Created: 4/3/2004
What better way for a gearhead/ automotive enthusiast to spend a Saturday in Southern California than to hang out with the vendors at the Specialty Equipment Makers Associations International Auto Salon. Say that fast ten times. We went in at 10 AM, 2 hours before the general public was allowed in to look at all the new trends, new parts, new technologies, and future innovations. There were too many cars to take pictures of some nice, some rice. Most of the sport compact car vendors were there in force peddling their wares. Of course, there were the women. Come on guys, not to offend the ladies out there, but how else to get the race driver in us motivated than to see beautiful women posing in front of awesome fossil fuel combusting 4 wheeled dream machines. BF Goodrich also had a small autocross course set up in a parking lot behind the convention center. They had 3 vehicles for us to burn rubber around the course-- a Nissan 350Z Enthusiast model with automatic transmission, a Subaru WRX STi 6 speed manual, and an Acura RSX Type S 6 speed. We compared the newest BFGs with a comparable set from Dunlop. The difference was definitely pronounced when taking the cars around the course. They had a set of BFGs on one car and then the Dunlops on it's twin for comparison. All in all, it was a great time and I just can't wait for SEMA in Las Vegas this coming November. Enjoy the pictures.
This is the view from
the top of the escalator down towards the lobby of the Convention Center.
The view into the main
exhibition area from outside the glass doors.
Ferrari Enzo that
belongs to the owner of West Coast Customs in Manhattan Beach. This is one of
two that he owns. He also owns a yellow one. It must be nice to be rich.
Nissan Skylines
Signal Auto sponsored
R-34
Nissan 350Zs
Endless' sponsored
350Z.
Infiniti G-35 Coupes
Nissan 240SXs and Silvias
Datsun 510s
John Morton's BRE
Datsun 510 championship racer. It was trailered by a new Nissan Armada with
matching paint scheme.
Acura NSXs
Honda S2000s
Adam Saruwatari's S&L
racing Drag NSX
Other Hondas and Acuras
Nice paint job on
Honda Prelude.
Chrome whore to the
max.
Other Cars
Someone forgot to
remove the car cover, or, it's some secret rice project.
One of many Cadillac
Escalades.
Audi TT.
Subaru STi.
Lexus IS300.
Dodge Durango.
Another Cadillac
Escalade with spinning rims. Hey wait, it's the infamous severed head. How did
he get into the picture?
Pontiac Sunfire.
Mercedes Benz CL 430.
Mitsubishi Eclipse
Spyder on airbags.
Dodge Viper.
One of many Scion Xbs.
Chrysler PT Cruiser.
Mitsubishi 3000 GT
VR-4.
Mazda RX-7 3-rotor
turbo.
BMW M3.
Dodge Viper powered
Ram SRT-10 .
Nissan Titan truck on
airbags.
Lotus Elise.
Flared out Supra with
wrong-sized tires IMHO.
Another Supra's engine
bay. Unfortunately my exterior pictures came out blurry.
Mazda RX-8.
Awesome interior in
this Nissan Armada SUV. I want those seats.
Ferrari 360 Modena.
Aston Martin DB-7.
Lamborghini Murcielago.
Rhys Millen's Pontiac
sponsored GTO drift car. I was lucky enough to see and hear this beast in action
at the D-1 drift event last month. Go check out my coverage on the D-1 event.
The funny thing about this car was that it had some Japanese parts installed as
well.
Subaru STi.
Shaquille O'neill's personal cars.
Shaq's Escalade that
is now owned by DUB magazine. .
Shaq's Hummer H2.
Shaq's custom Rolls
Royce.
Vendors
Aftermarket camber
adjusters.
Stainless steel
exhaust products, etc.
Some seats available
from Recaro.
Two of Fluidyne's
offerings.
Endless vendor booth.
HKS tuned Time Attack
Mitsubishi Lancer EVO. It's got some awesome bodywork.
HKS SR20DET race
motor.
Some of Enkei's rim
offerings. Guess which one are my wheels.
HKS S-15 dashboard
demo. Check out the 6 speed HKS sequential transmission. It has an MSRP of
$20,000.00.
Nismo booth.
Of course, no car show is complete without beautiful models. =)
Smile, you are on
candid camera. ;-)
The Nismo girls.
The BF Goodrich Girl.
She was my personal favorite in the show.
She wasn't one of the
models. She went to the show with her boyfriend. I didn't know so I snapped some
pictures. I found out later that she was just there for some pictures. I hope
her boyfriend wasn't mad at me. Just remember, if you pose on a car like a
model, we are going to take pictures of you like you we would for a model.
The girl in green was
one of the Tein girls.
Yours truly hamming it
up in front of the camera. Of course, I
couldn't leave the show without getting a couple of pictures with some of the
models.
Otto.
Kevin (from the
infamous "severed head" series).
I would have to say
that I got the severed head's seal of approval for SEMA. Look out Las Vegas,
we'll be there in November... Viva Las Vegas.
Last updated: 4/5/2004