If you’re into modding out cars, you’ve probably run into terms like “Pro Touring” and “restomod” before. And if you’ve gone to literally any car shows, you’ve definitely heard these words thrown around. But what is the difference between the two?
It’s a subject that often causes enormous degrees of confusion in the auto hobby community, especially for newcomers. Many think the two terms are interchangeable (spoiler alert: they’re not!) and mixing up the two could cause your body shop results to be vastly different than you imagined.
We at Discount Tire love cars and want our customers to make informed decisions, especially when equipping their kitted-out cars. So, we’ve outlined the differences between restomod and pro touring vehicles below!
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RESTOMOD AND PRO TOURING
The terms “restomod” and “Pro Touring” are descriptions of auto modifications, particularly of classic and hot rod vehicles.
Restomod is a step beyond simple restoration in that its goal is to go beyond restoring your vehicle to stock factory condition and include some modern modifications. These modifications can be for comfort, performance or safety.
Pro Touring takes this even further and modifies muscle cars to a point where they can outdo even modern performance vehicles. The clue comes from the “Pro” part of the term, as it refers completely to performance based vehicles built for competitions. Pro Touring cars aren’t really made for street driving (meaning, casually cruising down the boulevard, anyway) even though they look like it from the exterior.
PRO TOURING CARS
Pro Touring vehicles (also sometimes called a “g-machine”) are proportionally more about modification than restoration when compared with a restomod.
And like their name suggests, Pro Touring vehicles tend to come at a much higher investment than restomods because they require significant body work. Since they tend to be track vehicles, they need serious body upgrades like roll bars and roll cages, fire resistance and suppressant systems and so on.
Pro Touring classic cars
With that in mind, though, part of the confusion between a restomod and Pro Touring car is that both want the exterior of a classic or older car to be restored to its former glory. Although this goal can be warped a bit as some may want more modern features like LED headlights, spoilers or modern tires (check out our pro and cons list of low profile tires).
Actually, quite a few enthusiasts argue over whether Pro Touring cars are even a type of restoration at all considering the goal is to enhance rather than replicate original features.
Pro Touring tires
Since the goal of a Pro Touring vehicle is to enhance rather than authentically restore in order to ramp up performance, the choice of tires tends to be aggressive and modern.
Pro Touring cars are typically equipped with ultra-high performance, competition or possibly summer tires depending on the build’s overall purpose.
Pro Touring tires are meant to boost performance such as speed, handling and cornering for track and competition events, so it’s no wonder these categories are favored.
You can learn all about different types of tires here. Summer tires offer performance in both wet and dry conditions and are optimized for warm weather. They don’t have the chops for competitions, however, so you may prefer to equip your Pro Touring vehicle with a set when not on the track. If you tend to push things off-track, then ultra-high performance tires should be where you look. Otherwise, for straight-up racing on the track, competition tires are the way to go.
What makes a Pro Touring car?
A Pro Touring car is usually a classic or muscle car that has been modified internally to yield better performance (usually but not always speed). They are two parts modification and one part restoration.
Pro Touring cars include extensive upgrades and enhancements. The degree of upgrades depends on each owner and each project.
Some Pro Touring projects essentially replace the entire innards of a vehicle (transmission, engine, suspension, the whole kit and kaboodle) and merely leave the exterior shell.
WHAT IS A RESTOMOD?
A restomod (which smooshes “restoration” and “modified” together) is auto work with the goal of bringing a vehicle up to or as near to driving standards of an off-the-production-line performance car. The goal of a restomod is to retain the look and feel of an original vehicle with a boost in performance and safety (such as adding seat belts to a vehicle that didn’t come equipped with them).
The intent of this “boost” isn’t to surpass its original capability, but more so to make it more comfortable and safer to drive today. It’s also partially to make it easier to fix in case of damage.
A restomod is two parts restoration and only one part modified, if you prefer to think in ratios.
Restomod tires (and wheels)
As you can imagine, there is a world of options when it comes to restomod tires. Of course you have all the classic car tires with their throwback design and aesthetic (but with modern safety features). And depending on what vehicle you’re working on, whitewall tires or perhaps white letter tires might be the way to go.
Since you’re probably not taking your project to the track, performance based tires may be unnecessary. Typically, owning a restomod project build is more about showing off at car shows and clubs so tires tend to be comfortable street tires, or classic call-backs. But the beauty of working on your own ride is that you decide what you want!
If you’re looking for some suitable wheels and rims to fit your restomod project vehicle, we’d like to point out American Racing Wheels. One of the nation’s leading custom wheel manufacturers, American Racing Wheels offers iconic styles for cars, trucks, SUVs, crossovers and collector vehicles. You’ll find tons of classic 60s and 70s aesthetic and plenty of modern twists to catch any eye.
Want more options? Discount Tire has ‘em. Check out other great wheel brands for your restomod car from Ridler, Konig and Ultra Wheel Company!
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