No, that wasn't some lame joke we thought of off the top of our heads because as any SEMA attendee would know, the week-long celebration of all things aftermarket for most things automotive is a long week of running from booth to booth and hard on your wallet as you drown your sorrows within a stripper's implanted chest. But such is the price we all pay to play witness to the upcoming year's new products. These are just a few of our favorite things at the '07 SEMA Show...
Scion Tuner Challenge
Scion Brought Back The Scion Tuner Challenge to SEMA, pitting three of SoCal's top car builders against one another; each team received a new '08 xD and a budget of $15K, with which they could do whatever they pleased to the cars. Team Hybrid, represented by David Huang, came back to defend last year's win against Team Auto Concept Elite and Team Koshak, and came through once again with flying colors with their bright green xD.Sources: www.teamhybrid.com; www.autoconceptelite.com
Ridemakerz
One can never be too young to get into modifying cars, which is why Ridemakerz is opening a series of stores nationwide where kids can go in and build a toy tuner car of their very own. Scion is just one of the base platforms offered, and as you can see here, you can go just as crazy with these toys like real cars. Here's a limited edition 5Axis replica, hand-signed by Troy Sumitomo himself.Source: Ridemakerz, www.ridemakerz.com
Lexus: Putting The "F" Into Fast
Lexus stepped onto the SEMA scene for its first time, introducing a line of performance accessories for the IS250/IS350 called F-Sport, which include a ton of parts, like a carbon-ceramic big brake kit, exhaust, suspension components, wheels and interior goods. Troy Sumitomo killed it (again) with his dream rendition of the 5Axis IS-F, tricked out with a custom widebody conversion, sexy matte black paint and 5Axis' own Five:AD VS:F wheels - in 20s!Source: Lexus, www.lexus.com; 5Axis, www.5axismodels.net
Winning the Best Performance-Street Product award from SEMA was Nitrous Express' Octane Series bottle volume display controller. This digital gauge will tell you how much nitrous is left in your bottle and provides real time info to let you know if you're going to run out of the juice. Additionally, this gauge has an optional air/fuel display and can also control bottle heat.Source: Nitrous Express, 940.767.7694, www.nitrousexpress.com