    Top to bottom: A turbocharged Veloster customized by performance shop ARK was in Hyundai’s booth; A highly stylized Scion iQ; One of the donks in the Dub display; Jil McIntosh working on a NASCAR engine build. Click image to enlarge |
Many of the major auto manufacturers have booths at SEMA, presenting both their own aftermarket accessories and wildly-done vehicles commissioned to show what can be done. How about a turbocharged Hyundai Veloster, a race-ready Honda CR-Z hybrid, a Kia Optima with a trunk-mounted basketball net, a Chevrolet Sonic stuffed full of audio equipment, or a Ford F-650 on steroids? Scion presented numerous customized vehicles along with some Canadian content: an xB that won the inaugural Canadian Tuner Challenge. SR Auto Group of Richmond, B.C. had to come up with a custom Scion design that put it into the finals against teams from Toronto and Lachine, Quebec. The three teams then had to build the real cars and take them to the Importfest shows in Toronto and Montreal, where the ultimate winner received $5,000 and a ticket to SEMA. The winning car, called Project Anarchy, included a suede interior, Lamborghini-inspired satin black paint, 19-inch wheels and a 32-inch television screen.
There’s a lot going on around the show as well, with dozens of special invite-only events taking place at various venues across the Las Vegas strip once SEMA’s doors close for the day (in keeping with its industry-only status, it all locks up at 5:30). I received an invite from Quaker State, which asked me to come out and build a NASCAR engine. Build an engine? I’ve certainly stuffed enough grease under my fingernails doing maintenance on my vehicles, but I’ve never gotten that deep into the oily bits, and so I agreed. It turned out to be great fun as well as an eye-opener into what’s involved in keeping a race car going. The event marked the debut of Defy, the company’s new oil for high-mileage engines (it’ll hit Canadian stores next spring), and required two teams of invited guests to build an 850-horsepower engine from the block up.
Okay, there was more to it than just being given the parts and tools. Most of us were rank amateurs, and we were split into four pairs to build specific sections, guided by specialists from Hendrick Motorsports. My partner and I had to put on the heads, lifters, pushrods and rockers, pour in a bottle of Defy oil, and add the rocker covers. The clock was started, each pair of builders was timed from start to finish for those specific tasks, and then the clock was stopped and the next two people brought in, coached, and then let loose. It turned out that my little hands aren’t the best for solid grunt work, but they sure come in handy when you’re trying to put bolts and nuts into tight spaces. The professionals had taken a shot at it the day before and had built up an engine in 17 minutes. Our team took just under 33 minutes, about two minutes faster than our rivals. But wait, there’s more … the engines we built had to start up and run for 30 seconds. So we wheeled the engine stands to the outside patio of Wynn’s hotel and fired up a total of 1,700 ponies, sans mufflers. Both engines passed the test and earned our team members their trophies, although we’re not quite sure if the hotel guests ever figured out exactly what was going on downstairs.
