Photo: Ring Brothers
The modern Chevrolet Blazer crossover is like the automotive equivalent of an overcast late fall afternoon. One where the wind is chilly and any warm feelings of summer are well and truly gone. Blazers of old, on the other hand? They're pretty gosh darn wonderful, even in stock form.
But the team behind the Ring Brothers custom fabrication shop in Spring Green, Wisconsin, looks at a classic Blazer and thinks, "hmm, we can totally make it better." To their eternal credit, they're totally right to think this. Meet Bully.
It's the given name of this 1972 Chevy K5 Blazer that makes the new Blazer EV look like a glorified golf cart. In the final year of production for the first gen K5-Blazer, the largest engine you could find under a stock K5's hood was a 350-cubic inch (5.7) Chevy Smallblock found basically throughout Chevrolet's entire range.
For this custom build, all of that old drivetrain hardware had to be removed, along with a whole bunch of other stuff. In its place in an engine that an early 70s GM engineer could've only dreamed of. It's a GM LS3-based unit. But it's one that's been stroked to an eye-watering 416-cubic inches (6.8 liters) by Wegner Automotive in Markesan, Wisconsin. For good measure, a Whipple supercharger was added. With all the mods, the engine jets 1,160 horsepower.
Whichever of the stock K5's slushy three or four-speed automatic or manual transmissions was also ditched in favor of a beefy Bowler 4L80E four-speed automatic. Power is fed to a Dana 60 rear axle with a modified Roadster Shop RS4R chassis replacing the old one.
With a 4-bar front and rear suspension 325/65-R18 tires and disc brakes with six-piston calipers all around, you have a classic SUV that, with a skilled driver at the wheel, could probably give some lesser purpose-built sports cars a run for their money. Add on a repainted body and gold-accented wheels with a stunning interior, and you have a recipe for one of the best restomods we've seen all year.
It's the given name of this 1972 Chevy K5 Blazer that makes the new Blazer EV look like a glorified golf cart. In the final year of production for the first gen K5-Blazer, the largest engine you could find under a stock K5's hood was a 350-cubic inch (5.7) Chevy Smallblock found basically throughout Chevrolet's entire range.
For this custom build, all of that old drivetrain hardware had to be removed, along with a whole bunch of other stuff. In its place in an engine that an early 70s GM engineer could've only dreamed of. It's a GM LS3-based unit. But it's one that's been stroked to an eye-watering 416-cubic inches (6.8 liters) by Wegner Automotive in Markesan, Wisconsin. For good measure, a Whipple supercharger was added. With all the mods, the engine jets 1,160 horsepower.
Whichever of the stock K5's slushy three or four-speed automatic or manual transmissions was also ditched in favor of a beefy Bowler 4L80E four-speed automatic. Power is fed to a Dana 60 rear axle with a modified Roadster Shop RS4R chassis replacing the old one.
With a 4-bar front and rear suspension 325/65-R18 tires and disc brakes with six-piston calipers all around, you have a classic SUV that, with a skilled driver at the wheel, could probably give some lesser purpose-built sports cars a run for their money. Add on a repainted body and gold-accented wheels with a stunning interior, and you have a recipe for one of the best restomods we've seen all year.
Google News