Ringbrothers’ 1,200-Horsepower “Bully” K5 Blazer Unveiled at SEMA Leave a comment
For many years, Ringbrothers has made a name for itself by building some of the most intricate classic cars and trucks ever seen at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. In the past, they’ve displayed vehicles ranging from a 1948 Cadillac to a 1971 DeTomaso Pantera, but this year the shop decided to build a 4×4 — specifically a 1972 Chevy K5 Blazer known as “Bully.” With a 1,200-horsepower supercharged V8 engine, a custom Roadster Shop chassis, Currie Dana 44 front and Dana 60 rear axles, dual Warn winches, and a one-of-a-kind leather interior, this Blazer build didn’t leave a single nut or bolt unchanged.
At the heart of the Ringbrothers Bully Blazer is a 6.8L LS3 V8 engine built by Wegner Motorsports, topped with a 2.9L Whipple supercharger. The combination sends a whopping 1,200 horsepower through a Bowler Tru-Street 4L80E automatic transmission into the Currie axles. The truck’s body sits on a Roadster Shop custom chassis with a triangulated four-link and two Fox 2.5 Race Series coilovers per corner.
Above: Opening the hood reveals a series of custom-fabricated metal trim panels and a custom intake that draws cold air from grilles on each side of the hood.
This K5 rides on 18×12-inch custom-designed HRE wheels wrapped in 325/65R18 Cooper Discoverer STT Pro mud tires. Six-piston Baer disc brakes on all four corners provide stopping power.
Ringbrothers painted the body a custom-mixed color they call Bashful Blue, and it contrasts nicely with gold exterior accents and rich brown leather interior upholstery. In the bed, there’s a bright red jerrycan with a Ringbrothers billet cap, as well as a Warn Zeon 10-S winch that passes through a unique floating fairlead cut out of the tailgate. A second Warn winch sits beneath the custom Ringbrothers front bumper.
With an estimated 8,500 hours invested in this project, Ringbrothers used it as a test bench for a variety of one-off machined and 3D-printed parts. One element that immediately caught our eye is the use of picatinny rails to attach modular tie-down points along the bed sides:
As with previous Ringbrothers builds, the “Bully” K5 Blazer is definitely more of a show piece than a workhorse; we don’t imagine it’ll receive many paint scratches on tight off-road trails or mud baths while fording rivers. Some will surely decry it as a trailer queen for this reason. However, when you view it as a proof of concept and a test bed for the numerous small parts Ringbrothers offers for the K5 Blazer and Chevy C10 platforms, it makes a lot of sense. And with four-wheel-drive, a four-figure horsepower output, and an open-air cab, we have no doubt it’d be a ton of fun on- or off-road.
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