From major automakers to small custom shops, the variety of show cars that descend upon the SEMA Show each year runs as far as the imagination whether you like bone stock or fully customized, lowriders or jacked-up trucks or even small cars or big SUVs.
While you could spend the whole week walking around the Las Vegas Convention Center and still not really grasp the full scope of what this show has to offer, it often doesn’t take very long to pick out the best and worst vehicles on display, so while tastes vary from person to person, here are the five coolest cars we found hanging out at SEMA as well as another five that had us saying “WTF!”
HOT
Ring Brothers 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle
Yenko Camaro
Toyota Camry funny car
Mallett Super 10 Chevrolet Silverado
Fab Fours Jeep Wrangler
Lowered Ford Super Duty on 26s
Six-door Ram Heavy Duty
1972 Chevrolet C10 Crew Cab
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Simply by judging the crowd’s reaction, the coolest car at this year’s SEMA Show was the 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle retromod created by the Ring Brothers. Nicknamed Recoil, every inch of this car was custom fabricated from the carbon fiber hood to the aluminum rear rocker panels with flush-mounted exhaust outlets. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface for the rest of the car including the 980-hp blown V-8 and the unique interior including those one-off race seats. Needless to say, there was always a big crowd around this car!
Yenko Camaro
Bringing back the iconic Yenko name used on the first-gen Chevrolet Camaro, Street Legal Performance (SLP) introduced its limited-edition 2015 Yenko Camaro. The good news is that the Camaro has been retuned to 700 hp, and the classic Yenko styling has been recreated on this car. The bad news, though, is that SLP will only be building 50 of these cars, and don’t expect them to be cheap. Like the original version, the 2015 Yenko Camaro will command top dollar and will be an instant collectible.
Toyota Camry funny car
As far as the 2015 Toyota Camry has come in terms of styling, there is nothing really too exciting about the car that would make it stand out at SEMA. Unless of course, Toyota creates the ultimate sleeper with a stock Camry body hiding a Funny Car with a full tube frame and 850-hp engine. That’s exactly what Toyota did with a car that otherwise looks like a lowered version of the new Camry, but the entire body lifts up to reveal the true heart of this beast. Just in case you’re wondering, all four doors still open and close, but this Camry is just a one-seater.
Mallett Super 10 Chevrolet Silverado
When it comes to aftermarket parts and accessories, trucks definitely command the lion’s share of this industry, and the Mallett Super 10 shows just some of the extremes customizers go to attain a unique look. The whole look of this Chevrolet Silverado is about as retro as you can get without being tacky, and the coolest part is the tailgate with its black trim and full-width “Chevrolet” lettering. While most trucks at SEMA are either lifted or lowered, the Mallett Super 10 has a pretty stylish stance that includes the solid 22-inch Centerline wheels.
Fab Fours Jeep Wrangler
The Jeep Wrangler is a SEMA legend in its own right as a perennial favorite among tuners and aftermarket parts companies, but Fab Fours, Inc. had another idea about this iconic vehicle’s legendary status. Fab Fours’ “The Legend” is a beast of a vehicle that combines the ride height comparable to a stock Wrangler with massive tires and over exaggerated fenders. As many Jeep Wranglers that were in attendance, The Legend was by far the one that stood out the most.
WTF
Velocity Wheels Ram 1500As is the case with any auto event, the SEMA Show has plenty of reminders of just how diverse tastes can be when it comes to vehicle customization. On the opposite end of the spectrum as the eye-catching Ring Brothers Chevelle was the eye-scorching Ram 1500 convertible from Velocity Wheels. Looking past its bass-boat flake paint job and its mini-truckin’ hydraulic bed and suicide doors, the coup de grâce of this truck’s design is the front-hinged hood that features a mural of Megan Fox doing her best impression of the Mona Lisa. And just for good measure, this Ram is slammed on 28-inch wheels.
Lowered Ford Super Duty on 26s
In a smaller package, an anodized-looking body wrap might look good (or acceptable) on a vehicle, but on this Ford F-350 Super dually, the shiny red color is way too much… especially when combined with the lowered stance and the big 26-inch wheels. Not helping the situation is the oversized mesh grille, custom-look headlights and the LED light bar mounted in the front bumper.
Six-door Ram Heavy Duty
It’s not just low-riding trucks that swarmed on our WTF radar. Tiptoeing the line between OMG and WTF, this stretched, jacked-up and facelifted Ram Heavy Duty didn’t need a gaudy paint job or a Megan Fox mural to garner attention. With its custom six-door cab and an eight-foot bed, this Ram measures in at more than 20-feet long, and it comes off looking more like a military experiment gone wrong rather than a SEMA show truck.
1972 Chevrolet C10 Crew Cab
Just because you can customize a truck, doesn’t necessarily mean that you should, and this poor 1972 Chevrolet C10 is an example of just that. Like the above-mentioned six-door Ram, there’s a reason Chevy didn’t offer a crew cab version of the C10, but the worst part is that the added doors ruin this truck’s timeless beauty. Let’s hope this doesn’t become a new trend among classic truck owners.
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