Author Archives: Trevor Freeman

About Trevor Freeman

Trevor is a real gearhead who loves everything from classic American muscle cars to high-performance exotics. When he's not reading about cars or taking photos at a car show, he's probably out cruising around. He is currently working on restoring a 1980 Chevrolet Monza hatchback.

SEMA 2012: Video Gallery

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Over the past several weeks, we’ve been posting a lot about the SEMA Show that took place in Las Vegas at the end of October. We’ve brought you over a dozen original posts plus photos of the cruise, tweets, and more! Today, I am going to wrap up my coverage of the 2012 SEMA show by posting a couple of videos I made.

The first video shows highlights of the SEMA Cruise where I captured some of the cars driving away as they left the show. It’s kind of a long video but it has some really cool cars, so check it out!

The second video is just me walking around out in front of the show checking out some of the cars that were parked outside the Convention Center.

Finally, the third video features the Corvette ZR-1 from the Ron Fellows Performance Driving School sliding sideways around cones at the road course.

This wraps up my coverage of the 2012 SEMA Show until next year! Hope you have enjoyed what we had to offer.

SEMA 2012 Cruise Photos

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On the last day of the 2012 SEMA Show, we stuck around to watch the official SEMA cruise. Now in its second year, the cruise is a chance to see many of the cars from the show floor in motion as they exit the convention center. It was absolutely packed with people and difficult to get good photos of the cars because of the cross-traffic. I would have liked for the road to be closed for the cruise; I think this would have made it a lot better.

So without further ado, here are a few of my best photos from the 2012 SEMA Cruise:

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Rebuilding a Rochester QuadraJet Carburetor

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In January of 2009, myself and two friends purchased a 1977 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Landau coupe for $600. Under the hood, it had a small block 350 V8 engine with a Rochester QuadraJet carburetor. The car ran but didn’t have much power. We were too focused on doing body work to worry about the engine at first.

I decided to take a look at the rebuilding the carburetor. A quick Google search pulled up several companies that offered rebuild services by mail – you send them your carburetor and some money and they send it back, rebuilt, in several days. The cost of these services was around $400 dollars – almost as much as we paid for the whole car!

Having ruled that option out, I looked at the cost of buying a Holley or other brand of carburetor. Again, the prices were way out of my range ($280 to $400). There was only one option left: to rebuild it myself.

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Driven: 1969 Chrysler Imperial Sedan

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I must confess that I have a newfound affection for fuselage-era Chryslers. Something about the way they look just looks “right” to me. From the headlamps to the tip of the tailpipes, I think these cars are just pure design gold.

I spotted this 1969 Chrysler Imperial sedan at Cars and Coffee in Las Vegas. It was parked a few rows away from the other cars, humbly minding its own business. No one paid it much attention, but I was smitten.

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Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale 2013 Preview

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With less than a month to go until the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale 2013 auction, collectors are already murmuring about will be on this year’s list of vehicles. As always, you can count on there being dozens of survivor and frame-off restored, numbers-matching Chevelles, Impalas, Camaros, Mustangs, and other classics. I’m going to focus on some of the more interesting vehicles scheduled to cross the block in January:

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SEMA 2012: Google’s Driverless Toyota Prius

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In March of 2004, the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) held a competition in the Nevada desert called the Grand Challenge. The purpose was to determine if an autonomous, driverless car could negotiate a 150-mile off-road course on its own. The prize? A cool one million dollars.

Fifteen teams representing Carnegie-Mellon University and a variety of privately funded teams competed in the Challenge. Each team had equipped their car with a multitude of cameras, sensors, GPS units, and onboard computers in addition to off-road tires and heavy-duty suspensions.

Not one of the fifteen vehicles completed the challenge.

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