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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My prom car was 1957 Chevy(Only a 150, but it was mine at 16) Took my sophomore girlfriend to my prom and several dances/events. Took her when she was senior to the night she was Homecoming Queen in my 1965 Mustang. Great cars and I now have a 1957 Chevy Bel Air and a 1966 Mustang Coupe as reminder of those days.
55 Chevy BelAir, 265ci (this was stock, not 283) bored out to 283. I think the girlfriend and I got in a fight over something stupid.
I’ve had a soft spot for a Deuce and a Quarter, for a long time, a friend had a real pretty triple white one. I don’t think it’d fit in my current garage!
A ’67 Cougar 289 automatic I took my wife and I of 50 years to the prom. I’d like to have that one back!
1983 prom in my dad’s ’71 droptop Corvette (red, black int, white top). My prom date got back together with her ex-boyfriend the week before the prom but we went anyway. She pissed me off during the prom so I put the top down at midnight going home and froze her to death.
Of all the proms I went to, I took my 87 Camaro. It was my first car and almost 25 years later, its still in my garage.
71 LTD. 429 4V 3:90 posi. FAST…
Took my $900 67 GTO convertible to my girlfriend,now wife’s prom in 1978. Sold it for $1,100 a year later and thought I did good! Jokes on me
Re @DUB6: A 1955 Bel Air hardtop with stock 283
1955 was the first year of what we now know as a ‘small block’ which was 255 cu.in.
The ‘283’s first year was 1957.
Try 265 cubic inches
Ha! Yeah, I didn’t go to any school event’s either. Glad to see some of you (us) guys posting…
I went to TWO proms in a beautiful pristine white 1964 Pontiac Bonneville hardtop coupe (with the spiffy eight-lug wheels). The Poncho was powerful and had terrific front and back seats and a cool factory reverb on the radio. Life was good!
Double dated in a surplus WWII Jeep. When one gal asked what were driving we told her “a 1943 green Ford convertible “
‘64 Nova SS with the 283 swapped for a 327. In 1987 it was faster than any new car in town. Haven’t had the car since 2009 but still have the girl!
I graduated in 1963 and my Senior Ball car was my dad’s ’62 Buick Wildcat. It was Fawn Beige with a two tone beige interior (bucket seats of course). It was basically an Invicta coupe with the 401 c.i., 325 hp engine. She was impressed and eventually married me. It probably wasn’t the Wildcat though. 😉
In 1967 my best friends twin sister asked me if I would accompany her to the prom. Of course I said yes because we we just friends at the time and not dating. Her “Uncle” had a 1959 black Cadillac 4 door with the big fins on the back. He let us have the Caddie that night. Her brother drove the Caddie with his date in the front and his sister and I rode in the back. We were quite a spectacle that night when we pulled up in that big machine. Also, my date was voted as prom queen that night. Nice memories.
Junior and Senior prom – 1964 Dodge 4 door Polara with a Craig 8-Track Player.