Ringbrothers spends 5,500 hours building 650-hp Pontiac GTO

Custom car builder Ringbrothers spent more than 5,500 hours turning an old Pontiac Tempest convertible into a 650-horsepower GTO. The finished car has a body five inches wider than the original.

The car is a labour of love as much as a performance build. Both reports describe the project as a full rebuild rather than a restoration, with the wider bodywork and the 650-horsepower engine as its headline changes. The sources do not describe the engine in more detail, or say what it was based on.

A rebuild from a Tempest

The starting point was a Pontiac Tempest convertible. Ringbrothers reworked it into a GTO, the model name Pontiac used for its performance version of the Tempest. The wider body is the most visible change, and the sources give the extra width as five inches.

The sources do not say what the car will cost, whether it will be sold, or whether more examples will be built. Ringbrothers has not said how the 5,500 hours were split between bodywork, engine and interior.

Why it matters for Indian buyers

For most Indian readers, a build like this is a showcase rather than something they can buy. Indian import duties on cars are high, and a custom Pontiac would be an unusual purchase here. The project does show how far custom builders now go to change classic American muscle cars.

What happens next is not yet known. The sources do not say whether the car will be shown at an event, put up for sale, or kept by the builder.