As promised, here is part 3 of the ongoing SEMA 2011 coverage… When we last left off, we had just exited the wheel/tire hall and were heading back to the car to grab dinner. It was just Tuesday of our week long stay in Vegas but we were itching to grab some good dinner and party it up at the first industry party later in the evening. Before we got back to the car though, we walked along the outside perimeter of the SEMA show where all kinds of different cars were posted up outside of each hall. The thing with having cars outside is that it’s very easy to miss some really good builds because everyone is so fascinated with what’s going on inside the different buildings. The builds posted up outside are usually good ones too, they just might be overlooked… I know from looking at SEMA coverage from other sites last year that there was all kinds of cars that I missed so I made sure we put effort into walking around outside. Did I catch everything that I wanted to see? Ehh..debatable… I’m satisifed with what I saw but I can almost guarantee you that I missed out on some good cars….In any case, let’s get going with the photos…

Seeing this was a real treat. I didn’t expect to ever see this car in person but I appreciate it even more than when I first saw this build in an issue of Option magazine a couple months back. Option is a popular automotive magazine in Japan that I try to check out whenever I can and this Z33 Fairlady (Japanese Nissan 350Z)  was one of their cover cars…

The Porsche conversion and all the crazy bodywork definitely isn’t everyone’s taste but you have to respect the amount of work that was involved in this build…It’s a very well rounded car and the quality of work is top notch…

One of the unique aspects of this Z is how it’s born and built in Japan but it’s rocking two different sets of American VIP Modular wheels… I saw a lot of people hovering around this car trying to figure out what it was and the only real indication of it’s original form is in the door handles, which have remained original z33 pieces…

The interior has been completely re-wrapped and shares the same level of work as the exterior…

Seeing this thing in person reminds of last year’s SEMA when a Japanese tuning shop brought over their Camaro build. It’s just really cool to see stuff like this because you would only be able to be in the presence of these builds at the annual SEMA event…

The section where that Z was parked had all kinds of different cars parked there. There were lifted bro trucks, Euros, and even really clean lowriders like this one…

Big body Caddy that I spotted as I walked by the giant Meguiar’s area…

Another vehicles that was a part of Meguiar’s “Car Crazy Showcase” was this right-hand drive VeilSide Fortune FD3S RX-7…

20-inch Forgeline wheels…

Custom interior with the original instrument cluster removed and replaced with a number of different gauges…

Rear quarter shot of the VeilSide RX-7…

Meguiar’s also had another section devoted to different builds from all over the world… This 78 Ford Falcon XC GS was another one of my favorite cars of SEMA ’11 and it actually comes all the way from Australia…

Stroked 351 Cleveland motor with individual throttle bodies…

The interior is all custom as well with a fiberglass dash, bucket seats, and re-wrapped panels… As you can see from this photo, the doors of this Aussie Falcon opens suicide style…

The amount of fabrication on this car is insane. I actually did some more research on this car and it has a custom fabricated tube chassis, radiator panel and firewall, flared front fenders, custom bumper bars, and so much more. The door hinges for the suicide doors were also hand made and the door handles for this thing were incorporated into the front cowl between the hood and windshield…fucking crazy….Look at that trunk.

If you guys want to read more on Adam Lebrese’s Falcon coupe, click here….

This Celica is also a part of Meguiar’s world wide showcase of cars… If Spiderman ever decides to move to China, he won’t have to worry about not having transportation. Again, not my taste, but I can appreciate and admire the craftsmanship and work…. If you want to know more about Jordan Le Han’s Spidey Celica, click here…the people that did the story for this car even photoshopped an image of this car scaling the side of a building, haha…

May couldn’t resist and just had to get a photo of Jared doing the Spidey-pose…

Meanwhile, DPK David asked me if I could get a photo of him with one of his favorite trucks at SEMA…

At this point, we were getting pretty hungry…but there were just so many nice cars to see on our way out. This Subaru STI was another one of my favorites that I just had to get a closer look at. We found out a couple days later at an industry party that this Subaru belonged to a female enthusiast from Maryland by the name of Joy Abdalla…

Love the shaved and tucked engine bay. It’s rare to see these Subarus with engine bays that are this clean….

I also really liked the little details of Joy’s Subaru, like this exposed carbon section of the trunk that was left unpainted…

The paint, widebody, and aggressive TE37s look great…The vanity plate also makes more sense now after finding out who the owner was…

Just had to get another shot of this Carlsson Benz from Memoryfab before we left…

R34 GT-R on Rohana wheels…I know what wheels they are just based on assumption…

After snapping that pic, we finally left the Las Vegas Convention Center. We were all hungry so we went to go eat and then returned to our rooms to hang out for a bit before getting ready to party. There were two different industry parties going on that night so we had a little bit of a dilemma deciding which one to go to. Formula D was hosting a party at Pure night club, while 5Axis was throwing a party over at Club XS, which was inside of the Encore hotel and casino. We called a couple of the other homies that were out there for SEMA and everyone seemed to be going to one or the other, so we just decided to go check out the Formula D party first. If it sucked, we could just easily hop back in the car and head to Encore so we got dressed and headed out…

When we got to Caesar’s Palace to hit up Pure, it was a fucking mad house. I mean, we weren’t even inside the club yet… there were just so many people waiting outside and it seemed like forever until anyone was able to get inside the club. Plus they had like some Ebay party going on at the same time and it was just getting too hectic for us. We walked over to the bar across from the club and grabbed a drink, then decided it would be best for us to head on over to Encore to check out the 5Axis party. We rounded up the troops and off to Encore we went…

The scene there was drastically different. The party was going on already but it wasn’t ridiculously crowded outside. We showed our IDs and walked right inside without any hesitiation. If you guys have never been to SEMA or participated in any of the parties that go on during SEMA, you have to understand one thing: It is always going to be a fucking giant cauldron of sausages. It’s an industry party so it’s going to be dominated by people in the industry, who are predominantly male. You go to these parties just to socialize and mingle, and also to meet other contacts within the automotive industry. If you go to one of these parties thinking you’re going to meet all kinds of girls and bang like 3 chicks in one night, you’re setting yourself up for failure. The girls that are usually there either work there or they are already spoken for. Like I tell everyone every year, the only girls you’re going to meet and take back to your room while you’re there for SEMA are girls that you have to pay for..haha…sad, but true. I don’t give a shit about meeting girls at these parties, because I have a significant other and May is usually there with me at the parties anyways. I just go for fun and shoot the shit, possibly drink a little… I mean, it’s a good time. There are a lot of friends and acquaintances that I hardly get to see normally so being out there in Vegas with them is cool. We make the most of these parties anyways and it’s usually a good fucking time… The only thing we try to avoid is fighting with drunken idiots because there are dudes at these parties that just get absolutely shit-faced. Anyways, below are a couple of photos from Club XS and these photos will conclude day one of SEMA 2011…pretty crazy that we’ve gone three parts of the coverage already and it’s only the end of day one…May took the majority of these photos so thanks goes out to her for covering everything outside of the SEMA show…

One of the guys we didn’t see throughout the day that ended up coming out to party with us was Rodrez from Honda Tuning magazine…He was in some meetings earlier in the night so it was cool of him to come out and unwind…behind him is another familiar face, Ryan from Rywire, who showed up to the club with a free cut…

For being inside of a club that was 80% dudes, the go-go dancers working that night at XS were awfully friendly to us… Here Jared is asking one of the girls if they could re-enact a porn scene he had seen the night before he left for Vegas and asked her to spit in his mouth…Disgusting, yes, but that’s just how DPK Jared gets down…”Spit in my mouth Rihanna” said Jared…

Jared also did some questionable dancing, which made Rodrez feel awkward…

I could only imagine what these girls were thinking about when they were dancing over a sea of dudes…

Jonathan Wong from Super Street magazine showed up and promptly shoved a drink in my face…Mr. Wong is one of those asians that gets the “asian glow” when he drinks and turns bright red…in this photo, you can see that his ear is about to explode, haha….

Jared posing for a photo while chatting up one of the dancers…

DPK Darryl and his buddy trying to steal money from go-go dancer/import model Michelle Yee….

It had been a while since I had seen or talked to my buddy Travis, so we decided to chat while this couple dry-humped eachother next to us…

UFC fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was at the SEMA show and the after parties….May caught this photo of him dancing with one of the go-go girls…

There are so many different things going on in this photo…the obvious one is me disguising myself as Rick Ross, but also take a look at the two creepy white dudes in the back and some random dude trying to check Michelle Yee’s oil…haha… “HUUHHHH” -Rick Ross

May wanted to get a picture with DPK Darryl and our friend Rom but Darryl looked bored and uninterested in the photo so I transformed him into Goro from Mortal Kombat…

Me in front of the camera for once, posing for a photo with DPK David and Jared… I think the same dude that was checking that go-go dancer’s oil earlier was also checking Jared’s in this pic…

I sealed off the night with a kiss…

…and a sandwich from my favorite sandwich spot of all time and then called it a night….

Good times were had by all….

DAY TWO (Wednesday)…. 

I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep that night because we were at the club until around 3am, but I really wanted to get to the show to cover as much of it as I possibly could. That way I could have more free time the rest of the week. I ate some leftovers from the previous night, and then David, Jared, and I set off once again to the SEMA show. May decided to stay behind and catch up on some work since she had taken the week off from her regular job and also went to get some groceries for our place in Vegas…

When we got to the convention center, we decided to see what else the outside had to offer before checking out one of the halls that we had yet to walk inside…

Clean silver Audi wagon on Rotiform wheels…I’m pretty confident in saying that probably 60% of the photos I took had a care with Rotiform wheels on it…these things were seriously EVERYWHERE. I wonder if/when Rota would start making copies of these wheels, judging by their recent rise in popularity. If they did, would they simply call them “Rota Forms”? haha….so stupid…

This Accord coupe was interesting/weird/not attractive/from 2001…

Turbo H22 under the hood…I don’t know if I would call this a shave and tuck so I shall call it…”shit covering everything”… The only person I could picture driving this car was the opera singer from the Fifth Element movie…haha…definitely a unique build but there is some stuff that was questionable like the painted engine block with all the bolts and everything also painted. It’s like they just masked shit off and sprayed everything blue…

SL65 AMG V12 Bi-turbo…I believe this is the same one from the VIP Festival coverage I posted up…

Always liked this Audi Nimbus Grey BMW 3-series sedan….sorry once again, for the bukkake shadow…

I also have always been a fan of this BMW M3 with a mix of euro and Japanese style….

This Lexus LS was definitely another one of my favorites at the SEMA show. I had first seen it online when Freddie from Autofashion posted a photo of it, so I was excited to finally see it in person…Love the Aimgain aero and WED’s Maverick wheels…I also like the fact that he didn’t try to go all crazy “hellaflush” poke with his suspensino and wheel set-up. This is true, traditional VIP styling and I will always be a fan of this look…

Diamond-stitched dashboard and interior…

Liked the contrasting red accents on the black. The red exhaust tips are a nice touch and definitely not something you see attempted everyday on other VIP builds…

The red pin-striping is also a very nice touch….

DPK David asked me what I liked about this car and I told him that it was just an overall great package in terms of VIP styling and execution. It just all comes together and works. It is the way traditional Japanese VIP builds should look. I know that these days, wild aero and custom vents and everything is all the rage in Japan but it’s good to see this simplistic style executed…Much props to Kyoei USA for putting this build together and showing that it’s not just all about wheels and being slammed and looking broken…

SL65 AMG which the owner dubbed “SL666″…get it? Because it’s red and blaaaaaack….

Infiniti M with Job Design aero and infinite amounts of negative camber in the rear….

VIP-styled Honda Odyssey from Team Sunworks…

If Big Mike’s Prelude and Mike G’s Tank had a bastard child, it would pretty much look like this…

1GS from Platinum VIP…

Subaru wagon with it’s rear door shaved…why it was done I will never know…

Bright green S2000 with Powerhouse Amuse or “Amuse style” widebody aero….

“Minty Fresh Z” from Vegas…This is the same Z that used to have the same wheels but in a chrome magenta/pinkish color…

That’s all for today…another 60 photos down with much more to come. Hope you guys enjoyed what you saw so far…back with more tomorrow…