Behold ‘Octavia’, Ringbrothers’ first Aston Martin

Doesn’t matter if it’s Monterey Car Week or not, if Ringbrothers is announcing a new car you’ll want to pay attention. It lavishes thousands of hours on creating some of the most extraordinary bespoke builds around, always with an abundance of horsepower and a surfeit of attitude – see its Buick GNX (with 1,246hp) and Plymouth Barracuda for proof. A Ringbrothers build is always an exquisitely built monster, and that’s exactly the case for its latest project: the 805hp Octavia, once a 1971 Aston Martin DBS and now, after 12,000 hours of work, said to be the Wisconsin company’s most advanced build to date. 

As usual, the design is unavoidable. Ringbrothers had already confirmed that Octavia would be significantly wider than a stock car – fully eight inches wider in the carbon up front, 10 inches at the rear – but those numbers couldn’t really convey the outrageousness of the reality. There were DBS race cars back in the day – V8 RHAM/1, aka The Muncher, being the most famous, with its ‘77 Le Mans finish – but even they’re made to look a bit tame against Octavia. 

As you might expect, there’s some real consideration that’s gone in, too, ensuring this is a cohesive bit of design and not merely some mad widebody; the front wheels are moved forward three inches (it now sits on a custom Roadster Shop chassis), giving the wheelbase some length to work against the massively increased track width. Clearly, pretty much everything is bespoke, albeit with the aim to retain that Coke-bottle silhouette; Ringbrothers says the carbon bodywork echoes the original look, ‘while its curves and contours are decidedly more chiseled and pronounced.’ You can say that again. Octavia is truly spectacular, in best Ringbrothers tradition, though if you’re seeing a bit of Mustang in the front end then you aren’t alone…

Speaking of which, power for Octavia comes from a Ford Coyote 5.0-litre V8, with a Harrop supercharger to liberate 805 imperial horsepower – or 816 metric, or not very far from GTD power in fact. Yet here it’s with a six-speed manual, and that headline power figure is the street tune only, suggesting there could be even more to come. Whatever the case, it’s going to be phenomenally fast and phenomenally loud in any of its guises. 

Harnessing Octavia’s power is a feast of top-tier chassis hardware, including Fox RS SV coilovers (with Ringbrothers’ own suspension arms), custom Brembo brakes and one-off wheels as well: they’re the result of Ragle Design and HRE working together, a centrelock design intended to evoke the original Aston Martin. It’s going to be quite some driving experience, that seems certain. 

But Ringbrothers hasn’t forgotten about the fun stuff, either. The paint is Double-0 Silver, because why not, with accents in Nuclear Olive Green; under the bonnet, the valve covers for the V8 feature an extra ‘i’, so it proudly says ‘Aston Martini’ on the 800hp engine. Look really closely and you’ll see a dipstick handle that’s designed to look like a Martini glass as well. Easy to see where 12,000 hours might have gone now… 

And that’s before even considering Octavia’s interior. Again so much is bespoke and new, but they’ve understood the assignment alright, with abundant leather and metal throughout – plus traditional dials to double-check you’re really going that fast. There appears to be an incredible ambient lighting setup also, and check out the boot, with yet more beautifully appointed leather and carbon. The quality of the craftsmanship is what so often marks a Ringbrothers car out (along with hundreds of horsepower), and that’s most certainly still in evidence with Octavia. Even co-owner Jim Ring believes this DBS boasts engineering and attention to detail “unlike anything we’ve done before.” That’s saying something from them. 

The other Ring brother, Mike, added: “It’s nearly impossible to convey all the intricacies that went into engineering this car. It pushed us to innovate beyond our comfort zone and create a moving mechanical work of art. We’ve combined the ferocity of American muscle with the stiff upper lip of English sophistication and motoring. ‘Octavia’ is beyond anything we’ve built before and a celebration of the hot rodding spirit, unveiled in Monterey on the grandest stage of them all.” The special relationship has never produced anything quite so awesome. What on earth do Ringbrothers do next?