Hypertech was at SEMA talking about their new Max Energy Sport line, which is aimed at the import tuner market, including popular enthusiast models by Honda, Nissan, Infiniti, Subaru, Mazda and Mitsubishi, with more makes and models to be added soon. Besides tuning your engine for increased efficiency, horsepower and torque, the Max Energy Sport Power Programmer allows you to raise or lower your vehicle’s top-speed limiter to match the speed rating of your tires, adjust the maximum engine rpm, read and clear diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs) and remove the electronic throttle restriction. You can keep your Max Energy Sport Power Programmer up to date via the internet, and you can also revert to your stock factory tuning at any time. More info at Hypertech.

The green category seemed a little subdued this year, and there were a lot of cars we’d already seen during previous visits to SEMA. Still, that didn’t stop us from finding some real standouts in the zero-emissions, electric, hybrid, and alt-fuel divisions–showing that green performance is still alive and well. For one thing, there was the Corsa Motorsports hybrid-electric LMP1 car, which will be running a full series in the American Le Mans Series this year. And the Progressive Automotive X Prize contingent was out in force, vying for the $10 million prize in the race to build marketable ultra-fuel efficient cars–we thought the Saba Motors electric roadster was one of the coolest rides in this section. The LPG-powered ‘56 Ford pickup was an absolute knockout with its candy paint, copper-lined engine compartment, and propane-powered 460 big block. That all-electric 1976 Porsche 912 took a more subtle approach to vintage green, looking refined and flawless following its concours-level restoration and EV drivetrain conversion. Then finally there was Factory Five’s new electric hot rod, a total show-stopper that handily lived up to the hype that’s surrounded it in recent months. Vote on your favorite SEMA green car, below!

While I might be using the term sport compact a little loosely here, I thought all these cars were wicked, so I was able justify shoehorning them into this category. Sue me. Anyway, I’m a sucker for an old-school VW, so I loved Paul Newman’s 351-powered Beetle, and I was really impressed with Rhys Millen Racing’s mid-engine Genesis Coupe, the Fiesta—stock, but awesome—in the Ford booth, the ferocious Fiat 500 and the Scion xB that won the Tuner Challenge. Vote for your favorite below!

I’m still coming off my experience at the SEMA show held about a week ago in Las Vegas. I have been tasked with coming up with the five best off road vehicles at the show. Well, a lot of attendees will choose a high riding pickup truck, but they are virtually useless off road because the axles could not articulate enough. Inside the main halls of the show, there were a lot of jeeps and other vehicles that were on display, and it was very difficult to single them out for nomination. On that note, here are my five distinct off road nominations:

- The Awesome Ken Block Subaru WRX Tracked Vehicle
- This Outrageous Viper Powered Sand Buggy
- The Mickey Thompson Rock Crawler with Wildwood Brake System on the axle.
- The ICON CJ3B
- The TAC-V JAMMA

Right before I headed home from the show, I got a chance to talk to Myles Kovacs, the President of DUB, about the cars in his booth and some of the latest trends in the wheel industry. The sun was bright, so shooting the bling was kind of tough, but overall I think this clip came out pretty well. Check it out and let me know what you think. Big shout out to my buddy Max for stitching it all together!

Ah, motorsports–it’s so much more than racing these days. The motorsports contingent is always huge at SEMA, and it’s one of those categories that can literally go from A to Z: there are so many variations on automotive competition that there’s no way you can expect to capture a representative cross-section. That’s okay–it just allows us to focus on what we find cool, with shameless subjectivity. In the interests of inclusiveness, we’ve tried to hit as many of the hottest motorsports series as our five entries will allow. NASCAR is represented by the new Nationwide Series Mustang, running Ford’s all-new Roush Yates FR9. Then there’s the 2010 Camaro’s debut entry in Formula Drift, which will definitely be on our radar in the coming season. Chris Rado’s insane Time Attack Scion carries the torch for that genre. SCCA is represented, albeit in vintage form, by Bob Boileau’s multiple-championship-winning Civic. And the Traxxas short-course race truck rounds out the motorsports fleet for off-road racing. Um, yeah, we totally skipped NHRA. And a bunch of other stuff. Oh well, time to hit the polls!

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.

Continue reading "All Up In Their Booth: Lexus at SEMA 2009" »

If you made it to this year’s SEMA show, then you know there was no shortage of 2010 Chevy Camaros on display. From mild to wild, tuners have embraced the reborn muscle car with great passion. One Camaro in particular caught my attention with its design, performance and build quality. It was no surprise to find out this was the latest creation from Lingenfelter Performance Engineering. Check out the full specs of this 750hp LS7 powered monster. While there, be sure to check out Adam Carolla’s CarCast video with Ken Lingenfelter.

Even discounting the hardware in the Giovanna Wheels booth—which was so dark I couldn’t get decent shots of anything—there were plenty of killer exotics at SEMA this year. As you can imagine, a car has to be pretty special to get attention here, because while a stock Lambo or Ferrari might turn tons of heads on the street, in this sea of insane customization, a machine has to be pretty special to stand out—regardless of its pedigree. All of these machines jumped out at me, but only one of them can win the exotics category. So what should it be, Pagani’s Zonda R, Gumpert’s Apollo, Devon’s GTX, Underground Racing’s twin-turbo Gallardo or Lexus’ LF-A? Vote now!

After completing my first ever SEMA, Rob gave me the assignment to nominate the five best light trucks and SUVs at the show. Are you kidding me? Trying to choose five out of literally dozens of deserving entries is almost beyond comprehension, but I’ll give it a go. So, here is is my list:

- The Cherry Bomb Dodge D-100
- The 1947 Hudson Project
- The Air-Zenith 6 Wheel Topless Mini Truck
- The 1957 Cool Cam Air
- The Pacific Performance Duramax C-10

Cast your vote below!

Continue reading "Best of SEMA: Light Trucks and SUVs" »

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!

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.

Continue reading "All Up in Their Booth: Hyundai at SEMA" »

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?

So it’s time to kick of our Best of SEMA voting, and I thought I’d start with muscle. There were a ton of cool muscle cars at SEMA this year (half of them were Camaros), so it was difficult to narrow it down to just five cars. But here goes. For your consideration, the Mustang RTR-C, the Tjin Edition Camaro, the Super Cuda, the Ring Brothers Fairlane and the Tom Nelson Camaro. Vote for your favorite, and be sure to come back over the next two weeks to vote on vehicles in each of ten categories. We’ll announce the winners shorly after Thanksgiving.

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…

Continue reading "The New NASCAR Mustang at SEMA" »