IT'S BACK!

This Pro Street Olds From 1995 Returns as a Power Tour Long Hauler in 2021

- TIM BERNSAU

The ride started in Norwalk, Ohio, but for Rick Cox of Lansing, Michigan, it started 26 years earlier than for other participants at the HOT ROD Power Tour 2021 Presented by HP Tuners and Driven by Continental Tire. Twenty-six years after its remarkable 1995 appearance at Norwalk Raceway Park, Rick’s prize-winning Pro Street 1961 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 was back at the renamed Summit Motorsports Park to make the Long Haul and relive days of past glories.

The ’80s and ’90s were the golden era of Pro Street, and events like the HOT ROD Power Festival and the Street Machine Nationals were the biggest and best showcases of these wildly modified muscle cars on steroids. Just about every type of car has been treated to Pro Street modifications, but when Rick Cox’s 1961 Oldsmobile made its impact on the hot rodding world in 1995, HOT ROD referred to the unusual body choice as a prime example of the “Dare to Be Different” trend. Despite being different, or maybe because of it, Rick’s Olds was one of the most successful Pro Street cars of 1995, winning the People’s Choice/Best in Show award at both the Power Fest in Norwalk and the Car CraftSummer Cruise in St. Paul, as well as the Grand Champion trophy at the Street Machine Nationals in DuQuoin, Illinois. The car appeared on the cover of HOT ROD in September and December of that year and was named one of HR’s Top 10 Hot Rods of 1995.

“All that was so long ago, and yet when I was back at the track in Norwalk this summer it felt like yesterday,” Rick said. “I was hoping some folks might remember the car, and so many did, it surprised me. It was like 1995 all over again.”