Happy early Thanksgiving to everyone. I figure now would be a good time to extend the greeting since you’ll be midway through the day by the time you get to Part 6 of the continuing SEMA coverage tomorrow…There are still a couple parts left but I don’t believe it’ll be an eight part series. I have some photos left to go over but there aren’t too many left. Today will be much like the previous four parts, with a lot of different cars and some random “spotlights” here and there where I’ve highlighted certain builds with more detailed images. With that said, there isn’t much more to discuss about the show itself. The photos and captions below should help to tell a good story of what I saw on days 2 and 3 of SEMA 2012, enjoy…
Links to previous parts for those who missed out…
Part 5 below…
Someone I ran into earlier that week had told me about Underground Racing’s twin turbo V10 R8 but I didn’t know where it was until I stumbled into the Nitto booth on Day 2. If you remember yesterday’s post, I was staring at the 2JZ-GTE-swapped 1973 Benz coupe at the same booth and that’s what led me to the Underground Racing Audi…
19-inch HRE wheels with a matte red finish on the body…
Underground Racing makes multiple stage kits that range in power but this particular R8 GT has the stage 3 kit which produces over 1000 horsepower…
I’ve been a huge fan of the UFC for years now and saw that throughout the week, Toyo Tires was hosting various UFC personalities. I walked over to the Toyo booth to see who was there and spotted UFC Ring Girl Arianny Celeste…
There was a pretty long line of people waiting to meet her but she stopped to let me get a photo…
Over at Mr. Cartoon’s Sanctiond booth in the central hall was “El Rey”, a very detailed 1963 Chevy Impala rag top lowrider…
The amount of work on this Impala was just insane… Even looking at just the engine bay, you’ll quickly realize that it is one of those builds that you just have to really see in person to appreciate…
Beautifully done mural under the hood of El Rey…
Mirrors have been set-up all over the floor display to give show-goers a good look at how much customization exists on the undercarriage of the Impala…
The trunk of El Rey where even the audio components have been paint-matched…To read more about El Rey, CLICK HERE to view an article on it from Lowrider magazine
Opposite of the El Rey Impala was this crazy 1960 Cadillac Hearse, built by Bryan Fuller Hot Rods and dubbed “The Thunder Taker”…
Big block fuel-injected Chevy motor under the hood that helps to get all 8,000 lbs of the Thunder Taker around…
Silver/white interior… Make note of the chopped roof and custom retracting sunroof up top as well…
The seats are wrapped in plastic like an old Filipino ladies’ house….
The hearse also has an air suspension equipped to lay the car out on the floor. Not sure what type of air suspension can hold up 8,000 lbs. but it’s gotta be a good one…
In the Lexus section outside, SEMA attendees got a first hand look at the Lexus LF-CC concept car, which will be powered by a 2.5-liter Toyota Hybrid motor…
As a concept, a lot of the exterior styling cues won’t be retained but the interior looks like it’s ready for production…
Love the lines of the LF-CC and the direction that Lexus has been heading in from a design aspect the last couple of years…
Another car that I was excited to finally see in person was the Lexus LS F-Sport. Last year, we got to see the GS F-Sport and so it was only right that the brand continued to evolve with the appearance of the LS-F…
Lexus LF-A Nurburgring Edition, which ran the famed Nurburgring in 7:14.64… Attached below is a video of that exact lap…
Outside of the Lexus tent was this APEX’i supercharged Lexus GS350 F-Sport sitting on a dyno…
Beautiful black LF-A outside of the Lexus tent…
Back inside, I saw yet another Scion FR-S, this one on display for Wilwood brakes with SSR Professor SP3 wheels…
HKS R35 GTR with the new forged Advan GT wheels…
Some guys just couldn’t handle the SEMA grind…
Walked by the Mackin Industries area and snapped yet another photo of The R’s Tuning Ben Sopra GTR…
Volk TE37SL “Black Edition” wheel…
Brushed aluminum finish on these Rays Engineering 57Extremes…
Marissa Hiroko all smiles at the Vortech Superchargers booth…
2012 Scion Tuner Challenge award…
Thought this Soundstream bass tube looked pretty cool…
Couple more detail shots of the Fatlace Rocket Bunny FR-S that I forgot to include in the other post… Nice touch matching the Brembo caliper to the graphical livery…
Illest Edition Bride seats…. You know you’re doing it big when you can have your own Bride seats made…
Really like these custom FR-S taillights…
One more shot of Daniel Song’s “FR-S GT” build…
…and his custom center exit exhaust/rear diffuser set-up…
Day 2 was winding down and like that dude that passed out asleep on the showroom floor, we were all pretty beat from walking around back and forth…There was just so much to see at SEMA that it’s also exhausting to the mind to take in everything that we saw…
While the others were looking at some cars that I had already seen earlier that morning, I stopped by the Black Magic booth one more time to check-out the Jotech Motorsports GTRs…
It was near the end of the day so there weren’t too many people left, so I took the opportunity to get another shot of Black Magic spokesmodel Keiko Alingas… I guess she was caught off guard and didn’t expect anyone to take anymore photos at the end of the day, but this ended up being one of my favorite photos from SEMA 2012…So much so that I’ve included an alternate edit HERE…
John Prosk’s Dodge Charger from R-Rydes…
A few more of BBi Autosport’s Projekt Grip…
I had no idea Motegi Racing was still around, let alone making center-lock wheels for Porsches like these Techno Meshs…
West Coast Customs’ twin turbo Bel-Air, a build you’ve seen on another occasion in an early SEMA post…
That wrapped up Day 2 of SEMA 2012 for us. After that I went to go pick up May from the airport until we met up for dinner and partying later that evening. Oh, I should mention that I walked out of my bedroom in my hotel that night and saw this guy knocked out on the couch…
…the 2012 SEMA show was the first ever for Takeshi and it definitely hit him hard. He was knocked out for a good hour before we woke him up to grab dinner. He took the Vegas experience in stride though and was partying with us all night at some industry parties later in the evening…
And so ends Part 5. Happy turkey day everyone and be safe…thanks for looking!…