Bernie's Car Show Coverage: 2013 SEMA Show Day 1 (Sneak Peek)

The 2013 SEMA Show happens to be the 50th anniversary of the year that SEMA was formed. And because it was an anniversary show, the vehicles that were a part of the show didn't fall short. There were a lot of vehicles and there were more vehicles showing up outside throughout the day (and probably throughout the week as well).

  

This year is my 4th year in a row attending it, and I had the exact same emotions that I had in 2010... EXCITEMENT!!! I'm like a child on Christmas Day when I go to SEMA. I get to go to a fabulous city, fabulous weather, I meet people from all over the world, and most importantly I get to photograph some seriously customized cars.

I took a lot of photos yesterday, and I'm putting this post together sitting in the Continental Tire Media Center. Here's the photos that I chose to show off from yesterday- Day 1 of the 2013 SEMA Show.

Matte black Jaguar XJL Supercharged. Beyond gorgeous...

Platinum Motorsports strikes again!!! This time, they murdered SEMA with a Carbon fiber Mercedes SLR McLaren.

Ultimate Auto of Orlando, FL brought my favorite customized vehicle of the year... the 2013 Ford Shelby. It took me awhile to move away from it.

Topo of TS Designs along with Chris of JC Kustomz brought this Dodge Challenger with the famous custom wide body kit that Topo is famous for. But that's not all that those two brought...

This completely blacked out Dodge Challenger with blacked out headlights AND taillights. This my friends is a perfect example of a fully blacked out vehicle. If you're going to black out a vehicle, go all the way. Don't just do 80%. The only color on this Challenger are the breaks... and if it was me, I would have made those black as well.

However, Topo and Chris brought the most instagrammed photo of SEMA 2013 (because it was definitely all over my timeline)

The 2014 Corvette C7 Stingray with the custom widebody kit and Forgiato wheels. And guess what? Someone has purchased the vehicle for $150,000 and it's going to Dubai.

You're not going to believe this, but the car above is a Infiniti G37 with a conversion kit on it.

 

I finally found my way to Forgiato's booth where all of Forgiato's vehicles had their wheels, steering wheels, and grills on their vehicles... However their indoor space...

Had not one, but two Lamborghini Aventadors... But those aren't the only Aventadors that Forgiato brought.

And yes, this is the Lamborghini Aventador that Nicki Minaj drove to Kmart. She did pull up in the "you can't afford this".

Each year that passes, this vehicle will remain a staple at SEMA.

 

Roadstarr Motorsports in Los Angeles brought Lamborghini Aventador.

I spent a little time at Galpin Auto Sports outdoor booth, where I saw this customized hot rod. I love the color scheme and the paint job.

 My favorite actor is in a new movie called the Need for Speed.

I had to do a little research to find out what this vehicle is above. I had the pleasure of meeting the Kepler Hybrid Motion Supercar. Roughly 800 horsepower and it does 0-60 MPH in just 2.5 seconds.

Forgiato also brought this wide body Nissan GTR as well.

Talk about creativity. This was once an innocent Chevy Cruze, but I'm sure it was definitely a hit for Halloween.

This was actually the one of the highlights to my day... meeting Stephanie Bueno. Remember when I went to the Dub Car Show: Anaheim? Well, it was there where Stephanie unveiled her late husband's 1962 Chevy Impala wagon, a project he was working on until his untimely death in June. She finished the project for him, and not only brought it to the show in Anaheim, but to SEMA as well. It's definitely a crowd favorite. Whether you know it or not, you've enjoyed Jae Bueno's photography, and now you get to enjoy his artwork again- the one that's on four wheels.

For a split second, I thought they were real. Don't judge me.

Models, but I have a lot more photos coming.

Asanti Wheels brought a Chevy Corvette C7 Stingray as well, and one of their wheel designs that left me wondering why.

The best booth space went to a paint company called Carnival of Color where they recreated a carnival, showed off the many shades of paint, and how the paint looks on a car. But the space really looked like a carnival- they even had a woman giving out freshly popped popcorn to solidify the carnival like atmosphere.

Again, this is just a very small piece of everything that I photographed. Check out Bernie's Official 2013 SEMA Coverage: Day 1 to see the rest of the photos. Don't forget to check out Bernie's Car Show Coverage: 2013 SEMA Show: Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4 while you're at it.

Interesting Customization: Chrome wrapped Rolls Royce Phantom

Before I begin: automotive trends are not for every single vehicle. It didn't look bad on the Lamborghini Gallardo- which was still within the same price range of the Rolls Royce Phantom. I'll just show the photos...

*Sighs* I mean, it's just wrong. It was done right, but it shouldn't have been at all. It's too much car to wrap in chrome, and yes, it's wrapped, but the chrome wrap cheapened this Phantom. And when the customizations take away from the value- then it's labeled as a bad customization. Whhhhyyyyyyyy Roadstarr, why????????????

P.S. The wheels are Forgiato's Fiore Wheels in 24 inches. I was so distracted by the plummeting value of the Phantom.

Roadstarr Motorsports Shows off a Stealth Porsche Panamera Turbo

(Don't cry, this is the Before photo)

LA's own Roadstarr Motorports released photos of a Porsche Panamera Turbo done the best way anyone could customize a car- Stealth style. According to Roadstarr, "The purpose of this project is to finish off what the Germans did not get a chance to do with class and style. The budget for this project was a mere $49,850.00 (not much for a vehicle of this magnitude). Roadstarr Motorsports is well known for creating the “wow effect”, and that’s exactly what was accomplished on this project “Stealth”."

(During)

"The Stealth Project was first and foremost completely striped down to its chassis, followed by engineering aerodynamic effects to make sure that this lion stays on course when the foot is put to the metal. After vigorous tests and analysis, the team decided to use the Aerodynamic aesthetics of World renowned German Tuner “TechArt”. It was a perfect match since Roadstarr Motorsports has a long history relationship with TechArt. The wheels were designed by Roadstarr’s team. The object of the wheels was to keep within the German racing appearance as well as making sure that the big 22” wheel does not create extra weight to keep up with. The wheels designs were precision engineered to minimize UN-sprung mass and rotational inertia's. This was accomplished by utilizing technology used in the aircraft manufacturing industry. The material used is aerospace grade 6061-T6 forged aluminum and stainless steel fasteners. With that said, the team design was based on a three piece wheel. As the body was being prepared to undergo a full paint job, the rest of the team decided to re-engineer the factory ECU (electronic control unit) to make it more management efficient. Thus, adding a whopping extra 45hp to this lioness beast. The factory headers were replaced by custom built headers using titanium headers with an integrated 100 cpsi metallic catalysts. The factory exhaust system was simply thrown out and replaced with a custom built stainless steel exhaust system that’s light without compromising any engineering thus increasing the power on the Stealth an additional 27hp."

(And after...)

Not bad, not bad at all. But everyone knows I'm a sucker for anything stealth and/or completly blacked out. Yes everyone, there is a difference between the two.

Interesting Customization: Tyga's Audi R8

In a photo shoot with Dub Magazine, Roadstarr Motorsports customized an Audi R8 for Young Money's Tyga. Ummm, I'm not going to say much because if you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all.

This particular Audi R8 will never have the same impact as the Chrome Audi Tron by West Coast Customs. Nuff said. It'll grab attention. I'm hoping it'll look better in person, but probably not.