As a huge trade convention, SEMA is a fantastic opportunity for manufacturers to show off their new vehicles and what can be done with them.
Today we’ll be looking at the booths from the major manufacturers at SEMA. We’ll be having a look around Toyota and Lexus, Nissan, and two locations for Ford.
The Stellantis corporation who own Dodge and Jeep – two manufacturers that normally display at SEMA – had to pull out this year due to the United Auto Workers strike. The strike wasn’t just against the Stellantis group but also against General Motors and Ford. I haven’t been following the story that closely, but from my brief research into it, it looks as though the strike achieved it’s goals which is brilliant. Everyone should be paid and treated fairly for what they do, and if you have the opportunity to join a union or a body that will help you stand up for your rights then I strongly encourage you to do so.
Toyota and Lexus have the biggest booth in Central Hall. Toyota had a couple of GR86s on display. One was this Initial D tribute:
The GR Cup North America is a single model race series for the GR86.
The GR Corolla all wheel driven hot hatch.
The flagship Mk5 Supra was represented of course. I’m looking forward to the price of these coming down. The current day job just doesn’t quite get me enough money for one haha!
The bulk of the stand covered Toyota’s range of modern trucks, which is the strongest market in the U.S.
They had a couple of modified classic Land Cruisers on display too. The ‘Land Bruiser’ powered by a NASCAR V8.
This is an FJ body thats been fitted to a modern Land Cruiser chassis. It had to be stretched and widened to fit. A lot of work has gone into this build!
The Lexus side of the stand also focused on the off-road side of things with models past and present.
This is a LX600. Sadly it’s not available here in the U.K. I’m watching a review of one at the moment on YouTube. The technology on this car is absolutely incredible as both an off-road capable vehicle and as a mega safe daily driver for the family.
Over on the Nissan stand the main attraction was this auto stacker with a matching Nismo Pacakage Z and GTR.
I really liked the original 240z Safari and the modern recreation by Tommy Pike, which you can read about more on my article on the Monday Night Reveal: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2023/11/07/sema-monday-night-reveal/?fbclid=IwAR0E4JG-zSBBvNuIRpao8IkoqquXEpXrvx1HsGw8RxM1xpktJbkbsTBVX4s
The Sentra DET Concept by Nismo.
The Rugged Rogue. I think in the U.K we call these the X-Trail. This one is ready for some serious adventures!
The “Forsberg Frontier” by Forsberg Racing, headed by Formula Drift driver Chris Forsberg, had just finsihed the NORRA 500 rally in Baja, Mexico before heading to SEMA.
Ford had two locations at SEMA. The first was a display of electric vehicles near the FutureTech Studio (I’ll link the article about that here once it is written)
They were displaying the latest Supervan. Built by Ford UK the Supervans are, pretty much as the name suggests, Transit vans with super car performance.
The original Supervan from 1971 was a Mk1 Transit bodyshell with a GT40 chassis under it.
This one is Supervan 4.2 and was built to take on the Pikes Peak hill climb.
The other location was a Ford Performance booth for their internal combustion cars.
The star of the show here was the FP800S package for the 2024 Mustang. They’ve put a massive supercharger on their 5.0 Coyote motor pushing it to 800bhp. It’s a bit of a beast!
They also have a couple of new generation Broncos. I really like these! They are available to order in the U.K through Clive Sutton.
I know I’ve not always been the biggest fan of Ford, but having done a couple of bits to my Mum’s Fiesta last year which were really, really easy and looking through the Ford Performance catalogue at some of the bits you can get off the shelf for the S550 generation Mustang, if I ever get my holiday home in the States I think I’d have to get a Mustang!
Thanks for reading!
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By Richard Francis
