Cassar Performance And Design C10 SS/R: The Pro Touring C10 Built From Four Generations Of Gearhead DNA
The Cassar C10 SS/R build is one of the most thoroughly engineered pro touring C10 projects in the country right now. The story behind it runs deeper than any parts list can tell. Before there was a 427 cubic inch BluePrint Engines LS on a No Limit Engineering Pro-Tech chassis in a Dallas-Fort Worth shop, there was a family in Malta in the 1920s turning wrenches for British royalty. That history shapes everything Kevin Cassar builds, and it shows in the C10 SS/R down to the last stainless brake line.
Where The Cassar Performance And Design Story Actually Starts
Kevin Cassar is a fourth-generation gearhead, and that lineage is not a marketing line. His great-grandfather, Carmel Cassar, and a great-great-uncle started Cassar Brothers Garage in Valletta, Malta, around the mid-1920s. Malta was part of the British Empire at the time, and when British royals arrived by ship, they brought their vehicles with them. The Cassar family handled the servicing. You do not get a contract like that unless you are the best in the country, and they were.
World War Two ended that chapter. The Battle of Malta destroyed the facility, and as a result, Kevin’s grandfather and grandmother immigrated to the United States and settled in Metro Detroit. His grandfather walked the streets of Detroit and Dearborn looking for work and eventually landed a job as a tool and die maker at Ford Motor Company. He finished his career thirty-five years later as a production line manager. When Ford slowed down in between, he picked up work at GM and Chevrolet. The man understood manufacturing at a level most builders never reach.
The car culture roots deepened in the next generation. Kevin’s uncles Dennis and Steven got into the Detroit hot rod and muscle car scene in the late 1960s. Because of that connection, his eldest uncle Dennis became the first apprentice that Chuck Miller of Styline Customs ever took on. That name carries weight in Detroit show car circles. Miller won the Ridler Award at the 1968 Detroit Autorama with his C-Cab Fire Truck, and Dennis Cassar joined Styline’s Ridler Award-winning teams in the early 1970s. Dennis also built a 1969 Mustang Mach 1 fastback called Color My World that swept every first-place award at the Detroit Autorama except the Ridler during that era.
Kevin’s mother owned three Trans Ams, a 1977, a 1978, and a 1987, all with 6.6-liter T/A engines. Performance cars were not a hobby in that house. They were the language. So when Kevin says the Cassar C10 SS/R build is the product of everything his family built toward, he means it literally.
How The Cassar C10 SS/R Build Found Its Starting Point
The truck started as a one-owner 1971 Chevrolet C10 long bed that Kevin found on OfferUp in Glendale, Arizona. It still had the original title, bill of sale, dealer brochure, and documentation from 1971. The original build sheet sat on the glove box cover and looked like it had been printed a couple of months ago. The odometer read 95,000 original miles, and Kevin still has all of it. Only the cab and doors remain of the original sheet metal, since one fender was too far gone to save. The long bed, the original frame, and the 292 straight-six with its four-speed went to fund the build. What CPD recovered from that sale covered roughly what they paid to acquire the truck.
The concept took eight months to develop through four iterations of renderings and color studies before Kevin locked the direction. The philosophy centers on class, style, and perfection. Specifically, the design language answers one question: what would Chevrolet and Chevrolet Performance have built if they had today’s technology during the C10 era? Chevrolet never made a Super Sport C10. The SS/R is what that truck would have looked like, built to a race-spec standard the original never had the technology to reach.
What Is The Cassar C10 SS/R Build Running For Chassis And Suspension?
The C10 SS/R build rides on a No Limit Engineering Pro-Tech four-link chassis, specifically their race-spec raised-rail configuration. Because the rails are raised, the bed floor lifts four and a quarter inches to clear everything underneath. AutoMD Direct supplied a new short bed conversion with four-inch wider wheel tubs to give the build the right proportions. The front suspension is No Limit’s Wide Ride independent setup with fully adjustable upper and lower control arms. All four corners run RideTech single-adjustable HQ Series coilovers with 12-way rebound adjustment. The four-link bars use RideTech R-joints throughout with Delrin bushings from Level 7 Motorsports, who are also a major build partner and supplied the stainless brake lines and pedal box components throughout the chassis.
Out back sits a Miller-built full-floater rear end in a QuickTime nine-inch housing. A TrueTrac limited-slip differential runs a 3.79 gear ratio with 31-spline axles. Because serviceability was a priority from day one, stainless brake lines and stainless fuel lines plumb the entire chassis, with all bracketry in stainless as well. Every piece of hardware underneath reflects one priority: this truck drives hard.
What Engine Powers The Cassar C10 SS/R?
The engine in this pro-touring C10 is a BluePrint Engines Pro Series LS 427-cubic-inch crate motor. It carries a factory rating of 840 horsepower and 800 pound-feet of torque at the crank. On top sits a Magnuson TVS2650 supercharger pulled down with a GripTec smaller pulley. With that combination, Kevin estimates the SS/R will put down somewhere between 750 and 800 horsepower at the rear tires. The front accessory drive is a CVF Racing Wraptor serpentine system, and the engine runs an ATI harmonic balancer for a truck that will autocross and road course regularly; these are durability choices as much as performance choices.
The drivetrain runs through a McLeod RST twin-disc ceramic clutch with a lightweight racing flywheel, then into a Bowler T56 Magnum six-speed manual with their close-ratio gear set. A Gulf Coast Driveshaft one-piece carbon fiber driveshaft connects it to the rear end. For cooling, a PWR Advanced Cooling Technologies three-core aluminum radiator handles the load, stacked with a dual-core heat exchanger, dual-core transmission cooler, and differential and oil cooler. Dime PSI lines and fittings handle all the plumbing throughout.
Brakes, Wheels, And Tires On The C10 SS/R
The brakes on this pro touring C10 are all Wilwood. Aero6 six-piston calipers sit up front on 14-inch slotted vented rotors. The rear runs Aero4 four-piston calipers on matching 14-inch slotted vented rotors. The entire system wears Infineon Blue powder coat. Manual brakes run through the Level 7 Motorsports pedal box and a Wilwood master cylinder. That caliper color ties directly to the Dakota Digital HDX gauge cluster, which runs matching deep blue face panels with SS/R badging on the speedo. Because the design direction matters as much as the engineering, the color language runs from the brakes to the dash without a gap.
Forgeline GA3C three-piece forged wheels go on all four corners, 19×11 up front with 5.75-inch backspacing and 19×12 in the rear with six-inch backspacing. Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires wrap them, 315/30/19 front and 345/30/19 rear. Those rear tires required a fabrication solution. CPD and GMSS Fab, a fabrication shop out of Oklahoma, co-developed custom one-piece bolt-in front inner fenders for the SS/R that fit up to a 325-wide tire up front using stock hood hinges. As a result, those inner fenders will be available for purchase through CPD starting Q1 of next year.
Body Fabrication And The All-Steel Philosophy
Every body panel on the Cassar C10 SS/R is steel. Kevin kept carbon fiber off the truck because Chevrolet would not have used it during the C10 era, and the design language demands that honesty. All drip rails are shaved. Altman Bear Claw latches sit molded into the tailgate and doors. Sweet Patina N1 undercoating covers the entire underside, with their bed liner tinted to match the exterior color. The CPD team custom-fabricates the exhaust in-house using Stainless Works materials, TIG-welded three and four-inch stainless steel, and Cerakote-coated from headers to tips.
Interior And Electronics
Gauges, Wiring, And Climate Control
Inside, the SS/R follows the same form-follows-function discipline as the chassis and drivetrain. American Autowire Highway 22 handles the wiring, fully MIL-SPEC. A Vintage Air Gen V system takes care of climate control. The gauge cluster is a Dakota Digital HDX unit with custom blue faces, integrated into a full billet aluminum gauge bezel alongside a Ring Brothers AC dash bezel that CPD custom-fabricated to fit flush. All badging is either printed or billet aluminum.
Seats, Upholstery, And Glass
The seats are Recaro Sport CS units. Kevin confirmed these are the last set in the United States. Since Recaro North America closed, new Recaro seats now require importing, which makes this pair genuinely rare in a build like this. Apex Italian leather and Dinamica suede cover the interior throughout, with German square weave carpet. PG Auto Upholstery handles the carpet and upholstery work, with final installation by the CPD team.
Glass And Sound Deadening
Flush-mount glass throughout the cab comes from Fesler USA out of Phoenix, Arizona. CPD works with Fesler on custom one-piece door windows currently in development. Dynamat covers every surface for sound deadening, and a four-point roll cage that already has its powder coat sits ready for the August build phase. Together, these details reflect a build that treats the interior with the same seriousness as the chassis underneath it.
SEMA Debut And What The Cassar C10 SS/R Build Represents
The Cassar C10 SS/R build debuts at SEMA in Central Hall. Kevin plans to drive it onto the show floor rather than push it in. He entered the truck in Battle of the Builders, SEMA’s most competitive custom build competition. Making the top 40 in that field puts a build in genuine elite company, and a top 12 finish is the target this truck has been calibrated toward. The engineering depth behind it earns that ambition.
We covered the atmosphere at SEMA 2025 firsthand, and a build with this kind of engineering would stand out in any field. The C10 SS/R is what happens when four generations of automotive history meet a builder who spent nearly three years as a test engineer in vehicle dynamics and service engineering before starting CPD. Because of that background, Kevin understands roll center, suspension geometry, packaging, and serviceability at an engineering level. Everything on this truck earns its place. Nothing sits on it that does not serve the build. For a sense of how far the LS platform goes when a builder refuses to cut corners, see our feature on the XR10 Motorsports V10 LS that makes 1,000 horsepower.
From Cassar Brothers Garage in Valletta in the 1920s to a pro touring C10 heading for Central Hall at SEMA, the thread connecting all of it stays the same. Do the work right, no shortcuts, and no compromises. That is the Cassar way, and this build shows every inch of it.
