Old Muscle, New Conscience

Buick

This year's SEMA show included a surprising appearance by GM’s stodgy Buick brand, its first official presence since the show started in 1967. Buick made a group of 10 Lucernes available to various tuner shops to modify as they saw fit, and then gathered the tricked-out rides at an informal media event that Buick hopes will start changing the tide of how people see the grandfatherly brand.

“You can’t just wake up one day and announce, ‘OK, now I’m cool,’” said Buick general manager Steve Shannon, adding that the brand’s reputation has yet to catch up with the strides in quality that it has made in recent years. The model showcased in GM’s booth at the show was dubbed the Lucerne CXX Luxury Liner, a playful riff on Buick’s traditional luxo-boat history.

Chevrolet

General Motors brought home-team muscle to the SEMA show. One of the highlights was former New York Yankees pro baseballer Reggie Jackson’s latest toy, a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. It features GM’s new LSX 454-cubic-inch small-block V8 crate engine done for "Mr. October" in association with GM Performance Parts and Performance Division (they’re two separate entities). It puts out a tire-shredding 641 hp and 611 pound-feet of torque. The entire project, from genesis to completion, will be profiled on ESPN in March. “GM was involved in every stage of the buildup, so this is very much a ‘new-old’ Camaro built to OE specs,” Jackson said.

Chevrolet also debuted a 2007 Silverado off-road concept designed with NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and a Silverado low rider with styling inspired by the Orange County Choppers bike crew.

Honda

On the smaller side of things, Honda showed off two versions of its 2007 Civic Si sedan that just went on sale Nov. 1. One of them featured a Honda Factory Performance package that will be available next year and includes cosmetic add-ons, stiffer suspension springs, larger wheels, performance tires and a less-restrictive muffler. The kit will cost $4,300 and all of its components can be ordered and installed separately through Honda dealers.

A prototype of a limited-edition Mugen Civic Si sedan was also on display. It will come to the U.S. in spring 2007. Only 500 of these body- and suspension-enhanced Mugen sedans will be available, and although power numbers were not revealed, it likely won’t offer much more horsepower than the stock 197-hp Civic Si sedan. Honda says the suggested retail price will start below $30,000.

Honda also unveiled a bright orange rear-wheel-drive Element outfitted with a 500-hp V6 that easily smoked tires in a drifting display at the show. A Honda Fit Sport and new CR-V were also on hand with prototype equipment packages including aggressive cosmetic changes and tricked-out interiors. See images and read more about them in the slideshow.

Subaru

Subaru refreshes its Forester line with two new production versions of the compact crossover SUV unveiled at the SEMA show. Both the Forester Sports 2.5 X and 2.5 XT feature black mesh grilles and a more aggressive front bumper. Roof-rail crossbars have been removed for a sleeker look but remain available as an accessory.

The Forester Sports 2.5 XT also gets 17-inch alloy wheels and a boost in power thanks to a 224-hp turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine. The Forester Sports 2.5 X features a 173-hp version of the boxer four-cylinder engine (without a turbocharger, like on the 2.5 XT). As with every Subaru, all-wheel drive is standard on both Sports models.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen showed the R GTI, a concept version of the new 2007 GTI, which VW says is a more “streetable” (meaning more comfortable for everyday driving) concept than the 600-hp-plus Jetta R concept cars they showed at last year’s SEMA event. The R GTI features plenty of carbon-fiber pieces to trim weight down and a turbocharger by APR that boosts engine output to 375 hp.

The show wouldn’t be complete without the unveiling of larger, wider and more expensive wheels than ever before, including a few measuring 34 inches in diameter, and a set of diamond-encrusted rims with a price tag of $2 million.

Volvo

Volvo may be known more for safety than performance tweaks, but at SEMA it exposed a livelier side with an impressive showing of tricked-out concepts, old and new (and some that were a little of both).

The compact 2008 C30 has been steadily building buzz since the prototype debuted at the 2006 Detroit auto show early this year. Although the car won’t be available in the U.S. until 2007, three tweaked C30s at SEMA pre-empted its arrival, tuned up by aftermarket shops bent on proving that the new model will lend itself to street customization. Teams from Evolve Cars, Heico Sportiv/Burton Snowboards and IPD each had a different take on the new model: Evolve went for high performance; Heico and Burton worked a winter sport AWD angle; and IPD stole the show with gullwing swing-up doors on its C30.

Other customized Volvos at the SEMA show paired vintage looks and brawny modern underpinnings. One scene-stealer was a 1967 Volvo Amazon station wagon — not your normal hot rod candidate, by any means

— shipped from Sweden. Judged “Sweden’s Hottest Volvo” at last summer’s Vallåkra Customer Car Meet outside Landskrona, Sweden, the car was modified by Mattias Vöcks, an employee of German tuner Koenig Motorsport. Its dropped-down grey-blue body shrouds a 600-hp monster — a front-mounted, six-cylinder 2.8-liter engine with a handmade stainless-steel exhaust and an exposed transmission.

In a different category altogether was the Caresto V8 Speedster, a neo-retro hot rod constructed with a custom-made aluminum and carbon-fiber body and powered by a Volvo V8 engine. Swedish Volvo enthusiast Leif Tufvesson built the car to run on Ethanol. It’s a ride so personal, it was built from scratch. That’s the essence of SEMA.

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