Ouch. Today was the first Press Day so expectations were high. And did they hit the mark? ……Welcome, to the MORGUE.

Okay, maybe a morgue is a bit extreme, but there were some serious things missing. Namely, NISSAN. And with the Leaf coming soon, you have to ask… “WUT UP, NISSAN DOODS?” Now, I did get my fair share of automotive fixations, but I was left a little… dead. Ok, another mortality reference. Wups.

Follow the jump to see the COMPLETE highlights of the show. Not many, but some cool stuff. I decided to make it easy for y’all to understand how I felt about each one. I call it the “SHOCKSWEETSNORESUCK.” That’s the long version. Let’s just call it the “SHNUCK.” The LA Shnuck Show. Yea, I like it….

And here we go Shnucksters!!!

In the world of blogs it seems like everyone takes content from everyone else. Although I try to keep a relatively high percentage of original content here, I’m not too concerned with attempting to be above everyone else…and sometimes I feel the nessesity to “borrow” content when I feel its appropriate. This is one of those times…

I stole this idea from here  who stole it from the OG source Modena Photo found here. All credit is due to the man above from Australia who happens to have some really amazing pictures he’s taken on his Flickr account.

Of all of his photos, this TA22 Celica built by the mysterious “Fonzie” is what caught my eye. This classic Celica is a perfect mix of old school JDM tuning with Bosozoku elements of style. Seeing an exposed oil cooler and hoses out the front of the car always gives me a smile. When I was first learning about JDM tuning in the mid 1990s seeing cars like this always shocked me with their rawness and gangster attitude. It takes a certain kind of swagger to rock a car like this right.

Continue reading after the jump!

Although in the past 15 years of the hobby I’ve become more routinely accustomed to the other JDM things I’ve loved (like time attack cars for example), old school gangstered out tuning like this never did quite catch on with the mainstream. As a result, the same feeling that I had about cars like this from back in the day, remain fresh and undiluted to me today…that is a rarity in today’s information age in which millions of blogs gradually replace thousands magazines to crowd our overstimulated brains with overdoses of whatever drug we choose to feed it.

Its cars like this that for better or for worse have not become so played out and copied upon that they have become ordinary. The mystique is still there…at least for me.

Wow. That’s all I have to say about this recall. Over four million Toyota and Lexus vehicles need to return to the local motherships for the accelerator pedal problem. Dealers are being told to cut the pedal so that it can’t interfere with the floor mat, which should have already been removed or restrained (with a ziptie) by now. Please, please, please go to your dealer and have this work done – the last thing any of us here at CarDomain want to hear is that a sweet ride like DumpedCorolla’s ended up in a wall. Toyota remains mum on the idea that there could be a serious software fault contributing to the problem. A full list of cars in the recall after the jump.

• 2007 to 2010 model year Camry

• 2005 to 2010 Avalon

• 2004 to 2009 Prius

• 2005 to 2010 Tacoma

• 2007 to 2010 Tundra

• 2007 to 2010 Lexus ES 350

• 2006 to 2010 Lexus IS 250

• 2006 to 2010 Lexus IS 350

Toyota’s efforts in Formula 1 may have ended, but the final run of their F1 cars sure didn’t hold up the rest of the action during the Toyota Motorsports Festival. Joining the race versions of the LFA, Toyota had a nice surprise for everyone, in the form of a production version of the LF-A, sporting a rather catching shade of matte black. Next to the race cars it sounded much quieter and refined, but it didn’t look any slower when it shot past the main straight.  Continue reading at Speedhunters.

—By Dino Dalle Carbonare

Fuji Speedway is the place to be this time of the year as two of the biggest events of the calendar are hosted at the international circuit. I am of course talking about the Toyota Motorsports Festival and the Nismo Festival, which this year are held within two weeks of each other. This past weekend was Toyota’s turn, which managed to attract a pretty impressive 28,000 people to the freezing race track in order to celebrate the past year’s achievements in motorsport. Continue reading over at Speedhunters.

—By Dino Dalle Carbonare

On my way up to the Drift Matsuri on Friday I stopped over at Nikko circuit as I heard there was a drift track-day going on, organized in collaboration with T&E. I’m so glad I did take the little detour as I got to see some fantastic cars, total grassroots stuff being driven hard around the track. One car that grabbed my attention was this unmolested GX71 Cresta Super Lucent slammed onto some sexy vintage JDM wheels. The whole body has been left stock, the 80’s looks enough to make this this boxy Toyota sedan beyond cool. Even the emblems were still intact on the trunk lid! Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Dino Dalle Carbonare

Who says E85 has to be slow? E85 ethanol gasoline blend is actually better for forced induction performance because it lowers the risk of detonation. Alternative fuel does not indicate the end of the performance world! Read more about the Titan Motorsports 800 whp Toyota Supra running E85 at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

I have been having a real hard time trying to identify the JDM Minivan that has been displayed in the DUB Booth since Monday. I have asked the (real) booth professionals with no luck. I left a phone message with the Air Runner Systems distributor in Anaheim to no avail. I even threw out the question to other Bloggers here at SEMA. So now its time to throw out the question to our readers. Identify this wild custom JDM van, and win some CarDomain Swag. Read more after the Jump!

This car is the very definition of SEMA. It has the aforementioned Air Runner suspension system, over-sized wheel and tire package, and a couple of unique features. Notice the finish; This thing has every body panel covered in red vinyl, grained like the vinyl roofs offered during the 70’s. Instead of vinyl graphics proclaiming who’s products lie within the car, it is actually embroidered on the vinyl. And what is with those red headlamps?

Here’s what you do. Post a comment below, not more than three comments from each member. By the time I get back to Connecticut, I will know what it is, so you won’t get away with wild ass guesses.

Clambering over mounds of insane car nuts, I scampered for the doors to SEMA. Elbow clocking, crotch kicking, upper cut chucking. It was a nasty scene. BUT, I managed to get in with only a broken collar bone and a head gash. Only 4 inches long right through the left eye. But don’t worry. I’m ok.

And what did my good eye perceive? … Camaros. Ug. So, while everyone’s posting Camaros, I’ll post other stuff. Like this! My hotel.

Oh, and other things. Things like AWESOME DRAGTRACKS from my buddies at… well, Dragtracks. A super cool “green ride” from Local Motors, wild sculpted tranny covers from Zingology, an ECOMUSCLE Challenger from our friends at Popular Mechanics! Yes, an electric Challenger. THEN… a sick beast from some boys in Vancouver, Future Vehicle Technologies, who are gonna lay the smackdown for the X-Prize…eh, and great passionate people like Jack Lawford from HotRod HotLine.

What a frikkin’ cool day! PLUS… SEMA BABES. Not in this post, folks. But RIGHT AFTER. They get their own lil’ section, and since there aren’t many, soak it up.

Note to Car Domain: If you keep sending gorgeous girls like the one in your booth to shows, we’re all going to have to take more cold showers…. Onward!

Best New Product: Actually, this cool lil’ scanner scans the products you want info on. But it was cooler than all the products. Hm. Kinda says a lot about what was new… don’t it.

Well, day two is off and running here at SEMA, so I thought it would be a great time to show how Toyota set up their booth for SEMA. First of all, there were a few manufacturers that skipped SEMA this year, so floor space opened up. The Toyota Booth was large, almost as large as their space at the major auto shows. They also had some cool custom trucks, and some very curious cars.

The trucks include a very retro Tundra short bed standard cab, with a matte finish black and retro flame paint job, Moon Discs, and Fender speakers in the bed. The other Tundra is equipped with tooled silver, a BBQ Grill at the back of the bed, and a tooled leather bed cover. Check out the silver trim around the door handles.

One of the most anticipated customs is the Halo 3 inspired Toyota Tacoma. This thing is off the hook, and includes 4 video screens in the cab, movable seating, and a huge LCD Monitor at the back. There are 4 XBox consoles in the bed of the truck, mountain bikes on the roof, and a paint job that will get noticed.

The cars are very curious, and include a Camry that runs on Compressed Natural Gas, a modified Prius with a few Aero enhancements, and a Yaris, aptly named “Hard Candy”. Quite frankly, I find nothing particularly sweet about the Yaris.

Take a look at the walk around videos, and see if you agree with me.