This Theme Tuesday was pretty well inevitable. With the popularity of the FR-S/BRZ/86 everyone expected more than a few at the show and the car deservedly took home the award for Hottest Sport Compact.
What I didn’t expect going into SEMA 2012 was how similarly modified many of ‘Toybarus’ would be to one another with the majority being equipped with either a Rocket Bunny aero kit, Vortech Supercharger, and some manner of air ride.
In many cases the cars had all of the above, and while it was pretty cool to see each manufacturers take on the car it’s a little worrisome that they are already starting to get somewhat repetitive.
At least it’s generally tasteful repetitiveness.
Like myself the Top Tuner FR-S made the trek from Toronto to VegasCan’t remember the last time I saw DC Sports anything but they managed to pull an FR-S togetherSeibon had this one fitted with their hood, fenders, lip, and I believe side skirt extensionsXXR went a bit overboard with the decals for the one they brought outBC’s was more restrainedKonig’s was quite nice, understated, and had a kit none of the others hadVortech had this one on Rotiforms in their booth, with their new charger of courseThe Rotiform / Airlift project that’s been circling the webGood to see a stock bodied one at the showThis one built by Cartel Customs was a drastic departure from the restIt was a well done conversion but certainly not for everyone, I credit their creativity however as it stood outTrack spec wise the Evasive car was one of the better examplesSpeedHunters has a good article on this car
Rocket Bunny Equipped
Without a doubt the most popular aero kit for the FR-S at SEMA 2012
Hot Lava Rocket Bunny from Forgestar WheelsThis was a popular look for SEMAFatlace / Rocket Bunny collaborationOf the Fatlace builds present (GTR and this) I prefer thisThis is probably my favourite of the ‘bunnies’ clean paint, no crazy stickers, and sitting on BBS E88s
N1 Concepts and Exotic Air
My friend Solomon (aka Go With Solo) had been dropping progress photos of this build on his blog for the past few weeks and it shaped up to be pretty crazy in the end. The car is GT-influenced and had a completely custom body kit.
I didn’t end up seeing it until the last day as it was somewhat hidden amongst the new productsIt’s extremely aggressive, just look at the size of that wing!It’s on an Exotic Air set-upand Forgestar provided the wheels
Scion Tuner Challenge
Every year Scion gives three companies one of their vehicles and $15000 to go nuts with and this year the car of choice was of course the FR-S.
All of them were pretty comparable so I am glad I didn’t have the difficult task of picking a winner.
This was built by John Toca and the only one based around the factory FiveAD kitThis was the most extreme of the three and dubbed the “FR-S GT” by it’s buildersIt took what the Rocket bunny kit started and went even furtherChris Basselgia’s ‘Minty Fresh’ FR-S ended up being the winner over allThis IAG Performance billet intake manifold and roots blower probably had a lot to do with it, pretty slick setup
Sema Coverage keeps on rolling all this week (and probably a bit of next) so check back tomorrow for more.
Fantastic job on the SEMA coverage Dave. I feel like I was there, except my feet don’t hurt.
Thanks Phil I had my foot in a walking boot the entire time! (getting off a fracture)
so im totally tired of sema coverage already and th frs and brz with that said the green rocketbunny kitted frs on bbs= classic hahaha6666
Oh man tired already. I’m just getting started lol.
Dave.. thanks for the SEMA love. Too bad we didnt get a chance to catch up.. next time brotha! -s
Dave, excellent shots and these cars are priceless. I am so happy to see great respect to the Toyota AE86 Revolution.
I see these cars taken down all the new Kia’s, Hyundai’s, and everyone else trying to make low cost race economic race cars that will last.