Ringbrothers astonishes SEMA with Chevy‑engined Rolls‑Royce

​As you'd expect, the Rolls is the subtlest of the lot because it's visually almost identical to any other Silver Cloud II. To build it, Ringbrothers strips the donor car to the bare metal, corrects any imperfections, applies White As Fluff paint and adds the company's machined badges – the biggest hint you're not looking at a standard car.

Behind the Pantheon grille, you'll find a larger clue that this is no ordinary Rolls – a supercharged 6.2-litre Chevy LT4 in place of Rolls Royce’s own 6.75-litre V8. The LT4 provides an avalanche of power – 649PS (477kW) and 861Nm (635 ft-lbs) of torque to be precise – to the rear wheels via a Bowler Tru-Street 10-speed automatic transmission and a QA1 carbon-fibre driveshaft.

How fast? Ringbrothers doesn't say but does supply a helpful promotional video where the Paramount faces – and thrashes – a current Phantom on a runway drag race. It’s the kind of consumer video that any chauffeur worth their salt needs to watch. 

Thankfully, Ringborthers doesn't just up the power and send you – or your driver – on your merry way; under the Cloud's sumptuous curves, you'll find a Roadster Shop chassis with two-piece clamshell control arms and custom ten-gauge steel boxed frame rails. Suspension comes from Fox, and you get 18-inch wheels wrapped in Falken Azenis tyres, which are a plump eight inches wide at the rear.

Having said all this, the Paramount is no road racer; in fact, it's even more luxurious than the (already very luxurious) base car. Inside, you'll find machined-billet switchgear and a headliner that mimics the Starlight roof in a modern Rolls.

The Tusk Charger is more bread-and-butter Ringbrothers – a Dodge Charger the company has poured 5,000 man hours into.Power comes from Mopar's most powerful crate engine, the 1,014PS (746kW), 1,292NM (950lb-ft) 7.0-litre Hellephant V8 of which just 100 have been built. It sends power to the rear wheels through a Bowler TREMEC T-56 Magnum six-speed manual and a QA1 REV Series custom carbon-fibre driveshaft with a Strange Engineering Ford 9-inch back end.

Ringbrothers goes as far as to extend the wheelbase by more than 50mm, adding a custom Roadster Shop Fast Track chassis, Fox RS SV suspension, and Baer Brakes Extreme 6S with six-piston callipers.

This time, Ringbrothers has done as much to the parts you can see as it has to the bits you can't. As a result, the Charger's iconic front end gets a one-piece carbon-fibre surround with a single-piece machined billet chrome highlight and a custom-made bumper with a chin spoiler.

Ringbrothers also removes the windscreen cowl vents, reshapes and extends the rear quarter end caps, adds new door skins, extends and lowers the rocker panels, creates a one-off belly pan, reduces the rear valance – and – adds a custom driveline tunnel and floor. A Black to the Future paint job with gold highlights concludes the visuals. The result is a car that’s obviously a Charger just neater and better finished than the original. 

Inside, you get a custom leather interior with a carbon-fibre console and a custom carbon-fibre "pistol grip" shifter. Dakota Digital gauges and a Vintage Air Gen IV climate-control system add a touch of modernity.

Ringbrother's final show car is the Uncaged Mustang. Based on a 1965 Mustang, the Uncaged is lower and wider and has custom details like a new badge, carbon-fibre grille, custom-made rear valance, 18-inch alloy wheels modelled on the originals and a Burgundy Brave paint finish. Inside, it's the same story, with a modern play on the original design that includes Dakota Digital dials and a bespoke steering wheel.

Power comes from a 466PS (343kW) 5.0-litre Coyote V8 that provides 420lb-ft (569Nm) of twist, and the car has Penske Racing Shocks RS Edition shocks with independent rear suspension and Baer Brakes.

All three of the Ringbrothers cars are on show at SEMA until 3 November.