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The AutoGuide News Blog is your source for breaking stories from the auto industry. Delivering news immediately, the AutoGuide Blog is constantly updated with the latest information, photos and video from manufacturers, auto shows, the aftermarket and professional racing.
For the past two years, SEMA has worked with the U.S. Senate to designate a day as “Collector Car Appreciation Day”, and this year it will fall on July 13.
This year’s SEMA Show is distant on the calendar, but it’s never too early for builders to release sneak previews of what they’re working on.
Swedish car designer Bo Zolland will be putting his spin on a classic 1968 Chevrolet Camaro for this year’s show, and judging by the pictures, it’s going to be a real winner.
Zolland, who recently renamed his firm from Vizualtech to Zolland Design AB, is previously known for his Jaguar E-Type Growler Concept, that is heading off to limited production as the Lyonheart K. But unlike the classy, clean bodylines we see in the Jaguar concept, this Camaro is all-American mean muscle.
Clearly the custom Camaro will sport a nice widebody with a sleek coat of black paint. It appears that the doors were cut down to lower the beltline; which is contrary to what we see with conventional hot-rod builders that tend to chop the roof of their cars. Nonetheless, from what little we see of this Camaro, it’s already looking great.
Under the hood will be a LS3 V8, supercharged of course, while the factory brakes and suspension have been swapped out for some more modern counterparts. We can’t wait to see this creation in person this year in Las Vegas.
[Source: Motor Authority]
SEMA is a long way off, but this could help you curb your anxiety until November. Creations n’ Chrome has teamed up with Gurnade Design Firm to show off this detailed renderingof their upcoming Ford Mustang project to debut at the 2012 SEMA Show.
Creations n’ Chrome built numerous Mustangs for SEMA and Ford as recently as 2010 and 2011. Last year, they also built the unique Blue Angels Ford Mustang that claimed $400,000 at a charity auction. This year, however, it seems that they are after a retro look. Given how big of a hit the 1993 Cobra R was at the Chicago Auto Show earlier this year, this project should have quite the crowd around it.
The one-of-a-kind Mustang will be in the Spectra Chrome booth at this year’s SEMA Show, packing the new HRE Vintage Series wheels and “something special and supercharged” under the hood. We’re guessing we’ll be seeing some new-age Ford powerplant running this classic Fox Body Mustang.
How would you like to help design Nissan‘s next Z car? You can do just that – using Facebook – as Nissan announces Project 370Z.
Putting Z enthusiasts in the driver’s seat of design, Nissan launched this initiative as a chance to showcase how many options are available in this car. Using a 2013 370Z as a base, this car will be built in several different stages – power, handling/brakes and interior and exterior. To put in your two cents about each section, post your thoughts on Nissan’s Performance Facebook fan page with wall posts, likes and comments. These responses will be reviewed each voting session, and the upgrades and accessories with the most fan support will be picked for that particular phase.
“Car companies build project vehicles all the time, but we thought it’d be interesting to harness the power of social media to reach out to Z enthusiasts – the people who are doing this to their own cars everyday,” said Jon Brancheau, vice president, Nissan Marketing, NNA. “Together we’ll create a vehicle that expands on the already outstanding performance and style of the Nissan 370Z with a balance of street and track ready modifications.”
The final result will be making its grand debut in a grand setting this May during ZDayZ – in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. If you can’t make it to that momentous day, not to worry – the Project 370Z will be making an appearance at other Nissan events, such as ZCON 2012 and SEMA.
Check out a short video about Project 370Z after the jump.
Honda is moving ahead with plans to deliver a higher performance version of the CR-Z. In fact, according to a report by Temple of Vtec, CR-Z project leader Norio Tomobe-san has confirmed the car is already in development.
The first rumors of a CR-Z “Type R” came from Honda itself, with the release of the CR-Z Hybrid R concept at least year’s SEMA Show, delivering 200-hp thanks to a turbocharged version of the standard engine. Fast forward 12 months and Honda once again had something to show at SEMA, this time a supercharged version of the factory 1.5-liter 4-cylinder Integrated Motor Assist hybrid engine. Honda PR reps have also hinted to AutoGuide that this supercharged version is the more likely path.
GALLERY: Honda CR-Z Hybrid R Concept
[Source: vtec.net]
Yakima debuted their new WHISPBAR roof rack system at the 2011 SEMA Show last week, and AutoGuide got an exclusive look at their new portable wind tunnel, which Yakima brought along to SEMA to showcase the reduction in wind noise that their new WHISPBAR can bring.
AutoGuide got a demo of the wind tunnel itself and we had the chance to take some video as well. Check it out after the jump.
10. Five Axis Project GS
Ever since Lexus first began participating at the SEMA Show the team from Five Axis has been around. Showing just what’s possible when you’re not constrained by styling that must appeal to all types or by volume manufacturing, creative boss Troy Sumitomo has been crafting wild one-offs for years. Initially some rather wild tuner-style cars, more recently the design house seems to have developed its own identity, showcased most recently in the “Project GS” concept based on the all-new 2013 Lexus GS. With an extra wide body, massive 20-inch wheels and a low-low stance, this unique interpretation of the new GS is easily the best reason yet why Toyota should hire Sumitomo.
GALLERY: Five Axis Project GS
For many show-goers, SEMA isn’t just about cars. If that includes you, then we’re sure you’ll enjoy our gallery of show models. Static shots not your thing? Then we’ve also included a video walk-through of the show.
GALLERY: SEMA Show Models
Watch the video after the jump:
It wouldn’t be the SEMA Show without plenty of lifted pickups and this year’s aftermarket expo did not disappoint. In addition, several extra-custom creations were on display from the likes of Ford, Chevy, Ram and Toyota. Of note was Ford’s Matchbox styled F-350 brush truck; Ram’s 392 Quick Silver and a selection of Toyota Tacoma and Tundra pickups.
Check out the gallery of well-over 100 photos below.
GALLERY: Trucks of the 2011 SEMA Show
Plus, check out AutoGuide’s complete 2011 SEMA Show coverage here.
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Another SEMA Show has come and gone and we’ve got the videos to prove it. From modified Civics, to Ferraris and everything in between. And let’s not forget the models.
Watch all of AutoGuide’s 2011 SEMA Show Videos after the jump and check out the complete coverage here:
To say that Ford put a focus on the Focus would be an understatement at this year’s SEMA Show. Nine different, fully customized Focuses were shown off in the Ford booth, with several of them part of a spectator voting competition. Projects ranged from mild to wild, with a plethora of colors being splashed on each creation.
Our personal favorite of the bunch was the Focus by the ID Agency, sporting a custom BASF green paint job with a Wraptivo roof wrap. Ford also leant a helping hand with their official Ford Licensed Accessories bike rack by Thule, adding to the versatility of the new Focus SE 5-Door. The Downforce carbon fiber lip kit was a nice and subtle touch, while we just loved the choice of bolting on 19×8.5-inch HRE Performance C90 wheels. Under the hood, the ID Agency outfitted the 2.0L Ti-VCT four-cylinder with an AEM cold air intake and MagnaFlow cat-back exhaust. A Brembo big brake kit was paired with KW Variant 3 coilovers to give this Focus plenty of braking and handling improvements – not to mention how great it looks. On the inside, Recaro Sportster seats can be found along with custom interior by Top Stitch and a Kicker car audio system by BP Auto Sound.
With so many Focuses to focus on, we decided to make a life easier to taking a photo of each of the information plaques by each car. Feast your eyes on the creations from Bojix Design, ID Agency, 3dCarbon, Capaldi Racing, ROUSH Performance, Steeda, Hot Wheels, Metal Mulish/Rockstar, and M&J Enterprises and let Autoguide know which was your favorite.
GALLERY: Bojix Design Ford Focus
GALLERY: ID Agency Ford Focus
GALLERY: 3dCarbon Ford Focus
GALLERY: Capaldi Racing Ford Focus
GALLERY: ROUSH Performance Ford Focus
GALLERY: Steeda Ford Focus
GALLERY: Hot Wheels Ford Focus
GALLERY: Metal Mulisha/Rockstar Ford Focus
GALLERY: M&J Enterprises Ford Focus
10. Chrysler 300 Pickup Mess
With the 2011 SEMA Show just about wrapped up we’re sure you’ve already seen plenty of “best of” stories. But the world’s largest aftermarket expo is known as much for its abominations as for its stunning creation and so we’ve assembled a list of the very worst. The selection of eye-searing why-did-they-do-that cars and trucks was picked with the expert help of celebrity judges Barry Meguiar, RJ de Vera and Wally Sema – the man this whole crazy car show is named after (Note: none of the preceding sentence is true).
Placing in 10th spot and somewhat of an honorary member of the Top 10 is the school bus yellow Chrysler 300-grilled pickup truck. It’s got all the requisite terrible attributes from oversized chrome wheels to scissor doors and odd speaker housings. We can’t go too hard on it, however, as the truck looks to be built by a collision repair shop and is obviously meant to represent an accident.
GALLERY: Chrysler 300 Pickup Mess
Celebrating 110 years of racing history at the SEMA Show, Ford‘s display includes some of the brand’s most iconic race cars. And while the folks at the Blue Oval had plenty of aftermarket tuner cars to announce, fans of motorsports were treated to the debut of two new Ford race cars, the Fiesta B-Spec and Focus ST.R.
Watch the video after the jump to find out more about these two front-drive fasties:
High End Performance is known around the nation for building some of the world’s top show cars while running a shop that supplies some of the rarest and highest quality parts around. But what sets them apart from the crowd is their custom, hand-crafted wide body kits that can see on many of their show cars. This matte orange Nissan GTR was spotted in the Eneos booth, and is arguably the best creation to come out of High End to date.
High End owner Ben Abutin is known for meticulously hand-crafting custom widebody kits for his customers. And we’re digging everything about this GT-R from bumper to bumper. The front bumper does a fantastic job in flowing with the GTR’s headlights, while the widebody almost looks factory. The car then headed over to DTM Autobody to gets it body sprayed a nice, bright matte orange that fits in perfectly with Eneos.
Based on the logos on the car, it looks like this GTR sports suspension from Cusco, carbon fiber accents from Seibon while the HRE Wheels are wrapped with Falken Tire rubber. We’re sure we’ll be seeing more of this GTR now that it’s made its official debut at SEMA 2011.
GALLERY: Eneos / High End Performance Nissan GTR
While perusing through the Central Hall of this year’s massive SEMA Show, we came across this little gem tucked away in AirREX’s booth. There was a bit of information that was lost in translation, but AirREX is an air suspension manufacturer out of Taiwan and decided to use a Honda Insight to show off their product.
It probably sounds strange to hear of a Honda Insight sporting air bag suspension, but AirREX also equipped with sleek black Insight with a custom widebody – that’s surprisingly done well – and an aggressive set of Volk Racing TE-37s in a brilliant, bright red shade. Matte gray was applied to the body to give it some contrast, but we feel that the Insight would have looked a lot better without it. Nonetheless, this is one of the nicest and coolest Insights we’ve ever spotted and kudos to AirREX for finding a way to get people to their booth.
GALLERY: Widebody Honda Insight
Matte-black cars have become as much a part of the SEMA Show as Chinese tire manufacturers and lingerie-clad models. While we’re tempted to post up galleries of those two (we know how much Chinese tires turn you on), we’ll stick with the cars for now.
Ranging from American muscle to a Rolls-Royce Phantom, and everything in between, we even found a matte Ford Raptor and a Chevy Sonic. Browse through the extensive gallery below.
GALLERY: SEMA Show Matte-Black Cars
Taste the rainbow and check out all the colorful matte painted cars from the SEMA Show here.
We’ve seen sneak preview shots of Enjuku Racing’s Hyundai Genesis project, and now it’s sitting happily at the BC Racing booth showing off its supercharged LS1 engine swap. The swapped Genesis is sitting on a new set of white BC Racing wheels sporting a perfectly aggressive fitment. The LS1 swap is clearly executed well, sporting a Chase Bays wiring harness and a fancy supercharger.
The Genesis project is lowered on a set of BC Racing coilovers, while the LS1 has some goodies from ISIS Performance, SPEC Clutch and Quaife. A brake upgrade came courtesy of Wilwood while the carbon fiber goods are from VIS Racing.
You can check out a video of the Genesis here.
GALLERY: Enjuku Racing Supercharged LS1 Hyundai Genesis
This year’s SEMA awards were announced Wednesday morning, with the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford F-Series and Jeep Wrangler taking home the awards for Hottest Car, Truck and 4×4 SUV respectively.
The big surprise here was the announcement of the Fiat 500 as the Hottest Sport Compact, despite a relatively small presence at the SEMA show. The Hyundai Veloster seemed like a far more likely candidate for the award, given the ubiquity of the new Hyundai hatchback.
Check out AutoGuide’s SEMA coverage here
When we first heard about D3 Cadillac’s Le Monstre packing 1,001-hp in CTS-V Coupe form, we had pretty high expectations. Now we know that even the renderings were a little on the conservative side. The completed project made its debut in the Toyo Tires booth at this year’s SEMA Show in Las Vegas and it has exceeded our expectations. Simply put, this is one bad widebody Cadillac CTS-V Coupe.
As tired as we might be of seeing matte black cars at this year’s show, D3′s Le Monstre probably wouldn’t have the same impact if it was in any other shade. The widebody was executed perfectly, giving the CTS-V Coupe the aggressive stance that we’d expect from a 1,001-hp monster. Inside and out, the Cadillac features all of D3′s products, from suspension to power upgrades to drivetrain modifications.
The subtle yellow accents do a fantastic job to contrast the matte black body and a perfect choice and fitment of wheels and tires. We can’t wait to see this thing hit the track.
GALLERY: D3 Cadillac Le Monstre
Road Race Motorsports has revealed one serious little lapping day machine at the SEMA Show, with a highly customized Fiat 500 packing plenty of race-inspired modifications. Under the hood is a B-Spec tuned engine pumping out 133-hp thanks to a Road Race intake system and sport exhaust. To be a true race car though, they also outfitted it with a timing controller, Zeitronix Data logging system with Drew Tech touchscreen and Drew Tech’s GPS and Track mapping system.
Suspension modifications are plentiful, starting with Bilstein’s coilovers and springs, Road Race/Progress rear anti-sway bar, and Road Race camber adjusters. For brakes, Road Race outfitted the Fiat with their slotted rotors and sports brake featuring different brake pads for track days.
The outside sports a Carbontrix/Road Race widebody carbon fiber kit further accented with 18×8-inch Stance Mindset wheels paired with 205/45/15 Toyo R1R tires. Plenty more carbon fiber goodies are also on the car courtesy of Road Race and Carbontrix while the interior packs Racetech race seats and 5-point harnesses.
Hopefully we’ll see this bad boy hit the track one day soon.
GALLERY: Road Race Motorsports Fiat 500
Discuss this story at Fiat500Owners.com and checkout AutoGuide’s complete 2011 SEMA Show coverage here
The Scion iQ has still yet to go on sale, but Scion came out in full force with their new subcompact, presenting a multitude of concepts aimed at all corners of the aftermarket segment.
The Pit Boss iQ by Cartel is the wildest interpretation of the iQ we’ve seen so far, with the roof completely chopped off and an electric blue paint scheme applied. Massive 18″ wheels and an iPad with an integrated Wi-Fi hotspot are also included, though it adds an extra element of danger in the event of rain.
At the other end of the spectrum is the iQ-RS, designed to look like a full-blown race car. With a classic white paint scheme, red wheels, a front splitter, rear wing and fender flares, the iQ-RS looks the part, and a roll cage, racing seats and a stripped out interior re-enforce the iQ-RS’ mission.
Finally, the Scion iQ-MR blends race car style with the ever popular “stance” movement, with both a roll cage, fender flares and Axis Sakura wheels fitting flush to the iQ’s body. A mid-engine conversion has been carried out to make the iQ rear-wheel drive while the engine itself features a thorough re-build and new internals. KW Variant 3 coilovers let the car sit low to the ground while offering excellent damping.
Check out more SEMA coverage here
Gallery: Scion iQ
Even though the Fiesta was last year’s news, Ford handed out a trio of them to be customized and shown off at this year’s SEMA Show. None of the projects were crazy exotic, but really show off what the Fiesta can achieve when done with the right modifications.
The Candy Purple Fiesta is a creation from M2-Motoring, featuring upgrades in all departments of the vehicle’s performance. Under the hood is an Injen Technology cold air intake system, DC Sports cat back exhaust, Mishimoto oil coolers and Champion lubricants. For suspension, a set of coilovers came from Megan Racing while brakes from Wilwood gives the Fiesta proper stopping power. On the outside, APR Performance chipped in with a carbon fiber splitter, while the rear gets a roof spoiler from 3dCarbon. The stereo has also been upgraded using products from Jensen and Audiovox.
Next up is a Fiesta creation from Gold Coast Automotive featuring a four-piece body kit from 3dCarbon while Gold Coast further accented the body with its fender flare kit. Under the hood, Jackson Racing enhanced the performance of the Fiesta with a Rotrex intercooled supercharger and Performance Electronics “Edge” stand-alone ECU. H&R coilovers and Wilwood brakes round off the chassis upgrades while the Fiesta sits on a set of 17×7-inch Kyowa Racing 206 wheels.
Aaron Vaccar’s Signature Series Fiesta features a BASF Custom Bright Silver Matte Metallic paint finish while custom body kit by Canfield offers subtle changes to the exterior. 3dCarbon’s upper roof spoiler can also be found on this Fiesta, along with a set of carbon fiber mirrors from APR. Coilovers are also from Megan Racing, along with the Wilwood brakes for chassis upgrades. Under the hood, Vaccar turned to Weapon-R for their air intake, oil catch tank and coolant overflow tank. The Fiesta rocks a set of 17-inch Advanti Racing V3 Vago wheels wrapped with 205/40/17 Toyo Proxes 4 rubber.
GALLERY: M2-Motoring Ford Fiesta
GALLERY: Gold Coast Automotive Ford Fiesta
GALLERY: Aaron Vaccar Ford Fiesta
