sema

Garmin communicates with your car via ESP

We stopped by Garmin's booth at the 2009 SEMA Show expecting a new GPS device or news of another OEM integration deal, but we stumbled upon something even better. Sometime next year, Garmin's Nuvi GPS devices will gain the ability to communicate with your car through ESP. In this case, we're not talking about psychic extra-sensory perception, but the EcoRoutes ESP module for Nuvi navigation devices.

The ESP module is a hideaway box that connects to (and is powered by) your vehicle's OBD-II diagnostics port. The device gathers information about your vehicle's performance and relays … Read more

Flexible LED lighting strips for auto, fashion flash

Flexible LED lighting strips could mean flash in unexpected places. Grote Industries' LightForm flexible LED lighting film, which just became commercially available, is ultrathin and ultrapliable, meaning it can be bent around corners and over contoured areas and maneuvered into various shapes. It can also be cut to fit while lit and slid into narrow crevices and between panels and trim.

Grote mainly envisions the strips being used for vehicle lighting (along carpet edges, floor vents, and window openings; inside trunks; and as ambient lighting under dashboards and seats) or sewn into fabric--say, for LED dresses and doggie porcupine costumes (… Read more

Adding lightness with Seibon at SEMA

Most car guys know that carbon fiber is lightweight (and very cool-looking), but most don't know much past that. We stopped by well-known carbon fiber manufacturer Seibon's booth at the 2009 SEMA show to get the skinny on this miracle material.

The term "carbon fiber" can be used to describe microscopically thin fibers composed mostly of carbon atoms, the yarns composed of those fibers, or the fabric woven from that yarn. For our purposes, the term will be used to describe composite materials created from carbon fabric suspended in resin or plastic.

Carbon fiber parts are … Read more

Next generation ChaseCam is a bit of a DIVA

If you can't tell by our coverage of the GoPro Hero and the ContourHD camera systems, we're big fans of capturing video of our automotive excursions. The ChaseCam system takes things a bit further than simple video capture by also recording GPS position, accelerometers, external vehicle sensors, and OBD2 data, all of which can be synchronized and overlaid onto the video using ChaseCam's software. However, to get these benefits, you need to purchase a camera, a solid state recorder module, and the data acquisition module.

At this year's SEMA Show, ChaseCam is simplifying its system with the unveiling of its latest generation video/data capture device, DIVA (Data Integrated Video Acquisition). DIVA basically combines the solid-state recorder and data acquisition modules into one box, with a few new features that aid in usability.

Suped-up Subarus at the SEMA Show

Subaru's booth at the 2009 SEMA Show is located directly in front of the entrance to the show's Central Hall. And, wow, does it make a good first impression.

The first thing that you see upon passing through the doors is the towering 400-horsepower TRAX STI and its equally imposing sleigh trailer--built by none other than Subaru enthusiast numero uno, Ken Block. After finding our way around (or under) this massive one-off snowmobile, the rest of Subaru's offerings seemed a bit mild, yet were still impressive in their own ways.

For example, a VIP-styled Legacy sedan featured … Read more

Hyundai prices Genesis R-Spec $3K less than Track model

We knew that a stripped down version of the Genesis Coupe 2.0T was coming. We knew that it would be dubbed "R-Spec." Now, we know that it's going to cost $23,750, $3,000 cheaper than the fully loaded 2.0T Track model.

The R-Spec features all of the performance of the Track model. Under its hood is a 210-horsepower turbocharged engine that puts power to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual transmission and Torsen limited-slip differential. (Hyundai's five-speed automatic transmission is not available on the R-Spec.) The R-Spec also features the same Brembo … Read more

VSR concept the Cadillac of hot rods

Cadillac and General Motors have unveiled the VSR Cadillac V-Series Powered Sports Rod Concept, or VSR for short, at the 2009 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. What's the VSR concept, you ask? Well, according to GM:

"This concept features a contemporary hand-sculpted body and unique blend of Cadillac styling cues, with proportions and form that evoke images of earlier days of race cars/sports cars and 'Hot Rodding.' Race car engineering, state-of-the-art electronics and technology express the modern supercar era."

That means that GM had taken a lightweight and stripped-down aluminum hot rod chassis and slapped a … Read more

My Favorite Camaro: '69, dude!

One good thing about when I get flamed on this blog is sometimes it gives me ideas for things to search for video to use within this forum. A couple days ago, a reader mentioned that I should go to the upcoming SEMA Show that will take place the first week of November in Las Vegas. Of course, I'd love to go but unfortunately my day job takes precedence and I won't be able to get away. Sigh. Anyway, I'd recently been writing about Camaros, and coincidentally I stumbled upon a Camaro vid taken from a SEMA … Read more

Rhys Millen Racing building midengine Hyundai Genesis Coupe

At the 2008 SEMA Show, Rhys Millen Racing (RMR) massaged one of the first available Hyundai Genesis Coupes into a wild, wide-bodied racer with a huge turbo and some crazy aero. For 2009, RMR plans to raise the bar with its RM460--a midengine, V-8-powered Genesis Coupe.

RMR started by yanking out the Coupe's stock 2.0T engine, as well as the rather useless back seats. After a good deal of bending, fabricating, and welding, the new engine bay (located just behind the driver's seat) was ready for the RM460's new ticker. Rather than reusing the stock I-4 … Read more

Drop Top Customs will make your Camaro a convertible, since GM won't

Suppose you wanted to pick up a convertible Chevrolet Camaro. You could wait patiently until the rumored 2012 release date. You could hope against hope that GM actually decides to release the darn thing. However, if you've got an extra 18 grand burning a hole in your pocket, you could see the folks at Drop Top Customs about making one for yourself, right now.

That $18,000 dollar price tag doesn't include the cost of the donor car, so expect to add between $22K and $33K, depending on how much topless muscle you're looking for.

Florida-based Drop … Read more