Sema2008


SEMA 2008: Ford pickup concept gallery

We managed to track down most of the Ford concept pickups on our last day at SEMA. Hidden across the street, right in the front of the outdoor lot, just under the huge "Built Ford Tough" sign, there they were. We saw the Performance West Striker R F-150 and it's bigger brother Striker F-350, as well as the Street Scene Equipment Lariat that sort of reminded us of a certain bike-branded Ford truck. The F-150 Striker was reminiscent us of the Saleen S331 we sampled last year, and the F-350 was much the same only, uh, more so. We even came ... Read more →

SEMA 2008: Ecto-1 scares up plenty of attention in Vegas Frank Filipponio

With Halloween behind us and most of the spooks and spectres returned to their natural realm, the Ghostbusters gang had some time to kill and headed over to the Las Vegas Convention Center to check ...

SEMA 2008: Custom ThunderFlite T-Bird soars Frank Filipponio

Suzie and Dean Arnold dreamt of building a show car that would evoke the spirit of the dream cars that manufacturers used to build in the '50s and '60s. They decided to use a 1961 Thunderbird as the ...

SEMA 2008: Hennessey shows a pair of turbocharged Ford GTs Frank Filipponio

Hennessey is perhaps more closely associated with Dodge Vipers to most people, but they also do work on Ford's late, great supercar, the Ford GT, too. What Hennessey does with the GT is sort of up ...

SEMA 2008: Carbonite SL(R) for the economic downturn Jonathon Ramsey

If you were this close to purchasing an SLR but recent events concerning a guy named Lehman severely reduced your amount of disposable cash, then allow us to introduce you to the SL Carbonite. ...

SEMA 2008: K.I.T.T. helps sell Knight Rider GPS for Mio 12 months ago on Autoblog

There were a lot of movie and TV-themed vehicles at SEMA this year, but one of our favorite entertainment tie-ins had to be the Mio Knight Rider GPS system. We told you about this way back in June, played with it when the new K.I.T.T. visited the Autoblog Garage, and messed with it some more in ...

SEMA 2008: Factory Five GTM looks slick in copper 12 months ago on Autoblog

Factory Five is one of those companies that you may have heard of but probably don't know where. If you happen to correctly relate them to the car world, you might remember them as a kit car company, one of dozens of Cobra re-creators out there. Well, a few years back they decided to do something ...

SEMA 2008: Charger Coupe shows up in General Lee trim 12 months ago on Autoblog

We had heard rumors that there was going to be a Dodge Charger Coupe at SEMA this year. We had hoped it would be something like the Charger show car from several years ago, the black one that looked a lot like the bad guy's car in Bullitt. In fact, that car was supposed to be made and shown at ...

SEMA 2008: Vegas does motorcycles too, baby! 12 months ago on Autoblog

While most of our focus at SEMA was on the cars and products, we don't want yo to think that bikers are left out of the party. There were dozens of great bikes all over the convention halls. Some were custom designs, others modified street bikes and still others were concepts showcasing new ...

SEMA 2008: Cheap Trick Dream Police Tactical Vehicle 1 year ago on Autoblog

The award-winning team at RealWheels Corporation put together another killer theme vehicle for this year's SEMA show. Starting off with a Chevy Avalanche, the team layered on some BASF paint and added a ProCharger blower, Corsa exhaust, Superlift suspension, GWG 20-inch wheels wrapped in Toyo ...

SEMA 2008: Supercar sightings from show floor 1 year ago on Autoblog

As much as we love its tires, we are really upset with Michelin. Where is the annual supercar lovefest that has been the Michelin SEMA booth? Last year's display was an incredible assortment of stock, tuned and race vehicles from Audi, Chevrolet and Porsche. The year before that the Michelin booth ...

SEMA 2008: Randomly outrageous paintjobs and graphics 1 year ago on Autoblog

What would SEMA be without all of those outrageous graphics and paintjobs? There are thousands of vehicles here and many sport wild hues and stripes to attract attention. With our coverage of the 2008 SEMA Show winding down, we've collected a gallery of some of the ones that really caught our ...

SEMA 2008: Random acts of madness 1 year ago on Autoblog

Even with the avalanche of posts we've brought you from SEMA this year, we ended up with a ton of extra random photos showing things that stopped us in our tracks and had us asking, WTF?! Below is a gallery that highlights some of that flotsam and jetsam for all of you to see. It's the kind of ...

SEMA 2008: Cobra Jet Mustang arrives straight from dragstrip, 400-hp figure explained 1 year ago on Autoblog

Ford apparently brought the FR500CJ Cobra Jet Mustang to SEMA straight from one of its testing sessions, because there was still plenty of shredded Goodyear rubber lining the fenders behind the rear wheels. The graphics package looks fantastic in person, and we're jealous of the 50 lucky owners ...

SEMA 2008: Top 10 Nissan GT-Rs 1 year ago on Autoblog

With the exception of the Dodge Challenger, the Nissan GT-R seems to be the vehicle of choice for SEMA. In addition to the numerous Nissan tuners, it seemed that nearly every wheel and tire manufacturer had Godzilla manning its booth. We were determined to see all the different variations, and did ...

SEMA 2008: Choppin' Block '31 Studebaker Model 54 1 year ago on Autoblog

Toyo Tires has one of the coolest booths at SEMA this year. We already showed you the Tetsu Bentley they have on display, but they also have a sweet Evo and GT-R, a custom Cayenne and this beautiful hot rod. It's based on a 1931 Studebaker Model 54, but features a few modifications... to put it ...

SEMA 2008: GoPro Hero can make you (look like) one 1 year ago on Autoblog

Click above for a high-res gallery of the GoPro Hero The GoPro Hero digital videocamera is like creating SpeedTV for the masses... without the non-stop NASCAR coverage. The three-megapixel Hero is the world's smallest on-board camera, and it sticks to anything without fuss. It has 16 MB of ...

SEMA 2008: Knight XV armored SUV lets you take your undergound lair with you 1 year ago on Autoblog

The first word that came to mind when we saw the Knight XV was this: warthog. Sure, there are other words you could use, but consider this: it's not attractive, it's ridiculously tough, it's called in to deal with nasty situations and it kills things, all of which tend to be the traits of ...

SEMA 2008: 10 Challengers worth loving or loathing 1 year ago on Autoblog

The Chevrolet Camaro may be the "official" vehicle of SEMA, but you can't walk more than a few feet without tripping over the Pentastar's new pony car. The Dodge Challenger is a ubiquitous presence on the floor this year, only matched by the number of mediocre booth babes and the appropriately ...

SEMA 2008: The Batsmart by Barris 1 year ago on Autoblog

var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/autos/Batman_Trades_in_Tumbler_for_smart_fortwo_aka_the_Toddler'; George Barris has officially gone batty. While he is one of the men generally acknowledged for creating the original Batmobile, he hasn't shown anything with those trademark wings since Joel ...

SEMA 2008: Mobil1 Porsche 996 Turbo 1 year ago on Autoblog

The 996 Porsche Turbo is old news, but that didn't stop Theory Communication and Design and iForged Wheels from whipping up a version that makes us quiver slightly, even though it's green. Artisan stuffed 650 horses under that rear wing with its turbo upgrade package, and the TechArt GT Street ...

SEMA 2008: STS Twin Turbo C6 Corvette a matte monster 1 year ago on Autoblog

The Squires Turbo Systems twin-turbo C6 Z06 gives the former most-powerful Vette model a boost to 700 horsepower at a very reasonable 7 pounds of boost, which, depending on how sorted the Bilstein-shocked suspension is, could give it a good shot at sticking with a stock ZR-1. The most unique ...

SEMA 2008: VW Tiguan Performance Concept rocks the house CUV 1 year ago on Autoblog

The Volkswagen Tiguan, already a hot little CUV, added some bodywork and an APR turbo to go with its Super CC and Jetta TDI Cup Edition Street Concept show car siblings, and then threw in a Rockford Fosgate system to raise the bar further. The little big guy wears fender flares connected by ...

SEMA 2008: Galpin Accord Concept is loud outside and in 1 year ago on Autoblog

The Galpin Accord Concept is actually pretty tasteful for a Galpin Auto Sports vehicle, and even if the bright blue paint job doesn't get you more attention on the street than you can handle, the two tunnel-sized exhausts out back will do the trick. The carbon fiber roof and plinth for a rear ...

SEMA 2008: Yokohama tire dealers compete in blackjack tournament to win Superformance MkIII Cobra 1 year ago on Autoblog

While many tire manufacturers are cutting back at SEMA this year (come on Michelin, where's our supercar display?), others are pushing forward with new products and generating lots of excitement. Yokohama decided to try positive reinforcement with its dealers and set up a blackjack tournament for ...

SEMA 2008: Cadillac-Powered VRS is OMG! 1 year ago on Autoblog

As you can tell from our furious posting frequency, there's a lot of stuff at SEMA. Often, you encounter some well-publicized car and your reaction is "Oh... harumph." And then there are the sadly infrequent times when you make your way to the back of a ginormous hall and turn the corner to ...

SEMA 2008: Scion concepts aplenty 1 year ago on Autoblog

This is Scion's fifth year as a SEMA attendee, and it's arguably their best. Being the younger, hipper, tunier Toyota it makes sense they show up here with six concepts to spark customers' imaginations. To that end, they've brought several fun and outrageous customs from designers such as Mark ...

SEMA 2008: The return of Ugliest. Mustang. Ever. 1 year ago on Autoblog

We called it the Ugliest. Mustang. Ever. Our readers called it a pony with rabies, a monstrosity and an abomination. Many of you didn't even believe the car was real. For some reason the guys over at Rich Evans Designs were willing to once again face public humiliation and brought out what they ...

SEMA 2008: Toyota RAV4 "Performance Sport" lacks performance and sport 1 year ago on Autoblog

Santa Ana-based MV Designz took Toyota's overtly practical RAV4 and kicked the majority of the 'ute's functionality out the hatch. With a custom wide body kit, front and rear fascias, LED headlamps, hood and panoramic glass roof, the RAV4 Performance Sport comes off as a prop reject from the ...

SEMA 2008: Ring Bros bring the goods once again with 1969 RAZOR Camaro 1 year ago on Autoblog

We first heard of the Ring Brothers back in 2006 when they brought their REACTOR Mustang to the ROUSH booth. That car was nothing less than stunning, and we've made sure to check out any of their custom creations since then. On display this year is the RAZOR Camaro that won the Goodguys Street ...

SEMA 2008: Lexus GS 460 by Five Axis 1 year ago on Autoblog

Lexus is really getting into this whole SEMA thing. Besides the IS F, plenty of which we'll be showing you shortly, there was this slick GS 460 done up by long-time Toyota collaborator Five Axis. The Project GS is Troy Sumitomo's follow-up to last year's sweet IS F. It features a Five Axis ...

SEMA 2008: Tetsu GTR needs to stay in Vegas 1 year ago on Autoblog

When we heard that the Tetsu GTR would be here at SEMA, we knew we'd have to find it and shoot it. Since we didn't have a gun on us, we just shot it with our cameras instead. The Tetsu GTR is actually a perfect SEMA car. Rather than showing what people should do with their tunable treasures, it ...

SEMA 2008: Subaru trots out Forester XTI concept and tweaked WRX 1 year ago on Autoblog

Even though our lust for Japan's forbidden fruit has been sated by three generations of the Subaru STI and Mitsubishi EVO – and now, the Nissan GT-R – one guilty pleasure is still out of reach. The Subaru Forester STI has always held a special place in our hearts, combining a ...

SEMA 2008: Dodge Rams its new truck down our throats 1 year ago on Autoblog

We noticed that the Chrysler Group is pretty excited about the Challenger after visiting the Mopar Underground display at SEMA this year. We are too, but it's not just Challengers on display in Vegas. There are also a handful of custom '09 Dodge Ram pickups here, as well. We previewed these four ...

SEMA 2008: Mopar Underground Challenger Targa and Blacktop 1 year ago on Autoblog

We hope you're loving the Dodge Challengers here at SEMA as much as we are. When you build a car that's a throwback to such an iconic vehicle, it's easy to anticipate that tuners will try to recreate every example that made the Challenger such a legend way back when. While some of the cars here ...

SEMA: Save us Subaru Mountain Rescue Vehicle! 1 year ago on Autoblog

Leave the Saint Bernards at home, honey, we've got something better. The Subaru Mountain Rescue Vehicle was made for the National Ski Patrol -- an organization we had never heard of until we saw this truck. On its tiptoes it has 14 inches of clearance, and the staid passenger car driving ...

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Autoblog Podcast #151: With Car and Driver's Eddie Alterman

Eddie Alterman wades in with Sam, Chris, Dan, and Jonny to talk about SEMA and other recent events.

 
 

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