My cars get driven hard, fast, and often. :)

I drive a lot of 100+ mile trips, and I let the woman drive it a lot, so it needs to be safe, reliable, get decent gas mileage, and cruise 80+ on the highway.

Good brakes, improved handling, fuel injection, overdrive, and comfort... from a car that looks better than any new car. This will never go out of style. The all-out track cars may lose some popularity, but the daily-driveable muscle-cars will always be cool.

Big wheels will go "out" though. People will continue to run 17" and 18" to clear 13" brakes, but the 19" and bigger are a fad in my opinion. Anything that is for looks rather than performance, styles will change. The need for speed will always dictate styling.

As a stalwart "I like em the way the General built em" Purist of sorts, I was heavily influenced by The Mule. I would have never done to a car, much less a 69 convertible, what I am doing now unless I had ever laid eyes on that one particular car.

Of course Nascar, Trans Am racing, Muscle Cars and growing up in the 60s etc was the foundation.

But The Mule did it for me. Plain and simple. I equate seeing it in person with meeting Raquel Welch in person, I'll never forget it. Plus its owned by a true Car guy, not some ahole investor that would park it in some heated warehouse somewhere.

because its expensive and people like pricey stuff :D

Well, we hope not.. but it is bound to happen to any segment as fringe elements borrow styling cues more than engineering principals. It is the responsibilities of the core group to not loose sight of the REAL principals behind pro-touring cars. What happened to pro-street is that the core group forgot what it was all about and just about the entire segment went loopy on an overdose of chrome and badly ballanced cars.

The thing that pro-touring has going for it is that is really just an evolution of the whole "street machine" deal. Cars that evolved in tech of be more street friendly and have all around performance on par with modern cars. People will always desire those traits in a classic car.

I like pro-touring because it takes a car that is cool to drive and makes it cool and FUN to drive..

I was all into drag racing in high school. Then my senior year my friends dad bought a Ferrari and I fell in love with the handling and speed it had. So ever since I wanted my bird to handle like a top end car. Then I seen chris kerr's camaro and seen what it could do. So that's my story :_paranoid

I've owned my car for 15 years and it's been through several versions of the same ol' 355/4-speed combo. I really identified with the Car Craft RSE as a way to truly judge a car's performance.

Each time I'd break the car I'd tear it down and build it back up a bit differently. One of these breaks came right as the Red Witch hit the scene. That car, above all others, really set me in this direction. I decided to really tear into the car and do something drastically different from my previous builds. It was a very ambitious goal considering my budget, or lack of it. That's why it took 7 years to accomplish (it's been down since 1997). I took everything that wasn't part of my final vision and sold it, making sure I wouldn't short cut or settle.

I think the build style of Pro-Touring is a natural evolution. Plus, it's real hard to do something different with an old Camaro. I'm intrigued by the challenge of balancing old vs.new vs. old. Unlike a couple of you guys, I don't want to see the bodies being altered much. I want an exotic supercar in Musclecar skin. Go look at the flared-fendered bondo machines of the '70's as an example of well-intended body mods, now taken out of context.

Even above the "look" I believe in the performance aspect. That's why I'm not a fan of 20's on the cars. They are the opposite of performance, IMHO.
If I were to do it again, or next, I'll probably build an LSx with the turbos. GM really hit it out of the park with that platform and I see it becoming a very common swap. There will be a backlash against the "look" of these cars, I forsee, but most of my mods are function over fashion, and performance never goes out of style. :thumbsup:

Most seem to have missed the question that I thought you'd all answer first, ie

Given unlimited funds what would you build/buy & would it be PT or something totally off the wall. What parts are on your wish list? :)

For me it's a natural progression from drag racing, to wanting to race at something for longer than 10 seconds.It seemed the more money I threw at my '55 to make it quicker, the less time I had racing it!! So the natural thing would be circuit racing. Plus I have to have my cars legal for the road to enjoy those nice sunny days out DRIVING!. (whats a sunny day as it's raining here in Brit-land) so a road/circuit car makes total sense, plus the PT look of unmolested bodywork, nice wheels,high performance & handling are a top priority for me :thumbsup:

Unlimited funds: I'd go ahead and build a twin turbo aluminum block and heads 455 Olds with a 6 spd. Leather seats, a/c, cruise, auto start, Baer brakes. Close to what I want to build except for the BB. But if I have unlimited funds, I wouldn't have to worry about gas prices :willy: . It would be the best daily driver/late sports car humiliator.

Sounds good to me, hey, you've just invented a name for someones car................THE HUMILIATOR ! :thumbsup:

I would drop my 70 bird shell over a new 360 Ferrari if I had the cash. I love high end cars.