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Despite the fact that technically SEMA is a convention for all things automotive aftermarket, it's the OEMs who dominate the show. SEMA is the place where auto manufacturers bring their latest and greatest rides - tricked out, of course - in the hopes that their new automobiles become the next "must have" whip. After all, billions of dollars are spent every year on aftermarket accessories... what better place to put these new parts than on a shiny new car?
CHRYSLER
Chrysler's booth could be found deep in the bowels of the Las Vegas Convention Center's South Hall, and no surprise here, the star of the booth was Sam Hubinette's new drift-spec Mopar Challenger. To say that this car will create some controversy in the 2009 drift season would be an understatement; more creative interpretations of the Formula Drift rulebook were used to build the Challenger than the RWD Rockstar Energy Drink Scion tC that Ken Gushi drives. With its stock suspension mounts, firewall and small amount of factory sheetmetal, this Dodge technically is still a unit-bodied car. But the fact that the rest of the Challenger is tube-framed and utilizes snap-on carbon fiber body panels, Mopar may as well have appropriated one of its NASCARs and transformed that into a drift vehicle.
While it's debatable whether or not this Challenger follows the "spirit" of drifting, there's no question that the engineering that went into this car is nothing short of amazing. We can't wait to see how it performs in the 2009 drift season. And if this particular car gets banned, perhaps Hubinette can drive the other star of Chrysler's 2009 SEMA booth: the 600-hp, 8.4-liter, V10-powered Dodge Challenger SRT-10 concept.
GM
General Motors' booth, once again placed smack-dab in the middle of the Central Hall, was one of the more popular booths of the show. You can thank the numerous new Camaro concepts, LSX crate motors and new rides from Pontiac for that.
While we were getting warm fuzzies from the 361-horsepower El Camino-like G8 ST, we're guessing that it's the Solstice GXP coupe that brought the Urban Racer crowd to the GM booth. In stock form, not much separates the Solstice Coupe from its roadster counterpart, save for the Porsche Targa-style roof. Well... that and the fact that the GXP Coupe looks like a bar of soap. The coupe brought out to SEMA had GM Performance Parts' Stage 2 kit, boosting the car's power from 260 hp to 290.
Chevrolet brought four new Camaro concepts to the show. The E85-powered Dale Earnhardt Jr. edition's gray-on-white color scheme appealed to all the Pace Car-edition Monte Carlo-driving dads in attendance. The bright red LS7 crate motor-powered Camaro is said to be a modern interpretation of the old Yenko-built COPO Camaros. Our inner racers really liked the Camaro GS Racecar Concept - an early prototype for the Grand Am Koni Challenge GS race series. The GS Racecar isn't wild, but it's definitely the most capable.
But our favorite ride of the GM booth had to be the Camaro Black. With its flat black hood, glowing red halo headlight rings, RS tail lamps, SS-model spoiler, dark window tint and 21-inch wheels, the Camaro Black is the 21st-century version of John Cusak's Camaro RS in Better Off Dead. The only thing we'd want to add to the package is a hot French exchange student... preferably one who can ski and wrench on our car.
FORD
Ford's booth this year was once again dominated by its xB-like Flex crossover. Not only did the Blue Oval seemingly take a page out of the Scion book when designing the car, it ripped out a few pages on how to market the ride, too. Don't get us wrong, the Flexes on hand were very nice, and we wouldn't mind one or two in our driveways, but their presentations borrowed a little too heavily from the youth/street art culture popularized by Toyota's youth brand.
Across from the monstrosity known as the Scythe (a Galpin Auto Sports-built Mustang that proudly claims to be the most modified car at SEMA) sat a few tuned Ford Focuses that, in our opinion, actually looked really good. Three Focus Coupes were rocking 3D Carbon's new Euro Series five-piece aero kit that transforms the compact from a rolling embarrassment to something pretty cool. The Barber Racing Experience Focus, as you can guess, was built for race duty while the FS Werks car boasted two times the power and torque of a stock Focus (plus a sick set of JDM-approved Work Equip wheels). We'd love to see Ford work with these concepts and give us a true rival to the Cobalt SS... at least until the Euro Focus RS makes its way over here.
But the big gun at the Ford booth was the new F-150 SVT Raptor. Ford took a base F-150, added a crazy-powerful 5.4-liter Triton V8, Fox Racing Shox and a host of other rugged modifications to create a turn-key off-road racer. This is Ford's "Type R" for those 909-ers with the MCD gear and flat-billed hats.
MAZDA
With the next Mazda3 set to be introduced at the upcoming 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show, Ford-owned Mazda decided to make its new Mazda6 sedan the star of its SEMA booth. Mazda called up Troy Lee Designs Designs (the same people who designed the car liveries of the first Fast and Furious flick) to transform its new sedan into a NASCAR Car of Tomorrow. While there is no pushrod V8 to be found under the bonnet of this sedan, it does rock a set of Momo Strike wheels, Hoosier tires, Eibach Springs and Wilwood brakes.
C'mon back tomorrow for more of our roundup of the SEMA OEs...
www.chrysler.com
www.ford.com
www.gm.com
www.mazda.com
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