In 1990 when the category was created and for much of the nearly three decades that followed, the very understanding of what a Pro Modified car is has been pretty cut and dry — purpose-built, usually extended wheelbase, lightweight, often replica-bodied, tube chassis car with a big engine and a power adder. Truth is, there’s never been much cause or reason to debate that. But, with the rise of street and no prep racing to the mainstream and, yes, the Street Outlaws, what a Pro Mod is and isn’t has been increasingly called into question. Now if you were to put 100 people in a room, at least some percentage of the collective group would find cause to label the Kia Sorrento in your driveway a “Pro Mod”.

For some, particularly those who have been around the sport for a considerable period of time, know racecars inside and out, and understand what is and isn’t an advantage, a Pro Mod is only a Pro Mod when it checks all of the boxes. Others, however, have found reason to consider anything with extended heelbase regardless of the makeup of the rest of the car, to be one. Or anything with a fiberglass or carbon body. Or anything with a tube chassis or a 4-link. Or anything that looks at all like a racecar. Or anything with a V-TEC sticker on its flanks.

But, consider that there have been cars in actual Pro Modified competition with steel bodies (even sans chopping and channeling) and with factory wheelbase. Does that, by today’s standards, make them not a Pro Mod? Because there are certainly cars out there today with tube chassis, steel roof and quarters, and a long — I mean long — composite front end and extended front wheelbase that haven’t been labeled a Pro Mod. And cars that are back-halved with a replica body or extended wheelbase that, likewise, don’t get the label.

Better yet, tube chassis bracket cars with steel quarters and an extended wheelbase are never called a Pro Mod; but by the standards of some, they actually are.

A name that once stood for a specific class of drag racing — and nothing else — has been corrupted into a terminology for anything that appears to be a modified automobile. The term is so loosely thrown around — and perhaps so largely misunderstood — that it necessitates popping an Advil or two before diving into the conversation.

SOUND OFF: What, in your mind, is and isn’t a Pro Mod? Where does it cross the line, and if it doesn’t cross said line, what should we all be calling it instead?