I love American classics and this year I didn’t get the chance to check out nearly as many classic cruise nights as I would have liked so SEMA served as a great way for me to catch up on American Iron.
There were awesome builds literally as far as the eye could see and I had to constantly remind myself not to spend all of my time (or card space) on the classics.
Most of my favourite American builds from 2012 are below with a couple held over for future SEMA showstoppers.
Drag’N Kaiser
After following this build on Speedhunters it was great to be able to see it in the metal. If I didn’t know better I would have sworn it came from the factory as a two door, the work is that good.
Pictures do not do this Gene Winfield paint job justiceNo flaws anywhere in sightThe white continued all the way through the center console and onto the back deck lidIt was also carried over onto the steering wheel
Ford
Regret not taking more photos of this but at the same time I don’t remember taking this oneBio Customz 51 MercBeautiful altered wheelbase Ford FalconShow quality engine bay with a motor that could probably pull a few stumpsThis 32 known as the ‘Sylvester II’ has quite the back story behind it which can be read hereHard to see with the all that chrome but that’s a chain operated throttleAnd if that was not crazy enough chain operated shift linkage tooRiddler award winning 56 Ford Sunliner known as the “Suncammer”Original 427 cammer motor under the hood hopped up a wee bitPerhaps the best looking Thunderbird I have seenSuper nice interiorEasily one of the best looking engine bays at the show in my opinionThat’s 1150 ponies worth of Gale Banks Engineering 6.0-liter v8
Mach 40
Created using original ’69 Mustang Mach One body parts and built to the owners vision over three years the Mach 40 is an incredible machine that had a number of people talking. In fact the eckertsrodandcustom.com site is down for exceeding it’s bandwidth and I’d wager what I lost in Vegas this car is to blame.
Until it goes back up here’s the nitty gritty; a 2006 Ford GT 5.4 with a four litre Whipple supercharger makes it go, it’s got C6 suspension all around, and inside is a custom interior with Italian leather. The wheels are again custom and based off the ’69 GT Magnum 500 wheels.
The car ended up winning the Gran Tourismo award for it’s category (best hot rod) which means it will be in the next game.
The idea was for the car to just be a “little” wider than the standard 69 Mach OneThe front and rear glass is original ’69Underneath that OEM rear glass is a Whipple charged 5.4L that has a horse power dial that can fo from 600- 850 on the fly
Cadillac
One of my “if I were rich” projects would be to make a screen accurate Ecto-1 that’s slammed to the ground and this ‘Thundertaker’ is the closest I’ve seen to that.
This is admittedly a hell of a lot cleaner than an Ecto-1 would ever beGetting a side profile of this thing was TOUGH it’s hugeBuild pics can be found here
Chevrolet
Speed Garage 49 Chevy’53 in the PPG ‘Watering-hole’Classic drop top ImpalaThe ‘El-Rey’ ImpalaInsanely detailed everywhere you lookAnother look at the Brookwood brought by AccuairI only have a engine shot of this SS… must have been the best partThe owner of this Vette used to own the ‘worlds fastest’ street legal Corvette?Wonder if this is the new Worlds fastest…Despite reminding me of freight train wheels these big steels are starting to grow on meI had no idea the owner of Tapout was into carsCloser look at that LS3Awesome grocery getterRace seating for 4!I read somewhere that the first generation Camaro is one of the most popular cars at SEMA every year… I believe itLSX powered with lots of CFNever too much attention to detailI’m never opening my hood againGoolsby Customs 69 Camaro500+ hp LS3 surrounded by stamped panels68 built by Pratt & Miller Restorations760 horse LS9The ‘Tec 9’ Camaro built by Mitch Henderson Designs was a beautiful car and employed two colours I would have never thought to combine2″ Wider quarters to house those monster wheels
Classics Reborn?
Not sure what to make of these really and that’s why I am ending with them. I think in both cases we should stop trying to recreate the past, your thoughts?
Daytona Super Bird kit for the new ChallengerLooks so… big.This GTO I was on the fence about and then the headlight covers opened and…well… angel eyes are best left on BMWS
Slowing things down a little today coverage wise for another SEMA Showstopper.
Erik actually spotted this car on opening day (while I was off getting married) and suggested that I take a peak inside the car once I was done looking under the hood.
When I did finally track this Benz down I took his advice and was treated to one of the most thorough ‘cross-breed’ cars I have seen in awhile.
The initial eye catcher to this car is the JDM 2JZ swapA few people have said they would have liked the engine bay to be a bit more dressed up but considering the build as a whole it is not really necessaryLike the engine bay the interior is host to borrowed Lexus/Toyota componentsAn IS250 is the car that lost guts for this interior to liveIt was great to see this car on a Nitto tire set-up that could use all that new power and the VIP modular were quite fittingThe kicker was this model who actually knew what she was standing in front of and could talk about it intelligently
Check back tomorrow for some Classic American muscle from the 2012 SEMA show.
This Theme Tuesday was pretty well inevitable. With the popularity of the FR-S/BRZ/86 everyone expected more than a few at the show and the car deservedly took home the award for Hottest Sport Compact.
What I didn’t expect going into SEMA 2012 was how similarly modified many of ‘Toybarus’ would be to one another with the majority being equipped with either a Rocket Bunny aero kit, Vortech Supercharger, and some manner of air ride.
In many cases the cars had all of the above, and while it was pretty cool to see each manufacturers take on the car it’s a little worrisome that they are already starting to get somewhat repetitive.
At least it’s generally tasteful repetitiveness.
Like myself the Top Tuner FR-S made the trek from Toronto to VegasCan’t remember the last time I saw DC Sports anything but they managed to pull an FR-S togetherSeibon had this one fitted with their hood, fenders, lip, and I believe side skirt extensionsXXR went a bit overboard with the decals for the one they brought outBC’s was more restrainedKonig’s was quite nice, understated, and had a kit none of the others hadVortech had this one on Rotiforms in their booth, with their new charger of courseThe Rotiform / Airlift project that’s been circling the webGood to see a stock bodied one at the showThis one built by Cartel Customs was a drastic departure from the restIt was a well done conversion but certainly not for everyone, I credit their creativity however as it stood outTrack spec wise the Evasive car was one of the better examplesSpeedHunters has a good article on this car
Rocket Bunny Equipped
Without a doubt the most popular aero kit for the FR-S at SEMA 2012
Hot Lava Rocket Bunny from Forgestar WheelsThis was a popular look for SEMAFatlace / Rocket Bunny collaborationOf the Fatlace builds present (GTR and this) I prefer thisThis is probably my favourite of the ‘bunnies’ clean paint, no crazy stickers, and sitting on BBS E88s
N1 Concepts and Exotic Air
My friend Solomon (aka Go With Solo) had been dropping progress photos of this build on his blog for the past few weeks and it shaped up to be pretty crazy in the end. The car is GT-influenced and had a completely custom body kit.
I didn’t end up seeing it until the last day as it was somewhat hidden amongst the new productsIt’s extremely aggressive, just look at the size of that wing!It’s on an Exotic Air set-upand Forgestar provided the wheels
Scion Tuner Challenge
Every year Scion gives three companies one of their vehicles and $15000 to go nuts with and this year the car of choice was of course the FR-S.
All of them were pretty comparable so I am glad I didn’t have the difficult task of picking a winner.
This was built by John Toca and the only one based around the factory FiveAD kitThis was the most extreme of the three and dubbed the “FR-S GT” by it’s buildersIt took what the Rocket bunny kit started and went even furtherChris Basselgia’s ‘Minty Fresh’ FR-S ended up being the winner over allThis IAG Performance billet intake manifold and roots blower probably had a lot to do with it, pretty slick setup
Sema Coverage keeps on rolling all this week (and probably a bit of next) so check back tomorrow for more.
Now that I’m back home I can really tackle organizing and editing the coverage from SEMA 2012. Thus far most of the coverage has been outside the Las Vegas Convention Center so today I will start right in on coverage from the wheels & tires hall and a little bit from the central hall.
A lot of SEMA coverage has hit the net thus far so chances are pretty good you have seen a couple of these cars already, but with SEMA being such a large show there’s probably at least one or two builds in here you have yet to see.
That is my hope anyway…
Enkei brought out this absolutely immaculate TE27 LevinIt had CF mini flares and is sitting on their Compe 8 wheelsI probably won’t see one of these again for a long while…The wheel in front of this Porsche is almost completely carbon and weighs 15lbs which for a 19″ wheel is insane, however they are 15k a setDig the new Viper redesign, captures everything I liked about the original GTSBagged, wrapped, and supercharged CamaroDidn’t expect to see an early s10 at SEMAUnique bed setupThis m3 is 2″ wider than factory but still retains the beautiful lines of the original widebodyWhat it doesn’t retain however is the factory s14It’s owner Kevin Byrd (host of Two Guys Garage) is obviously no puristBC Racing had this Cruze in their display sitting on their Forged wheelsThey also had this track ready RX-8 also on their wheelsHankook was lucky enough to have this Audi R8 LMS GT3 in their boothBeautiful machineNot far from the R8 was this S4 in the Achillles tire boothVery nice A7If I am not mistaken this Subaru was recently on the cover of Performance Auto and SoundPart of me wants to try a set of OHLINs coils one day to see how the feel… the other part of me knows that is a bad idea as they are quite expensive and overkill for my needsMazdatrix RX-8This b16(?)h23 swapped Odyssey was almost hidden in the back of the Wheel & Tire buildingNice semi tucked bayDropped on Air Runner suspensionForgestar wheels were on everything this yearPrior Designs wide body SLBisimoto pumped out another Porsche buildNot sure whether or not I preffer this colour to his signature blue but I love the turbo
set-up
Love how this set-up is just out there in your faceIt’s the complete opposite of this Underground racing set-up on this R8 which is usually hidden from viewFrom what I overheard this is good for about 1200hp
Giovanna
Like 2010 the Giovanna booth was full of vehicles I’ll realistically never be able to afford but are cool to look at. It also looks like they have started to design more understated wheels instead of over the top ‘bling’ models.
Pretty clean, love the paint colourGiovanna / Misha Designs PanameraFF grills kind of look like the Cheshire Cat…Aventador
Rotiform
In 2011 Rotiform had a stellar year at SEMA with their wheels being showcased on a number of projects and it looks like they were able to ride that wave of popularity all the way to 2012.
You will see a lot of cars on ‘Rotis’ in the coverage to come but here are their own projects for 2012.
Prior to SEMA 2012 I wasn’t really on board with these cars but I see lots of potential in the platform nowB5 RS4 on upsized RS wheelsThis Pumpkin coloured B7 RS4 was on their new DIA wheels
Accuair
Accuair was one of several air ride companies at SEMA showing off their latest and greatest products for vehicles new and old. Their application for smart phones is pretty slick and their booth was busy throughout the duration of the show.
This LS3 powered 1970 Brookwood known as ‘Black Betty’ was stunningAs was this B6Look at the hatch set-up…
AirRex
The second of two Air Ride companies booths that will get some love today is AirRex. With manufacturing in Taiwan and a customer service base in Hawaii AirRex has been making moves this year and had their product on a number of vehicles at SEMA.
One being the Genesis that was posted in part one and two more examples below.
A quick glance at some of the AirRex product lineOne of two red MB’s on Works and AirRex at SEMA 2012On the other side of their booth was this FR-S
Falken Tires
Too many the big draw to the Falken booth was the Fatlace/Bensopra Skyline but the IND M5 and dually were also pretty awesome.
Falken/IND M5Justin Pawlak’s Formula Drift Mustang on displayI really should have taken more photos of this truck…I’m sure by now all of you have seen this offering from FatLaceIt was cool to see this car in person though I’m not sure about the liveryNo denying it was aggressive though
Toyo Tires
I’m sure Toyo had more cars in thier booth but this is the one that caught my eye…
I’m sure more than a few Lamborghini enthusiasts are upset over thisThis car was usally completely surrounded so I had to fire off these shots quick
If you are wondering where most of the FR-S/BRZ/86 pictures are I’ll give you one guess as to tomorrows Theme Tuesday…
The Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational is an event that happens every year right after SEMA so it’s only fitting that most (if not all) of the competing cars are on display at the show.
With a field consisting largely of classic American vehicles modified to go fast and handle pretty well every car with the OUSCI sticker on the door was right up my alley.
Since I had a manageable number of OUSCI photos to edit here from Vegas I’ve decided to dedicate part 2 of the 2012 SEMA coverage to a few note worthy vehicles.
Sunbeam Tiger built by Dale’s ResotrationsV8 pounds out 405hp to the wheelsSmokey and the Bandit styled Trans Am with Hotchkis goodies and Willwoods all around to keep it between the cones. Love the Year One Snowflakes tooCamaro with a Trans Am conversion, saw a couple of these throughout the showA lot of these cars were on performance air from RidetechOne of the later model Mustangs I quite likedReppin’ for Ontario!Never seen a Lucra before, this one was all CF with a tube frame under itLS3 under hood backed by a Tremec TKO 600RR transmissonTaking a C5 to a road course sounds crazy but it’s got custom coils under it (yes it’s static) and 495 hp under the hood should do it alrightDon’t have a lot of info on this one but no doubt it’s as stout as the restThis C10 was inside the show and absolutely gorgeousSpeaking of C10s, this and the one following it are simply incredibleCheck out the wheel and brake setup, nuttyThere’s a 500 horse LS2 under the hoodThis truck is beautiful and sits on air and huge Forgeline wheelsI spent a solid 15 – 20 circling this truck700hp 434 inside of a show worth engine bayGod how I would have loved to hear this thing run, also worth noting the Ridetech external reservoir there
There’s a notable Ring Brothers car missing from this post but it should show up later along with a few others…
Did my first full day of SEMA yesterday and all I can say is ‘wow’. There are so many incredibly well built projects this year that picking a place to start was a little difficult but this Juanky Built Dodge seemed like as good a place as any.
It’s one of those builds that drew me in initially simply because it was old and low but once I got closer I started to appreciate the small details slipped in by the builder.
The first time I passed it in the morning the hood was closed which lead me to believe not much was done under the hood…..but when I came back later I found an incredibly clean engine bayThe dump bed was a nice touch and is a completely one off pieceThe bed also helped expose the back halfThe real show stealer though was the interior. Loved the handles for the air ride.The seats were also great and the painted jambs were another one of those small details that made this truck awesome to look atFinal shot… for now
More pics of this build can be found over on Juanky Built and here’s a quick video of it rollin’
There are more than a few projects I want to get more in-depth shots of but don’t be afraid to let me know which ones you want to see more of as well.
Traditionally a Theme Tuesday post would be in place of this one but since I didn’t have time to get one finished before leaving for Vegas I am going to get right into the 2012 SEMA coverage.
Since attending in 2010 I’ve been itching to get back and based on what I saw outside the convention center yesterday SEMA 2012 is going to surpass my expectations.
Since Lyndsey and I agreed that after Wednesday the trip will be all things SEMA we only spent about an hour or so getting our media passes but even still today’s photos should give you a good idea of the variety and calibre of vehicles present in 2012.
Cars
This isn’t even half of the cars that were outside, I made a mental note of a few to go back and check out in further detail later in the week.
With all the talk about hurricane Sandy truck probably could have been better used elsewhereUnderneath all that purple line-x and bullet proof sheet metal is a Chevy TahoeI know some sites would completely look over this car because Rota is “the devil” but it was pretty clean…Great looking 911Chevelle with 35s on a 3/4 ton truck chassis with Dana 44 up front and GM 14 bolt out backTeam 16NiSS’ Lexus IS250The wheels are custom Kartier Forged piecesFutura brakes under those wheelsThis raw Caddy was incredible, most certainly have to go back and get a few more shots of this when the lighting is a bit betterHere’s another shot though in case I get distracted….Really love black exteriors and red gutsGreat looking Bel Air from Steele rubber with a stock floor body dropRear end of a particularly wide NissanGS on Work Gnosis with the awesome bronze finish on the lipsBippu style on the new EquipsAirRex/Forjworks Genesis projectNot the typical wheel choice for a Subaru but it works nicelyThe wrap on the hood and roof was also different but equally effectiveSimply loved this Bluebird/510. So incredibly clean and tastefulWho would have thunk powder blue would look so good on an Evo?Speaking of awesome paint colours the paint on this MK3 was simply stunningWith Rotiform involved the fitment was of course pushing the boundaries.Didn’t have a whole of of time to check this car out either but it’s on my list to look at more WednesdayCandidate for the first SEMA Showstopper of 2012 perhaps?
Trucks
Like 2010 a lot of the vehicles outside of the convention center were trucks, and being a truck loving sob it was almost heaven.
America.Something I didn’t get a lot of in 2010 were unfinished projects, I want to take more photos of those this yearI’ve always like seeing builds at this stage… so much work already done, lots left to do, but so much potentialMan I have not seen those particular Niche wheels in a looooong timeLayin’ rockerCheck the front camber on this laid outI swear I have a few old magazines at my mom’s place with trucks that looked exactly like this one.. classic styleBeautiful Dodge07 Silverado with an Escalade conversion tucking 28sCompletely smooth bed work shining in the Vegas sunHammered dually’s get a lot of love around hereTuckin’ LugThis 62ish Chevy was my favourite vehicle of the daySuper straight body, laid out, candy roof, moons, whites… awesomeThen there was the bed!
I am really looking forward to seeing what the rest of the show has to offer on Wednesday and I hope you are all looking forward to the onslaught of coverage.
Quick post today before we head out to wander around Vegas more and grab our passes from the SEMA media center.
I spotted a few black and white photos of this car on RA64 Freddy! and liked what I saw so I went hunting for more and found what I believe to be photos from the original photographer on the cyclone motor gallery.
I actually didn’t expect it to be green but it was a nice surprise.
Since reading about the incident involving COR Forged, a Mustang owner, a failed wheel, lawyers, and Jalopnik I have become a tad obsessed with it.
I’ve had the chance to discuss it with some intelligent (and sadly some not so intelligent people) and though it feels a little bit like throwing a few kicks in at a dead horse I am going to discuss it here as well.
For those who don’t know what happened a quick summary of events is that the owner of a Mustang took his car equipped with COR Forged wheels to the track where one of the faces failed quite dramatically.
The owner then contacted COR Forged who according to him stone walled him in regards to any compensation for the damaged wheel.
He was denied for two reasons, the first being that the wheels were painted after purchase which COR feels (depending on the process used) could have had detrimental effects to their structural integrity, and the second –and far more interesting– reason is that COR’s policy is to not cover any damage that occurs on the track despite marketing materials advertising them as a ‘performance’ wheel company.
The instant I read reason two I was reminded of the time I tried to warranty my first cracked BMX frame and was told that despite being sold with a ‘lifetime warranty’ the manufacturer (Mongoose for those curious) had a clause buried in their fine print that allowed them to weasel out of covering a bike used off road or in competition.
Comparing a $500 bike to a $4500 set of wheels is a bit of a stretch but it does illustrate that this type of ass covering by manufacturers is not uncommon regardless of the industry, and I have since learned that other wheel manufacturers have similar policies as well.
“…the wheels in this catalog are not warranted for off-road use, or for use on racing circuits, or in rallying, or for …”
For a company with a wheel called the ‘Super-Lap” this is a little surprising and if I were denied a claim I would be pretty upset too but if you think about it they are not entirely out to lunch.
Racing is not exactly the calmest environment and while it would be nice if they replaced everything free of cost regardless of whether a pothole did it or a hard corner entry did it at the end of the day it wouldn’t be great for their bottom line.
The difference is that any Rays Wheel failures (and perhaps denied warranty claims) have not played out in such a public fashion. I can only image the ‘shit just got real‘ moment at COR headquarters upon learning they made the front page of Jalopnik not once but twice in the same week for what could be classified as a freak accident.
With both sides lawyer’d and clammed up this situation will probably get worse before it gets better.
It would be a shame to see COR go belly up after a situation like this and really I’m not sure Jalopnik’s involvement was necessary but perhaps once the dust clears COR will introduce a crash replacement system that gives the buyer the opportunity to purchase a replacement lip, face, or barrel at a discounted price no matter what the cause.
Site Updates
Tomorrow I hop on a plane to Vegas to attend SEMA for the second time.
I’ll be at the show from Tuesday on (doing some tourist stuff before hand) and I will have Internet access through the duration of the trip so if anyone knows of anything cool going on outside of the show do let me know either on the fanpage, email, or twitter.
I will be bringing the same level of coverage that almost got my kicked of my host in 2010!
I don’t often post cars like this Laurel. Not because I don’t like them, but more because I don’t know a whole lot about Japanese cars of this vintage and a few of the blogs I follow (like High Top Fade) do such a damn good job of presenting them that I might as well concede defeat and look for another truck to post.
However this Laurel caught my eye and I couldn’t resist.
Unlike a lot of the builds I see from Japan it’s not an over the top or a caricature of USDM builds it just is what it is, which happens to be super clean.
I didn’t even know it was possible to look so good on such tiny wheels…
