Bomex took its import tuning knowledge and framed its Camaro in a Silver Arrow wide-body kit that consists of front and rear fascias, side skirts, rear spoiler, and ginormously flared fenders forward and aft. The revised exterior was sprayed in coats of BASF Silver Ice Metallic, a perfect setting for the Dolce Euro 22-inch wheels adorned in Hankook Ventus ST tires.
Behind the giant rollers are equally large Rotora brakes, the fronts employing eight-piston calipers (!), and while your gaze is focused on the lower part of the car you will also see just the tips of the custom 5Zigen exhaust in back. Inside, Bomex opted for two-tone leather and alcantara interior, with a simulated leather instrument panel, door panels and rear quarter panels.
We did another double take in the North Hall when we stumbled on Kia's booth. Front and center was one of its Forte Koups in full race livery, apparently one of two racers prepped by Kinetic Group headed for the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Street Tuner (ST) class in 2010.
Based in Atlanta, Kinetic has experience in NASCAR, the IRL, and American Le Mans, and have tapped Andy Lally and Nic Jönsson as the drivers of the Koups. Veteran pilot Lally in particular will be a huge asset; the hot-shoe won the drivers' championship in Grand-Am's Rolex Sports Car Series in 2001, 2004 and 2006, and also won the 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona in the GT Class No. 67 TRG Construct Corps Porsche last January.
We found ourselves returning repeatedly to the Subaru booth over the week, at first awestruck by Ken Block's 400hp TRAX 2009 WRX STi. The Impreza was rally readied and is similar in spec to Block's Subaru Rally Team USA STi – with the exception of the Mattracks 105M1-A1 rubber tracks in each wheel well and custom sleigh hitched to the back of the thing.
Built by Vermont SportsCar, custom hubs and a three-inch drive-train drop allow the Subie to run on the treads. The builders made the sleigh out of fiberglass, rigged it with Recaro seats and an Alpine/Kicker sound system, and outfitted both car and pull-along with Yakima snowboard racks.
From the ridiculous to the sublime, the 2010 Legacy VIP in Subaru's booth was just as head-turning as Block's STi snow tank. The AWD sedan boasts JDM goods like hood, bumper faces, sports grille, front and rear under spoilers, fog lights, HID headlights, and power-folding mirrors, and comes to us colored in a hypnotizing Shinjuku Black Plum.
The Legacy rides on enormous 20x10-inch MC3 Enterprises Trinidad wheels rocking three-inch lips up front and four-inch lips in back. A Universal Air suspension allows the cars fenders to hug the running gear, while diamond-stitched seats, door trim, engine cover, and trunk trim are all finished in Togarashi red material – insane.
Finally, we can't tell you about chub-inducing SEMA vehicles without bringing up the pimp offerings in the Lexus booth. This year the luxury brand had tuners tinker on its IS C, high-profile names like Fox Marketing, 0-60 Magazine, and VIP Auto Salon, but the belle of the ball was the LFA supercar.
The wraps came off of the much-anticipated halo car at the Tokyo Motor Show last week, and it screams athletic, with short overhangs, massive 20-inch rollers at each corner, intelligent body lines both sharp and swoopy, and ingenious yet subtle ducting and aero. For weight savings without sacrificing strength, the LFA also sports Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) construction in its chassis and much of the bodywork.
To back up the supercar's drop-dead good looks, the front-mid engine, rear-wheel drive two-seater rocks a new high-revving 9,000rpm 4.8-liter V10 mill that makes a purported 552 hp and 354 lb.-ft. of torque. The bullet is mated to a paddle shifted six-speed Automated Sequential Gearbox (ASG) that's located in a transaxle layout over the rear axle for a 48:52 front-to-rear weight distribution. To rein it in, engineers slapped on racing-developed lightweight aluminum alloy suspension components complemented by Carbon Ceramic Material (CCM) brake discs.
Only 500 of Lexus' first supercar will be made, and all will be hand-assembled at the "Lexus LFA Works" at the Motomachi Plant in Toyota City, with production capped at 20 per month. Lexus will start churning them out in December 2010, with deliveries continuing for the following 24 months. Pre-sale orders are actually being taken this month, and the reported price tag will be upwards of $375,000 U.S.
While SEMA may be winding down, we still have plenty more from the show around the corner – come on back to see what's in store.
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