The Righteous Ringbrothers Debut 1969 Chevrolet Camaro ‘Valkyrja’ at SEMA
Lots of carbon fiber, lots of horsepower, lots of lunacy. Yep, sounds like The Ringbrothers.
Each year, Jim and Mike Ring bring some sort of homicidal psycho jungle cat to SEMA. Each year, the Wisconsin-based brothers top last year’s builds. Each year, Jim and Mike Ring scare the ever-living hell out of us while simultaneously getting us to laugh uncontrollably. This year is no different with The Ringbrother’s latest creation being an 890-horsepower 1969 Chevrolet Camaro dubbed, “Valkyrja.” Commence nervous giggles.
Underneath the carbon-fiber exterior, which has been sliced, diced, julienned to within an inch of its original form, the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro is essentially an all-new car. Detroit Speed Engineering provided the brothers Ring with an all-new chassis, suspension, and sway bars. The Camaro’s original brakes, deemed inadequate to deal with the sublime power, were replaced with Baer units, with new rotors and 6-piston calipers both front and rear.
And while we could drool over the chassis, suspension, brakes, and carbon-fiber body panels for hours and hours, as with every Ringbrothers build, the engine is the star.
Slotted between the fender wells is a Wegner Motorsports-built blue-printed LS3 V8. Sitting atop the engine is a 2.9-liter Whipple supercharger that boosts the Wegner unit to 890 horsepower. Yowza. The engine is coupled to a 6-speed manual transmission from Tremec that’s been reworked to handle the Wegner’s sensational power. A carbon-fiber driveshaft couples the transmission and the 9-inch rear end from John’s Industries.
A custom Flowmaster exhaust lets the fire-breathing V8 roar, while custom HRE wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires put power to the ground. The exterior is finished in BASF’s TOTOPKG Green, and the interior designed by the Ringbrothers and manufactured by Upholstery Unlimited.
Like Aston Martin’s Valkyrie, “VALKYRJA” is from Norse mythology. Using the more ancient spelling, the Ringbrothers say that the name “was chosen by the car’s Belgian owner who will take delivery after the SEMA Show.”
“We try and top ourselves every year, and this build was no different,” says Mike Ring, co-owner of Ringbrothers. “This build was unlike anything we had attempted before, both in design and execution. The result is a car with a classic look but entirely modern underpinnings, materials and technology. It's the perfect mix of style and performance.”
As for how much the car cost to build, the Ringbrothers say the client is quite private, but allude to the build costing north of $750,000. That’s a helluva number, but then again, Valkyrja is a helluva car and you’re paying for the attention to detail, and lunacy, that only the Rings can provide. We can’t wait to see what the Ringbrothers do next.
