Vintage racing is so much fun these days, especially the SVRA Group 10 & HSR Group 8/9 cars. This are vintage Trans Am & IMSA racers from the 1970's to the 2010's. Each fits in their own class. SVRA & HSR have done a good job of keeping the playing field level & fun.

You have a boatload of Guys & some Gals that want to race just for the fun of it. No one races in Vintage racing to "move up the ladder" to a pro racing career. It is all about fun & a little about bragging rights. Most Vintage Racers are 45-70 in age and looking to race a car they loved from their youth, have fun & build camaraderie with other like minded car guys. You'll see high powered cars like Trans Am & IMSA GTO, as well as wicked cool 4 & 6 cylinder race cars from GT2, GTU & others. Heck, they even race the Kelly All American Challenge cars. Those were kind of like a road racing stock car with big flares. Very cool.

Here's the problems we face today for new guys getting into Vintage racing:
1. It's hard to find the Vintage Trans Am or IMSA car you love. There may have only been one or two. Most of the cool cars are either gone or in a museum.
2. You often can find a Vintage racer for sale that has the body you want & could be wrapped in the livery to be your dream car. But, most are thrashed from years of club racing & neglect and/or dilapadated due to years of sitting (some outside). The Sellers still want $60,000 to $100,000 for the crappy ones. Then they need a full restoration at $200,000 to $250,000.
3. When you do find a nice, clean, well maintained ... or even restored ... IMSA GTO or Trans Am racer from back in the day ... and they want $400,000.



The bottom line is, as fun and kicked back as Vintage racing is, it's hard to find a good car affordably. It comes down to crap that's needs to be rebuilt ... or nice stuff already rebuilt ... and a lot of money. But what if you could build a brand new "Vintage Racer"? You can. Can you build the IMSA or Trans Am car you loved back in the day? Absolutely. The body is available. Look at pages 726 to 769 HERE.



Can you make it look like the racer you loved back then? 100%. With custom wraps these days, you can create any old or new livery you want, affordably. What about the chassis & suspension? That's where I come in with the Vintage-Warrior series of Build-Your-Own chassis & suspension packages. These are very complete with full tube chassis, front suspension, steering, rear suspension & rear end. They come with almost everything you need to build a rolling chassis. Add wheels, tires & brakes ... and we carry those too. This is why I named them "Race Car in a Box".



My new Vintage-Warrior "Race Car in a Box" packages are meant to help you get everything you need to build a rolling chassis. Either all at once, or front, rear, brakes & cage a piece at a time. These are truly designed for the DIY Racer, Car Guy or Fab Shop. They come with a complete suspension setup, optimized geometry & full alignment specs. Build it. Track It. Race it. Win with it. No exaggeration.



Vintage-Warriors are for Vintage racing fun. I worked with Tech Officials from both series to ensure they fit into the classes they say they do. They are excited to see new "Vintage" builds come in the series. Otherwise, where are new Racer coming from? Vintage-Warriors fit in SVRA & HSR classes for vintage IMSA & Trans Am race cars. They have the period correct look, but modern geometry & track performance.



If you can't find that   Fill In the Blank Here road race car you loved back in the day ... just build your own. Maybe you did find the   Fill In the Blank Here  road race car you loved back in the day ... but they wanted a kidney & a lung for it ... just build your own. We know where most of the Vintage Trans Am & IMSA body molds are. With one of our "Race Car in a Box" Vintage-Warrior packages & your favorite Trans Am or IMSA body, you can build your dream car. Then race it with other Vintage gentlemen racers.



Here are some details if you're really interested in going forward:
I designed a total of 6 "new" Vintage-Warrior chassis. There are 3 ... a standard weight, light weight & ultra-light weight versions of square tube chassis ... that fit in Vintage race classes with "Standard" engine setback rules. There are 3 more ... a standard weight, light weight & ultra-light weight versions of square tube chassis ... that fit in Vintage race classes with "Open" engine setback rules. For a short period of time from the 1970's to 1986, IMSA had an a vague engine location rule that fits our high setback, "Open" chassis. Our "Standard" chassis fits all the later IMSA classes & Trans Am .



The ultra-light weight versions are for classes with inline 4-cylinder race engines, naturally aspirated or turbocharged. The light weight versions are for classes with turbocharged inline 4-cylinder race engines or naturally aspirated 6 cylinder engines. We have specific chassis for American V6s & different chassis for Inline 6 cylinders like Datsun/Nissan & BMW.  There is an ultra-light weight version for racers from the 70's & 80's with moderate power V8's (500HP+). As well as light weight chassis packages for V8's up to 700HP & standard weight versions for power up to 850-900HP.



While we have 6 chassis that fit 23 Vintage Classes to race in SVRA & HSR ... it is various length control arms & other components that are different ... to fit perfectly in the vintage racing class they were designed for. When you look them up in the catalog, the first 3 are for IMSA Kelly All American Series racing classes. The next 3 are ultra light weight chassis for inline 4-cylinder race classes. These ... and the 4 light weight chassis packages for turbocharged inline 4-cylinder race engines or naturally aspirated 6 cylinder engines ... can be setup to race in SVRA Group 10 (faster) or Group 12 (slower) & HSR Group 8 (slower) or Group 9 (faster). Your call. All of the 13 after that are designed to run in the faster SVRA Group 10 & HSR Group 9.



The chassis looks period correct, but has modern geometry & safety. The bodies shown in the catalog are all original IMSA & Trans Am bodies from back in the day. I searched & found who owned what molds, so you can contact them direct.  I don't sell bodies. When you build your engine, it needs to be period correct. Some of you may want to build a cool rotary, 4 or 6 cylinder or turbo monster. But most build V8s. Being frank, most of these are small block Fords & Chevys from that era. With today's technology & veteran builder experience, these older engines are less expensive, build great power & are dependable. Great for fun racing.



Look at the bodies available ... and the class you want to build for (See logos at the beginning of each chassis package) ... and give me a call to discuss what else is involved. For many classes, you can build a turn-key Vintage Warrior ... a brand new race car ... for about $150k if you build it yourself. Figure $250k-300K if a race fab professional or shop builds it for you. The higher class Vintage-Warriors will run you about $200K, ready to race, for DIYers. That's about half of a nice used vintage race car. Or, you can have a race fab professional or shop build it for you ... and expect $300k-400k. Again, for a brand new, ready to race & win "Vintage" racer ... not a long in the tooth car that's been around the block many times.

Let's get you out there racing in something fun!

Man, things have changed.

This reminds me the Texas term "All Hat ... No Cattle."

I've seen some cars with high roll angle ... but damn !

Quote from: Ryan Kennedy on Feb 09, 2026, 11:22 PMNo dynamat left un-removed 
The firewall goes away pretty soon, and all the dynamat with it

I was wondering why you kept the Dynamat. That stuff is heavy. Glad to hear it's coming out when you re-firewall the car.

Update:  Since my friend Randy Chastain is not joining me for this race, I am not going to the O'Reilly race on Saturday. If you're there Friday during the truck race, I'll either be on pit lane or in the MHR Truck team pits. Come say Hi!

We are using a 3d print to mount the reservoirs. I was just making sure we are not over temp for the plastic used for the mounts. You have answered perfectly and clearly thank you for the quick response. This is also mounted inside. I will post pictures after the car is revealed.

No dynamat left un-removed 
The firewall goes away pretty soon, and all the dynamat with it

Quote from: Scot McMillan Jr on Feb 09, 2026, 04:55 PMNo Sir we are not.  Also for the group can you post a picture of a brake fluid recirculater. 

Yes sir.  The recirculator is on the right.


You can see them in my catalog HERE.

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To answer your original question about reservoir temperatures ...

Without a recirculator, the brake fluid only grows about 10°-20° on road course runs under 1 hour. The heat migration from the calipers all the way back to the reservoir is minor. So we would expect the temps to be ambient temperature + 10° to 20°.  Unfortunately, this is rarely the case, because of other heat sources.

Engine & exhaust heat raise the brake fluid temperature substantially ... think 40°-70° ... if the brake fluid reservoirs are in the engine compartment. It gets 250-300°+ in some engine compartments. It's not uncommon to see ambient temperature, plus 50° to 95° brake fluid in a hot engine bay.  All the more reason to duct the hot air out through side extractors.

Adding a brake fluid recirculator RAISES the temperature at the reservoir. How much depends on how much brake heat is generated from the driver's braking habits. This is a good thing. Whatever the temperature increase at the reservoir (from the recirculator) is a temperature DECREASE at the calipers.  With the reservoirs & recirculator plumbed in the engine compartment, I've personally seen infrared temperature readings on the stainless lines of 190°-250°.  You HAVE TO run good brake fluid & purge it often so it doesn't boil. And, IMHO, you REALLY NEED engine compartment heat extraction to Drop that temperature down.

Another method, if we're running a recirculator, is to use pedals that allow the plastic reservoir to be mounted in the cockpit. Now cockpits get hot too. Especially in the summer. 150° cockpits is not unheard of. But that's minor compared to 250-300° engine compartments.

Circling around to why I think you're asking about temperature & plastic reservoirs ... if the temp is hot enough to damage the plastic ... you need to fix the heat problem, not change reservoirs. That's my 2 cents.