25 Years of Pro-Touring
Hey everybody Larry Callahan from Pro-Touring.com coming to you from the new Pro-Touring.com garage Studio where soon we hope to start doing some install videos and interviews with people we'll bring somebody in interview them show you their car I've got multiple permanent cameras mounted around the garage we'll put it up on the lift check it out underneath and go for a spin so that's going to be a lot of fun and who knows whatever else we can do uh in here but that's not why I'm here today today. Today I'm filming this is March 10th 2025 and today marks the 25th anniversary of Pro-Touring.com 25 years I can't wrap my head around that you know 25 years for a little Forum you know even with twitbook and face whatever you know things uh going on we're still we're still uh thriving and still new people are signing up it's uh it's still going so um it's been a lot of fun um I need to thank all the amazing talented members on there there's such an archive of 25 years of information and data and what people did build threads what parts they used how they did it tips and tricks they're sharing with everybody um yeah an amazing amount of um members and which which couldn't function without a great group of moderators we've got an awful lot of them who have been there since the beginning and I can't thank all the moderators enough it's been uh a thankless job for any of them um having to step in once in a while and swing the ban hammer you know but it's what you got to do but yeah 25 years I mean we've had 20 Banquets in SEMA um yeah it's just absolutely amazing the number of lifelong friends that I've made is countless um the things that I've got to do and places to go and invites to things it's just absolutely amazing it's been awful lot of fun um I need to thank my wife Susan who's been there since well before day one of protein.com so thank you Susan for putting up with all this but yeah been a lot of fun I mean I'm at a bit of loss a bit of a loss for words because just wow 25 years I'm getting old got a lot less hair put on a little more weight not quite as quick as I used to be but yeah wow 25 years I mean I mean who thought uh I thought you know a lot of people thought it's just a short-term fad kind of thing but here we are keep it going maybe another 25 years so to kind of help uh celebrate or commemorate this 25th anniversary I asked a number of friends to shoot a little video um congratulating Pro touring.com and also maybe what they got going on or what they're working on and what it's meant to them so uh we put together a little compilation video which uh we're going to kick off here with what some people with who is what some people call the king of it or the guy who started it all definitely the guy who coined the term pro-touring um so yeah stay tuned to the end there's going to be another message from me at the very end help uh help keep the site going so with that thank you thank than you everybody to another 25 years take it away Mark Happy 25th anniversary Pro-Touring.com. Behind me this is a poster that kind of started
the uh protouring movement I was at SEMA in 1999 and I saw this and in this document from hot ride magazine it said this yet unnamed phenomena so when I started building my 1969 Camaro in 1999 1998 I I coined the term prot touring to kind of come up with what I thought this would be the new you know kind of this style of car that was being built so uh then it kind of turned into a genre of cars I've had a great run I really appreciate all the friendships and all the projects I've been able to build over the years it's been a lot of fun it's been in great friendship with Larry you know when he called me up 25 years ago to run the idea past me I thought it was awesome so again happy 25th anniversary this is my little home shop so these are just some of the projects I've done over the years so some of these magazine covers some of you might remember over the past 30 years or so or 25 different projects and then this is my current uh 69 Camaro just finished number 19 haven't got to 25 yet but still uh got a few more to build so Larry everybody happy 25th anniversary it's been great thanks wow Larry 25 25 years already just seems like the the other day I was scrolling through the inner webs and came across prot touring.com what a rabbit hole to fall down into and I mean that in a good way thank you for being the channel for so many enthusiasts to jump on board to share ideas to share projects passions uh the events the uh Adventures that were all able to come together because of you and through prot touring.com uh what a uh impact you've had not just locally nationally but internationally that uh people from all over the world have come together with a common Bond of pro touring I wouldn't say it's a trend Trends just seem to come and go this must be a way of life that we choose to uh jump in and jump aboard on thank you for the hard work the effort that you've had to go through to put this whole thing together I wish you well my friend thanks again for all you've done hey Larry I just want to congratulate you on 25 years of prot touring.com man you had to be one of the first guys that recognized the power that a
community like this could get it gave us the inter the the ability to interact with people all across the country share ideas share tips share thoughts on parts and man talk about a way to make friends that you didn't have the opportunity to do before what a great idea it's just so cool to see it's been so prosperous so successful through the years and there's a bunch of people I met that I never would have any other way so congratulations and thanks for all you did with this hi my name is Martin I live in the nland uh I go by the screen name uh Martin 71 RS uh this for my 71 RS Camaro um I've been a member of pro touring for 24 years now so almost uh from the beginning and I'd like to congratulate my friend Larry Callahan with uh the 25th anniversary of prot touring.com so for the forums uh I think the forums are great it's got a lot of good technical information people are really helpful there there's a great build threats on there um and a lot of a lot of nice people um I'm lucky enough I've met a lot of these people uh during my work as a volunteer at the optimal ultimate street car Invitational in Vegas um I can say I made friends for life there uh I think besides on the forums that the moderators are doing a great job and I'd like to thank them uh but also the people on there I think the people make the community so uh yeah I love the site and I'll be around for a while longer so my cars uh well the first car which I've had since 1998 is my 71 RS Camaro uh it's gone through a few phases a few changes along the way uh currently it's running a 400 small block with a t-56 transmission qi1 coilovers right Tech Del in bushings big sway bar uh C5 Corvette brakes with Hydro booost um I used to have uh my car running on propane uh changed it over to a holly uh sniper EFI and at the moment I'm changing over to uh an Asis multipoint sequential injection EFI so that's what's going on at the moment uh yeah the interior is completely changed it's going to get an upgrade uh I've got uh 18in BBS uh Wheels uh uh disc brakes in the rear 373 uh limited slip so yeah it's got It's not a high-end protouring build but it does everything really good and I think that's what it's about um so that's this one and then I've got my uh 62 Chevy Nova it's a four-door uh it's got the six-cylinder in there with the T5 manual it's got electron uh electric power steering uh it's got a CBP front end kit uh it's lowered it's got C5 uh disc brake conversion in the front just drums in the back 17in wheels uh very clean nice interior everything new carpet rubers everything uh big stereo so uh that will be my cruiser it's uh I call it pro touring light but it's it's a real nice Cruiser well when it's finished and I'm hoping to finish it within the coming one or two months um so yeah that's my projects Hello Larry uh this is Tony raen uh one of your moderators uh coming you from the frozen tundra of Michigan here um just wanted to congratulate you on 25 years of prot touring.com uh amazing I had a uh I still have my Camaro to this day uh it sat in my garage and pretty uh awful state of disrepair for many years and in 2001 A friend of mine uh had bought a pro touring car brought it to uh to General Motors and we went out and looked at it he told me what it was it was a pro touring car I had no idea what pro touring even was um the first thing I did is I when I got back to my desk I Googled pro touring and the first website it showed me was prot touring.com and I went on there and uh went through a lot of the threads and and
discovered that the first generation Camaro was actually a really popular car to to do this build Style with and uh I was very intrigued and from that day forward that website really empowered me to get back into my car and work on it again and you know it took 17 years uh but I got it back on the road I got it finished and I'll be honest with you it's all because of prot touring.com um I owe your website uh a debt of gratitude and to you as well Larry uh you do such an incredible job with that I know some things have changed uh through time but uh I hope people you know still come to the pro touring dinners at SEMA I I wish I could make it out one of these years uh to that but uh on behalf of myself I can't thank you enough uh for everything that you've done you're a terrific guy and here's the 25 more years congratulations pro touring for the win baby hello Pro touring.com and Larry uh I want to say congratulations on 25 years of pro touring Community Information excellence and just overall fun uh it's been a privilege to be able to hang out at prot touring.com and I'm just truly amazed at the amount of influence and help and support that prot touring.com has provided people like me who uh build cars and others who build cars in their home garage and like to go to events and all the product information that was shared and the tips and tricks that goes on and on and on uh special thanks to all the sponsors who've helped Larry and prot touring.com grow over the years and support it uh it's a it's an amazing amazing
accomplishment to uh to be able to put 25 years behind you and I'm looking forward to the next 25 thank you so much for allowing us to play in the sandbox and uh we'll see you on the forums thanks again hey everybody this is Mike from willwood disc breaks we want to give a big congratulations to Larry and the whole staff over at prot touring.com for 25 years of service to the pro touring community so thankful to have been a part of what Larry and everyone had going on for so long and being just a small part of building such a big and awesome Community across the United States the last 25 years congratulations Ron schors here I just wanted to take a couple minutes to congratulate Larry Callahan and proctor.com for their 25th anniversary that is pretty amazing stuff I think I hung around on that site for probably two or three years prior to actually joining and I looked I actually joined in 2005 so I've been on that site for 20 years wow where is the time gone uh I think of all the things in my life that have kind of come off of that uh off of that site the friends made some of the things we got to do it's just pretty amazing I got friends that I talk to every single day that I met on prot touring.com uh some of the best friends I
have I think actually you know were were the car guys from there uh the people were definitely the best part but I do have to admit some of the events we got to do were just so cool uh Bill how and the run through the Hills run through the coast all the different uh events he put together were just so much fun uh Jimmy day the Optimus stuff who would have thought I got to run a 66 Mustang on Daytona it's pretty crazy Scott and motor State Bob Burleson and uh the Northeast muscle car challenge Ryan and Remy and the Umi stuff it's just pretty pretty amazing stuff pretty fun I I some of the best memories I had all except for that one in Jersey I'd like to forget that one in Jersey uh Larry I got a wonder if you even thought this would last that long when you put this together it's kind of uh crazy when you were probably doing that you probably never thought that far ahead but uh you know car guys are are very loyal so I do uh I do think it's it's got quite a few years left in it and I I hope for another 25 but uh who knows I just want to say congratulations buddy it's been fun hey everyone I want to take a few minutes to congratulate Larry andr touring.com for 25 amazing years um and I want to kind of say two reasons or two things that really how Pro touring.com impacted my life uh one is obviously I'm a bit of a younger guy in the the Classic Car World and uh when I turned 15 I picked up this 66 chevel here that's buried and um Pro was a place that I got a lot of inspiration for the car um you know I from research in different suspension and engines and anything and everything pro touring uh I was able to find on there and so that really made a huge impact on how I built my car which in turn actually made a huge impact on my life um when I started working and everything um you know and later on I actually kind of worked for pro touring's competitor which is lateral G um but you know competitors or not we were always friends and and uh you know my my goal was always just to be as great as pro touring you know so um I I just always want to be as good as prot touring.com and try to bring as
much content as I could and everything and and U you know met a lot of a great people that were on both sites all throughout the years and people that'll be continue to be friends for life so um thanks topr touring.com congratulations again and uh we'll see you at the track hey this is is Mike mus and I just wanted to give a big shout out to 25 years of prot touring.com and thank Larry for keeping it together I mean prot touring.com is was and always will be the Bible when it comes to the pro touring hobby the fact is many of these cars wouldn't exist with that that Collective base of knowledge and the coolest part is that over those last 25 years we've been able to see not only Parts evolved but how the manufacturers and the aftermarket have adapted to keep our hobby alive um I've had this car for over 20 years and I know a lot of other people on the site have too if you are just getting into the hobby if you're thinking about getting into the hobby you will not find a better resource so Larry thank you prot touring.com thank you
and here's to another 25 years Tony Rose here just wanted to wish you a big congratulations on 25 years with your prot touring.com uh I can't believe it's been 25 years already I think I was there within the first six months of the startup of the website uh met a lot of nice people learned a ton and had a great time lots of pro touring dinner parties at uh during SEMA and I actually am hoping to get down there this year for the SEMA party it's been a long time um anyway I want to thank you for all the late nights that I'm sure you have to do to keep the site running it's a lot of work I know you love it but it's still just a ton of work and a big commitment uh congratulations buddy on 25 years hi I am Sho shop in Japan congratul your 25 anniversary pro.com pro.com and maybe 2014 and uh since then I have attended proing dinner meeting held in Las Vegas Times everyone always kind and teaches me very sense I dve and mot 1917 Camaro in Japan I will do best to make a procing culture more popular in Japan as well congratulations your 25 anniversary let's meet you again see you next time thank you I want to congratulate Larry and pr.com on the 25th anniversary this year we all have more gray hair and wrinkles we've sure have had fun over that time we have bench traced we've been competitive we've made friends we've seen people like Sam f inton go from a kid to a man I've had battles with Ken Edwards and had trust in him Michael Manning we all know Michael Manning on the track and had fun with him and then the first seam of dinner was H held at a Denny's in Las Vegas and then it expanded and kept expanding where you couldn't get a ticket if you weren't on top of it and the topic was always what is the dessert going to be and if you were there you know what I'm talking about so congratulations Larry thank you hey guys how's it going this is Eric just want to say thank you to Larry for the 25 years prot touring.com uh the site has been
really helpful in planning to build and I'm sure all the research and experience that everyone else has done along the way it's helped them as well so yeah thanks again Larry and looking forward to the next 25 hello everybody my name is Brett local I am the former owner of ride Tech uh formerly known as airide Technologies and I would just love to wish Larry Callahan and crew atpr touring.com Happy 25th anniversary uh they started about a year before I started ride Tech and it was really at the uh the beginnings of the internet and certainly for forums and stuff like that and was you know the prot touring.com form was very instrumental uh for me personally and especially um business-wise at ride Tech it gave us an opportunity to to get out to get our word out to to like-minded people that give us an opportunity to explain technical aspects and solve problems in in the real world and uh we were able to generate a really good following of credible people and uh unlike U you know paid advertising like print or or whatever uh I think credibility was the big thing that the forums in general brought to the industry and we were uh we were a very willing beneficiary of that and and we tried to give back as much as we could and support everybody um I remember telling my sales guys all through the years that uh you know you need to you need to monitor these different forums you know five times a day because that's where our customers live and that's where the problems are exposed and that's where we have the opportunity to solve problems so uh and we met lots of friends there you know the the people that we met online we would see at shows and races and uh it just kind of brought everything together um I think a lot of the forums have been probably if not replaced you know in some part replaced by you know Facebook groups and stuff like that but they're not as well organized as what the forums were the archived articles and in the forums and the threads uh are helpful to people for years and years and years not just you know a few days so Larry congratulations on U overseeing that operation for 25 years uh I hope you do it for another 25 and um thank you for the opportunities that uh you and and and your members have put forward to to us at rch and and to me personally have fun hey prot touring.com happy anniversary from Lincoln Nebraska Byron Burnham hey everybody at prot touring.com this is Nick Lata from all Chevy performance magazine and I want to say congratulations on 25 years hi guys it's Mike with TMI if you were like me one of the old farts in this industry you've seen prot touring.com been around for many years so wanted to wish a quick shout out to Larry
Kahan congratulations dude on making this thing work all these years glad to see it happening thanks man take care how's it going I just want to congratulate Larry and say happy 25 years it's gone by so quick but man I always love checking in and see what's going on in the pro touring world thank you hey Larry Brad fcha here from Bond speed wheels and man I can't believe it's been 25 years for prot touring.com congratulations brother I I can remember when we were all what maybe a dozen of us sitting around a table at the very first banquet then banquet after banquet and all the fun talking about cars living what we love pro touring congratulations and I hope you have 25 more we've been proud to be part of it and with everyone else Bond speed wheels and myself Brad fcha congratulations happy anniversary prot touring.com thank you Larry thank you to all the moderators for giving us such a great destination where car guys could come together I learned so much met so many great people made so many great friends thank you so much happy anniversary hey Larry just a quick uh video we wanted to thank you and congratulate you on 25 years of prot touring.com what a difference it's made in so many lives and uh I mean it's changed our lives it's changed our family's lives and I was looking back and it looked like uh we signed up in 2007 May of 2007 and we had bought bought this car as a project in 2002 so like all the chevel forums everybody that was cool and actually using their cars uh they were also posting on touring.com and so I had to be part of that and uh start a build thread um another thing that I was thinking about was u in 2009 we were about a year out from getting this car done and we had Deb's wagon and we did an autocross extra vibration in Tennessee and we kind of fell in love with it actually Deb wasn't there but Sam and I fell in love with it and then uh registration for run through the hills old Bill H how event uh came open and uh I jumped on the registration and signed up to run the wagon and immediately I felt like man I don't belong with that group of people uh it was just so popular just a powerful movement and you emailed me back and said uh Hey man you're right where you need to be um what a big deal it was to us yeah all of that just totally changed what we were doing with the car and it brought us to meet so many people um there are people across the country and across the world that we would have never met without your website or the start of your website we met them on the forums and then we met them in person and now we have lifelong friends that we will have forever hands down because of what you started and then the travel we have been crisscrossing the country for well since 2009 in the places we've seen and the tracks we've been to and actually ended up in Saudi Arabia um it's been amazing so it's just never ever ever would we have imagined where all this would have brought us yeah a good example of friendships uh and I could say I could name so many people but obviously I forget people and uh but I I can say like Aaron Oly a guy I knew through the forums but never ever met in person and he had some business down in Indianapolis and I was struggling to get this car done 2012 or 13 I had done the mini tubs uh ABC performance stuff and done the ls Swap and we had uh run to the Old South maybe something yeah and uh and I was struggling and uh Aaron hit me up and he said hey I'm going to be in Indianapolis uh I could come down and help you out so he stayed with us he helped us button everything up smart smart dude and then he went to the event with us it was uh Aaron Sam and I and we just had a riot you know and so friendships like that and there's so many of them and the stories we could go on and on but uh you know and then the travel who would have thought a hillbilly like me would take an old car like this and run Laguna sea twice or uh Daytona the road course at Daytona these people don't believe when we talk about that it's all stems from prot touring.com it's incredible so thank you so much Larry for all the work you've done everything you've put into this and we just we owe it to you thanks Larry thanks Larry congratulations hey Scott from Ron Francis wiring wishing prot touring.com and Larry Callahan Happy 25th anniversary on the job well done hi
Larry I just like to congratulate you on H 25 years of prot touring.com uh it was a lot younger guy back then and uh it really helped me to be in touch with the similar minded guys uh working on their cars trying to make them handle and stop better look better and uh it's been a wonderful ride um now I'm 74 uh still still at it uh playing with uh the Lola here and uh still working on my Camaro over there all covered up uh you can see it's quite Dusty so uh it hasn't been uh the my main interest right now local autocrossing moved 100 miles away from us instead of 10 miles so um we're not able to get at it so easily Mary sold her car 73 Camaro and uh we're doing motorcycle stuff right now so uh my 67 Camaro is still uh um a priority and I want to get back to it and make it run I have all the parts so just got to do the work uh had a few hiccups along the way uh skin cancer kind of rearranged my forehead a little bit and uh about with Co last year and uh put me in the hospital and uh pan U the U few other things going on so uh um right now things are looking good so I'm going to keep at it keep turning wrenches and keep keep going so um again uh thanks for 25 years of wonderful memories uh meeting up with some great guys guys uh James shipka and uh guys uh just uh been a wonderful Adventure working with James shipka and Steve rup just been uh a wonderful pleasure for me and helping them s achieve their goals um it's just been fantastic you know and I've learned more from your website Pro touring.com then uh anything I've I've uh provided any information I've provided my goal has always been to um help people achieve their goals make everybody safe improve performance to their cars and uh make friends and uh We've achieved all of those and uh you know it's uh I started out as a kid on the farm just trying to make ends meet and uh play with my car a little bit and uh I had to do everything the cheap way and I work out of the junk pile so I understand that end of it um and uh so I'm always uh watching out for the little guy that I can help and uh make things better being able to work just in a tiny way with some of the manufacturers just been a a real feather in my cap um anything I can do to help uh make cars make a better product uh for the consumer and uh help their cars perform better and be safer is uh what I'm after so it's just uh been a real satisfaction for Mary and I try to give back um any way we can help people with driving um try to help them pick out the right parts and make things work so again Larry uh thanks for 25 years and I'm looking forward to the next 25 I'm not going anywhere so uh I'll be around and uh I'll be checking in on prot touring.com uh off
especially in the winter months when things slow down uh with our motorcycle riding and uh um I like to check in and see how guys are doing and uh see what uh what's new so thank you hey Larry and everybody at prot touring.com it's your buddy rwood I just want to say congratulations on 25 years it's unbelievable it's just unbelievable it really is uh you guys are doing such cool stuff and it's such a neat group of people I was honored I got to come meet you guys bunch of y'all in 2014 give a speech over there uh but y'all are y'all are rocking it love seeing a bunch of y'all on the Power Tour every year I can see it SEMA y'all keep it up let's get another 25 under the belt huh congratulations hey thanks for sticking around to the end how about that man watching some of those videos as they were coming in was uh quite touching uh thank you to everybody that submitted uh videos and thanks for the props it's been an awful lot of fun and yeah some of that was like I'm not going to cry but anyways yeah thanks for sticking around to the end thanks for everybody who's been a part of this in any way shape or form you know over the years but this is also a little bit of a call to action here if if uh you're up for it or you can with so many companies being gobbled up by bigger companies you know a lot of our advertisers have been bought up by larger companies and they don't advertise on little forums uh like pro.com they've all moved on to social media whatnot and we're having some serious trouble making the bills um so if you up for it we've put away on the forum for you to uh help support us a little bit um like I said most of the advertisers have uh moved on to social media because that's the big thing but uh you know social media you can't really find anything you know build threads and 25 years of history of who did what and what part worked and what's the widest Tire you can put on a 69 Camaro with a Stocker Ron without manyi tubs uh but yeah so we uh we could use some help uh if you're uh so inclined so visit pro.com there's a
link on there to show a one-time support or a monthly a few bucks like uh you know send us a cup of coffee buy us a beer kind of thing you know um anything would help really anything would help because uh we're way down on advertisers due to all those big corporations so thank you very much for sticking around thanks for the support you take care Everybody Take Care everybody and with any luck we'll get to do this another 25 years bye
2025-03-17 14:17
