BRINGING BACK PRO STREET!

David Freiburger and Roadkill Garage built a Pro Street Nova.

- MICHAEL GALIMI

There are trends that fade away into obscurity and then there are trends that transcend time. The Pro Street movement is one that will always exist—born in the ’70s, it thrived in the ’80s, and was brought to the dragstrips en masse in the ’90s. Today, it is mounting a resurgence, from the showgrounds to the dragstrips. Credit Big Tire drag racing on TV and No Prep events across the country, and a generation of hot rodders that still build these fat-tire street machines.

For David Freiburger, MotorTrend TV host and connoisseur of fine junkyard vehicles, Pro Street is a look he’s always enjoyed—not the fairgrounds style but the racing version. The HOT ROD Top 10 Fastest Street Car Shootout in the ’90s left a lasting impression on him. Those Memphis shootouts—and the madness that spun out of them—exist in the DNA of events that he’s created since, such as HOT ROD Pump Gas Drags and the 20-year-strong HOT ROD Drag Week (check out the Pro Street rules for Drag Week for proof of Freiburger’s preferred style). So, it was no surprise when he told us he picked up a true back-half Pro Street project car to tinker with on his days off.