-footed it. In 1976 I drove my ’75 Opel Manta, since it was mine, and my gal at the time wasn’t really into Cadillacs anyway. Not as luxurious, but it was mine.
A 1949 Ford two door sedan. In 1967 it was the only one in the parking lot. Many, many years later I stumbled across that car. It was way in the back of a junk yard that I did quite a bit of baseness with. I told the owner that when he cleaned that area out to call me, I’d give him twice what the crusher would pay. It had apparently had a tough life after it left my hands. No glass, no interior, hood was missing and someone had tied to stuff a Olds engine it. The following spring I got a phone call. The crusher was there and my 49 was marked along with a dozen others. I couldn’t hook my trailer up fast enough. I was getting excited about getting it back. A lot of fond memories were in that car. I get there ,drag my trailer through the spring mud and the truck ruts to get to where it was. Only to find that the loader operator had driven the forks through the drivers side and pushed the b plier more than half way to the other side. I was about ready to drag the operator out of his machine and explain what the big red x on the top of the car meant. I didn’t instead I went to the owner and said you better go look at what there doing back there and left. I’ve had a few disappoints in my life ad that was a big one. I was later told that he drove them out of his yard litterly at gun point.
Just FYI – the Chev 283 was not introduced until 1957. The stock engine in 55 and 56 was a 265 cubic inch V8.
In May of 1969, my daily driver was good-looking ’67 Cougar. But we were experiencing a hot & humid spell (and my Cougar lacked A/C) so I borrowed my mom’s 7-month-old ’69 AMC Ambassador. And with a bench seat and super-strong A/C, it was a great car for Prom Night!
V8 powered Henry J. Yanked the 4 banger out and dropped in a V8 while my licence was suspended for whatever I did. Cops were actually tougher back then than today.
Gee who had a licence to drive for a junior prom. What is a junior prom anyhow? Very few kids in my high school had driver’s licences. This was mid sixties.
66 prom in 1959 ford galaxie fe 332 solid lifters lot of room for after prom play ha ha ha
It was 1951, my dad said don’t take her to the prom in your Model A, better use my new ’50 Ford club coupe instead, and so that’s what we went in. Dad and his ’50 are both long gone, I sold that Model A later but bought another one 3 years ago, what goes ’round comes around.
I went to prom in 1977 in my moms 1973 pontiac lemans 2 door with a 350 under the hood.
great car
I don’t remember my junior prom but for my senior prom, my daily driver was a 1961 VW bus, so my future father-in-law lent me his late 1960s Pontiac station wagon. I hated the car but it did have a 389 V8. And it would smoke the rear tires at will. After the prom we made the ride to the beach at 100+ mph. Biased ply tires, marshmallow suspension and wonky steering. I’m still surprised I didn’t kill us both in that car.
I took my uncle’s 1973 Corvette with the L-82 and close ratio 4-speed. Mille Miglia Red and her dress color matched the car. I learned how to drive a manual on that car. I drove it from San Diego to LV on my learner’s permit. Drove it to a few college homecoming parades. It is now sitting in my garage with 40,000 original miles.