Best New Tools from SEMA 2010 I'm no body man, and I'm not sure I want to be. It's hard work, takes a long time to learn and it's probably done wrong as much as it's done right. I do know something about inspecting bodywork in preparation for paint or checking a painted car to see if it's straight.  Straight has different meanings though. To some professional body men and to car owners who'll only be happy with the best, it means "like a mirror". I looked at the door shown above for a while cause I knew it had dents in it. These dents had been filled by body filler, probably a ton of it... otherwise, there wouldn't be much to show for The Filler Detective! To review, "Body Filler" is the generic term for products such as: Bondo (a 3M product), Putty or spot putty, Feather-Rite or Duraglass from USChemical or Evercoat. Whatever you call it, filler is part of the bodywork process and in very general terms, the less of it you use, the better the bodyman or bodywork. Without going into too much detail on that,...

SEMA 2010 Car Show Mistakes In case you didn't know, SEMA is a business convention or call it the biggest business meeting of everyone and everything that's related to the automotive industry. Want to go? Sorry, can't! SEMA is only open to SEMA Members and Automotive Industry Professionals like the guy above. Welcome to "Wrong at SEMA 2010". I managed to make it to most halls, save the entire floor of truck accessories, and see plenty that made me ask, "What the..." (Insert your own expletive.) As I'm bashing SEMA trends and pointing out styles or designs that are OUT or just plain wrong, keep in mind that these are my opinions and as you know, "My Ride is Me" so opinions vary.  Feel free to chime in to agree or disagree... I dare you! The automotive design tragedy above is a creation from Rich Evans and was part of the Mopar/Dodge booth. The turn-table spinning this normally cool looking Challenger only added to the nausea. As it spun, I challenged myself to find the angle that showed all of it's disastrous lines.  Here you go.  What's worse: Those nasty wheels...

SEMA 2010 Trends - Flat Paint Jobs Cruising SEMA, certain booths draw a crowd. The serious business people (eh..) who attend SEMA still like a model here and there to add some beauty to the mechanical toughness of the rides or parts in the booth. I gotta be honest... I don't mind it either! This is not a new trend, but flat paint jobs are! (for some rides) I searched around about the car above and found it's an NSX? That's what I'm going with. Whatever body kit it has, it's working to make me think there's some Italian heritage at play. Note the paint though... not the bold red or even the other trend I'll bring up, "Black", it's a suede yellow that fit perfectly. Tip-of-the-hat to the lovely Standard Suspension model shown here. I think she was my favorite. I wrote about this Lexus GS in the Custom Cars of SEMA day 1 story. It's cool that another car style has fully embraced flat paint jobs or call it satin, suede, matte, whatever. Traditional style hot rodders have been reviving (or maybe inventing?) flat painted rat rods...

SEMA Car Show - Our Favorite Engines I gotta be me! How could I resist the power packed old school nastiness of this blown small block Chevy riding in an authentic nostalgia dragster? Why would I want to? I talked to Dennis Overholser from Painless Performance wiring about his new ride. It's almost ready to run the full Comp Cams roller equipped Dart block at a "Drag strip near you!"  Dennis can't terrorize an existing Nostalgia Drag Racing class because of the electronic fuel injection he used but he'll still be able to tear up the quarter mile! Did I sense a little hesitation to drop the hammer Dennis? Prove me wrong! Dennis already has the Truckster featured here from 2009 SEMA Coverage, so check it out! Something like the custom fuel injected LS motor, I'm a sucker for stand up fuel injection. This bad 66 Chevelle also runs Hilborn fuel injection, but this time it's the original mechanical setup that put Hilborn on the map and made many weekend tuners wear a thinner head of hair. I don't know much more about this 427 Chevy big block beast,...

SEMA Car Show - Our Favorite Engines I tripped over my normally aspirated tongue on the way to this insane twin turbo Dodge Viper in the K&N booth at SEMA 2010 in hot rod alley. How do you take it all in?  I was so "blown" (I'm hella funny) away that I didn't grab any overall pics or get the rest of the details. I'll leave that to our friends at Speedhunters.com: From Speedhunters: What you're looking at is a stroked 510 CI Viper V10 featuring two Bullseye Power Borg Warner T-4 80mm turbos with a MoTeC M800 Engine Management System that was calibrated by Shane Tecklenburg. The result? Roughly 2000 horse power at 12 psi. No biggie. I agree, tame and ordinary! The guys at Twins Turbo Motorsports built this beast. From their website's "About Us" page,  "Twins Turbo Motorsports specializes in fuel injected turbo systems for race and street vehicles. We have been building and setting up vehicles for competition as well as for the street since 1996." It shows and their efforts landed them a prime spot at SEMA with K&N. Read the rest of the...

SEMA Car Show - Our Favorite Muscle Car Engines Feast your eyes on a little on cubes 4.6L DOHC Ford modular motor that's long on horsepower. The valve covers read "720 HP". What looks like a Kenne Bell supercharger rests on top of another super clean, not-a-wire-outa-place layout that totally makes the engine bay for me. That's the detail you'll find at the SEMA Las Vegas Car Show. Outside the convention halls, I spotted this slick custom Mustang Fastback. Maybe some can say if it's a 1967 or 1968 Mustang. It's got the 68 side scoops, but doesn't have the side marker lights of 68. I could see those shaved off for this car, but I'd also say the 67 side scoops aren't as attractive as the 68's. So in the best of both worlds custom car scenario, let's call this a 1967.5 Mustang Fastback! I'd like to tell you more about this car, but unlike most cars at the SEMA show, there was no show card and I didn't notice any sponsor stickers. Clean execution all the way! (too clean?)  Too busy trying to get the best coverage...

SEMA Car Show - Our Favorite Engines This is the kind of engine that stops you in your tracks at SEMA. Among all the great rides making the SEMA car show, standing out is tough, so hats off to the "Be Cool" Bomber project 1972 Chevelle. From their show card, this is an LS1 motor punched to 388 cubic inches and built by Terry Rosebush Performance for owner Kiet Pham. Pictured right up front you'll see the ProCharger blower force feeding the custom made Hilborn fuel injection setup. It's said, "Injection is nice but I'd rather be blown."  Why not have both?! Next two photos courtesy of the Be Cool Chevelle Facebook Page The beautiful Genevieve Chappell So this is how it started. Hilborn supplied the fuel injection setup, but from there, it was all custom. The guys from the facebook page said, "The mandrel bender will be hot on Monday!" No sweat! Eight tubes all merged to one inlet, then moving backwards, you'll go through the throttle body, to the intercooler, around to the ProCharger blower and to the air cleaner. All that fits neatly under the hood....

SEMA Car Show - Our Favorite Muscle Car Engines Steve Strope from Pure Vision built this subtle but nasty 1969 Mustang Fastback with a Boss 502 stretched to 521 cubes and a mind blowing 805 ponies on pump gas. The motor is an all aluminum Boss 9 built by Jon Kaase Racing Engines. Kaase took the original Boss 429 head design and improved on it. Bolt it to a Ford 460 and have some fun! Couple the unmistakable Ford Boss looks with the ultra-clean under hood layout that's sitting completely under the Mustang's hood and it's no wonder it's a favorite engine at MyRideisMe.com. Learn more about the Boss 9 head design from the Kaase "Boss 9" page. Built for Anvil, makers of Camaro and Mustang carbon fiber body panels, this new Boss Mustang Fastback should be as fast as it is beautiful. Congratulations to the Pure Vision Crew and Anvil on a great new ride! The crew at Pure Vision did a great job documenting the build of the Anvil Mustang.  I'll start with the video of the the engine, then step back to the intro of the...

SEMA is over and that means its time for racing! I'm out at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, NV and there are fifty amazing vehicles competing! The competition began before this morning though - it started yesterday evening as SEMA convention saw its close. At that time all available vehicles met up and left the convention center to head down the strip. I was lucky enough to grab shotgun in a 2009 Mercedes C63 AMG. If you think Mercedes are no big deal in the race world, think again. This car tore up the road!! I've never had so much fun in Vegas! More details on the road rally portion of the race later... but this picture is just one of the many adventures we got that Mercedes into last night. Out here on the road course and motocross are all sorts of cars! From classic style hot rods, to muscle cars, to modern stuff - it's all here! I've got to get back to the racing... so much excitement and they haven't even began the 0-60-0 brake challenge! You think that Mercedes has a chance of...

SEMA Automotive Conference 2010 in Las Vegas Racing & Performance, Hot Rod Alley, Restoration Marketplace, Tools & Equipment... These are just a few of my favorite sections of the 2010 SEMA show in Las Vegas. What's a girl to do in a sea of very cool car stuff??? What every guy does of course - run around like its Christmas morning! So while I finish hitting the pavement on the showroom floor to bring ya'll more info on some very cool stuff, I wanted to at least show you a few of the reasons why people get so excited about SEMA. First of all, there's some very fun things going on in displays. I'll never tire seeing an engine put together or taken apart. Especially when that engine is a Corvette LS7 engine as seen in the top picture - as is being demonstrated all week in the Chevy booth. Ya think if I hang around enough they'll let me turn a wrench?!? Speaking of turning wrenches, the high schoolers in the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge National Championship are getting an arm up on wrenching experience. These...

SEMA Car Show - Custom Cars that Rocked Las Vegas Troy Ladd from Hollywood Hot Rods showed strong up in the massive Ford display at SEMA. Ford has the best booth in the central hall overlooking the rest of Hot Rod Alley every year and always has great, new and old. That must be why they featured the vintage 427 SOHC motor in this Brookville bodied 32 Roadster Pickup. Fooled you too! That's not a cammer motor, that's Ford racing's 5.0L "Coyote" motor dressed up and cleaned up to look like my favorite vintage powerplant. Troy's a wizard at having the cleanest engines showing only minimal signs of the high-tech equipment on board. It's no show piece either! Look for more pictures of this Raybestos roadster at the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational. Straying as far away from the hot rod above as we can, dig this custom Lexus. What's old is new and there's no mistaking the hot rod or kustom car influence on this suede painted Lexus. Also note the ground scrapping airride assisted stance and the door handles shaved for the back doors, but not the...

First Gen Camaro Parts from SEMA 2010 Some of the displays at SEMA are overwhelming. Too many colors on banners flying everywhere and every part in the catalog cluttering up the booth make it hard to find anything, let alone the cool new parts for your first gen Camaro. Then I found Marquez Design. I noticed the billet gas caps above shown elegantly in the mostly black booth filled with just the right number of slick looking original designs for late-60's to early-70's muscle cars and trucks. With the LS and LSX crate motor's reliability and stout performance filling the engine bays of go-fast-turn-hard g-machines and pro-touring rides that never were real RS or SS Camaros, the LS badge fits perfectly. I asked founder and cheif designer Pascual Marquez about how he got started and he walked me over to the center billet Camaro taillight above. Back in 2003, Marquez was an admin guy that likes cars. Bored with his job and filled with desire, he created Marquez Design and put out his first Camaro taillight. That's all it took. As orders poured in, part designs and product lines were added,...