It’s almost that time of year again, so to get into the spirit of things, we’re looking back at some of the best SEMA builds ever created!
The SEMA Show is the place to be if you want to see some high-end modified vehicles. But before we get into the cars, let’s bring you up to speed with what SEMA is all about, just in case it’s new to you…
The Early Years
Founded in 1963, SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) was the first alliance between equipment manufacturers, dealers, wholesalers and salesmen in the speed equipment field. Prior to this time, there were no unified efforts to unite these companies and sellers towards common goals. By the time the 1980s rolled around, there were lots of changes for the SEMA Show, as the event covered many aspects of the automotive aftermarket well beyond the racing segments. SEMA had matured and there was now a lot more to see than simply racing equipment!
Dawn of the SEMA build craze
One aspect that really saw a new look at SEMA was when General Motors, Ford and Chrysler had become heavily involved in SEMA Show displays and presentation. What they did was add a lot of “flash” to the event, and included with that came factory concept cars to Las Vegas for the industry to see. The whole deal with new “builds” for SEMA started because of exhibitors wanting something in their booth area that would gather attention, not only for the crowds at hand, but also for the magazine photographers that would be sharing the story in the pages of the publications. That started the trend to have special vehicles debuted at this annual car “Mecca” and it continues today.
As example, when car builders were planning to create a masterpiece for launch at SEMA, they knew that if they hit up various aftermarket parts and accessories suppliers for “free” parts and let them know it would be a “SEMA vehicle” well the answer was typically yes. And that’s because the exposure would be great and the parts manufacturers would get extra media from it. In 2014 the SEMA organization realized just how big of a deal these new SEMA-focused builds were, and with that, the “Battle of the Builders” program began. Oftentimes examples of these “battle” vehicles feature “big three” (GM, Ford, Mopar) factory-engineered crate engines and factory-engineered performance parts.
SEMA is a special event that previews new “trends” and innovations, and there’s competition between high-profile builders as well as lesser-known shops to come up with worthy, head-turning cars and trucks that gets recognition for fresh ideas.
Here’s a sampling of what my camera has captured through the years:
Best SEMA Builds Ever
The Las Vegas Strip! Excitement overflows in this town…the old saying: what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!
Think Pink
Here’s an example of an early “SEMA build” which was a Neon Pink creation shot for numerous car magazines, then shown at the SEMA Show. Jim Davis of B&M Racing Transmissions was the brains behind the project, a wild ’67 Pro Street Camaro. It featured an Art Morrison chassis, 803-horsepower big block Chevy with B&M MegaBlower. Major attention-getter at the 1990 show, crazy paint by Jon Kosmoski.
The California Corvette
“The California Corvette”, or Sting Ray III concept carto give it its formal name, debuted at the 1992 show to highlight some of the new developments that Chevrolet was working on. Computer-adjusted suspension, all-wheel steering, but the buzz-kill was the V6 engine and 3-lug wheels. It would have flopped in the marketplace!
Smoothster
Truly a part of hot rod history, the Fred Warren 1937 Ford “Smoothster” was designed by Larry Erickson and finished by Boyd Coddington. A young Chip Foose sanded the 66 grille bars before the chroming process.
Bubbles
Fitted with 17-inch diameter Billet Specialties Wheels and unique paint, the “Bubbles” Chevy Astro Van was a fun take on the modernized custom van scene. California Custom USA handled the build, lowering the van with Belltech dropped spindles and air bag rear suspension. Meanwhile, they also gave it 4-wheel disc brakes, a CCUSA body kit, and rear-mounted wing.
SNIPER
“Build something different” was the general theme of the Troy Trepanier-built “Sniper” 1954 Plymouth. Designed by Chip Foose and rolling on 18- and 20-inch wheels by Body, the car was mostly Dodge Viper (V10 engine, 6-speed manual transmission, f&r suspension, brakes) with a body swap.
The donor car was a real ’54 Belvedere convertible and the custom-built roof was hand made. Headlights came from a Mercedes and the rear deck was lengthened 14-inches with the PPG paint (Spanish Olive Green and Deep Moss Green) providing a classic look. It debuted at the 1997 SEMA Show, as part of the Hot Rod Magazine 50th Anniversary celebration.
Dodge Dakota Sidewinder
The Dodge Dakota Sidewinder was a concept vehicle which debuted at the 1996 SEMA Show. It was a radical 2-seat convertible pickup packed with a Viper GTS-R 8.0L V10 engine. 21-inch front and 22-rear wheels sat within its arches and the machine was conceived as a sportier take of the 2nd-generation production Dakota truck.
Lone Wolf
Front and center in the Mallory Ignition / Erson Cams booth was this chopped “Lone Wolf” 1957 Buick built by Jim Farcelo of Kreative Kustoms. Featuring a laid-back windshield, pinched front fenders and custom f&r bumpers, the sleek creation was finished off with gold-tangerine metalflake paint and some very unique cheese-grater fender skirts.
Extremliner
One of the most “extreme” Woodie Customs ever built has to be the 1937 Studebaker, a curvaceous art deco style creation built by Ken “Posies” Fenicals, a project that featured all exterior trim work built from wood then recast into fiberglass (for longevity) and designed to then simulate the real thing.
Paint finish was a PPG Gold Razzleberry hue and inside featured ostrich graining. Called the ‘Extremeliner’, the wagon was designed with help from a series of detailed drawings from artist Thom Taylor.
Chrysler PT Cruiser
In the year 2000, SEMA was all about showcasing what was on the marketplace for the Detroit auto makers, and one of the highest profile vehicles was the Chrysler PT Cruiser, where ‘PT’ stood for Personal Transport. This particular example had a suicide door conversion, big rollers, some classic hot rod flames and billet grille.
The reality for these cars was that they were not really “hot rods”, but with the retro styling, a lot of the public thought they were something special!
Ram Air 6
Displayed at the GM exhibit area in 2004, the Pontiac employees had spent a long while building this “Ram Air 6” (with spare parts), a car reminiscent of the old GTO “Judge”. It had a 6.4L V8, six-speed manual gearbox and 20-inch rollers. Performance-hungry crowds loved it, but unfortunately it never (in this variation) made production. “Coulda-Shoulda!”
2004 Cobra
Ford Motor Company had a massive display area in 2004 and one of the “concepts” on display was the modernized Cobra with Shelby markings. While it of course never saw the day of light in a Ford showroom, it gave their designers something to dream up for Las Vegas. In fact, it would even later go on to have a starring role in 2005 action movie, xXx: State of the Union.
Drag Pak Hemi Challenger
The engineers at Dodge debuted their latest factory drag “test car” at the 2010 running at SEMA, the Drag Pak Hemi Challenger with some distinctive body graphics. Mopar was never afraid to show-off some high horsepower rides in their booth, and this one brought a lot of attention to Challenger fanatics!
Pegasus
“Pegasus” is the name of this 1971 Ford Mustang. Typically, this is not normally the choice of body for Pony Car customizers, however in the case of the William “Buddy” Shores-owned car, it looks spectacular. In fact, at first glance it is not obvious that the car has had some 6-inches of length taken out of the front end and an inch taken out of the wheelbase!
Thanks to Goolsby Customs (Bessemer, Alabama) for their handiwork, especially Ben Hermance for his expertise in dealing with the overall concept and design, really making the “undesirable” big Mustang body something very pleasing to the eye.
Hot Rod Magazine Road Runner
A top chop and re-worked cowl of a ’68 Plymouth Road runner, this example is a radical build shown for the first time at the Hot Rod Magazine booth.
Steve Strope’s ’65 Mustang
“Pure Vision” is a shop run by car builder Steve Strope and this ’65 Mustang he built, it was a wild creation, had all the trick road-race suspension upgrades from Detroit Speed and retro “Martini Racing” graphics.
The real treat was under the hood – one of the ultra-rare Ford/Lotus DOHC Indy V8 race engines that redlined at 9K for Indy 500 duty back in 1964… now repurposed and fitted inside the classic fastback. With a lot of hard work, it debuted at SEMA, winning the Ford Design Award.
Roadster Shop Charger
The Roadster Shop created this tubular chassis equipped 1968 Dodge Charger that features a 1.5-inch chop top, 1300-hp twin-turbo V10 Viper power and Vector wheels, which gives it a certain late 1970s retro look. It’s really an extensive redesign of the classic coke-bottle Charger body shape with modern underpinnings and extreme power.
Impulse
For 2015, Bonnell’s Rod Shop created this radical “Impulse” ’68 Camaro. It was chopped and dropped, and featured big rollers, sort of an aerodynamic modern Pro Street ride! Paint by PPG and wheels supplied by Forgeline.
Ring Brothers Cadillac
The Ring Brothers went all out for the 2016 SEMA Show with their ’48 Cadillac Fastback, creating what they thought the original Cadillac factory would have done to it back in the day, had they had they magically had the resources of 2016 technology.
Surprisingly, under the hood is not a gnarly big cube V8 but rather an ATS-V twin turbo V6 that cranks out 464 horsepower with power put to the ground via an 8-speed automatic transmission.
V12 LS Camaro
Walking outside at the SEMA Show in 2016, out front in the parking lot display area…a slammed ’67 Camaro with a one-off V-12! Outside the front of the convention center was a wild V12 ’67 Camaro that features a one-off LS engine that came from Australia. Down under, the folks who built this mad engine are currently performing development work with the intention of marketing these unique power units, using a one-piece cast block and matching cylinder heads. If 8 is good, 12 is even better! Click here to find out more.
Gone-Mad
Clean throw-back to station wagons, SEMA Show 2016 saw this: Wearing Rescue Green BASF paint, the ’55 “Gone-Mad” Chevrolet Nomad is a well-done tri-five wagon that is a true work of art on wheels.
Classic Car Studio of St. Louis, MO, oversaw the project and Scott Shafiroff built the 625-hp big block (504-cid). Billet Specialties was the wheel source, 18s up front and 20s in the rear. Spectre Performance had the vehicle in their booth and it was a serious attention getter.
Troy
There were numerous hot rods at the show that were top shelf in every way, and to decide which was the “best of the best” was no easy chore. At the end of the event the announcement came that this 1929 Ford Model A Ford Tudor was voted “2017 SEMA Battle of the Builders Winner.”
Troy Trepanier did so many hand-crafted mods to the car that it’s not possible to list them all, but highlights of the ride include a generally hand-built customized body, an all-aluminum Bob Panella-built 377-cid GM small block, Bowler T-56 Magnum transmission, modified Halibrand rear end, 19- and 20-inch diameter machined wheels, Excelsior radials from Coker, Italian leather interior, and 1935-36 inspired grille shell. Wild!
Defiant
Ring Brothers got a new sponsor in the form of Prestone and they put together something out of the ordinary, not a Camaro or Mustang, but an AMC Javelin! This one was a 1972 “AMX” version, and with a lot of little mods to the already creatively shaped body, they built a true one-of-a-kind show car.
Under the hood they ditched the “Rambler” V8 and dropped in a Mopar 6.2L Hellcat Hemi, and a Whipple 4.5L supercharger as the cherry on top. The brothers then hooked the Dodge power unit up to a Chevrolet 4L80E automatic transmission and 12-bolt Chevy rear end. The suspension systems came from a Camaro-based Detroit Speed front end with Ring Bros’ 4-link in the rear. HRE wheels and BASF Jasop Gold paint further enhance the stylish ride.
COPO 427
Chevrolet has been promoting their historical “COPO” (Central Office Production Order) drag race car promotion pretty heavy in recent years and for 2019, the big deal was “Celebrating 50 years of the COPO Camaro legacy”. With that, Chevy intended to build 69 of these new 2019 drag cars.
All feature Metallic Blue paint, and the engines are “Chevy Orange” with chrome valve covers – a visual throw-back to the 69 original ZL1 427 Camaros from back in the day. These are full-competition vehicles and not street legal.
Road Rage
Another Camaro from 2018. “Road Rage” is a wild second-gen Camaro wide-body which comes from the Roadster Shop and uses their RS Fast Track IFS/IRS chassis and Texas Speed-built 750-hp LSX454. The 1970 body received a whopping amount of metal working and with those body mods came custom-made carbon fiber front and rear valances, bumpers removed.
The craftsmanship is off-the-chart and those gold-hued Forgeline center lock wheels really jump with the BASF Glasurit Rage Blue paint. Those are Kinsler stack injectors are peeking-out from the hood.
Kasper
A cool Plymouth Duster from the 2018 show, bought new in 1974 by Beth Hazelwood. This is a 340 Duster that spent time racing in NHRA Stock Eliminator, running 11.20s. Fast forward to current times, 2018 SEMA, Goolsby Customs have brought the car back to life. The restoration includes a Hellcat Hemi engine and a real ‘retro’ presentation!
It rolls on EVOD 18s and the stance is all 1970s. Beth is very happy with it now and she named it “Kasper” (The friendly ghost) as it was “lost” for a time as after Hurricane Katrina hit where she lives, it was missing for a time period. Clean and fresh ideas!
Valkyrja
Early Chevy Camaros are always favorites for builders, and again for the 2019 show, the Ring Bros did another winner! The ’69 Camaro they built stands in Glasurit 90 Line TOTOPKG Green paint, complete with carbon fiber roof panel, radical interior modifications and body tweaks front and rear.
890-hp from a Whipple-charged LS3 and a set of one-off HRE wheels, it’s striking in appearance to say the very least!
Hoonigan Mk3 Camaro
There was still plenty of interest in big, thirsty V8s at the Chevrolet booth at the 2021 SEMA gathering, in a first ever partnership between Chevrolet and Hoonigan, here’s the 1988 third-generation Camaro project vehicle set up with the new ZZ632 crate engine. 1,004 horsepower naturally-aspirated and all on 93-octange fuel. It features Heidts suspension, Baer brakes, a Jerico 4-speed gearbox and American Racing F503 wheels.
C10Slayer
And now for something completely different! Starting with what was once an innocent 1965 Chevrolet C10 pickup, Brad and Doug DeBerti have built (with help from HPTuners) what is now known as the “C10Slayer” six wheeler. Yep, you’re not seeing things, this C10 has a custom-built tandem axle incorporated into a purpose-built 2×4-inch chassis.
20-inch diameter machined Govad Wheels give it that Hot Wheels look. Power from the 1000-hp LSX-376 engine (Whipple supercharged with 12-injector EFI arrangement) goes to both axles, and the rig fully capable of smoking all four rear wheels…
Two Guys Garage Charger Fastback
The original Dodge Charger was a dramatic “fastback” and the Heidt’s Suspension booth gave this one some love. The Mopar crowd has overlooked these models from 1966-7 to some degree, but this one received some unique one-of-a-kind alterations.
It rides on Fikse wheels and those rear quarter panels bulge out for clearance. Plus, the vents are now functional! Two Guys Garage are the outfit who put it all together, and while at first people considered it an ugly duckling at the start of a nine-year build, it’s now a serious head-turner. The lower roof and re-angled A-pillars, were part of a three and a half year-reshaping project, and it’s fair to say that the final result was worth the effort.
Enyo
The big winner in the 2022 “Battle of the Builders” competition was the Ring Brothers “Enyo” that started out as a 1948 Chevrolet Loadmaster truck. The project took some 8,600 construction hours, and features a 510-cid Todd Goodwin Kinsler FI eight stack induction, a top chop of 4-inches, a body narrowing of 4-inches, plus tons of other subtle and not so subtle changes. Those include a clamshell hood, full bellypan, side air intake, and so on. It rolled out of the shop as the top dog at SEMA 2022!
SEMA Show takes place October 31 – November 3, 2023 and if you love modified cars or are involved in the industry, it’s without question the place to be! Viva Las Vegas!
Photography by James Maxwell.
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