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.

The latest addition to the Freiburger fleet is a 1969 Chevy Nova, complete with a four-link rear suspension, 14x32-inch slicks, 9-inch housing, and an 8.50-certified cage. The interior wasn’t hacked up like a racecar, either, with an intact factory dash, headliner, and everything else. His comments were direct and focused: “I got it because it was so similar to the Fastest Street Car stuff of the early ’90s. I had planned a nitrous 540 for it.”