In recent years, the Pro Street style of build is making a small resurgence. The Pro Street style originated in the late ‘70s and hit its peak in popularity in the ‘80s through the very early ‘90s. Purpose-built classics with straight line sprints in mind for cruising the street on Friday night. This should be no surprise, as trends can tend to be circular, becoming immensely popular, dying out over time, and then coming back again as more recent trends start to become stagnant and stale with taste. Chris Dalton has always been a fan since the beginning and is bringing Pro Street back to life with this blown 1955 210 Chevy.
The stance can make or break the Pro Street look. The monster tires in the back and the suspension set slightly lower in the front give this ’55 the perfect rake.
The look itself is inspired by the NHRA Pro Stock racing class of the 1970s, which is where the “Pro” in Pro Street comes from. This menacing style is as simple as it is striking in a row of cars at the local Saturday car show. They are stock-bodied and street-driven classic cars and trucks that are drag oriented with extra-meaty, oversized tires mounted to 15-inch wheels on shortened rear axles to tuck under the quarter panels of a tubbed stock body. A Pro Street car almost always has a high-horsepower V8 nestled in a simplified and squeaky-clean engine bay, preferably sticking out of the hood. The interior and paintwork is typically show quality as well.
Some Pro Street cars remove a majority of the exterior trim and paint the bumpers to match the rest of the paintwork. Chris decided against that look and kept the ’50s polished look.
Chris Dalton was looking for one of the shoebox Chevys, 1955 being his favorite model year of the three. He found this two-door 210 forty years ago in a barn. It was an abandoned, dirt-covered basket case that had been forgotten and sitting unmoved since the ‘60s. The car originally cruised around Ohio with a 136-horsepower, 235 cubic-inch Blue Flame Six and a Powerglide two-speed auto. The original plan was to build a dedicated drag machine out of it, but he changed his mind and instead, wanted to have something nice to drive around. When asked how much he paid for it, Chris explained and joked, “I traded a ’68 Chevelle Pro Street bare body for it, and it’s been a money pit ever since!” Credit given where credit is due; he does not mince words and is honest about the project car life.
“I traded a ’68 Chevelle Pro Street bare body for it, and it’s been a money pit ever since!”
– Chris Dalton-
The Big Block Under The Boost
The rat motor sticking through the hood isn’t just for show to match that pretty paint. It’s a 540 cubic-inch big-block making 1,000 horsepower and 950 pound-feet of torque on the engine dyno, drinking everyday 91-octane pump gas using a Dart 4.500 inch bore iron block as the base. That block is filled with a forged Callies 4.250 inch stroke crank, Callies 6.385 inch long H-beam connecting rods, and custom, forged aluminum pistons to reach pump-gas-friendly compression with the extra boost.
A blower through the hood is a badass look. But two Quick Fuel carbs and a Hilborn-style scoop on top of a TBS blower mean business.
This bullet-proof short-block is rolling down the road with a hydraulic roller camshaft and roller rockers to keep this high-horsepower street engine boulevard-cruising friendly. A pair of ported 291 heads could’ve probably fit the bill, but are heavy and would struggle to flow enough to meet Chris’s power goals on pump gas. A pair of Brodix rectangular-port, aluminum heads were chosen to handle the boost from the blower and save a proven seventy pounds off the nose of the Tri-Five.
There is no denying the attention-grabbing roots-style supercharger is the center piece of this engine build. It is an 871 unit from The Blower Shop and is topped with a pair of Quick Fuel 750 CFM, 4150-style, four-barrel carburetors. The Hilborn-style aluminum scoop and the pair of K&N filters inside are the cherry atop this monster big-block Chevy cake and really add to the Pro Street look. Other touches, like the Billet Specialties tall aluminum valve covers with a subtle, classic “Chevrolet” script milled on top and the smoothed and painted firewall, bring the custom look under the hood all together.
Just like the polished exterior, the engine bay is a wash of polished billet aluminum and red and black paint.
The Powerglide that originally came in this 210 Chevy was an iron case unit that GM specifically made for the six-cylinder engines; no matter how much money you throw at it, it’s too heavy and wasn’t going to keep up with the power demands. An aluminum case Powerglide was built to easily handle four-digit torque numbers with a 1.82 gearset and a B&M 3,200-rpm stall torque converter. The manual valvebody is shifted by a B&M Pro Stock, floor-mounted shifter that also looks at home in a custom-made console. Those two speeds send power rearward through a custom chromoly driveshaft to a shortened nine-inch axle built to handle hard launches from the big block Chevy.
Keep It From Twisting
When the new-for-1955 body style was released, the ladder frame received a revised front suspension and was considerably stiffer than previous models. It certainly wasn’t designed with big-block performance in mind, and 950 pound-feet of torque would turn an original frame into a soft, salty pretzel. Chris decided the best course of action was to modify the frame to fit his needs. He grafted the subframe from a 1968 Camaro to the front half of the original frame to benefit from factory disc brakes, improved steering geometry, off-the-shelf QA1 coilovers, and a more robust design that could better handle and fit big-block Chevy power. The rear half of the original frame was modified with a Competition Engineering back-half and ladder bar suspension with QA1 coilovers to hold the nine-inch axle and house those massive tires.
Not only are the polished Weld Draglite wheels quarter-mile worthy, they fit the look Dalton was going for perfectly.
With the suspension and stance sorted out, it was time to pick the wheels and tires, which can make or break the look of a Pro Street build. Fifteen inch wheels are the unofficial go-to look for Pro Street cars and Chris settled on a set of Weld Draglite polished aluminum wheels. In keeping with appearances, he went with the traditional skinny-width wheels and tires for the front but chose 12 inch wide wheels for the rear and monster Pro-Trac bias-ply tires. This is a must-have for not only the looks, but also to hold at least some traction for the blown big-block. Even with that much rubber hitting the road, you can only imagine how sketchy it can get when Chris makes the bold decision on the streets to stomp on the gas.
No need to reinvent the wheel with the interior, the factory dash is timeless. Subtle design changes like the red leather on the seats, console, and door panels add to the custom look.
Back From The Dead With Black And Red
While many of us can flex our wrenching skills at the local car shows, whether we are skilled at brakes and suspension, engines and transmissions, or even fabrication; few can say they do their own paint and bodywork on their projects. Chris Dalton is one of those talented few. He knew he wanted to do a red interior in a classic 1955-style with some tasteful touches. He also wanted the classic red and black paintwork to match that theme. The black is an off-the-shelf, glossy Tuxedo Black, but the red is Chris’s own concoction. It’s a deep candy red he mixed himself until the hue was just right and then blended with a total of 32 grams of pearl to really set it off against the Tuxedo Black.
The Sony head unit and speakers are a big upgrade from the 1950’s AM radio technology, but you still might have a hard time hearing your favorite tunes over the 540 big-block’s exhaust note.
The interior was sorted out by Dalton’s friend Dave Hornschemeier out of Mount Carmel, Ohio. Modern seats, refinished in red leather, sit behind the stock 210 dash, which has been upgraded with some modern touches like a Sony stereo and speakers. The driver keeps his eye on the gauges through a Forever Sharp billet, 14-inch Muscle Series steering wheel that is wrapped in the same red leather as the seats and side panels. That wheel is mounted to an Ididit steering column, also painted red to match the dash. The gauge cluster comes from the Dakota Digital VHX Series, featuring red lighting over a carbon-fiber background. The trunk is lined in the same red leather as the door panels and is also home to a 20-gallon, black aluminum fuel cell from Speedmaster.
The trunk is trimmed in the same red leather and carpet as the interior. The Pro Street look is as much about the interior and fine details as the paintwork on the outside.
Chris Dalton has always liked the Pro Street look, but did not buy his already done. He is more hands-on with his cars and likes to build them himself, just like his dad and uncles liked to do with hot rods when he was growing up. Chris loves painting and fabricating all the small parts to make a project car build come to life. You could say it’s more about the journey than the destination with a project car build and Chris would probably agree; his favorite part is doing the hard work. He did everything but the engine and interior on this Pro Street ’55. Is Pro Street coming back full force? Probably not. But Chris Dalton is at least bringing Pro Street back to life with this blown 1955 210 Chevy.
