(Ed. Note: Our man in the Las Vegas CC Field Office made his way into the SEMA show that started today and put together a massive photo display below for this special edition outside of the normal posting schedule. Enjoy the offerings, there’s likely something for everyone!)
I may not have been able to get Media credentials at SEMA, but a contractor badge accomplishes much the same thing. Following is a large media dump from my camera. I don’t have any real details on any of these, but I “edited” my photo taking to include only the sorts of cars that I deemed CC-worthy. Enjoy!
Optima, costs a lot more than regular batteries but somehow ends up a lot being worse.
I agree. Worked for a time for a national auto parts chain. We always smiled inwardly at guys who had tricked out Jeeps and such, that where NEVER going off road, and the “roughest” hill climb was the traffic humps in parking lots or side streets. They would pay premium $ for a OPTIMA battery, cause it looked Tough, and they believed the advertising hype..you know.. “TOUGH ENOUGH FOR THE BAJA!!” kind of crap.
Also, I have never understood making your ride look like a RATROD. I understand a rat rod if it was put together by a 16 year old, who found a car or truck in a field, and was told by farmer “brown” if you can get it running, its yours. So kid does what he can, with what he has. But spending big $ to make it look like crap??
Ah welll, as Dolly Parton once said “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap!”
I miss sidewalls.
Of all these, the Gremlin dragster got my attention the most, that’s a change from the ordinary!
Me too. It somehow makes the chopped off Hornet body work.
Ditto.
Agreed, but what it really reminds me of is the Modified race cars of the 1970s and 1980s.
The BMW M1 has aged well. I like that Volvo as well.
Hot Wheels !
The Brewster green 70 Formula is my favorite here. Favorite color, restomodded but not overdone visually. I’d daily drive that with a cheaper set of wheels and tires to abuse. Much of the rest of the customs are kinda meh, they seem like typical SEMA fare for the last 15 years, big wheels and zero suspension travel. The Gremlin is cool though.
All the photos and videos I see from SEMA over the years nothing ever appeals to me. I prefer the cars I see at a local cars and coffee or a cruise in than what’s in these photos. I prefer real world cars than the ones only a very select few can afford to own.
Me too. These, for the most part, are pampered hangar queens that only accumulate miles rolling onto and off the trailer that hauls them to shows. We’ve all seen too many of these at the televised auto auctions. Not that I blame the owners, they’ve spent more on these than I would spend for a house, and they don’t want to risk their pride and joy getting a rock chip driving to a show. I suspect they would be breaking down a lot if they actually did drive them any distance.
Me three through seventy-two (I’m stuffin’ the ballot box). Of this lot, the Volvo 242 is the only one that doesn’t inspire an “Oh, grow up” reaction from me.
Yeah, kind of smitten with the Volvo. Sans stickers, of course.
And also, somebody go put a can of hardware store “chrome” spray paint in the owner’s hands, and a roll of masking tape, and a roll of paper towel and a bottle of alcohol, and a Philips screwdriver, and frogmarch them over to the car. Stand over them til they remove the front park/turn signal lenses, remove the bulbs, stuff wads of tape in the bulb sockets and use more tape to mask off the surrounding bodywork, wipe the reflectors with the alcohol on the paper towel, then shoot the reflectors with the “chrome” spray paint.
(Yes, this is the right way to fix it when these lamps lose their shiny stuff and go all black like the ones in the pic. Once reassembled, other drivers will actually be able to see the signals.)
While I appreciate the amazing work that has gone into these, hardly any of these do anything for me. Those big wheels are so overplayed at this point and LED headlights in anything old just look HORRIBLE.
I’ll echo what most of the other CCC’s (CC Curmudgeons) have said about ride height and wheel diameters and sidewall heights, but there are still some nice efforts here. The blue 4 door Chevelle, and especially the Honda N600 with what is presumably a Fireblade (CB1000RR) engine – and fuel tank! – under the hood, are the best.
I wondered what that was in the Honda!
Some cool stuff but the only ones I truly want are the BMW M1 and the Ford Escort RS
Gotta go with the bus. I have a thing for vehicles that at first sight create the reaction “WT# were they thinking!”
More on the 73 Challenger here, it’s a golf trophy.
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2019/11/06/schwab-strope-challenger-model-cars/
Nope on most of these.
And the more I see newer custom wheels, the more I appreciate what’s come to be my favorite design, the American Racing Torq-Thust 5-spoke wheel.