November 17, 2009
All Up In Their Booth: Lexus at SEMA 2009
By John Coyle
Deputy Editor
Like last year, Lexus’ booth was outside by the proving grounds, and the roar of the Bondurant Corvettes was audible over the tunes the DJ was playing. There was a definite attempt to give the space a club vibe, which was compromised slightly by the fact that the turntables didn’t have heads on them, and the cocktails were actually mocktails, but whatever. There was a grip of customized IS-Cs—including Brian Fox’s hyper-green example—on hand this year, but the red-hot LF-A was the star of the show. The matte black doesn’t photograph particularly well, but in person, it looked sick. The styling in the front is somewhat restrained, which makes the aggressive lines of its hind-quarters look even better. Hit the jump to see more shots of the new supercar, along with the pics of some fresh creations from Brian Fox, David Huang, Gordon Ting, Clark Ishihara and David Rahemi, and TRD.
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November 13, 2009
Lexus LF-Amazing
Antonio Alvendia
As you might imagine, everyone who’s anyone in the automotive industry was at the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas last week. While many pessimists have complained that this year’s show was smaller than any other SEMA in recent years, there were quite a few notable announcements, releases and debuts this year. (And those who did show up to the show were serious about doing business, not just a bunch of useless tire kickers.)
While there was much on the news front in terms of debuts, to be honest, there was nothing that excited me personally more than the new Lexus LF-A. I might be a bit jaded, as I am a Toyota man. My first car was a Toyota, and I’ve owned many many different types of Toyota and Lexus vehicles in my life; I’ve lost count of the actual number, but if you figure that I currently own 6 Toyota/Lexus vehicles, then I’m pretty sure the total number is somewhere around twenty. Yup, TWENTY! So maybe I do have a slight personal slant towards the Lexus brand, but regardless, I think the new LF-A that Lexus debuted at SEMA is nothing short of amazing.
Sure, there are skeptics out there who complain that the LF-A hasn’t yet beat an R35 Nissan GT-R’s record at the Nurburgring. There are also people out there who also say there are a lot of other cars they would rather buy for the LF-A’s hefty $375K price tag. Sure it’s pricey. And yes, maybe the R35 GTR can currently beat it around Nordschleife. However, in my mind, there’s just no denying how outstandingly bad ass the LF-A is. Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens!
November 12, 2009
Best Of SEMA: Hot Rods
By Jen Dunnaway
Editor-at-Large
There were scads of hot rods at SEMA this year, even more so than in the last couple of years, when the modern hot rod scene was really diversifying and gaining traction with mainstream car culture. The range of the rod genre was astounding–we saw everything from ultra-built trailer queens to bare-bones rats with the road dirt still on ‘em. And now, it’s time for you to decide on the best hot rod of SEMA 2009. Our candidates include the Rolling Bones ‘32 Ford, which wins the distance award for driving from New York to Vegas for the show; Piss-Off Pete, an amazing Peterbilt running a twin-supercharged Detroit diesel; the Truckster in the Painless booth, with its hot flat head V8; Bruce Harvey’s supercharged Ratical Model A; and Priapism, the only rod we found at the show that was running two engines. Cast your votes below!
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[polldaddy poll="2244019"]
November 11, 2009
All Up in Their Booth: Hyundai at SEMA
By John Coyle
Deputy Editor
At the Hyundai booth this year, it was about the Genesis Coupe. There was only one Genesis sedan on display, and I liked how there was an artist hand-painting a graphic onto the front and rear fenders. There was also Hyundai’s 2.0T R-Spec version on-hand, which is basically a 2.0T Track without power seats, a sunroof, trick interior lighting, and other creature comforts. It’s 68lbs lighter and $3000 the Track, and while it didn’t exactly pop against the trick offerings from Hennessey, Greddy, and Rhys Millen Racing, it’s cool to see the company offering this package. Of the three tuned offerings on display, the clear standout was Rhys Millen Racing’s mid-engine 480HP V8 version. The engine bay was absolutely sick, and while it and the interior were packed to the gills with carbon fiber bits, the overall effect was almost subtle, and the orange paint looked like six miles deep. Hit the jump to see more pictures from the booth, including walk-around videos of all the cars.
Robby Gordon at SEMA 2009!
By John Coyle
Deputy Editor
There really aren’t many things NASCAR driver Robby Gordon hasn’t raced. At SEMA, Chad from BangShift caught up with him in the Magnaflow booth to talk about cubic inches, high horsepower, his daily drivers and his burly Hummer. Hey guys, how about taking it easy on Nads?
November 10, 2009
The New NASCAR Mustang at SEMA
By Jen Dunnaway
Editor-at-Large
I’ve found it a little funky-looking in some of the renderings and photos that have been circulating, but when I saw it in person in the Ford booth at SEMA, the new Nationwide-Series Mustang just looked plain mean. Plus, this is seriously historic: while Mustang has dominated a ton of other motorsports series, it’s been largely absent from national-level stock car racing, so its entry into NASCAR is a pretty big deal. And moreover, the rear sheetmetal, even though it’s a NASCAR-mandated template, looks better than the factory Mustang’s 2010 back end. The Nationwide Mustang will be running the new Roush Yates FR9, an all-new beast and a complete departure from the 351-based motor that Ford’s been running in NASCAR since ‘91. More pics…
Corsa Motorsports' Hybrid Le Mans Car At SEMA
By Jen Dunnaway
Editor-at-Large
This hybrid-electric LMP1 ran a partial season last year, even scoring a third-place finish on the first run of its fully-enabled hybrid drivetrain at Lime Rock. For 2010, Utah-based Corsa Motorsports is hoping to have the last of the bugs worked out and to put its green race car on the track for the full American Le Mans Series season. Built by Ginetta-Zytek, the car is running both a 4.o L V8 and a 45 kW electric motor. It uses a kinetic energy recovery system that stores braking energy in a large lithium-ion battery pack located under the cockpit. It was pretty cool to see it at SEMA, this car that’s likely going to make history next year and that’s on the crest of the movement toward cleaner racing. See more pics below the jump.
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Neil's Camaro
By Rob Einaudi
Editor-in-Chief
Are you sick of SEMA yet? I just realized I never blogged Neil’s Camaro, which won the 2009 SEMA Design Award for Best GM Vehicle. Well, here are the pics I snapped of the car on Tuesday. More pics after the jump, and you can get more details on this car on Neil’s ride page!
Propane Powered 1956 Ford F-100 Pickup by Steve's Hot Rod Shop at SEMA!
By Jim Brennan
UDMan
This little number was residing over at the “Green Car” display area, in which the Ugly Prius, and the Electric Porsche 912 was also on display. So you are wondering, why is a tricked out 1956 Ford Pickup hanging around with electric and hybrid vehicles? Two Words; Liquid Propane. Read more after the jump!
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November 9, 2009
200+ SEMA Videos at StreetFire.net!
By Rob Einaudi
Editor-in-Chief
In case you missed it, we uploaded over 200 SEMA videos over at StreetFire.net! These are mostly quick walk-around videos shot with small hand-held cameras. We’ll be posting more produced video from SEMA in the coming weeks. Here’s one I shot in the DUB booth while they were setting up on Monday.
