Event Coverage: Sema 2012 – Part 6.

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Nov 15, 2012

I’ve finally reached the point where more SEMA photos are behind me than ahead of me which means this is the last 40+ image post for SEMA 2012.

I know for some the coverage seems a little excessive and drawn out but I view the opportunity to attend SEMA as a privilege that could potentially be revoked at any time so I don’t want to ever have the feeling I could have done better once it’s all said and done.

Today’s coverage is going to be a mix of the central and new product halls along with a quick peek outside and some manufacturers areas thrown in for good measure.

vw_vortex_super_beetle_2 — This car dubbed the “Super Beetle” is basically a Golf R in ‘new, new’ Beetle skin

vw_super_beetle1 — The project is documented here on vwvortex and like the Mach 40 it will also be in the next Gran Tourismo

mazda_rx7_wb_2 — High End Performance Carbon Fiber Veliside RX-7 on SSRs in the New Product Hall

mazda_rx_7 — A much tamer (visually) RX-7 between halls

magnaflow_1 — Magnaflows muffler Revolver demo truck, pretty slick marketing idea

dodge_viper_2 — To answer the question that was burning in all of your brains when I posted it on Monday no this limo doesn’t have gigantic side pipes 🙁

nissan_gtr_hks — GTR on Advans, simple look but timeless

factory_five — One of several Factory Five builds, this is the GT5 supercar which is mostly a Corvette C5 in addition to the Factory 5 kit

mb_mechatronix_1 — Mechatronik, which was founded by former AMG engineer Frank Rickert, brought out two vintage MBs with new AMG hearts

mb_mechatronix_2 — As Part of their ‘new-tech’ restoration program this 280SE has a 555-hp AMG v8 in place of it’s original motor and plans are to sell things like this state side

hennesy_venom_1 — Hennesy Venom GT, absolute monster of a car

Remember TNN?

Who of you reading this remember The Nashville Network? As a wee one I loved that station between 8-10 Saturday mornings and about 8-9 Saturday night which aired what is now the Powerblock and Monster Jam respectively.

The vehicles below appearing in this post are directly influenced by TNN.

lifted_ford_bionic — I’d love to see this in a Tough Truck competition to see if it can actually handle a few bumps, past examples say it might not…

lifted_jeep_1 — I’ve got no doubts this could hold it’s own though

lifted_tractor_pull_1 — Rock Hard Ram tractor pull truck

lifted_tractor_pull_2 — 2500hp Cummins motor…

lifted_digger — Remember the days when monster trucks were slow as heck and didn’t have FG bodies? Come a long way

Mazda

There was literally only one car that caught my eye in the entire Mazda area this year and that’s the 787 which is the predecessor to the legendary 787B.

racecar_mazda_787_2 — Good on Mazda for bringing this out because otherwise I would have walked right past their area

Honda

Similar to Mazda the only thing Honda brought out that I didn’t see at the Canadian International Autoshow was their 2012 American Lemans LMP1 Champion car the HPD (Honda Performance Development) ARX-03a.

endurance — Driven hard and put away wet this car one six races in the 2012 season

Kia

Kia did something a little different for SEMA 2012 and teamed up with DC comics and West Coast Customs to produce a group of Justice League themed cars based on their current production models. If you are not a comic book fan you might want to just skip over this section to the next one but if you are they are worth a look.

All of these cars will be auctioned off for the We Can Be Hereos charity as well.

superhero_kia_aquaman — Of the concepts this was probably my least favourite which makes sense because it’s also my least favourire Justice League character

superhero_kia_cyborg — Cyborg Cerato surprisingly sitting on Rotiforms

superhero_kia_flash — The Flash Cerato Koup which despite the Flash theme is stock under hood

superhero_kia_green_lantern — As some of you may know we have a Soul in the house so seeing this was… interesting. It works here but for an actual non comic book concept car….

superhero_kia_batman_2 — Only makes sense that the best character of the entire DC franchise (in my opinion) got the best looking concept of the five

superhero_kia_batman — I could almost see someone driving this

Ford

Outside of the Mustang I’m not really a huge Ford guy but this year at SEMA Ford really surprised me with the cars they brought out that I wouldn’t normally give a second glance.

ford_booth_forjstar_fusion — Bagged AWD Fusion built by MRT Performance

ford_booth_boosted — Boosted and Juiced Ford Focus ST Sedan

ford_booth_boosted_motor — Built by VACCAR in Youngstown

ford_booth_mustang_rtx — Love The Mustang RTR which looks great on HRE classics. If I were to change one thing it would be the dull textured grey to carbon or black

Hyundai

Hyundai has been steadily building their credibility in recent years and this year they brought out a slew of nice Velosters along with their 2013 Genesis.

hyundai_bisi_1 — Bisimoto’s second build of the show was this 600hp Elantra GT

hyundai_bisi_2 — Impressive numbers from a tiny 1.8

hyndai_2013_genesis — Hyundai of course was showing off modified versions of their latest Genesis design

hyundai_2013_genesis_3 — According to a security guard this one was so high up to protect the paint

Love Fab NSX

Going to end the coverage with what is probably the most insane NSX to ever be built. Or perhaps the most insane car to be built out of an NSX, I’m not entirely sure which to classify it as considering just how heavily this is modified.

Either way it’s insane, with no mind paid to aesthetics and everything devoted to function.

love_fab_front_2 — Love the stick on NSX lights

love_fab_front_angle — Evidently this car has so much down force that the suspension had to be redesigned to cope with it

love_fab_rear_angle — You can see the center shock absorber that is used to up the spring rate when necessary.

love_fab_interior — Like most of the rest of the car there is no visual cues that this is an NSX on the inside

If you are interested in more on the NSX check out the Form Follows Function feature on Speed Hunters it outlines the more insane details about this build.

Stay locked for a couple more showstoppers as well as some roll out photos to round out the SEMA 2012 coverage here on Stance Is Everything.

SEMA Showstopper: unfuckwithable

By

DaveT

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Nov 14, 2012

0

The last time RWB was mentioned here was almost exactly a year ago in a post titled “RW Who?” that showcased this DP Motorsport built 73 911.

Then Rauh Welt Begriff had brought two extremely popular builds to SEMA –the now black Pandora One 965, and the 965 Hoonigan— and everyone who was anyone was photographing, posting, tweeting, and just generally carrying on about those cars several times a day.

It was a bit much to say the least.

This year, being a year old, the lone RWB/egarage Porsche at SEMA received very little attention and fanfare which gave me a chance to enjoy it in peace.

rwb_front — After seeing photos of these cars online for so long it was nice to appreciate one in person

rwb_side_front_alt — The fit and finish is way better than I would have expected from a manufacturer with “Rough” in their name

rwb_rear_wheel — Closer look at the fit and finish

rwb_rear_three_alt — Certainly using all of that wide body to it’s potential

rwb_rear — Wish the trailer wasn’t in the way so I could have got a better ‘dat ass’ shot

Unfuckwithable indeed.

Wonder when one of these will pop up in Canada?

Theme Tuesdays: Classy Car Models Part 6

By

DaveT

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Nov 13, 2012

2

I thought about doing another women of SEMA Theme Tuesday for 2012 but as it turns out I only took about six photos of models this year four of which sucked.

That means it’s time to fall back to an old favourite, ‘Classy Car Models’.

Hard to believe this has stretched to a six posts, I’m not exactly strict with the rules though.

classy_16 — Guess Fords are not the only car leaving women stranded in this post

classy11 — She happens to be the owner of this car as well read the feature on SNTRL

classy_15 — I think a shot from this shoot as made every post…

classy12 — Wonder what the specs on those wheels are…

classy4 — I may have watched an episode (or 72) of Buffy in the day…

Event Coverage: Sema 2012 – Part 5.

By

DaveT

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Nov 12, 2012

1

Heading back outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center for this extra long SEMA coverage post today.

I’m not sure the exact criteria for parking outside of the Convention Center but if I were to guess I’d imagine it’s similar to one of the larger “invite-only” car shows in the states.

I like walking the outside because many of the cars look as though they put rubber down on the street inside of just inside a trailer.

DUB Show Tour

The shuttle that ran from our hotel to the show stopped right outside the ‘DUB’ area of the show so that is where today’s coverage will begin.

We don’t get these shows in Canada so walking around the one at SEMA is always interesting to say the least.

outside_dub_dually_1 — The shuttle stop was literally right behind this dually so it’s as good place to start as any

outside_dub_dually_2 — While not as low as some of the other duallys at SEMA I could appreciate the interior work, I personally love when striping continues into the jambs

outside_dub_forgiatio_2 — Not a huge fan of the wheel faces but the rest of this car is pretty nice

outside_dub_forgiatio_1 — If memory serves the wheels on this were also quite questionable but the colour was nice

outside_dub_magazine — Kompresion Wheels ’37 Ford coupe project

outside_dub_torque_roadster — The Torq Roadster; a weird reverse trike that weighs less than 2000 lbs and has 612 foot pounds of torque

outside_fisker_1 — Wood inserts caught my eye, wonder if this will catch on

outside_dub_slm — Misha Designs widebody SLM, a stand out of the Dub area

outside_dub_mb_sl — SLR adorned with lots of CF

outside_audi_tt — Also wouldn’t mind this

outside_dub_audi_1 — Hofele kitted Audi A8L from Platinum Motorsport

outside_dub_fifteen_52 — Beetle bagged on Fifteen52s

outside_dub_aventador — Aventador on new penny esque finished wheels, HRE had a finish like this on display as well

outside_dub_tahoe_1 — Couldn’t go through the whole DUB section without taking shots of something ridiculous

outside_dub_hummer_2 — Curious how much time is spent on each of these wheels (clearly more time than was spent on headlight fitment)

outside_dub_tahoe_3 — To each their own right?

Random

outside_meguairs_2cv — This insanse 2CV was part of Meguair’s Car Crazy International showcase and was flown in from France

VIP

In 2010 there was a number of stunning VIP builds outside the show and this year was more of the same, don’t readily recall seeing any inside however.

outside_meguairs_lexus — This LS430 from South Korea was also part of the Meguair’s Car Crazy International Showcase

outside_omg_vip_2 — Lyndsey spotted this Lexus

outside_omg_vip — Clearly she was drawn in by the bling

outside_lexus_toyo — Beatiful LS from Platinum VIP

outside_lexus_airrunner_1 — This Junction Produce LS460 was incredibly classy

outside_lexus_airrunner_2 — One of those cars with a lot done to it but all flows together flawlessly

Euro

outside_bmw_wek — E34 from WekSos on 19″ LINEA CORSE 818s

outside_airrex_eclass — This E Class on Works was another AirRex/Stancelab project

outside_beetle — This Beetle was in front of the Juanky Built Dodge, the cleared patina was nice look

panamera_1 — Nice looking Panamera parked out front

panamera_2 — The spoke design on this wheel reminds me a bit of the Luxury Abstract Mador

outside_x5 — One of, if not the lowest, X5s I have ever seen

outside_vw_roti_candy — Had to take another shot of this car, loved the paint under the sun

outside_audi_grinder_1 — GrinderTV’s Audi S4

outside_audi_grinder_2 — ADV-1s over a large BBK

outside_bi_turbo_5 — Twin supercharged M5

outside_bi_turbo_6 — Some searching reveals the specs at 650hp and 500 ftlbs

Imports

outside_scion_iq — Bagged 5 Axis IQ, wonder how much space is left in the hatch…

outside_g_front — Opposite end of the G I posted in part 1

outside_rsx — RSX on one of the many TE variants

outside_infiniti_red — Nice colour on this G35 sedan, also interesting to see one with no door handles to speak of

outside_subaru — Accuair/Forge Wheels STI project

outside_honda_s2000 — S2000 on SSRs that reminds me of a couple in Ontario

outside_datsun_1 — Sun Works once again with the SR20 powered Bluebird I have been posting a lot of on facebook and instagram

Trucks

So many great trucks at SEMA and so little time and card space. I guess it’s to my advantage that most of them are outside which allowed me to take a lot of these photos after we were told to leave the Convention Center.

outside_chevy_c10_1 — Very clean almost factory fresh c10

outside_c10_frame — I totally failed at getting more frame shots this year but it was cool to learn this is slated to go under a C10

outside_chevy_truck — I’m pretty sure I want to own one of these one day

outside_chevy_truck2 — Love the front tire mount for the bike

outside_big_ford — Great looking Pro Streetish F-100

outside_chevy_c10_2_tone_blue_wht — Killer ’67 Beckett Automotive

outside_crazy_nissan — This truck reminds me a lot of one I saw in 2010

outside_big_chev — Big wheel, big truck, big tuck, look is growing on me

outside_truck_1 — 4Runner from No Regrets Truck Club

red_toyota_1 — The owner of this Toyota was kind enough to let me open and close the doors to get shots I wanted

red_toyota_2 — Great interior right down to the custom pedals

outside_gold_chev_1 — These look so good laid out and the knock offs on the wheels were a nice ‘not-so-typical’ touch too

outside_six_shooter_1 — Going to end with this six wheeled This six wheeled Dodge D50 (never seen one before) is known as the “Six Shooter”

outside_six_shooter_3 — Six shooter shifter, lawn chairs for seats, cowhide flooring

outside_six_shooter_2 — This truck actually left under it’s own power which I was surprised to see

Hoping to finish of the inside of the show with the next post then intermix a few more showstoppers in with the rest of the weeks content. 29 gigs worth of photos takes a bit of time to go through.

SEMA Showstopper: Jake’s Genesis

By

DaveT

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Nov 11, 2012

3

When I posted a photo of Jake’s Genesis on the fanpage many of you commented saying it was one of the best Gens currently rolling the streets and that I should go back for a closer look at the motor, interior, and trunk.

I’m not one to argue with my readers so each time I passed the car I made an effort to notice something different and after doing so I would have to agree that it’s one of the nicest Genesis builds I have seen to date.

On the third or fourth visit the car started to look familiar and that’s when I realized I had seen a rendering of the projected final product on the Stance | Works forums a couple weeks prior.

Considering how drastically some cars differ from their initial renderings Jake did a great job of staying true to his vision, especially when it comes down to park height and wheel fitment.

jake_side_1 — Jake’s car is bagged on AirRex suspension and sits on 3 piece Blonix Snowflakes wheels made by ISS Forged

jake_rear_three — The wheels are currently one of one and took home the Felgenoutlet Award for the best wheel and tire combo, which means Jake got this amazing trophy

jake_motor_2 — Nice combination of show and go under the hood

jake_front_end — If all went to plan that is a Garrett GTX 2876 and under that cf is a TurboXS tubular manifold

jake_interior — I liked the subtle use of Dooney & Bourke material in the interior along with the center console treatment

jake_trunk_1 — Fitting in with the rest of the car the trunk has also been done tastefully

jake_trunk_2 — Dual compressors surround a colour matched tank

jake_motor_1 — Intercooler looks great behind the Sarona Hannah bumper

Between Jake’s car the Datsun Bluebird beside it SUN* WORKS killed it at SEMA 2012.

WTF Friday: Hardrock

By

DaveT

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Nov 9, 2012

0

What do you get when you cross a MK1 Volkswagen Caddy, a 91 Toyota Soarer, some metal for a roll cage, two wheel tubs, BC Coils, a hydraulic handbrake, paint, and some Rota Grids?

Evidently a cool little truck that can slide with the best of them.

Built by TEAM HÅRDROCK somewhere in Sweden this VW/Toyota hybrid is exactly the kind of crazy I like to post on Fridays.

Info is a little sparse, and it’s not 100% finished, but all the important bits are where they need to be.

hardrock1 — Unsuspecting Caddy loses it’s front end

hardrock2 — Enter new sheet metal and Rota Grids

hardrock5 — Closer look at some of the strut tower and tub fabrication

hardrock6 — Kind of wish the Taxi sign made it to the final revision

hardrock10 — Looks like it does what it was built for pretty damn well

hardrock11 — If you are wondering about the front fenders…

hardrock12 — …they are a work in progress

Perhaps this car and the RB25DET Passat need to get together.

This build can be found in Swedesish on savartturbo.se.

Site Updates

All orders placed between October 27th and November 2nd have shipped today, sorry for the delay while I was off galavanting in Vegas.

Speaking of Vegas, I’ve still got more SEMA stuff and I might drop a post or two on the weekend just to keep things from dragging out too long.

Flashback Friday

While at SEMA the topic of RX-8s came up which has sent me back looking for a particular one that I have yet to find, I did however find this gem I posted back in 2010 from Victoria BC.

Now if I could only find the one I was looking for…

Event Coverage: Sema 2012 – Part 4.

By

DaveT

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Nov 8, 2012

2

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.

If you have not yet I recommend checking out the build.

kaiser_4 — Pictures do not do this Gene Winfield paint job justice

kaiser_1 — The white continued all the way through the center console and onto the back deck lid

kaiser_3 — It was also carried over onto the steering wheel

Ford

beatnik — Regret not taking more photos of this but at the same time I don’t remember taking this one

gasser_front — Beautiful altered wheelbase Ford Falcon

gasser_motor — Show quality engine bay with a motor that could probably pull a few stumps

ford_crazy_linkage_new_metal_kustoms — This 32 known as the ‘Sylvester II’ has quite the back story behind it which can be read here

ford_crazy_linkage_1 — Hard to see with the all that chrome but that’s a chain operated throttle

ford_crazy_linkage_3 — And if that was not crazy enough chain operated shift linkage too

ford_suncammer_mothers — Riddler award winning 56 Ford Sunliner known as the “Suncammer”

ford_suncammer_suncammer_motor — Original 427 cammer motor under the hood hopped up a wee bit

ford_t_bird_ride_tech — Perhaps the best looking Thunderbird I have seen

ford_t_bird_ride_tech_interior — Super nice interior

ford_t_bird_ride_tech_motor_2 — Easily one of the best looking engine bays at the show in my opinion

ford_t_bird_ride_tech_motor — That’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.

ford_mach_40_1 — The idea was for the car to just be a “little” wider than the standard 69 Mach One

ford_mach_40_3 — The front and rear glass is original ’69

ford_mach_40_2 — Underneath 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.

ecto1_1 — This is admittedly a hell of a lot cleaner than an Ecto-1 would ever be

ecto1_2 — Getting a side profile of this thing was TOUGH it’s huge

Chevrolet

chevy_speed_garage — Speed Garage 49 Chevy

chevy_watering_hole — ’53 in the PPG ‘Watering-hole’

chevy_64_impala — Classic drop top Impala

chevy_impala_el_ray_34 — The ‘El-Rey’ Impala

chevy_impala_el_ray_rear — Insanely detailed everywhere you look

chevy_brookwood — Another look at the Brookwood brought by Accuair

chevy_ss — I only have a engine shot of this SS… must have been the best part

chevy_drag_vette — The owner of this Vette used to own the ‘worlds fastest’ street legal Corvette?

chevy_drag_vette_motor — Wonder if this is the new Worlds fastest…

peach_wag_1 — Despite reminding me of freight train wheels these big steels are starting to grow on me

chevy_turbonetics_nomad_1 — I had no idea the owner of Tapout was into cars

chevy_turbonetics_nomad_2 — Closer look at that LS3

chevy_turbonetics_nomad_3 — Awesome grocery getter

chevy_turbonetics_nomad_4 — Race seating for 4!

chevy_camaro_meguairs — I read somewhere that the first generation Camaro is one of the most popular cars at SEMA every year… I believe it

chevy_cf_camaro — LSX powered with lots of CF

chevy_camaro_never_2_much_1 — Never too much attention to detail

chevy_camaro_never_2_much_2 — I’m never opening my hood again

chevy_loka_rs_1 — Goolsby Customs 69 Camaro

chevy_loka_rs_2 — 500+ hp LS3 surrounded by stamped panels

chevy_camaro_apollo — 68 built by Pratt & Miller Restorations

chevy_camaro_apollo_motor — 760 horse LS9

chevy_camaro_amazing_1 — The ‘Tec 9’ Camaro built by Mitch Henderson Designs was a beautiful car and employed two colours I would have never thought to combine

chevy_camaro_amazing_2 — 2″ 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?

big_bird_2 — Daytona Super Bird kit for the new Challenger

gtno — This GTO I was on the fence about and then the headlight covers opened and…well… angel eyes are best left on BMWS

Couple more SEMA posts yet to come!

SEMA Showstopper: Ranz Motorsports 280SE

By

DaveT

-

Nov 7, 2012

10

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.

mb_show_stopper_3 — The initial eye catcher to this car is the JDM 2JZ swap

mb_show_stopper_2 — A 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 necessary

mb_show_stopper_5 — Like the engine bay the interior is host to borrowed Lexus/Toyota components

mb_show_stopper_4 — An IS250 is the car that lost guts for this interior to live

mb_show_stopper_1 — It 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 fitting

mb_show_stopper_6 — The 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.

Theme Tuesday: SEMA 2012 FR-S/BRZ/86

By

DaveT

-

Nov 6, 2012

6

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.

frs_top_tuner — Like myself the Top Tuner FR-S made the trek from Toronto to Vegas

frs_dc_sports — Can’t remember the last time I saw DC Sports anything but they managed to pull an FR-S together

frs_seibon — Seibon had this one fitted with their hood, fenders, lip, and I believe side skirt extensions

frs_xxr — XXR went a bit overboard with the decals for the one they brought out

frs_bc_racing — BC’s was more restrained

frs_konig — Konig’s was quite nice, understated, and had a kit none of the others had

frs_vortech — Vortech had this one on Rotiforms in their booth, with their new charger of course

frs_roti_1 — The Rotiform / Airlift project that’s been circling the web

frs_roti_2 — Good to see a stock bodied one at the show

frs_orange_1 — This one built by Cartel Customs was a drastic departure from the rest

frs_orange_2 — It was a well done conversion but certainly not for everyone, I credit their creativity however as it stood out

frs_evasive_2 — Track spec wise the Evasive car was one of the better examples

frs_evasive_1 — SpeedHunters 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

frs_orange_rb — Hot Lava Rocket Bunny from Forgestar Wheels

frs_orange_rocket_bunny — This was a popular look for SEMA

frs_fatlace_2 — Fatlace / Rocket Bunny collaboration

frs_fatlace — Of the Fatlace builds present (GTR and this) I prefer this

frs_bgr — This 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.

frs_eneos_3 — I didn’t end up seeing it until the last day as it was somewhat hidden amongst the new products

frs_eneos_2 — It’s extremely aggressive, just look at the size of that wing!

frs_eneos_1 — It’s on an Exotic Air set-up

frs_eneos_4 — and 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.

frs_tan — This was built by John Toca and the only one based around the factory FiveAD kit

frs_orange_rocket_bunny_front — This was the most extreme of the three and dubbed the “FR-S GT” by it’s builders

frs_black_ar_rocket_bunny — It took what the Rocket bunny kit started and went even further

frs_teal_1 — Chris Basselgia’s ‘Minty Fresh’ FR-S ended up being the winner over all

frs_teal_2 — This 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.

Event Coverage: Sema 2012 – Part 3.

By

DaveT

-

Nov 5, 2012

4

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_levin_front — Enkei brought out this absolutely immaculate TE27 Levin

enkei_levin_front_34 — It had CF mini flares and is sitting on their Compe 8 wheels

enkei_levin_rear — I 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 set

dodge_viper_pir — Dig the new Viper redesign, captures everything I liked about the original GTS

chevy_vossener_sc_camaro — Bagged, wrapped, and supercharged Camaro

chevy__square_s10_1 — Didn’t expect to see an early s10 at SEMA

chevy__square_s10_bed — Unique bed setup

bmw_e30_ls_2 — This m3 is 2″ wider than factory but still retains the beautiful lines of the original widebody

bmw_e30_ls_3 — What it doesn’t retain however is the factory s14

bmw_e30_ls — It’s owner Kevin Byrd (host of Two Guys Garage) is obviously no purist

bc_chevy_cruz — BC Racing had this Cruze in their display sitting on their Forged wheels

bc_mazda_rx8 — They also had this track ready RX-8 also on their wheels

audi_dtm_2 — Hankook was lucky enough to have this Audi R8 LMS GT3 in their booth

audi_dtm — Not far from the R8 was this S4 in the Achillles tire booth

subaru_prosport_pas — If I am not mistaken this Subaru was recently on the cover of Performance Auto and Sound

ohlins — Part 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 needs

honda_b16_odyssey2 — This ~~b16(?)~~ h23 swapped Odyssey was almost hidden in the back of the Wheel & Tire building

honda_b16_odyssey — Nice semi tucked bay

honda_b16_odyssey3 — Dropped on Air Runner suspension

forgestar — Forgestar wheels were on everything this year

prior_designs — Prior Designs wide body SL

porsche_bisi_2 — Bisimoto pumped out another Porsche build

porsche_bisi_3 — Not sure whether or not I preffer this colour to his signature blue but I love the turbo

set-up

porsche_bisi_1 — Love how this set-up is just out there in your face

audi_r8_underground — It’s the complete opposite of this Underground racing set-up on this R8 which is usually hidden from view

audi_r8_underground2 — From 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.

giovanna_5 — Giovanna / Misha Designs Panamera

giovanna_4 — FF grills kind of look like the Cheshire Cat…

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.

rotiform_beetle — Prior to SEMA 2012 I wasn’t really on board with these cars but I see lots of potential in the platform now

rotiform_audi — B5 RS4 on upsized RS wheels

rotiform_audi_rs4 — This 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.

accuair_b6_2 — Look 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.