Pro Touring Defined

There are an infinite number of ways to build a pro-touring car, and perhaps the single greatest thing about the pro-touring genre is the fact that the term is always open to interpretation. At Gearhead Garage, these builds are our specialty, here are a few classifications:

Pro-Touring: A classic muscle car with upgraded and updated suspension components, brake system, drive train and aesthetics, including many of the creature comforts of a new car. Built to function as well or better than some of today’s best performance cars, Pro-Touring cars are built to be driven. On the street, race track, drag strip, through cones at an auto-cross, no matter the setting, pro-touring cars are meant to be driven. [Generally speaking, late model cars are not considered pro-touring due to their factory designed suspension and brake packages.]

G-Machine: [Once considered to mean the same thing as pro-touring, the term has now evolved to mean a slightly less refined pro-touring car] A classic muscle car with upgraded and updated suspension, brakes, drive train and aesthetics, generally lacking some of the creature comforts one would find in a pro-touring car, such as cup-holders, leather seats, etc., otherwise identical to a pro-touring car.

Street Fighter: [The term is adapted from a European genre of stripped down street bikes to mean stripped down pro-touring cars.] A classic muscle car with heavily modified and upgraded suspension and brake system components, powerful yet functional drive train, and little to no creature comforts. Most Street Fighters lack A/C, big billet wheels, chromed-out engine bays and navigation systems, but sport forged wheels, a roll cage and fabricated parts. Anything not necessary to make the car accelerate, decelerate, or handle better is stripped from the vehicle. Street Fighters are Pro-Touring counter-culture at its best; drivability is sacrificed for performance and function. In the simplest of fashions, Street Fighters can be equated to street legal race cars.**

Click here to see some of Gearhead Garage's builds...

**Source: ProTouring.com, 2008