Ringbrothers’ 1972 AMC Javelin – Jay Leno’s Garage

Jay Leno has seen everything, so when he gets excited about an AMC Javelin, you pay attention. This 1972 underdog is a Ringbrothers restomod built for Prestone, and it hides a jaw-dropping secret: an 1,100-horsepower Hellcat engine fed by a 4.5-liter Whipple supercharger. It is a forgotten AMC turned into a supercar killer. Watch to see why over a million people tuned in to Leno’s garage.

When Jay Leno gets genuinely, visibly excited about a car, it is always worth paying close attention, because the man has personally driven more machinery than almost anyone alive on the planet. This time the object of his enthusiasm is an AMC Javelin, of all the unlikely candidates, and pointedly not the numbers-matching, concours kind that purists guard behind velvet ropes. Mike and Jim Ring, the fabrication wizards behind Ringbrothers, dragged a humble 1972 Javelin kicking into the modern era and handed it a heart transplant that no AMC engineer of the day could have imagined. What is stuffed under that reshaped hood turns a forgotten underdog into a supercar killer. Once you hear the spec, you will understand why well over a million people watched.

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The Underdog Nobody Restomods

The AMC Javelin has always lived quietly in the long shadow cast by the Mustang and the Camaro, and that underdog status is precisely why the Ringbrothers chose it in the first place. Building a genuinely world-class machine out of an underappreciated, overlooked body shell is very much their signature move, and it means every panel, every gap, and every body line gets obsessively reworked by hand. The finished result carefully respects the original Javelin silhouette while quietly perfecting every single detail the factory never had the time, budget, or ambition to get right back in 1972.

1,100 Horsepower of Hellcat Fury

The undisputed showstopper, of course, is the drivetrain lurking beneath all that hand-formed metal. Built as a showcase for Prestone, this Javelin packs a genuinely staggering 1,100-horsepower Hellcat engine breathing through a massive 4.5-liter Whipple supercharger, a figure that would have sounded like pure science fiction to anyone standing in a 1972 showroom. That is not a typo, and it is not a dyno-queen boast either; it is a fully engineered, properly drivable street car carrying power figures that comfortably shame most modern factory hypercars.

Why Leno Cannot Stop Grinning

Watching Leno slowly walk around this Javelin is really watching a lifelong enthusiast appreciate craftsmanship operating at the absolute highest level of the hobby. He knows the obscure AMC history cold, he clearly respects the sheer audacity of the build, and it is written all over his face that he desperately wants to drive it. Watch the full video and share your thoughts below.

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