Mike and Jim Ring’s shop in Wisconsin spent more than 5,500 hours turning a 1965 Pontiac Tempest convertible into Billie, a 650-horsepower GTO tribute unveiled at the 2026 SEMA Show in Las Vegas for a client whose mother once had a GTO of her own.
Ringbrothers, based in Spring Green, Wisconsin, is known for heavily reworked classic cars. This year’s show car looks close to stock at first glance, but almost every panel, part and gauge has been changed.
The owner wanted the car to bring back the one his mother had. “The owner wanted to recreate something that held real sentimental value,” co-owner Mike Ring said in a press release.
MotorBiscuit reported that the mother had once been given a GTO of her own. The commission was meant to put a car like that one back on the road, rebuilt with modern parts.
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From GOAT to Billie
The client first suggested a name for the project. “During our early conversations, he suggested calling it GOAT,” Mike Ring said, using the old nickname of the Pontiac GTO.
“We came back with BILLIE, as in billy goat, and that moniker stuck,” he added. He called it “a playful nod to the GTO’s heritage, but more, a deeply personal tribute” to the family car.
The name now appears on the car itself. The fenders carry custom “Billie 6.2 Liter” emblems, and a badge on the dashboard reads “Raised by Ringbrothers”.
A Tempest that became a GTO
The car started life as a 1965 Pontiac Tempest convertible. That is less of a stretch than it sounds, since in 1965 the GTO was still an option package on the Tempest line.
The first job was size. Ringbrothers made the whole body five inches wider, reshaped the front fenders, pushed out the rear quarter panels and stretched the rocker panels to match.
“The challenge was widening the body five inches without losing the proportions that make a ’65 GTO so recognizable,” co-founder Jim Ring said. “There’s a massive amount of fabrication hidden beneath the subtle touches.”
Carbon fiber where the steel used to be
A good part of the new body is not metal. The hood is carbon fiber, with a scoop 20% larger than the factory piece and billet-aluminum inserts, according to the shop’s spec sheet.
The front wheel tubs, the lower front valance and a rear diffuser with built-in exhaust ducts are also carbon fiber. The door skins mix carbon fiber and steel.
The bumpers were made by hand, and the taillight panel was machined from a single piece of billet aluminum. New headlight surrounds complete the changes at the front.
Car and Driver noted more carbon fiber on the lower front end and on the rear bumper section that houses the large exhaust outlets, details that are easy to miss in photos.
The paint is a custom BASF Glasurit color called Billie Goat Blue, set against polished chrome trim, Car and Driver reported.
650 horsepower from a supercharged V8
Under the hood sits a supercharged 6.2-liter LT4 V8 from Wegner Motorsports, rated at 650 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque. The engine block is painted Pontiac Sky Blue.
The power goes to the rear wheels through a 10-speed automatic from Bowler Performance. Both the engine and gearbox figures come from the Ringbrothers spec sheet cited by MotorBiscuit.
A modern chassis under a 61-year-old shape
The body sits on a Roadster Shop Fast Track Stage III chassis with independent rear suspension, according to the build sheet reported by MotorBiscuit.
Fox coilovers handle the springing, and six-piston Brembo calipers sit at all four corners. HRE G-Code wheels measure 19 by 10.5 inches at the front and 20 by 13 inches at the rear.
The rear wheels wear wide 345/30R20 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, according to the same build sheet, under the reshaped rear quarter panels.
An espresso part as the shifter
The most unusual piece is inside. According to the Ringbrothers spec sheet, the shifter is a modified olive wood espresso portafilter, the handled basket a barista locks into a coffee machine.
The cabin is trimmed in gray and blue leather. The dashboard was rebuilt, moved four inches forward and dropped two inches, and it now holds Dakota Digital gauges.
The factory radio was rebuilt to add Bluetooth, and the defroster vents were 3D printed with Pontiac logos. A new climate system and an auto-dimming mirror were also added, Car and Driver reported.
5,500 hours in perspective
Ringbrothers says the build took more than 5,500 hours. At a standard 40-hour week, that equals more than two and a half years of full-time work for a single person.
The shop did not disclose a price for the build or the name of the client, and none of the published reports gave a figure for what the car cost to make.
Quieter than past Ringbrothers builds
Billie is calmer than some earlier projects. Car and Driver listed Paramount, an LT4-powered Rolls-Royce, and Enyo, a 1948 Chevy truck turned into an open-wheel race car.
Car and Driver still called the GTO “the perfect representation” of the shop’s skill at honing the classic lines of vintage muscle cars, even if it is less radical than those builds.
The challenge here was different: keep the car recognizable as a ’65 GTO while changing nearly everything under the skin, from the chassis to the vents.
SEMA week and other big reveals
SEMA is the yearly showcase for builders and parts makers in Las Vegas. Last week, Honda’s racing arm also showed a hybrid trophy truck with more than 1,300 horsepower built for desert racing.
Billie is aimed at a different kind of buyer, one who wants a family memory rebuilt with modern parts. Would a GTO this changed still feel like the car the owner’s mother once drove?
