Pro Touring Call- I need some pics...

[SRD art]

Hey All-
I'm working on a project with Cartech/SA books that will feature some Pro Touring cars. I'm in need of some good pics of G bodies, and so far on the FB pages I'm getting Mostly Malibus a few Cutlass' and a couple Regals.

I could use a few more of those cars but am really in need of some Pro Touring G body Pontiacs, El Caminos, and wagons. If you have a Pro Touring G body and want to participate please post a pic here or pm me. Thanks!!

 

[zdeckich]

If you can wait a year or more ill post a pic of my "pro-touring" wagon lol.

 

[Rktpwrd]

It sounds like you’re not really interested in seeing more Cutlasses, but in case you are feel free to reference my build thread for “The Juggernaut”.
Link to the thread is at the bottom of my signature, and there’s a TON of pictures.
It’s still a work in progress, but the bulk of it is there.
If nothing else, you may be able to use some of the frame and suspension pics and ideas.

I don’t do Facebook so you won’t see it there.

Donovan

 

[307 Regal]

How good do the cars have to look, and do you need the owner's permission?
There's a guy that runs a Grand Le Mans with my local region on occasion, but his build has more of a "Pro-Budget" look like my Regal.

 

[SRD art]

I'll take any model just looking for more of a variety. Mostly I'm looking for done cars, not so much works in progress, focusing on Pro Touring with an emphasis on handling. The book won't really involve air suspensions except for a small blurb and I've got Nick R's cool Storm Trooper Regal lined up for that. With that said Donovan that car is pretty bad, lots of cool stuff going on there!

I have to have signed permission from the owner to make it legal. I'm leaning towards nicer done cars, although I'll entertain a rough street fighter if it has the right look and goods. I think my wagon is an example of what I mean there.

 

[motorheadmike]

Sorry... but, I don't do "Pro-Touring".

 

[SRD art]

You don't know what you're missing Mike. 😉

I have a street strip Nova I built in the early 90's, was fast for it's time as at mid 11s all small block motor, no bottle and it was my daily driver. It went in a 1/4 mile straight real fast, but didn't turn or stop worth diddly. Driving on the freeway was a joke with 4.56 gears, the 4500 stall converter meant it was hardly ever "locked up", it near redlined at the end of the 1/4 in 3rd gear at 110, and it got 6 mpg on a good day. A radio was useless because you couldn't hear it, at any speed above 45 you had to yell at the passenger. As soon as I started autocrossing the wagon, the Nova started collecting dust and I got more and more into Pro Touring. With the mildish 406 in my wagon it laid down between 18-20 mpg highway depending on the wind direction, it turns as well as a new Corvette, rides firm but comfortable, and stops fast when I tell it to. The basic no amp stereo I can hear fine when I drive.

The Nova was fun to drive when you needed to haul tail but that's it. The wagon does everything, and it ran 13.60s with that mildish 406. When that motor bit the dust drag racing I needed another cheap and easy motor, so the Nova's 406 is now in the Pumkinator wagon. Now I'll have my cake and eat it too. 😀 It's heavier than the Nova so I'd be tickled pink with low 12s but suspect I may see as fast as 12.0s. After owning a Pro Touring car it would honestly be tough for me to go back to factory suspension and geometry.

BTW the Nova roller is now for sale. 🙂

 

[motorheadmike]

You don't know what you're missing Mike. 😉

I have a street strip Nova I built in the early 90's, was fast for it's time as at mid 11s all small block motor, no bottle and it was my daily driver. It went in a 1/4 mile straight real fast, but didn't turn or stop worth diddly. Driving on the freeway was a joke with 4.56 gears, the 4500 stall converter meant it was hardly ever "locked up", it near redlined at the end of the 1/4 in 3rd gear at 110, and it got 6 mpg on a good day. A radio was useless because you couldn't hear it, at any speed above 45 you had to yell at the passenger. As soon as I started autocrossing the wagon, the Nova started collecting dust and I got more and more into Pro Touring. With the mildish 406 in my wagon it laid down between 18-20 mpg highway depending on the wind direction, it turns as well as a new Corvette, rides firm but comfortable, and stops fast when I tell it to. The basic no amp stereo I can hear fine when I drive.

The Nova was fun to drive when you needed to haul tail but that's it. The wagon does everything, and it ran 13.60s with that mildish 406. When that motor bit the dust drag racing I needed another cheap and easy motor, so the Nova's 406 is now in the Pumkinator wagon. Now I'll have my cake and eat it too. 😀 It's heavier than the Nova so I'd be tickled pink with low 12s but suspect I may see as fast as 12.0s. After owning a Pro Touring car it would honestly be tough for me to go back to factory suspension and geometry.

BTW the Nova roller is now for sale. 🙂

While I may routinely build cars that could fit into the "Pro-Touring" moniker, I do not subscribe myself to or choose to identify with, the stigma associated with the concept therein. The greatest number of self-inflated blow-hards in the hobby today are those folks who do a sub-30 second lap in a $100,000 car and want credibility for "using their car". I call bullshit on these guys driving through a short lane of predefined cones in purpose built cars which can only be serviced by the shop that built it for them. These jokers wouldn't stand a chance in a real SCCA race; more over their "stature" is a total fabrication by the media.

Probably the best "Pro-Touring" cars (before there was such a thing) were those captured by Car Craft in Real Street Eliminator between the early-90s and early-2000s. This was probably the last legitmate RSE: http://www.hotrod.com/articles/ccrp-0303-2002-real-street-eliminator-series/ (note the name of the guy driving the Caddy) After that it turned into a race of pocket books, and became less about ingenuity and skill to making a muscle well-rounded. Don't believe me? Look at RSE and Optima type challenges today - they had to isolate the mega-buck cars and create classes. Mark Stielow pretty much lead the way on this (using his talents and resources at GM) to raise the bar to unrealistic levels - look at how comparatively simple this build was in 1998: http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/project-cars/1969-chevy-camaro-restoration/ We are definitely fortunate that these high dollar builds brought a lot of products to market that benefit us all - but, the inadequacy folks are left feeling by not having the latest and "Pro-Touring" parts cheapens the hobby as a whole.

Look, I get it... you are a grassroots guy like me, with some skill and a few bucks to throw at the hobby and racing; and I am sure we could have a nice long philosophical debate over a pop on cars and car culture. But, like I said "I don't do Pro-Touring" - I just happen to build fast cars that handle and brake well, look nice, and sound good... but, don't call it "Pro-Touring".

 

[motorheadmike]

Oooh... here is a run down on that '82 Caddy in a Pro-Touring book - LOL: https://books.google.ca/books?id=Um...ge&q=Real Street Eliminator Car Craft&f=false

 

[SRD art]

Well put Mike, and I was teasing BTW. 😀. You're right on many counts. One thing you clearly got wrong was that I have any money to throw at this, 😉 lol! J/K Up till now I actually pay for my car directly by doing renderings on the side, a talent I'm lucky to have, but that makes it a long drawn out process. I'm working on that one though. When I was younger Schwartz' Caddy blew my mind. That car in itself was a big inspiration to me. I have 2 2door Novas at home I could've built but decided to do a G body station wagon to avoid the belly button mr. popularity follow the leader car disease.

One of the main reasons I wanted to write this book is because I see too many folks trying to get into Pro Touring without having a clue or just following the leader like a bunch of lemmings, or NOT getting into it because the "apparent" price tag scares them, or resorting to cheap garbage parts to save a buck in the wrong part of the build.

The truth is that the high dollar cars are the marketing tool the media uses to make a buck, and to promote the industry so that's what gets publicized. There's nothing new there, sex sells, beauty sells, masculinity sells, $400K '69 Camaros sell, blah blah blah. There's a huge bunch of folks with enough money to have what they want, I see that every day when I come to work and walk through the shop to get to my office. But, compare Pro Touring again to the media, what isn't seen in the main stream public's eye is all the guys that exactly fit what you are describing. Those are the guys my book will appeal to in the Pro Touring world. Based on my own experience and tapping into those I get to rub shoulders with and the things I've learned by working behind the scene for a major Pro Touring suspension manufacturer, I want to paint a more realistic view of how to enjoy this end of automotive hobby. I know lots of guys, myself being one of them, that fit what you described, lots. In fact if you're on a forum like ProTouring.com there are plenty of build threads from regular old guys like you and me. The high dollar cars that have saran wrapped tires when the roll across the coliseum floor, they're mostly there just to inspire us little guys to keep plugging along and make our own cars better. That's my point of view anyway.

I started building my car when there just a handful of G bodies doing this. Now there's so many parts out there to make these cars more competitive (or just more fun to drive everyday) for which in behalf of all of us G guys I'm grateful. But like any auto sport that has EVER been created, it will always evolve into the he who has the deepest pockets wins. Earlier this year I got a very up close view of several big hitters at LS Fest including high dollar cars like Mike DuSold and his race car disguised as a street car. But more outweighing the big boys in number were a group of folks just there to have fun and push their cars as far as they were willing to go themselves. Everyone had a blast, despite Mike cleaning house.

For a while I got bitter because I knew I'll always be behind the 8 ball financially and therefore my car may never hit the top 5. Racing became more frustrating, and stressing over what I needed to upgrade to go faster. Finally one day my son reminded me in his excitement just to have his car on a track that this is supposed to be fun. All you win is a $20 trophy anyway so if someone wants to spend hundreds of thousands of $ for recognition in the limelight I guess they get what they paid for. For me, I'll be more than happy to settle with ripping around a course as fast as I can in my ex grandpa car that every inch was built by me, and very creatively on a budget of less than probably $15K. That's where my satisfaction lies now.