Ringbrothers’ New 1965 Pontiac GTO Is an Absolute Masterpiece

So we went outside those doors and When you look at the cars at the SEMA show, you notice a lot of Brembo brakes. It's for the same reason many of the world's finest sports cars and race cars trust Brembo. And now, Brembo makes a full line of top quality brakes for almost every make and model. Every vehicle. Deserves a brand new look. I'm more of a Ford guy, but when I see a piece of art like this, it's still going to stop me. Even if it is a Pontiac, I'm here with Mike Ring. Yep. One of the masters. In fact, I can't get away from your work because yeah, I mean, last year you guys had We just had the 69 Mustang Fastback that was just Impeccably done and that was in our compilation for one of the best cars of the show for autoguide.com last year I like he's he's pretending to be surprised. I mean your work is incredible Enough with with the puffery. Let's go ahead get on with the show. What are we looking at here Mike? Go ahead, Mike. 1965 GTO that we widened five inches, you know a year ago. We stood Took our designer outside this door and there was a beautiful 65 GTO hardtop out there. So we went outside those doors and found that 65 and looked at it and go, it's beautiful, but they're just narrow. So we decided to put five inches to the width of this car. Just that's it. Just add five inches. How'd you do that? How do you do it? Right. So the first thing that we did by just moving the fenders out two and a half inches aside. So originally this fender was right here on the car. Then we had to come up with something to help fill the gap. Ah, yeah. So we made these to kind of mimic the five taillights, the console, all that have that vibe. And then we made the hood, but the hood scoop's exactly the same, but 20% larger. So proportionally it looked well. Right, right, yeah. So then we had to remake the grills to look like they were, but they're five inches wider apiece. So these are obviously five inches bigger than they were originally. Both sides had to make the bumper. Made the lower diffuser, which if you look down, it kind of has the nose of Pontiac nose in the middle of the splitter. Right. Cut all the original bumper. Normally, this bumper comes across. Got rid of all that. And you have to redo everything. You have to redo the suspension. Yeah, it's got a complete full chassis, independent 6.2, supercharged LT4, even down to like all the... Water cooler. These mimic the hubcaps in these cars. So that's what that design came from is the hubcap. And I think, Mike, that's what sets you apart from other builders is attention to detail like this and also your willingness to take on absolutely insane tasks like taking a donor car and stretching it five inches across, which to me is just insanity. But you've masterfully done it. Let's keep walking around. I mean, this is beautiful. Yeah, I mean, how do you show a car you've got 5,000 hours in it in a couple minutes? So we had to then, you know, when we widened it, we had to figure out a transition, right? Because the quarters, we just cut down the valley and moved them out. So then how do you take, when you move this fender out, so you had to come up with a transition on how to do that so that it would make sense back here. Because the trunk is the same trunk. the hood is wider right but then how do you make that transition and this is how we did it right here and somehow made the lines look even better than the original which is saying something yeah well thanks yeah and the interior this car was so rusty that even the interior panels were rusted out behind the material So we took actually Galaxy seats, which are like 64 Galaxy, because they're so beautiful with all the trim, but we remachined a piece to give it the GTO feel, the lines of the console, the original console. Right, and you have that recurring motif throughout, from the hood all the way to the tail. Right, and like the dash, on the original cars, these were multiple pieces. A piece here, a piece where the ashtray was, but it stopped at the end of the radio. We continued it on in one piece across. We actually centered more of that arm pull. That's way off to the right on the original cars. And then when we took the dash out, it allowed us to wrap it. And we made a header piece. And then the dashes on those cars are like options, so they just set on top. But we made it integrated with the dash. Yeah, beautifully done, too. Yeah, and he wanted a wood wheel, so he bought the wood wheel, redid the original dash. With the wood. And then my wife's got an Espresso machine handle. So I took her handle. You're kidding me. So that's what that is off her Espresso machine. Because the shifters are very minimalistic in these cars. But that's off her Espresso. I'm like, that is hilarious. To bring some wood. Because the original ones were all stainless. And I wanted to tie a little bit of wood into it. And that was it. Pretty inexpensive way to do it. I couldn't make it for what you could buy. Right, where you could buy the espresso machine. Yeah, that's hilarious. Nestle is going to be calling you. Like I said, I'm a lawyer. You know, if you need help with that, you just let me know, Mike. Let's look at the trunk. So the trunk, you know, we just made panels. Steve at Upholstery Unlimited, he's just a friend of ours for years and we made the panels. He wrapped them and did his thing with the GTO. So this part, again, because we widened it. we had to remachine this piece to look just like it did but it's five inches wider which also entailed machining the Pontiac into it like they would cast it in yeah so these aren't separate letters they're actually machine machined into it and that's why they look seamless like yeah it's great and then the rear valance you can see we cut the bumper away and made the rear valance and ran the exhaust here normally the GTOs had like those Trans Am pipes yeah right and they just didn't seem to fit They fit the GTO, they fit a Trans Am, but not... Let's talk wheels and brakes. Yep. The wheels are HRE, and it was a wheel that we actually, Gary Regal, our designer, designed for a car we did a good 10 years ago called G-Code, and I guess they're still selling, so HRE still makes that wheel. Mm-hmm. Normally, you cannot get the edge polished. But this wheel, the shape kind of reminds you of the grille and all the other things that go on. So that's why we picked that wheel. It works seamlessly. 13-inch wide in the rear, 345-30, so it's a massive tire. Discs all the way around. Yeah, Brembo is all the way around. Why'd you go with Brembo? Jimbo. It's just a really good brake, and years past we used Baer, but... We've been using Brembo in some of our builds too. Well, Mike, again, this is really an incredible piece of work. What was the most difficult part other than stretching the son of a bitch five inches across? Honestly, to do that without people really noticing. Well, I'll tell you this, I know when you actually, when you do the work, you see it and you see what happens and how it, as somebody who just walked in cold and as somebody who sees a lot of cars at these shows. I had no idea. I had no idea until you pointed it out. So that's how well done it is. Now, Mike, while I've got you, let me ask you this. There are a lot of really expensive, really nice cars here at the show. We have a lot of viewers at home that wouldn't necessarily be able to afford something like this. Neither can I. Yeah, you've got $25,000 to spend on a second car right now, and it doesn't have to make sense. What's it going to be? Man, that is a question. I know. I'm sorry to drop that on you. Wow. Take your time. I think I just did it when I bought myself, which I've never done a car. I bought myself a 1957 Oldsmobile station wagon hardtop. Why'd you do that? Because it's funky cool. And someday I'm going to have time to do my own. And that's one I want to do. Well, Mike, thank you very much for taking the time. I know you're very busy. So thanks for taking the time to speak with us at autoguide.com. Guys, stay tuned. We'll bring you more from SEMA 2026. Take care.