Meet Enyo and Recoil: two bonkers 1,000bhp restomods built by Ringbrothers

Enyo was built by the Wisconsin based tuners at Ringbrothers back in 2022 before being revealed to the world at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas that same year. It won the brothers – Jim and Mike Ring – the top award at the show and was then shipped off to its owner without anyone ever really driving it. Heck, Mike hadn’t even driven it until today.

Photography: Huckleberry Mountain

The shell is (well, it was) a 1948 Chevy Loadmaster Super Truck, but during 10,000 hours of build time it was chopped and transformed into an open wheel racer with a Goodwin Competition 8.4-litre LS race engine, a Bowler Performance four-speed automatic gearbox, a bespoke chassis, a Dana limited-slip differential, custom inboard suspension with Öhlins springs and dampers, Brembo brakes with six-piston calipers, bespoke 18in HRE wheels and Goodyear Racing Eagle slick tyres. And yes, we are driving it on the road.

Oh, and did I mention that this thing is utterly terrifying? If my knowledge of Greek mythology was slightly better, I probably would have had some prior warning – it turns out Enyo is the ancient Greek goddess of war. Although I get all the warning I need when that monstrous V8 is fired up for the first time. The titanium exhaust system is a work of art in itself, and you can flip a switch to have all of the noise out of the side pipes or to send some of it back behind the cab. The latter is apparently the more civilised, slightly quieter option. “For going past churches and stuff,” says fabricator Ryan. From where I’m sitting there doesn’t seem to be much difference between the two. The noise is pure NASCAR fury. I’m pretty sure the BBC’s occupational health team can hear it back in London. Whatever – my hearing was never very good in the first place anyway.

It’s a cold day and the giant slicks have no heat in them whatsoever. There’s no ABS and no traction control. The engine makes 1,000bhp when it’s fed race fuel and Jim reckons the Milwaukee based owner has probably put close to $1.5m (£1.2m) into the build. He’s apparently got a giant collection with a LaFerrari and Koenigseggs (plural). He calls Enyo his rat rod, but there’s absolutely no doubt it’s the cleanest custom build I’ll ever see.

I pull out of the layby on a back road just outside of Spring Green – the small town of around 1,500 people that Ringbrothers calls its home. This exact layby is where Jim and Mike used to hang out and drink beer as rebellious teenagers, but after an introductory run up and down the road in Enyo I’m shaking like I’ve had 18 espresso martinis. The adrenaline is pumping.

They say you never feel as alive as when you’re close to death, and Enyo stomps all over that fine line with its giant tyres chasing every single groove and dip in the road. There’s no power steering and no arches to stop stones pinging up off the tyres. It feels like a giant 1,000bhp go-kart and there’s a sense that I could be wearing the beautiful carbon steering wheel if I don’t give it the respect it demands.

I pluck up the courage to give it the beans leaving a junction. Call it morbid curiosity. I quickly realise the Enyo wants to be pointing in a straight line before receiving any of its power. It rapidly kicks into a slide and then snaps back the other way thanks to the super short wheelbase before I manage to wrestle back control. New pants, please.

It’s not just Enyo we’ve plucked from the toy box for today. The 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle you see here is bread and butter for Ringbrothers. It’s known as ‘Recoil’ and was built back in 2014, but I’ve requested a drive because Jim, Mike and Mike’s wife Nancy (who works in finance for the company) each picked it out as a favourite.

“That thing is like getting shot out of a cannon,” says Jim. “It’s making 980bhp at the rear wheels. It’s fun to drive. Matter of fact the owner of it now wants us to detune it. He’s scared to death of it.”

Great. And there I was thinking the 1960s muscle car would be slightly easier going than the 1,000 horsepower farm truck. Although actually Jim wasn’t lying when he said that Recoil was fun. The ludicrous power is generated by a 7.0-litre supercharged LS7 V8 and is sent through a six-speed manual gearbox. The clutch is high, the gearlever wants to be slammed into place and the throttle behaves like an on-off switch. It’s also much more racecar-like on the inside than Enyo.

Everywhere you look there’s bare metal or a nod to lightweighting. There’s also a digital Racepak dashboard, although that’s presumably because a needle couldn’t keep up with how quickly this thing revs. There’s so much power that you break traction at the rear wheels just by looking in the general direction of the throttle, but it rides remarkably well and is happy enough through corners even if steering feel isn’t a concept it really understands.

European legislators now require suites of active safety systems to remind the drivers of small crossovers to pay attention at the wheel, but we’ve got it all wrong – just get everyone in a Ringbrothers Chevelle and they won’t have a millisecond to think about anything but hanging on for dear life.

This experience almost didn’t happen. Photographer Huck and I first arrived in Spring Green two days earlier, but despite it being well into the middle of actual spring time a layer of snow was blanketing most of Wisconsin. We escaped with a trip to visit SpeedKore in Milwaukee (more on that later), but the sun finally arrived, and we made a beeline back. Even before driving the cars, I was a fan. Jim and Mike have an enthusiasm for these projects that’s infectious, and it’s a proper family business with Jim’s wife Peggy working in PR and Mike and Nancy’s son Hunter Ring now operations and sales manager.

Fancy a fun fact? Despite the multimillion dollar restomods rolling out of here (and yes, they are restomods, although pretty much all that’s retained is the VIN), Ringbrothers is still actually an auto body shop that repairs panel damage on bog standard cars after accidents. It employs 24 people and also machines and sells a load of the parts that it has designed during its own restoration projects.

“With the cars we build we design a load of parts for them, so we thought ‘s**t, we’ve put all the time and money into designing them we might as well sell them’,” says Jim. “Believe it or not, our 67–69 Camaro hood hinges are the most popular part. The demand for them is crazy. I didn’t even know they made that many cars.”

That creative engineering streak has clearly been with the Rings for a while. Jim and Mike’s father owned a gas station and the two grew up as the youngest of seven siblings, seven miles north of Spring Green.

“I think the only reason we got into cars is because you couldn’t go anywhere without one,” says Jim. “Our girlfriends were always seven miles away and I didn’t want to walk.

“Growing up we were into everything. We’d tear lawnmowers apart and put gas in them and run them. I tried to build a helicopter when I was a kid. My dad got an airplane propeller and I stole all this wood from a construction company behind my house. I put a lawnmower engine in it with a chain over to that airplane propeller and I had a little fibreglass seat.

Whatever comes next, an EV is certainly not on the cards

“I tried my damndest to get that thing started and my neighbour – who also happens to be my uncle – comes out and yells ‘that thing starts, you’re f****** dead’. I was probably 10 years old.”

And yes, not everyone is the biggest fan of their work these days either. “Haters are a good thing,” says Mike as Jim explains that some people think Enyo looks like a Plymouth Prowler or a PT Cruiser.

“We used to get pretty upset and would tell people that they just didn’t understand, but after a while you realise it’s a good thing because haters drive other people to check out your work and then you get other people sticking up for you.”

So, what’s next for the Ring family? Well, having just fitted a 1961 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud with a 640bhp 6.2-litre supercharged LT4 V8, we can apparently expect to see Jim and Mike working on a few more European cars in the near future.

Whatever it is though, don’t expect it to come quietly. A Ringbrothers EV is certainly not on the cards. My ears are still ringing from unplugged V8 savagery and Jim reckons “the only thing that should have a battery in is a flashlight”. Long live Ringbrothers.

Carbon Kopy: Speedkore

Just over 100 miles east of Ringbrothers is SpeedKore Performance Group. It may be another Wisconsin based restomod firm, but SpeedKore’s background couldn’t be more different to Jim and Mike’s. It was started by another Jim (Kacmarcik) who was and still is chairman and CEO of manufacturing goliath Kapco Metal Stamping – a company founded in 1972 by his parents Tom and Josephine.

Kapco’s giant presses work to an efficient, thumping beat, but at SpeedKore’s smaller facility over the road it’s all about carbon fibre. It all starts with giant rolls of pre-preg carbon (meaning it has already been impregnated with the correct resin), and it’s cut and cured on site in the giant autoclave to ensure the best possible finish that doesn’t require any paint.

Much like the end products produced by the Rings, the level of finish far surpasses anything you’d see from a major OEM. SpeedKore is most famous for its Dodge Chargers. You might have seen them in the Fast & Furious franchise. It’s been involved with three of the later films, and for Fast 9 it built a mid-engined Charger with a 707bhp 6.2-litre s/c Hellcat V8 and the 6spd manual from a Lamborghini Gallardo. Oooof. In fact, it built six examples for filming, each one up to 300mm wider than a standard Charger. They’re out there somewhere, and TG intends to find them...