Quite possibly the best limo EVER... if it doesn't break in halfHonestly I'm as impressed as I am appalledDude I have the best idea ever... lets make a Facebook car...Giggidy
Site Updates
Not much to tell you guys about site wise. I should be finishing up my SEMA coverage early next week, I’ve got a couple showstoppers left, one of which I am really surprised hasn’t popped up anywhere else yet, and
once that is all wrapped up I’ll have to find a new way to fill the rest of the winter.
However I am not too worried as I have lots of ideas written on a napkin somewhere.
In other news as some of you know I ride BMX and last night I laid the ground work for a trick that I have wanted to do for years.
I’m pretty stoked on it even though I have a lot more to do (consistency wise) before I take it to a real ramp:
Sitting practically in a corner away from a lot of the hustle & bustle this Scion Xb might have been easy to miss if it wasn’t for the super white, almost glowing, paint and the very wide 17×10.5 and 17x 11.5 BBS RS wheels with teal centers.
When the shine off one of these lips blinded at a distance my blurred vision fooled me into thinking I was looking at Heyyy Mikey’s Xb but as I got closer I realized that this was an entirely different build.
Even though I am not a Scion aficionado and I couldn’t see a spec sheet this car was worthy of several photos on stance alone, so I snapped some pics and decided to figure out the rest of the information later.
Both the fenders and lips were very very clean for the height and clearenceNo tuck, just fender lip on rimThe only thing I would change is where the rear flare terminatesLips for days
Alright, bare with me guys and girls, I know a lot of these cars don’t really have the best stance and are just expensive cars with stock suspension and fancy wheels, however I felt if I didn’t share this booth with you I would be skipping out an interesting part of the SEMA experience.
And since I am doing my best to share as much of SEMA with you as I can I present the Giovanna Wheels 2010 SEMA booth.
The Carpet
The first thing I noticed when I stepped into the booth was the plush carpeting. Most of the booths at SEMA had carpet but a lot of it was pretty firm and most certainly not white.
Giovanna though, they decided to go all out and get white carpet AND hire someone to clean it as the day went on. Ballin?
Poor guy, I can't imagine how often he had to do this
The Trucks
The next thing to catch my eye, being a mini truck fan, were these two heavily modified full size trucks which both happened to be blue.
Topless, indecent exposure.Bed full of goodiesNo shortage of TV's in this truck, more than I have ever ownedThose look like the seats in rusty...
Go DJ…
To the right of the mini trucks was a DJ who was spinning at the booth the entire time I was there. He played a good mix of mainstream rap which actually fit the theme of the booth quite well.
Deep concentration
The Luxury rides
Then there was Giovanna’s cream of the crop. A collection of very expensive cars I could never afford sitting on rims that probably weigh in near a metric ton.
Some cars you drive, some cars you get driven inAston-MartinDat ass #179?SLS Amg rockin' Giovanna wheelsWhoops how did a Camaro find its way into this booth? Who's checking the door?A 458 ItaliaWhich looks pretty good on those wheelsThis Panemara was fairly tasteful as wellDo it look good? Do it ride good?Lambo Supraleggra20They had lots of model signings and what not
The Pimp
As we were making our way through the booth looking at all of the stuff we could never afford a pimp walked in.
He wasn’t affiliated with the booth in anyway that I could tell it just seems he was walking around the entire show dressed as such.
Dude was lovin itMink, gator shoes, cane, money rag
Whether or not he was an active pimp I’ll never know…
Outside of the Las Vegas convention center SEMA was held at Meguiar’s put on a little something they called the Car Crazy Show case. It was a collection of mostly muscle, classic, and hot rodded vehicles and was really quite interesting.
I spent a lot of time in this area and this batch of coverage contains most of the shots from there. Thinking back I know there are a few I missed so those will show up in the rest of my outdoor coverage.
Bigfoot 3 window
This three window coupe was really interesting. I’ve seen these cars done a variety of ways but never anything quite like this.
Bigfoot, Sasquatch, whatever you call it where you are from, and whatever you want to call it this car if nothing else was very unique.
Yes that's a hand grabbing the headlight with a finger as the signalGotta keep him chained upAs he is waiting to get outThe follow through on this idea is nothing short of amazing.Big foot.Bigfoot Fiedl Researchers Organization. How bout that.
And outside of the forest…
Now that we have found Bigfoot lets take a look at some of the other rides
This charger was one of the newest cars in the showcaseThis Chevelle had some of the largest wheels I have seen on a ChevelleO_o - That's niceSo nice I had to shoot it twiceOptima's Code Red CamaroVery cleanI swear I built a Revelle-Monogram kit of this exact carBad pic, sick carGuys worked these blocks of wood all day to insure no car got damaged rolling upJon Sibal's ChargerSpectre Mustang looking properThe Streetnik Bandit built from all sorts of random partsCan anyone spot the Fiat parts?The best Maverick I have ever seenRaw.So, so, much win, though I dunno what it is?This is great body workAnd this is a beautiful, kinda bird looking, engine bay
Mythbusters
I wasn’t going to post this today but then I realized (should look at calendars more) that this episode airs tonight 9pm so no time like the present right?
The myth is whether or not the Porsche 928 is more aerodynamic backwards than it is forwards and apparently the best way to test this is spin the inner workings of one around underneath the body and stitch it all back together.
So they did.
I originally approved from this angle and thought 'rear steer?'But then I saw the tailpipe in front and was confusedSo I looked inside and saw this which was perplexingand then this and it made more senseCan't wait to see what happens
I have hockey at 10:30 today so I am not sure if I will be able to watch all of this episode but my money is on that it’s not better but might be close.
Feel free to rub it in my face if I am wrong tomorrow!
The last few SEMA Showstoppers I’ve posted have been fairly involved, very custom builds that don’t really represent what most people do in their own garage, so today I decided to post something a little more reasonable built buy the guys and gals over at Holley Performance.
This C-10 is the type of resto-mod you could see someone do to the truck they rode in as a child with their mother or father, and that’s probably why I like it so much.
Holley kept things relatively simple on the exterior by painting it (what I think) is a factory color and letting the custom Indy roadster inspired wheels and lowered stance (Classic Performance Parts Suspension) do all of the talking.
I think a lot of people overlooked this truck due to how simple it is
Under the hood (and to the frame) is where most of the improvements have been made as the factory power plant has been replaced with a hot cammed LS3 and Tremec T56 Transmission.
Holley engine mounts and cross member make it all fit while the Holley HP EFI harness makes it all run.
This truck just keeps things simple and looks great doing it, enjoy the rest of the pictures:
LS3 has tons of room in thereIf your wondering there are 13" Baer brakes behind those wheels to keep things under controlLove the look of the C-10 front endThe bed was beautiful and you couldn't tell the tubs were widenedThe vintage styled logos finish the look
So I was doing some thinking when working on this post: If each post had a minimum 30 pictures, and this is part 5 then that means that at the end of this post (not including the showstoppers) I will have posted at least 150 pictures from the 2010 SEMA show, damn.
I’m not even all that close to being finished, I am however done with the inside of the show after this post (more or less :P)
4×4’s
If I lived near the desert I could see having a 4×4 to blast around the dunes.
I'm kidding of course this thing is uselessCheck out the dude in the back, the wheel gap is about half his body sizeI love watching these race
Boom Crafts Celsior
These guys were all the way from Japan and while their was a little bit of a language barrier we still managed to talk shop for a bit. Crazy build…
The vinyl work took 2 guys two days to completeWhile he couldn't quite say how much went into the car itselfIt certainly made an impressionI didn't hear it playing though I really wanted too
Rods, Customs, and Classics
Some of the more contemporary wheels I have seen on a roadster, thoughts?So many nice rods at SEMAI saw this Torino and had to shoot it, it was out of my control.
Continental Tire
I didn’t realize until last night, while editing, that the Continental Tire booth actually had quite a few nice rides in their booth. I also got a lanyard from them, thanks guys!
If it was me behind the wheel 0-dead in 2 seconds?Dig the vinyl, luke warm on the wheelsThis wide body Benz was impressiveAs was this Bentley
1957 Ford Thunderbird
This has to be the most modified Ford Thunderbird I have ever seen. I looked all over the place for a spec sheet but I was unable to find one.
Big old supercharged Ford Power PlantThe flames were very traditionally done but clash with the blue a tadLots of dish out backThe chute and wheelie bar make me wonder how often it sees the strip
On The Carpet
This category will make sense once you scroll down, but really it’s a catch all.
This car had a hell of a lot of CFAnother dumped CamaroWhat you don't see is the sun burn the guy in the back got after looking at this carBMW in full track trimThis looks like a Jada 'Dub' ToyBig wheels for big archesThe first GTM kit I have seen in person, it was beside the Thunderbird aboveCar was seriousThis Infiniti had a nice stanceAnother PanameraInteresting looking Supra at the XXR boothI don't know if I have seen XXR's this wide before
Feature Cars
I heard owner of one of the cars in this area complaining about how he had been promised a better spot not one in the back of a hall.
He was really mad and I didn’t really get it, your car was in SEMA man relax that’ an accomplishment in itself.
This Trail Blazer was known as the HurricaneIt was on huge wheels with an interesting wide bodyThe specs of those rear tires is 405/25/R24I'm not even sure if it was lowered, truthfullyInteresting homage to the IntimidatorMay he rest in peaceClean wrx repping wheeldude.com and AWFilmsLove my bagged trucksVF Engineering fighter JetSome booth had an older lady making the best smelling cookies ever, I took this shot to torture myself later clearly
I’ll have more coverage tomorrow, shots of the Meguair’s Car Crazy setup that was outdoors, a showstopper, and perhaps the only booth at the show with it’s own pimp!
The last girls with Hot Rides Theme Tuesday here was nearly all cars found on various blogs and message boards on the net.
This time around in addition to perusing the forums I decided to poll some of my female readers for submissions on facebook and twitter.
As it turns out I have quite a few female readers with clean cars ranging from lowered to slammed, and naturally aspirated to boosted.
Web Finds
To start things off here are some of the female web finds first:
Armanda’s Focus
Armanda is a Stance Works forum member who drives what’s probably one of the best looking North American Focuses out, male or female owned.
It’s clean and low with some stretch and poke, she knows what’s up.
and great as it passes youLooks great as it comes up behind you
The Bitch Basket
The Bitch Basket is the name given to this VW which a SW member built with/for his his wife.
Unfortunately due to a bit of poor driving by another party it has been destroyed, thankfully however it’s occupants were all relatively unharmed.
These wheels were actually vinyl wrappedI know a lot of guys who would rock thisSome women think pink is cliche but it works wellBummer.
Susannah
Susannah is pretty well known among the Stance crowd for both her cars and her photography. She was actually in the previous girls with hot rides Theme Tuesday and will probably be in the next one as well.
The easiest way to tell one of her rides is by it’s low height, and wide pink RS’s.
This e46 cab is her newest, should look different next yearAnother shot of her cab by Deathlens (flickr.com/deathlens)Her golf in it's new color at Stretch & Poke 3
Readers Rides
Here are the rides submitted by you all the readers
Natasha’s Teg
Natasha is a GTA local who’s car I’ve seen around at some meets and shows and her friend Stev is actually the one who sent in these pictures.
Natasha built this car herself and as it currently sits its running 6 pounds of boost thanks to a supercharger.
The color reminds me of BMW's techno violetWhen done right the USDM front end looks great
Crystal’s Mazda3
Crystal is another local and a bit of a personal success story, after months of convincing her to lower her car and that she would love it after she took my advice and took the plunge.
It looks great as a result and thankfully for me she is completely happy with the ride because otherwise she probably would have kicked my ass.
Those green calipers are such a unique touchHer front end is a dead ringer for mine
Deana’s Cabriolet
Deanna is a facebook fan who’s off to a great start with her cab. She says she wants to go lower and if I am correct and that is a wheel-whores.com sticker on her windshield I am pretty sure this car has quite a few wheels to wear before it’s time is done.
Deanna following the keep it simple rule
Anna’s CRX
Anna, one of the main driving forces behind Sweetie Girl Racing, has a few vehicles but the one she is probably best known for is her CRX which she often puts to task at the track.
Don’t be surprised if you spot her driving other cars however ( like say stunt cars in movies for example).
Anna at CSCSAnna's track rat at rest
Elizabeth’s Golf
Elizabeth, another FB fan, is from Chicago and has a clean boosted and shaved Golf.
It looks like she took the time to find a good body man to do the shave as well because it looks smooth as glass.
Wonder what it runs
Sarah’s Golf
Sarah is no stranger to the site, she has been posted in the past few readers rides and always seems to have an endless supply of photos as she was the first to email me with pictures of her car.
Single rounds FTWOne day it would be cool to check out how it's done out there
Anjie
Anjie is a twitter follower (@WordxLove) who I didn’t know rolled so hard up until yesterday when she sent in her pics.
This car is clean as hell and I know a few Civic drivers who could learn a thing or two based on how this car is put together.
I love when people do things like this: Canadian Rally driver, Crazy Leo , is offering up a chance to win one of two rides at the Rally of The Tall Pines in Bancroft Ontario.
The route will be an actual stage of the rally and take about 90 or so seconds, in those 90 seconds you will go through a serious of blind turns and one big jump in a 500hp WRX.
The drive will happen Friday November 19th and winners will be announced November 16th and 17th.
Which means that if you bid today you could win tomorrow! (sorry for the late notice)
All of the proceeds will go to the ‘Bancroft Sled Dog Races‘ which promotes sports, physical fitness and healthy lifestyles for local Ontario kids.
Crazy Leo getting crazy
To enter just bid on one of the following two auctions and cross your fingers you are the winner:
I’ll be honest with all of you, when I first saw this car I didn’t see a Honda Civic. I saw a set of beautiful (and big) 19×10 and 19×13 HRE wheels sitting beneath something that was yellowish.
Once I was able to take my eyes off the wheels I noticed that they were attached to what was perhaps the most modified EG hatch I had ever seen, as Gwen Stefani would say that sh!t was B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
This car is exactly the type of thing I expected to see at SEMA, over the top well built cars that pushed the borders of whatever platform they were built on.
From the custom Candy Yellow covered wide body to the clean black suede double stitched interior every bit of this car has been modified.
The lengthy spec sheet
This car dances on the line of ‘too much and just enough’ and the decision on where exactylu it falls is really up to the person looking at it.
Regardless the above is a custom car with, Mugen, Seibon, Willwood, Backyard Special and Stack parts, not to mention the Acura RSX type-s K-20 motor sitting in the shaved engine bay beside a SC372 turbo, and of course the aforementioned huge HRE’s.
Giant HRE's that would have been tough to fit on any car let alone this hatchOn paper purple, yellow, and teal sounds questionable but in reality it worksNot sure what happened but that Aerocatch latch wasn't broken when I first saw this carGot ass?
Most of SEMA coverage part 4 was from the Wheel & Tire hall of the SEMA show. Looking through the photos for that batch I noticed I had amassed a decent amount of wheel shots from the various exhibitors at the show.
Instead of working these photos in with a set of normal event coverage I figured these shots would make a great weekend post and so, here is the ‘2010 SEMA Wheel Gallery’.
The designs of the wheels in this wheel gallery range from luxury ‘bling’ to OEM/replica along with a few revised classics.
While we didn’t hit all of the booths but we did hit quite a few.
Replica/OEM reproductions
Everyone rags on Rota for making replica’s of wheels produced by other aftermarket manufacturers but what is the general vibe on brands that make OEM replicas?
Are those ‘fakes’ too? Should the people who run them face the same ridicule as those who run Rotas? Should anyone face ridicule? This argument goes round and round, that’s why I stay out of it.
Rota's 2010/2011 line upIf Rota's fit your budget, do youI wanted those up sized IROC replica's really bad when I had my BlazerSRT 10 replica wheels in quite a few different sizes and finishes
II Craze
Before SEMA I had never heard of II Crave wheels which sort of makes sense as they seem to be more of a luxury brand. They did have those cute models though.
I could easily see these wheels in a rap video or somethingTime attack look meets luxury
Tenzo R
A lot of Mazda 3 guys rock Tenzo R wheels due to their affordability and appealing designs.
Check out that ladies shirt!New for 2010/11
Status Wheels
Another luxury brand for the shot callers among us…
I challenge someone to rock those single spokes and have them look good...I wonder how many 24x9 wheels manufacturers really sell
I follow the guys at Enkei on twitter so I made a point to check out their booth and see what they were up to.
It was cool to see the beginnings of their booth on the web and the finished product in person.
Enkei's got their wheels in a variety of different colors this yearEnkei is not really known for their chrome wheels but they have soneTheir version of the time attack styleThat black RPF-1 was calling out to meLooking forward to seeing where these re released J-Speeds end up
Randoms
Assorted brands and designs from throughout the Wheel and Tire hall.
Big wheel, is big.I know about Alex rims more in the BMX sense, so it was cool to see their automotive offeringsTi lips are tough to pull offI am actually not sure if this was a legit Torque ThrustThese wheels by Anella kind of remind me of wheels by RTXBig dish on these wheels by DolceThe black/red stripe time attack look was popular amongst a few brands including Dynamic AlloysIon alloys did car, suv and light truck wheelsSome offerings from SSWVossen brought quite a few of their deep dish wheels out
Starting to see the end of the SEMA photo tunnel since I have spent a lot of today going through photos, still a lot of good stuff to post up and I’ll have another show stopper tomorrow.
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