Officially, there is no best of show for SEMA; this isn’t the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, and there are no navy blazers and straw boaters here, just T-shirts and tennis shoes. And pants, of course. But that doesn’t mean you can’t pick a few favorites. I certainly saw a lot of the show since rolling into town on Monday. For those keeping track, according to that little health app on my phone, I walked 11,041 steps Monday, 16,999 Tuesday and only 10,376 Wednesday, which is good for 15.7 miles up and down the aisles of the vast SEMA wilderness. So, as a skilled team of podiatrists and chiropractors work over my aching feet and back, my fingers are still able to type out this list of my favorite cool cars from SEMA 2017 — here they are:
Rick Dore’s “Illusion”
Rick Dore’s ‘Illusion’
Rick Dore builds customs that look like they could have been made in France in the 1930s. But instead of Dore et Filaschi, it’s just Dore, with beautiful metalwork by Luc Delay of Marcel’s. This particular body rides on a chassis by Art Morrison and Steve Wilks. There’s no interior yet, the better to show off all that Dynamat soundproofing — it was parked in the Dynamat booth, after all. Like it? It’s for sale. Contact Rick himself.
Twin-Turbo Tucker
Twin-Turbo Tucker
Rob Ida Concepts of Morganville, New Jersey, makes all kinds of cool cars, but you may know them best for their Tuckers. They make the whole thing by hand. This particular Tucker is powered by a Cadillac Northstar engine mounted longitudinally, forward of the rear axle and powering the rear wheels. Yes, that would suggest susceptibility to oversteer. So they added lead to the front to balance the weight out. The twin turbos reside in the trunk. I’m moving to New Jersey.
Emory Motorsports’ 356 RSR
Emory Motorsports’ 356 RSR
Emory takes old Porsches and does whatever it is artistically compelled to do with them. Some call it sacrilege to slice up a 356 and do what God and Ferry Porsche never intended. But maybe it’s just that no one else ever thought to do these things? Thus, you get 356 bodies magnificently Frankensteined onto modern running gear, as you see here with this 356 body spirited about by more modern Porsche 964 guts. The retro-cool air ducting and fan shrouding are appreciated, too. The finished car will debut at Rennsport Reunion at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Sept 27-30, 2018.
ICON Rolls-Royce
ICON Derelict Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud
ICON started out rebuilding Toyota FJs, then branched out to Ford Broncos, then to all kinds of crazy things, including old coupes and sedans from the ’40s and ’50s with modern running gear underneath preserved bodies. So it does not comes as a complete surprise to see this ICON creation, a 1958 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud riding on a modern Art Morrison chassis and powered by a 550-hp Chevy LS7 V8 underhood. It drew a crowd in the narrow confines around the Optima Battery booth.
Welderup’s The Train Car
Welderup’s The Train Car
If you get The Discovery Channel with your cable package, you may have seen “Las Vegas Rat Rods,” about the crazy shop out in Vegas that makes vehicles that transcend even the limits of the rat rod culture. There were three or four Welderup creations scattered around the SEMA Show this year. This was the coolest, The Train Car. The Cummins twin-turbo diesel makes 1,250 hp on straight dino juice and 1,600 if you switch on the nitrous. Yes, nitrous. We first saw this two years ago parked in front of the show. Glad to see it’s found its way inside.
Sprintex Scion FR-S
Sprintex Scion FR-S
Wait, this is just a plain old Scion FR-S, you yelp! But look closely at the engine. Sprintex makes twin-screw Lysholm superchargers, and you can see a very compact unit bolted right there on top of the block under the crossbar. The Sprintex Stage 1 kit makes 290 hp — versus 200 hp in a stock Scion FR-S — while the Stage 2 makes 300. Price is $5,300 for Stage 1 and $6,300 for Stage 2. They bolt on, Sprintex says. It wouldn’t be SEMA without bolt-on power.