2018 SEMA Sneak Peek #MTSEMA18
Wide bodied, engine swapped, aero’ed up and ready to party in Las Vegas
The SEMA Show is back, and so are we – four days of picking our jaw up off the floor from a multitude of bonkers builds in the Las Vegas Convention Center, and four nights (or so) of debauchery and tomfoolery of one kind or another. The annual trade show is a networking event for people at all levels in the global automotive aftermarket industry, from manufacturers to retailers, builders to end users, all under a handful of giant roofs in the southern Nevada desert. But we know it as one of the biggest stages for modifiers and customizers, and have seen over the years some of the greatest creations emerge from the show.
Regrettably SEMA is an “industry-only” gig, and so very rarely do the general public get to draw back the curtain. Never fear, faithful Super Street follower, for we’ve got you covered, with some of the hottest early snapshots from set-up day on the show floor.
Every year Toyo Tires sets up a space – a rest stop for show goers, really – known as the Treadpass in between the LVCC’s Central and South Halls, and every year it seems like the cars just get better and better. Our curiosity was piqued by its press release a few days back, but what we found blew us away a little – Streetfighter LA supercharged Hemi E46, the widebody LTO E30 on Rotiform BM1s, the 911 with Sunburst aero from Japan (the anti-RWB!), even the Pandem GReddy FC3S in the lead shot – all sick sick sick. We won’t gush too much, because the Treadpass will get its own story, but geez Louise the cars were good!
Suspension companies brought some lookers to the show, like Ryan Hoegner’s 1982 Porsche 911 SC barn find restomod in the Eibach Springs booth; we covered the start of this project, and will have a lot more on Ryan’s car in the not-too-distant future. Elsewhere, in the H&R Springs area, we were digging on the Rotiform, Race Service Scirocco, complete with over-fenders and wacky livery. The one car you could not overlook, though, was the Stanceworks Ford Model A; if we’re not mistaken, the same builder did a similar rat-rod restoration using BMW motivation, but for this one he went back to Ford to stick with the theme we surmise. Not usually our thing, but when it’s this over the top you can’t but stop and stare.
Can-Jam Motorsports, the shop that claims it’s home to the fastest Subarus in Canada, dropped a special WRX off at the show, the time attack machine that was the overall winner of the 2018 Speed Ring (taking a slight detour to SEMA on its way to Super Lap Battle in a little over a week, maybe?) In the CSF booth, the cooling company that has stunned in years past with the RyWire Integra and Ravi Dolwani’s Evo X, and this year they have in their corral the latest Sheepey Built offering, a Ferrari 488 Spider, continuing in his pivot to supercars (like the Huracan we featured not long ago). You will find in greatest numbers, however, photos of Kyle Kuhnhausen’s LS1-swapped BRE-liveried Datsun 240Z in the WELD booth. Dropping a GM V8 into a RWD J car isn't anything new, but Kyle's S30 is more than a simple swap recipient, boasting tons of fantastic fab work and an incredible amount of attention to detail. Dubbed "InZanity," Kyle handled the build and all of the fabrication work himself, his hands on virtually every part of the sports car.
My dad was a do-it-yourselfer, which is where my interest in cars began. To save money, he used to service his own vehicles, and I often got sent to the garage to hold a flashlight or fetch a tool for him while he was on his back under a car. Those formative experiences activated and fostered a curiosity in Japanese automobiles because that’s all my Mexican immigrant folks owned then. For as far back as I can remember, my family always had Hondas and Toyotas. There was a Mazda and a Subaru in there, too, a Datsun as well. My dad loved their fuel efficiency and build quality, so that’s how he spent and still chooses to spend his vehicle budget. Then, like a lot of young men in Southern California, fast modified cars entered the picture in my late teens and early 20s. Back then my best bud and I occasionally got into inadvisable high-speed shenanigans in his Honda. Coincidentally, that same dear friend got me my first job in publishing, where I wrote and copy edited for action sports lifestyle magazines. It was my first “real job” post college, and it gave me the experience to move just a couple years later to Auto Sound & Security magazine, my first gig in the car enthusiast space. From there, I was extremely fortunate to land staff positions at some highly regarded tuner media brands: Honda Tuning, UrbanRacer.com, and Super Street. I see myself as a Honda guy, and that’s mostly what I’ve owned, though not that many—I’ve had one each Civic, Accord, and, currently, an Acura RSX Type S. I also had a fourth-gen Toyota pickup when I met my wife, with its bulletproof single-cam 22R inline-four, way before the brand started calling its trucks Tacoma and Tundra. I’m seriously in lust with the motorsport of drifting, partly because it reminds me of my boarding and BMX days, partly because it’s uncorked vehicle performance, and partly because it has Japanese roots. I’ve never been much of a car modifier, but my DC5 is lowered, has a few bolt-ons, and the ECU is re-flashed. I love being behind the wheel of most vehicles, whether that’s road tripping or circuit flogging, although a lifetime exposed to traffic in the greater L.A. area has dulled that passion some. And unlike my dear ol’ dad, I am not a DIYer, because frankly I break everything I touch.
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