Nothing like a winter shoot to get you depressed. This is Jay’s 370z, and it’s probably one of the more impressive z34 builds in the country (that you’ve never heard about). More on this car in a few weeks.
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Here is the last part of Ray’s SEMA coverage. I’ve included shots from the interior of the convention center, along with many of the cars displayed outside. Although I wasn’t able to attend SEMA this year, it looks as if this convention is slowly picking up again. As you go through the pics, you’ll notice a ton of FR-S shots. Trust me, there were a ton more there. The FR-S definitely is the flavor of the month. I’m sure Toyota is breaking all kinds of sales records with this car. Warning you now that this is a massive post!
Chris Marion’s Evo X on Yoshihara Wheel designs. In addition to being a showcase of parts from various sponsors, the car hopes to bring awareness to the Relief for Japan charity(rfjp.org). Livery by Jay from JDM EGO.
Rear shot of the EVO.
Here is an interesting VIP Lexus CT200H with Garson interior.
Another shot of the blinged out interior, with full Swarovski treatment.
Here is the Avengers Hero car built by Trans FX from Torrance, California. Trans FX found a ’91 NSX with 250,000 miles for the project, and essentially hand-fabricated the concept over the chassis.
Nismo LMGT4 wheels with an an orange and white theme. Never been a huge fan of red with orange, and I probably would have matched the brembo’s up.
Surprise, surprise… the Nismo wheels are on a VIP themed LS430.
One of the highlights of the show was this Mercedes Benz C63 with Airrex equipped suspension, and WORK Emotion CR Ultimate Wheels.
Love the concave faces of the CR Ultimates. Note that you have the option to run center caps on these wheels as opposed to the original CR KAI.. The finish here is matte bronze.
Although the car is bagged, I would have probably raised it up a tad.
Speaking of MB, here is a more sinister looking C63 AMG Black Edition.
M3 with an Arkapovic exhaust system.
ISS Forged wheels on a Hyundai Genesis. If you stare at the wheel long enough, you’ll see a snow flake. Looks like the bumper fitment is a work in progress.
Here is High End Performance’s RX-7 on SSR SP1 Professors from the East Coast. Haven’t seen the Veilside Fortune Widebody kit in awhile since Tokyo Drift… spoiler alert- Poor Han. 🙁
A rare Hennessey Venom GT. This is a 1,200 hp beast.
GTR on Advan GT wheels. These wheels are really starting to grow on me and look especially great on a GTR.
You don’t see these too often, but here is a bagged GC Impreza. The hood/roof are wrapped in leather.
FR-S on the ever-popular Tra-Kyoto Rocket Bunny kit. We predict this to to be one of the best selling aftermarket kits for the FR-S due to its affordable pricing and aggressive, yet stylish looks.
Yet another Tra-Kyoto Rocket Bunny kit on Forgestar wheels. These wheels seemed to be very popular at SEMA this year.
Who isn’t a fan Smokey and the Bandit? Purists may hate this, but diggin’ the Firebird livery on a Chevy Camero.
Widebody Varis Evo X on RPF1’s.
Another shot of the baby blue EVO.
Aggressive widbody e30 m3 race car.
Absolutely love this BenSopra kit on Advan GT’s in white. Personally, this GTR has a slight edge over the Fatlace GTR. Just a ridiculously good-looking combo.
Audi R8 LMS. This is a a full-fledged race car based heavily on the R8, with a modified version of the 5.2-liter V-10. At roughly 2844 pounds, it’s some 670 pounds lighter than the R8 GT, and ditches the four-wheel drive for a lighter rear-wheel drive setup.
Track-prepped BMW 1 Series.
Godspeed project 240 on Gram Lights.
Our homies @ IND brought their M5 to SEMA this year. Check out the M5 build thread here.
Honda Odyssey on Air Runner suspension.
Our friend’s award winning TE27 on Enkei Compe prototype wheels. Even though Ray took this shot, he didn’t notice the JDMC mini sticker. Can you spot it? Be sure to check out our feature of Patrick’s car here.
Libery Walk Murcielago. Might not be everyone’s tastes, but an attention getter!
Very clean Honda CRX supporting some random replica wheel company.
Brembo Brakes are always a staple at SEMA. Displayed are even some of their OEM products they have manufactured over the years.
Evasive Motorsports’s HKS supercharged custom FR-S on Volk TE37 SL’s.
FR-S on SSR Professors. This car was one of the finalists of the Scion Tuner Challenge.
From Scion’s site, “John Toca’s “Carbon Stealth FR-S” ended up taking second place, with a build that was equal parts show and go. Toca’s build was outfitted with a number of one-off carbon fiber parts, including a rear diffuser, roof, and hood scoop to decrease the car’s already low weight. The motor in his FR-S was outfitted with a supercharger, and the interior outfitted with a variety of premium sound enhancements.”
And here is the winner of the Tuner Competition- Chris Basselgia’s “Minty Fresh” FR-S.
Rear shot of “Minty Fresh.” Build took about 3 months and along with the car, he took home 10k as the prize winner… must be nice!
And yet another FR-S.
Yikes. Alot of work obviously went into this FR-S here.
Unfortunately the rest of the car looked just as bad.
Saved the worst for last? Late 90’s/early 2000’s inspired FR-S build. Thanks again to Ray for the great coverage of SEMA and be sure to come by next week for a 370z feature! -jdmchicago
Sorry for the delay, but we are back with our Part 2 coverage by Raymond Leung. If you don’t know, Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) has been around since the early 60’s. They represent more then 6,000 companies worldwide and bring together all types of automotive-related companies. The annual convention is Vegas is something that every auto enthusiast should attend at least once. This is an industry-only convention, so be sure to get your credentials set in advance before showing up! Today we’ll focus on the wheels of SEMA. Of course, most of our coverage will feature some of our favorite Japanese manufacturers.
Yokohama/Advan offers some of the nicer wheels in the aftermarket industry today. Above are the new Advan RS II’s which just recently hit our shores. The difference between these wheels and the original RS’s is that these feature a machined side cut spokes, resulting in lighter wheels with enhanced rigidity.
Pictured above is the RS II in a Hyper Silver finish.
The RS II maintains the full-face 10 spoke design with concave spokes. Pictured above is the racing hyper black finish.
Advan wheel wall and looks like Ming from Fizz in he background with his hipster glasses.
And the other side of the Advan wheel wall.
The Advan Racing GT wheel came out early this year, but nice to see new sizing being offered. These wheels are very strong Mold-Form Forged, using A6061-T6 aluminum.
Here are the GT’s (Semi-Gloss Black) on a BenSopra GTR.
Advan Racing GT in Racing White.
SSR represented well at SEMA, so let’s go ahead and take a look at what they had to offer. Pictured above is the ever popular SP1’s in a Spectrum Silver finish.
SSR Wheel Wall.
Not 100% of the proper name of these wheels, just know they are the replacements of the popular Type-C’s.
Here is the new Executor CV01 from SSR. This is a three piece wheel in a black finish and polished lip.
Here is the CV01 in a more traditional/classic silver look. This particular finish is called “Titan Silver.”
CV01 again in a super concave face.
SSR Executor CV02. Available only in 19″, 20″, and 21.”
Side angle of the CV02’s.
Rays always represents well at SEMA. Here is a wheel you definitely won’t see on the streets- Rays formula 1 racing wheel. This is a Forged 1 piece Wheel (Magnesium) Center Lock wheel. I don’t even want to know the price of these!
Volk Wheels (manufactured by Rays) have been some of the more popular aftermarket wheels in the tuner community for over 10 years. Recently we have been seeing a comeback of retro-designs such as the TE37v. You can get these bad boys in sizes 14″-17.”
Rays Humura 2×7 Wheel. Although this is a 1 piece cast wheel, best believe the manufacturing process and materials used are 100x better then the crappy cast replicas coming out of China.
Volk TE37 Time Attack Edition Wheels (glossy black with the polished lip) and Volk G12’s.
Volk G25 and our friend sloppy Joe in the background rocking an EQ bag!
Another angle of the Volk G25 with Type 3 face. That’s it for now, more coverage in a few days!
After a crazy week in Vegas, our good friend Raymond Leung returned back with some good pics from the SEMA show. We’ll first start with some photos of the Fatlace Ben Sopra R35 build. As you may remember, the BenSopra GTR was easily the most hyped car from the last Tokyo Auto Salon earlier this year. Arguably one of the more aggressive aero kits available for the GTR, it’s nice to see a few of these kits finally outside of Japan. Ray mentioned that the Fatlace GTR had a similar level excitement at SEMA. So with that said, let’s take a closer look.
With a price point of $50k + (not including the car, noobs), each BenSopra kit is custom made with great attention to detail. The fiberglass pieces are lightweight and fitment is what you would expect for something this baller.
Style + Aerodynamics is present throughout. Beefy Falken 615’s tires wrap the Work Gnosis GS4’s with what looks like a Matte Black Face with Anodized Gloss Bronze Lip. I’ll have to double check with Ray on this finish considering he had a similar look on his own Work S1R’s.
Very subtle graphics and support to sponsors are tastefully done on the car. The entire BenSopra GTR GT aero kit include the front hood, front lip, front fenders, side skirts, side canards, rear bumper, rear under diffuser, and rear wing.
Perhaps one of the more beastly GT Wings you’ll ever see.
The rear of the car has an incredible presence. No doubt will intimidate on future track days.
A wider shot of the Falken booth. It’s too bad we couldn’t see the hood propped to reveal some of the Greddy goodies underneath.
One last shot of the massive rear tires and aggressive wheels. SEMA coverage tomorrow will focus on the wheels of SEMA. Stay tuned!
Today was part 1 of our model shoot to feature some of the JDM Chicago merchandise that will finally be available online for purchase. We don’t typically do the typical model-type photography, but thought it would be a cool idea to launch our store. This is a teaser shot I took today, behind our primary shooter Ethan Caldwell. Also, special thanks to model Julia Marchese, and the LOS Garage Team- Sonny Chan and Jon Domingo.
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