Ringbrothers 1010hp carbon Camaro has us at hello
And that's not all. The renowned tuner took four cars to SEMA - all are brilliant in their own way
Some PHers will doubtless recall Ringbrothers’ handiwork. Jim and Mike Ring were the restomodding heavyweights behind the Hellcat V8-powered Dodge Charger that we were marvelling at back in January. Let’s just say when it comes to making old stuff new, they’ve got game. And to prove it for the umpteenth time, the tuning firm has rocked up at this year’s SEMA show with four unique creations.
Which one you prefer is very much a personal choice, but we’re going to plump for the 1969 Chevy Camaro, dubbed ‘Strode’. Much of the 6,500 hours it took to build were spent perfecting its bespoke carbon fibre body. Now five inches wider than standard and sporting a hand-fabricated roll cage (and no rear seats), it is intended to show off its makers expertise with composite. Underneath there’s a modified LS3 pumping out 1,010hp thanks to what is presumably quite a large Whipple supercharger, mated to a reworked Bowler Tremec T-56 Mangum six-speed manual transmission. Needless to say, the chassis is bespoke too, not least because Ringbrothers went to the trouble of moving the front wheels three inches forward for better handling. And to make the car appear less square, presumably.
Of course, if square is your thing, you might find yourself partial to ‘Bully’. That’s the name given to the team’s 1972 K5 Blazer, and it rather lives up to it. The quirk here, beyond another highly modified look, is the 6.8-litre V8 the tuner has wedged in and then extracted 1,200hp from courtesy of another oversized supercharger. To make sense of that output, the Blazer gets chunky Dana axles front and back, plus four-link suspension that deploys two Fox coilovers per wheel. Which is probably what you want when you’ve got 325-section off-road tyres wrapped around 12-inch HRE rims.
Alternatively, you might like the way Ringbrothers have nestled another set of HRE wheels under the arches of its 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1. “The Mach 1 has always been an aggressive-looking car, and we wanted to add to those classic good looks with subtle but critical changes,” co-owner Jim Ring noted of ‘Patriarc’. Subtle means going out two inches in width and lowering the rear quarters. The car also needed a new floorpan and transmission tunnel to go with a track-focused coilover chassis and a 580hp Ford Performance 5.2-litre Aluminator XS. Trifling output, you say - not a bit of it: the motor is descended from the Shelby GT350, and is said to be the most powerful naturally aspirated modular crate engine ever built by the Blue Oval. Imagine the way this thing sounds at 7,800rpm.
Finally, for something really special - in case that lot weren’t enough - there’s ‘Enyo’. Or, as the firm puts it, a ‘40s work truck meets Formula 1 racer’. Revealed last, and said to have been in the planning for years, the 1948 Chevrolet Pickup is powered by a 1,000hp big-block race engine and looks terrific on huge slicks. Obviously, this has been modified in just about every way possible, including a single-piece carbon fibre floorpan and cantilevered independent suspension all-round. Ringbrothers reckons it might be its most extreme build yet, which is saying something. But it’s still the Camaro for us. You?
Watching tv such as Fast and loud and seeing a complete repanelling with yards of welding i wonder how much filler is involved and whats the inner protection like on the panels.
Watching tv such as Fast and loud and seeing a complete repanelling with yards of welding i wonder how much filler is involved and whats the inner protection like on the panels.
Watching tv such as Fast and loud and seeing a complete repanelling with yards of welding i wonder how much filler is involved and whats the inner protection like on the panels.
I’d have that pick up as a track toy though it looks awesome! the K5 is lovely as is the Mustang but for me it'd be the Enyo, albeit with a different coat of paint. That thing looks amazing!
Max power had a tribute website few years back that looked up old cover cars most had been stripped for parts an left to rot. The carisma TVR is in the US now looking very sorry (it looked vile at the time) the rtech type r sat out the back of their lot without a bumper for years etc
I don't aspire to any of them as usable cars though. I'd rather something from an established firm.
https://www.ringbrothers.com/gallery
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