Trevor is a real gearhead who loves everything from classic American muscle cars to high-performance exotics. When he's not reading about cars or taking photos at a car show, he's probably out cruising around. He is currently working on restoring a 1980 Chevrolet Monza hatchback.
The Volvo P1800 is a beautiful example of Swedish design and aesthetic. The car’s lines look as graceful and elegant today as they did when the car debuted in 1961.
This P1800 located in Arizona has been given the full restomod treatment.
The original 1.8L engine has been replaced by a small block Ford V8 engine under the hood. A set of stainless headers and an Edelbrock intake adorn the engine, which sits beneath a custom air intake. An oversize aluminum radiator and electric fan help keep this thing running cool. Power is delivered to the rear wheels via a manual gearbox.
The exterior is a light gray-ish color over a vibrant red interior. A full set of Auto Meter Pro Comp gauges are beautifully integrated into the original dashboard, which sits behind the wooden steering wheel.
The seats, carpet, and door cards are upholstered in red, which contrasts nicely with the body colored transmission tunnel. There is no center console or cup holder at all.
I reckon this car is an absolute blast to drive. It has good power and great styling in a light weight, 2 door coupe body. Seriously, what more do you need in a car?
As a car guy, I can spot a Porsche 911, a Lamborghini or a ’69 Camaro from a mile away. What gives me pause at a car show is when there is a shape or form that I do not recognize. This was the case at Highline Autos Cars and Coffee in Phoenix, where I saw a very unique vehicle that drew me in for a closer look.
The car rides on a 1937 Jaguar chassis, however the front clip of the car (fenders, headlights, and grille) are from a Bugatti. It has big ponton fenders that evoke the streamline style of the 1930s, with covers over the rear wheels. The V-shaped frameless windshield is pure hot rod, with no roll bar to disrupt the body lines.
Entry is through a pair of windowless, low-cut doors with rear hinges. The rear of the car tapers to a boattail shape, similar to a Duesenberg or Auburn of the day.
Under the hood is a 2.6L V6 engine sourced from a 1973 Mercury Capri, coupled to an automatic transmission. A set of Stewart Warner gauges mounted in the dashboard provides vital information to the driver.
The interior is a caramel shade of leather with diamond quilted pattern on the seats and door cards. A large, wooden rimmed steering wheel looks the part of a vintage racer. The gauges and center console are accented with engine turned aluminum panels, reminiscient of the early days of aviation.
I don’t have a lot of details about the car, but it sure looked cool and drew a good amount of attention from folks at the car show.
As a seasoned attendee of the SEMA Show for the past 10 years, I have seen dozens of different custom car builders put their own spin on the first-generation Chevrolet Camaro. The 67-69 F-body has been chopped up, remixed, and reinterpreted as a resto-mod, g-machine, pro touring car, and everything else. It would seem that there is nothing left to do with the F-body platform, or is there?
This 1969 Chevrolet Camaro “Strode” from Ringbrothers debuted at the Keystone booth at the 2022 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, along with three other Ringbrothers builds at the show. Like all Ringbrothers builds, the car has a one-word name, which is “Strode” for this car.
The name is a reference to the 1978 slasher movie “Halloween” which stars Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode. A butcher knife emblem with the word “Strode” on it appears throughout the car and is one of many custom touches throughout this build.
The car is much more than a simple restomod, where your local garage drops a crate engine into an old body. This car is a complete reimagination of what a Camaro could be. A staggering 6,500 man hours went into building this one-off car that retains only two parts from the original car – two pieces of side glass.
Though it looks like a Camaro, the car’s body is made of 100% carbon fiber. The Ringbrothers have done full carbon fiber cars before, such as their 2015 build of a 1965 Ford Mustang “Espionage.” The Strode Camaro is the latest high-end build from the brothers to use the extremely strong and light weight material.
Furthermore, the car’s proportions have been stretched and pulled – the body is five inches wider in the rear and three inches wider up front. The rocker panels were lowered, the center of the roof has been recessed, and the hood is longer and reshaped. The front and rear bumpers, diffusers, valences, and spoiler are also made from carbon fiber. The car is painted with BASF Glasurit Ghost White paint, except for the hood, roof, and A-pillars which are black. It’s an insane build from tip to tail, and that’s just the body of the car!
Under the hood is a Wegner Motorsports LS3 V8 engine with a Whipple supercharger that produces a healthy 1,010 horsepower. The engine is painted orange and really pops in the all-white engine bay, where all of the wires and hoses have been concealed. a Holley Dominator EFI system delivers fuel to the thirsty beast of a motor.
Power is routed through a Bowler Tremec T-56 six speed manual gearbox and into a 9-inch rear end from John’s Industries. A carbon fiber driveshaft from QA1 is another modern touch on this muscle car.
A custom Ringbrothers exhaust with Flowmaster Super 44 mufflers ensures the proper sound when the accelerator pedal is mashed. The car’s handling has been vastly improved with a hydroformed subframe from Detroit Speed Engineering. A Fast Track front suspension and independent rear suspension from Roadster Shop bring modern handling and driveability to the Camaro, while QA1 Mod series coilovers absorb the bumps.
The car rides on Ringbrothers’ signature five-spoke G-CODE wheels, which they developed with HRE Wheels. They measure 19×11 in the front and 20×12.5 in the rear and are wrapped in a set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4S high-performance tires.
Bringing everything to a stop is a Baer Brakes 6-piston disc brake system, with an E-Stopp emergency brake. The car has a full custom interior and dashboard by Steve Pearson at Upholstery Unlimited in Clinton, IA. The custom dashboard, center console, bucket seats, and door panels are all done in saddle tan with custom stitching. The rear seat has been deleted, reducing the car’s overall weight.
Driver comforts include Dakota Digital gauges, a Vintage Air Gen IV HVAC system, and a Kenwood stereo with JL Audio sound system.
The car is full of custom touches including many billet machined and 3D printed parts. A careful eye will observe the knife-shaped recess in the front fenders, the trick custom taillights, the trunk-mounted fuel door, custom center-exit exhaust, and many other changes from the original Camaro.
While I thought I had seen it all when it comes to early Camaros, the Ringbrothers from Wisconsin have shown that there is still plenty of imagination left in the world with their customized 1969 Chevrolet Camaro.
One of my favorite custom car shops is the Wisconsin-based duo of Mike and Jim Ring, and their shop Ringbrothers.
The brothers made their debut at the 2005 SEMA Show, and in 2006 captured the Mothers’ Polish award for their customized 1967 Mustang nicknamed “Reactor.” In 2014 they won a Chevrolet Best of Show award for their 1966 Chevelle “Recoil.”
The shop builds one to two cars per year, which are highly customized with one-off parts. What sets them apart from other builders is their attention to detail, and their impressive ability to manufacture custom parts using everything from carbon fiber to 3D printing to CNC machining.
Since 2005, their custom car shop has expanded as a parts supplier of high quality hood hinges, door handles, hinges, and other hardware.After sitting out the 2020 and 2021 SEMA shows, the Ringbrothers returned to SEMA 2022 in a big way, with four full custom builds on display throughout the show.
One project that caught my eye was the 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 “Patriarc” which was on display at the Centerforce booth. The car starts with the 580-horsepower 5.2L V8 “Aluminator” crate engine from Ford Performance, coupled to a Bowler Tremec T-56 Magnum six-speed manual gearbox and a Strange Engineering 9-inch rear end.
The car rides on a set of Ringbrothers signature G-Code wheels that were developed with HRE for the G-Code Camaro in 2016. The wheels are wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires. Handling is vastly improved thanks to an independent front and rear suspension using Roadster Shop Fast Track components with Penske Racing RS Edition coilovers. A Baer disc brake system with six-pison calipers and massive 14-inch rotors provides serious braking force.
Build time on the Patriarc Mustang is over 5,000 man hours. The body was widened two inches in every direction, and the rear quarter panels have been lowered. This required fabricating a new floor pan and transmission tunnel from sheet metal. While they were in there, they added a roll cage, too.The list of carbon fiber parts includes the air scoops, hood, and rear diffuser.
It is impressive that after building more than a dozen different one-off Mustangs, the Ringbrothers continue to push the boundaries of the resto-mod world with their creations. The Patriarc Mustang Mach 1 is a remarkable car from every angle.
Palazzi Motorcars in Kingsville, Ontario (Canada) is a custom car shop headed by Tony Palazzi. Over the years, Palazzi has given the “Godfather” treatment to an eclectic mix of late-model automobiles, transforming them to look like a classic car.
Rather than mass-producing a neoclassic style automobile such as Excalibur, Zimmer, and other manufacturers, all of Palazzi’s cars are hand-built one-offs. They have done a Lexus SC430 coupe, a 10th-generation Ford Thunderbird, and a Lincoln Towncar in the past.
One of Palazzi’s most unusual creations is the Godfather Roadster, which began as a 2008 Cadillac XLR roadster and was highly customized to resemble a classic automobile.
The XLR roadster was a one-generation car produced by General Motors between 2004-2009 as a retractable hardtop 2-door sports/luxury car. It was offered as a base model with the 4.6L Northstar V8 producing 320 hp, and as a V-model with a supercharger making 443 hp.
The high cost of the car didn’t make sense to many buyers, who preferred the Corvette and its smaller price tag. Production of the Cadillac XLR ended in 2009 with a little more than 15,000 vehicles produced.
The XLR has distinct, angular body lines with hard edges from the grille to the taillights. While it is an interesting car, it is in my opinion perhaps the worst platform to start with for trying to make a gracious and curving neoclassic automobile.
The wide fender flares, white wall tires, and combination of curved bodywork with the angular roofline really looks bizarre. Confusingly, the car wears the hood ornament from an Excalibur, which is a competing brand of neoclassic automobile.
This car was offered at Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale 2023 no-reserve collector car auction. The seller description says that the “Palazzi package cost $79,000” on top of the purchase price of the car. It says the car was built with a retro look that resembles a Mercedes 540K from the late 1930s. The car shows just 10,866 miles on the odometer.
I was surprised to see this car sell for $44,000 at auction! What are your thoughts on the custom “Godfather Roadster?”
The 1970s saw a surge of interest in fiberglass kit cars built on a Volkswagen chassis. Cars such as the Bradley GT and Fiberfab were popular at the time.
The Puma GT is based on the chassis of a Volkswagen Brasilia chassis. The Brasilia was a 3-door economy hatchback, but here it has been reimagined as a 2-door, rear engine sports car.
This car is titled as a 1979 Puma GTE and features a 1600cc engine paired with a 4-speed manual transmission. The car has a leather interior, air conditioning, power windows, alarm system, and touchscreen audio system.
The Puma 1500 GT was first revealed at the 1970 Ibero-American Exhibition in Seville, Spain. Later that same year, the engine capacity increased to 1600cc and the car evolved to the 1600GTE.
The Puma GTE, the most famous sports car made in Brazil at the time, was produced with a fiberglass body and Volkswagen boxer engine from 1970 through 1980. This model was based on the Puma GT; the letter “E” added to the nomenclature means “export” or “Europe” according to other sources. This was the more successful Puma model with a higher-volume production.
I see a little bit of Porsche, Datsun, and other cars in the design and styling of the car.
This car sold for $23,650 at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale 2023 collector car auction. What do you think about the Puma GTE?
The Volvo P1800 is a beautiful example of Swedish design and aesthetic. The car’s lines look as graceful and elegant today as they did when the car debuted in 1961.
The original 1.8L engine has been replaced by a small block Ford V8 engine under the hood. A set of stainless headers and an Edelbrock intake adorn the engine, which sits beneath a custom air intake. An oversize aluminum radiator and electric fan help keep this thing running cool. Power is delivered to the rear wheels via a manual gearbox.
The seats, carpet, and door cards are upholstered in red, which contrasts nicely with the body colored transmission tunnel. There is no center console or cup holder at all.
I reckon this car is an absolute blast to drive. It has good power and great styling in a light weight, 2 door coupe body. Seriously, what more do you need in a car?
