Welcome back to Part 2 of our ongoing SEMA 2012 Coverage… I know there hasn’t been a ton of Honda content on here but that’s just how things are these days. While you will still see a ton of great Honda builds at various events all over the nation, the SEMA show covers more of the corporate side of our community and focuses mainly on manufacturers and company display vehicles. Honda itself doesn’t seem to be too involved in the automotive enthusiasts community these days and it is definitely apparent at huge events like this. Honda the manufacturer has a huge section in the central hall, but it is usually just reserved for their new vehicles and one specific model that they provide to some companies or entities to build for SEMA. I would love to see a change in landscape over there and for them to kind of go back to their roots but the company itself is more motivated by being “green” and has their sights set on controlling the eco-car market. Building tuner friendly cars just isn’t something that is important to them and so you see other companies like Hyundai taking over the lead by going after the younger, car enthusiast demographic. It would be great if they paid more attention to our community and made a bigger push to have more modified Hondas at their booth, even if it is a newer model that they are pushing at that moment. I think it would be a good thing if they gave cars to guys like me to build for SEMA in the same style that Scion pushes with their annual Scion Tuner Challenge. I think that a couple of the guys and I could put together a pretty cool build and not just the typical run of the mill stuff that you’re likely to encounter at SEMA. Will it ever happen? Ehh, who knows. I wouldn’t think to hold my breath at the thought but you never know…Pretty unlikely though, haha…

Anyways, I’ve tried to keep the SEMA coverage somewhat in the same order it which it played out that week while I was in Vegas. There are times though when I went back and got multiple shots of the same car on the same day so I’ve tried to not post the same cars repeatedly in the same post. I’d rather just save them for a later portion of coverage instead of you guys seeing the same stuff. Like for example, I got repeated shots of Chris Houts’ Datsun 510 Bluebird on the first day of SEMA but you’ll see the same car here today, just from better angles because there were just better opportunities to get shots of it throughout the day. Builds like that are pretty interesting though so I doubt you guys will care if you see more of it….

Today we’re going to be taking a close look at the other Ben Sopra GTR at the show, as well as a DC5 Integra/RSX that I myself have never even seen before. Both are cool builds with some really nice detail touches to it and that’s why I took the time to go through the cars in detail. The other cars are great as well and I think you’ll see something you like that you haven’t encountered before. I tried my best to get a good variety of cars of all makes and models at SEMA 2012. I hope you enjoy what I’ve captured and make an attempt to get a good look at the cars that I provided in all parts of my coverage. I didn’t take photos of them just to take photos…there is usually something about them that I find special enough to put up here on The Chronicles….

If you missed Part 1, here is the link to the first portion of the SEMA 2012 coverage…

SEMA 2012 Coverage…Part 1…

Once you’re all caught up, get started with part deuce…

The first build we’re going to look at today is probably one of my favorite cars of SEMA 2012. This R35 GTR from R’s Tuning also wears the Ben Sopra widebody kit like the Fatlace GTR, but while the Fatlace car looks like it was built more for style, the R’s Tuning R35 looks to be the more “functional” one of the two Ben Sopra cars. I believe this car was built by Ricky Kwan and crew over at R’s Tuning for wheel to wheel racing…

Like the Rocket Bunny FR-S, which shares the Mackin Industries booth with this GTR, it also has two different sets of wheels on each side…

Both sides feature Yokohama’s newest, forged, Advan Racing GT wheel but one side wears a white set, and the other a black variation…

One of my favorite features of the Ben Sopra kit is the aggressive section of the front fender behind the front wheel. I love the lines of it and how people always tie in a contrasting color to slots…

Vented portion of the fiberglass clamshell hood…

Really liked the Lexan windows…

What I noticed about both Ben Sopra GTRs at SEMA was that neither utilized the openings provided by the kit for the exhaust/dump tubes. The Fatlace R35 doesn’t even have a visible exhaust whereas the R’s Tuning build had a custom, and very cool-looking, center-exit exhaust…

You read correctly, these new Advan Racing GT wheels, made specifically for GTR application, are mold-form forged A6061-T6 aluminum…

Rear diffuser of the Ben Sopra kit and flared/recessed rear quarters…

I wasn’t really familiar with R’s Tuning before SEMA but I looked them up and they are actually a shop down in Irvine, CA and the given name is “The R’s Tuning”…

Just a really well-built, well-executed R35 with a wild kit that is created around functionality…Love it…

Model for FTW Racing Fuels…

Another model I don’t know the name of over at the Giovanna wheels booth…You saw her in part 1 but she was looking in some other direction…

Ken from Wek’Sos Industries personal Junction Produce LS460 build…

Featuring custom built 22-inch Junction Produce wheels and showing at SEMA 2012 on the behalf of Accuair…

I honestly think I take this build for granted sometimes because I know it’s a friends car…haha, I know it’s weird to see that but I almost would appreciate it more if I didn’t know the owner. Then it would be a full Junction Produce LS460 build instead of it just being “Ken’s car”…As a fan of VIP stuff, I love the car, I guess it would be more jaw-dropping if it were someone else’s. I just “expect” it to be cool because I know who built it instead of actually taking the time to study the build thoroughly…Eh, hard to explain, but I’m sure some of you guys are guilty of the same thing, haha…

Speaking of studying builds with unknown owners, we all stopped to take a closer look at this right hand drive DC5 Integra/RSX….

…I say both because I’m not sure if it’s a legit Integra or not or a RHD converted RSX. There’s an extensive amount of work on it so it wouldn’t surprise me to know that it has been converted…

The DC5 features a K20 turbo set-up…

…with a fuel cell mounted in the trunk…

Cool custom gauge mount in the dash…

Nardi wheel with Works Bell hub…you can only see a glimpse of the cage here…

Sheet metal door panels with parts of the OEM door panel incorporated…

K-Tuned shifter…

The lovely Miss Elle Navarro posing for a photo in the ADV.1 booth…I don’t know if she’s actually “lovely” or not because I don’t know her, she could be evil or dangerous, it just fit with the caption at the moment…

While on the topic of ADV.1 wheels, this set was looking real good on this Audi…

One thing that I should touch on, for those of you who haven’t been to SEMA, is the potential risks of some jackass scratching your car or running into it while they look at something. We were taking a break by our buddy Wilson’s Carlsson E350 (you saw it in part 1) and saw a ton of people walk up to it and lean up against it and what not, I mean it happens. The SEMA show is full of car people so you would think that they would be understanding and respect people’s property but some people just don’t have that in them. It’s a good thing his car is wrapped because I’m sure it would rubbed up on plenty of times. Here, I captured a photo of this guy leaning on his front fender with his boot pushing the “Toyo Tires” plate against his new wheel…

…moments later, some guy even kicked it over and didn’t even acknowledge it…

…so we did Wilson a solid and had Ryan place the plaque back at its proper position. It probably got knocked over again at some point in the days that it was there but hey, we tried…

As the sun started to set, I got some really nice heavenly lens flare, like on this Varis widebody Evo X… Because lens flare is so hot right now. Lens flare is the new black….shit is more popular than Gangnam Style…

Speaking of epic sun flare, I thought the sun jerked off and came all over this pic I got right here of Adam Cox’s ’54 Chevy Bel-Air…Like a giant Sun light bukkake shower. Shit was amazing. Pretty sure ten vampires died at this exact moment…

Anyways, I really liked the Project Mu livery on this Scion FR-S on Rays Gram Lights 57Extremes…

Good use of mirrors to show-off the MXP FR-S exhaust…

I’m a big fan of the new 57Extreme wheel with the caps and all…doesn’t hurt to have a set of Project Mu brakes behind them either…

The FR-S’ more-expensive counterpart, the Subaru BRZ, seen here on display for GT-Spec…

We got pretty tired at one point and headed over to the Mazda booth in the North Hall, where we spotted model Amanda Gift. She’s the model for Mazda pretty much every year and she’s always really nice. We sat down at the booth since they had some pretty comfortable seats and she actually chatted with us for quite a bit of time. Got nothing but nice things to say about her and there’s a good reason why a big manufacturer like Mazda brings her back every year…

I didn’t get a shot of the MX-5 Miata, but I thought this AIM dash MXL unit looked great integrated into the dashboard… It looks like it belongs there…

I snapped a pic of this BBS E88 centerlock wheel because Takeshi told me the night before that he had breaking news out of Japan that BBS had filed for bankruptcy… bummer…but I guess not really a surprise since the only BBS wheels we encounter these days are usually old sets that have been rebarreled and refinished…

I got bored sitting there so I ventured over to the Carol Shelby tribute area where I saw this Shelby GT350…

…and this original Shelby Cobra on wire wheels…

Back outside, I stopped to take a look at this Scion iQ, representing Beat Sonic with 5Axis wheels and Airruner suspension…

Hyundai Genesis’ have seemingly fell off the face of the Earth after a good two year run so I was surprised to see this very well executed Genesis owned by Jake Reining from Team Sunworks…

Nice clean engine bay with a lot of carbon fiber accents…

Reining’s Genesis was laid to the ground at SEMA via Airrex air suspension…

Here’s a better look at Chris Houts’ Datsun Bluebird, also from Team Sunworks, showing on behalf of Enkei wheels…

SR20DE swap with battleship grey engine bay…

The interior of Houts’ Bluebird was mint…

Classic Recaro seats with a single Takata safety harness…

Orange Voltex-equipped Evo which I believe is from San Diego, CA, showing at the Meguiar’s booth…

Another shot of Adam Cox’s Bel Air, sun flare not included…

Very nice Chevy Impala build on Ridetech air suspension… The epitome of a well-rounded built with a ton of customization and attention to detail…

1929 Ford Roadster dubbed “The Contender”…

…rocking a ’09 Chevy small block motor from GM Performance Parts with classic Corvette valve covers, three Rochester carbs, iron heads, and Offenhauser intake manifold…

Supercar Lites/Prototype Lites Ford rally cross car with Ford Ecotec motor, piloted by Tanner Whitten…

John Prosk’s Dodge Charger from R-Rydes…You’ll notice that this was taken at a completely different time of day. That’s because it was. This is from Day 2 of SEMA because dividing the coverage into days would have made for odd amounts of photos. To keep it flowing smoothly, some of the photos roll over…

Thought this Zenki S14 240SX from FX Auto Design looked pretty good on Nutek wheels…

Gonna close out Part 2 with a photo that I shot right before I had to leave to attend a Honda/Acura Media gala event…yeah, sounds fancy…back with more tomorrow! Thanks for looking!…