This is the Rally Fighter, a kit car built by Local Motors, an upstart builder based in Massachusetts. Unlike most of the other custom-built cars at SEMA, the Rally Fighter was designed entirely through the use of crowd sourcing.
Through competitions on its Web site, Local Motors asked users to submit designs and let the community choose its favorite. The Rally Fighter came out on top, so Local Motors commissioned the build and used crowd sourcing for everything from the engineering to the materials.
It uses a BMW twin-turbo diesel power plant and various off-the-shelf parts to keep costs down. Local Motors says it plans to eventually build as many as 3,000 Rally Fighters and sell them for around $50,000 apiece. Other models are expected to follow, all chosen and designed by committee.
It's an interesting idea and the Rally Fighter looks to have turned out well. But to be clear, the Rally Fighter is not a car, and Local Motors is not a new kind of car company. At least not yet. Click through to find out why.
Continue reading Local Motors Rally Fighter at SEMA: A Good Start, But....
Categories: Diesels,SUVs,Tuners and Modifications
You can't find this stuff just anywhere.
Categories: SEMA Show,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
Have you seen the shocks on the Ford SVT Raptor? They are about as big and burly as you're every going to find on a stock truck. But compared to the other race applications built by Fox Racing Shox, the Raptor's units are comparatively tiny. They're on the right, Fox's 4.4 external bypass dampers are on the left.
Ford SVT Raptor XT Debuts at SEMA
Categories: Ford,SEMA Show,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
This is yet another attempt to bring back the Trans Am glory days. It has the name and a big 455 V8 up front, but the Lingenfelter 455 T/A just doesn't look right.
Essentially a new Camaro with a heavy makeover, the LPE 455 T/A's proportions are all wrong. If anything, this vehicle highlights the size differences between the new Camaro and the first-generation version. Add on all the Trans Am bodywork and it only gets worse.
At least there's some real muscle under the hood. Lingenfelter built an all-aluminum 455 that the company claims makes 655 horsepower and 610 pound-feet of torque. There's a heavy-duty clutch setup and reinforced half shafts that feed the power to 20-inch honeycomb wheels with 315/35ZR20 tires.
Categories: Chevrolet,Classic Cars,Coupes,Pontiac,SEMA Show,Tuners and Modifications
We only know three things about this truck.
1) It's kickass.
2) It's called Training Day -- Vigilante.
3) It was built by Outlaw Customs in Henderson, Colorado.
Categories: Diesels,SEMA Show,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
We knew they were coming. Camaros, and lots of them. Some would show up wearing tasteful modifications that would build on the coupe's already striking shape.
And others? Well, they would blow well past the limits of good taste and head straight into the SEMA zone, an area where usable tires, subtle paint jobs and modest amounts of chrome and carbon are rarely applied. The Camaros in our hall of shame are evidence that you want to avoid the SEMA zone and keep it simple. Please.
Categories: Chevrolet,Concept Vehicles,Coupes,SEMA Show,Tuners and Modifications
Actually, the idea of a truck-turned-BBQ is nothing new to SEMA. The thought of it coming by way of Toyota is the hard-to-figure part.
Blame it on the Tundra's plant in San Antonio, or the desperate need to "connect" with full-size truck buyers. Either way, it's a bit disturbing.
Just look at that center console. And those door handles, yikes. The rest is almost prototypical SEMA show truck -- big-screen television, on board barbecue, giant chrome wheels with mud tires.
Categories: Concept Vehicles,SEMA Show,Toyota,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
More than a few of us on the Inside Line staff have a jones for a built first-gen Miata. We keep thinking about making one a project car/used long-termer, sort of like we did with the Ferrari 308, the E46 M3 and the Evo GSR all rolled into one. Only the Miata is dirt cheap. If you do much of the work yourself and live without a few luxuries, total cost to build one into a little Japanese Cobra could be well under $10,000 (including the car with hardtop).
The gang at Mike Burlas Design Inc. (www.mikeburlas.com) out of Rialto, CA understand what I'm talking about. They built this clean and simple wide body Miata I came across today at the SEMA show. It's powered by a turbo rotary engine, wears a fastback-style carbon roof and it sits just like it should. That, my friends, is stance. Mike, just lose the big rear wing and the car is right on.
And so now my Miata jones is like really off the chart. Thanks, Mike.
So what do you think? Should we do it?
Continue reading Turbo Rotary Mazda Miata Attacks SEMA.
Categories: Classic Cars,Convertibles,Mazda,SEMA Show,Sports Cars,Trends,Tuners and Modifications
Last year, Toyota turned a Tundra regular cab, short bed into a badass street sleeper. It made sense given that the Tundra has a pretty mean 5.7-liter V8 and the body configuration would make it the lightest Tundra possible.
This year, they took a Tundra (quite possibly the same one) and dressed it up as a hot rod, complete with flames and moon wheel caps. There's also a tuck-and-rolled bench seat and a wood paneled cargo bed.
We liked the first one better, much better.
Categories: SEMA Show,Toyota,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
Yep, welcome to SEMA. And we don't mean just the hood. Everything that's red is leather. Nuts.
Continue reading JDM Van Wrapped in Leather at SEMA.
Categories: Minivans,SEMA Show,Tuners and Modifications
Before there was Grave Digger, Speed Channel and Monster Jam, there was Bigfoot, the original Monster Truck. And now it has become an American legend, perhaps the world's most reconizable truck.
Thirty-five years ago (that's 1974) Bob Chandler built the first of several dozen Bigfoots and as the sign says on the next page, it first hit the SEMA Show in 1977 and it crushed its first car in 1981.
To celebrate the truck's birthday, Chandler and the boys have even reskinned a modern Bigfoot to look like the original (pictured). In other words they built the monster truck version of the restomod. And this year the two Bigfoots are displayed at SEMA side-by-side. Pretty cool.
Oh, and just in case you're too young to remember, those are two Predator carburetors sticking through Bigfoot's hood. And it just didn't get any cooler than that in the mid-1970s.
Continue reading Bigfoot Sighting At SEMA.
Categories: Classic Cars,Ford,SEMA Show,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
GReddy is offering a large number of upgrade parts for the Genesis Coupe including a turbo upgrade kit for the 2.0T model. This car features the company's front bumper, side skirts, rear bumper/diffuser and wing.
Continue reading GReddy 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe.
Categories: Hyundai,SEMA Show,Tuners and Modifications
John Hennessey is using this turbocharged Hyundai Genesis Coupe to promote his Tuner School -- a 14-week program designed to launch its students into the world of aftermarket tuning. Based at his Texas facility, the school covers engine building, forced induction and dyno testing -- all of which makes us wonder why there's no power claim for this single-turbo Genesis Coupe the company built.
Continue reading Hennessey Performance Engineering Hyundai Genesis Coupe.
Categories: Coupes,Hyundai,SEMA Show,Sports Cars,Tuners and Modifications
The RMR crew pulled it off. Rhys Millen told us on the show floor that he drove this midengine Tau-V8-powered Genesis Coupe into the trailer. If you've been following our coverage of this car (here and here) you know that, like most SEMA cars, this one was cutting it close.
Continue reading Rhys Millen Racing Midengine V8 Hyundai Genesis Coupe.
Categories: Auto Shows,Hyundai,SEMA Show,Sports Cars,Tuners and Modifications
Carbon fiber usually isn't something you bother with on a pickup truck. Saving a little weight up top probably isn't going to make up for the giant steel ladder frame hung underneath; at least that's what people with budgets tend to think.
The Silverado ZR2 wasn't constructed with that mentality, though, as it features a carbon-fiber hood, fenders, rocker extensions and tailgate. There's also a 550-horsepower supercharged LS V8 under the hood and 35-inch tires at each corner. None of that is cheap, either. Then again, that's what concepts are all about. Just don't expect to see many of these parts in a dealer catalog any time soon.
Categories: Chevrolet,SEMA Show,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
