Um, this 1972 Chevy Blazer makes 1,200bhp

USA

Ringbrothers builds a Blazer to dominate all, names it the ‘Bully’. Yeah, that seems appropriate

Ringbrothers has created a bully.

But unlike your average bully, which seems to be the product of inattention and carelessness, it’d be hard to level that accusation at Ringbrothers.

Some 8,500 hours went into building up a 1972 Chevy Blazer to become the Bully – it’s replete with billet aluminium, carbon fibre and 3D-printed parts. And, by our count, it took the combined efforts of at least 20 specialist companies to come to fruition.

As for the result? Well, you’re looking at it: a bona fide bully in all the ways they strike fear into those around them: it’s massive, mean and monstrously powerful. Unless you’ve another way of describing 1,200bhp.

But then such large figures were kind of on the cards, given that a) we’re talking about a machine built by Ringbrothers, and b) this Blazer-wearing Bully has 6.8 litres of LS3 to work with, and another 2.9 litres of supercharger on top.

Just in the interests of comparison, 1,200bhp is more than seven times as much as the most powerful ’72 Blazer had. We bet 170 horsepower would’ve sounded pretty decent back then, but we also have something of an inkling that the goalposts have rather moved in the intervening 50 years.

As you might expect, given that it possesses the sort of oomph that would twist a regular K5 until it resembled a K9’s hind leg, Ringbrothers has thought to add one or two bits of reinforcement. Such as an entirely new chassis, for instance, and equally minty four-link suspension, Currie-built Dana axles and a beefed-up 4L80E from Bowler Transmissions.

Given our personal experience with the 4L80E, we had a hunch that the aforementioned beef-up was… well, let’s say thorough and necessary, and leave it there. And, almost as if we know what we’re talking about (let’s not get ahead of ourselves here), we find hardened this and high-energy that until we’re not sure the finished product even resembles the transmission that left GM.

As well as it might describe the reengineered gearbox, we get the distinct impression that ‘hard’ and ‘high-energy’ rather sums up the entire build. The flared wheel arches and bonnet are carbon fibre, the supercharger cover is machined from billet aluminium, the fuel injection system is called the Dominator and even the tyres – a set of Cooper Discoverer STT Pros – are apparently armoured against stones. And presumably sticks as well, all things being equal. We’re also reliably informed that names will never hurt them.

In any case, it’s those massive tyres that give a sense of scale to the whole thing – as small as they may look, the wheels ensconced in those Cooper-branded, rock-armoured things are actually 18-inch HREs. Their place in context is what visually shrinks them – the fact that they’re wrapped in 325/65 R18 tyres, sporting more than 20cm of sidewall in the process, rather helps demonstrate how oversized this particular bully is.

Although, like any bully worth their salt, Ringbrother’s creation is well-dressed enough to convince anyone not paying enough attention that they’re not looking at a complete menace. So, unless we’re very much mistaken, the brothers Ring have created a perfect bully. We hope they’re happy with themselves.

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