With 980 horses under the hood, Recoil is an apt name for the 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle offered up by the Ringbrothers during this week’s SEMA show in Las Vegas. One of several customs competing in SEMA’s Battle of the Builders, the Recoil only looks understated with its easy-on-the-eyes Sand Storm paint. Under its silver-plated carbon fiber hood the 427-cubic-inch Wegner Motorsports LS7 gets a major boost from a 4-liter Whipple supercharger.
Based in Spring Green, Wis., the Ringbrothers – Mike and Jim Ring – have been on a winning streak in recent years, claiming the prestigious Goodguys Trendsetter Award and accolades from Ford Design. We caught up with Mike, the more visual half of the brother team, to talk about the Ringbrothers’ latest creation.
Q. 1,000 horsepower. That is so over the top, even if this is SEMA.
A. It’s actually stupid. It’s too much. It scares me. My brother gave me a ride because I typically do more of the body work, making them pretty. I don’t like to chip them all up, and he likes to abuse the car right away. It’s so on the edge that at my age (52) I don’t like that anymore.
Q. So why do it?
A. Because the owner wanted it and the owner can have what he wants. It’s that bragging right. There’s someplace between 750 where you can still use it, to 1,000 and beyond where it’s just a contest.
Q. Who is the owner?
A. A guy that never even saw the car, didn’t want to see a picture, just wrote the check and trusted us till today. Most people want to see an hourly update of how we’re spending their money. It’s scary. You’ve got to create something, and you don’t even know what you’re gonna do. The amount of money in these cars, everyone is scared. Nobody goes out and says, “I’m gonna nail it. I’m gonna build the baddest thing.” If you’re not afraid, there’s something wrong.
Q. How much did this car cost?
A. I can’t say. I don’t think his wife knows. As expensive as this car is, we don’t make money at it. There’s so much you do you can’t charge for because you did it three times and you hated it.
Q. How did you source the ’66 Chevelle?
A. Good old eBay. We were looking for a solid body. The chassis and engine didn’t matter, just a solid body to start because that’s the best money spent.
Q. And then you just figure it out. What do you look at for inspiration?
A. Somebody’s clothes, jacket, shoes – whatever. It could be a dishwasher at your house or your wife’s jewelry or a bird, a color, but I don’t look at cars for influence. There’s too many other things out there. It’s not just me but everybody at the shop. Our biggest key is we’re not afraid to tell each other it looks bad and not take it personally.
Q. I would imagine it’s pretty difficult not to notice what other people are doing when you’re here in the middle of the biggest aftermarket show on the planet, with 1,500 customs on display.
A. You’re typically so involved in what you’re doing you just want to go home. In the end, you want to do what you want to do.
Q. The Recoil is something that needs to be seen up close to truly be appreciated. There are little details everywhere that are innovative and amazing, like the quadruple exhaust, which ports through the rear quarter panels instead of out the rear, and the ring-within-a-ring wheels, which you designed yourself for HRE. What are your favorite details?
A. The interior. Even the seats are made from scratch. We took tubing, bent it and did a water transfer. If you can think it, you can print it. The texture is very simple, like a checkerboard. We took the stock exterior color, painted it and dipped it in silver, which turned it greenish. So many people ask, “What is that?” Aluminum panels, water transfer.
Q. Why did you choose to show the carbon fiber only modestly, on the hood and some trim?
A. We’re pretty well known for our carbon. We’ve never done shiny carbon. This whole hood is carbon – the deck lid, bumpers – but we typically just paint it because everybody wants to put it in your face, “This is carbon.” We just like to do accents, even though the whole thing is carbon. We glossed it. It’s a carbon they just came out with that has copper in the carbon, and you can see it’s kind of shiny. That’s one strand of copper woven through the carbon. It’s a new thing.
Q. Does being from a small town in Wisconsin give you a more unique perspective?
A. Yes. We’re from a town of 600, it’s not like there’s Ferraris on the street. It’s pretty much American made.
Q. You’ve been at this for 20 years. What’s the next step for the Ringbrothers?
A. Since 1994 till today we’ve luckily had people that believed in us, and we try to develop parts on each car we build, so what we’ve learned is that we’re gonna be the wore out shop or wore out people, but if we can brand ourselves and make somebody want to put our name on their product in some way is what our real goal is: to brand ourselves.
Contact the writer: scarpenter@ocregister.com or OCRegCarpenter on Twitter
