Check out our coverage from the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show!

SEMA 2012 Cruise Photos

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Trevor Freeman

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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SEMA 2012: Mazda 787 Group C

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Cameron Tunstall

I have to say that Mazda makes some decently cool cars in spite of the current trends happening today. But this is nothing new, Mazda has been on their own path for decades; as if their penchant for Wankel-designed rotary power is any indication. Mazda (a Japanese company) brought back the formula for the traditional British sports car in the late 1980s when most other manufacturers (namely the Detroit Big 3) were phasing out affordable, lightweight RWD vehicles in place of ugly and badge-engineered FWD econoboxes. They also helped Ford make small interesting cars when all Ford had was the Fox-platform (a decidedly awesome platform, though). Their most popular car (as far as some of the viewers of this site are concerned) almost phased out the fox body as the next generation Ford Mustang! And I’m sure that had it been a RWD Mazda platform, they’d have gotten away with it too. And to get back to present times: The next generation MX-5 Miata is to shed enough weight to get back to around 2,200 lbs and still retain it’s current horsepower rating. That’s hot rod engineering at work.

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SEMA 2012: Google’s Driverless Toyota Prius

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Trevor Freeman

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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SEMA 2012: Fireball Robert’s #22 Ford Galaxie

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Cameron Tunstall

It’s hard to believe such a beautiful Ford Galaxie would mark one of the darkest years of racing history in America. The #22 Driven by NASCAR’s first great superstar driver: Fireball Roberts. A man who raced under Smokey Yunick’s Black and Gold paint from 1959 to 1962 and in that same 1962 occupied his non-NASCAR efforts driving Ferraris in endurance road course events. This man was not one of those moonshine-running, good ol’ boy stereotypes that NASCAR fans like to glorify. Instead he was a talented driver and a true athlete.

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SEMA 2012: 1969 Sam Auxier Jr. Ultra-Stock Fastback Mustang

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Cameron Tunstall

What’s more American than a red, white and blue, drag-racing 1969 Mustang Fastback? Perhaps the centennial-theme paint jobs adorning the worst that Detroit possibly had to offer -ever- in 1974… unfortunately, that’s a different story for a different time.