Unless you were the lucky winner of our SEMA tickets sweepstakes prize at www.eurotuner.com then you're probably sick of hearing about SEMA. Closed to the public but open to anybody with a tuner shop, wheel store, etc, it's the chance to see everything under one roof. And when we say everything...
There are halls full of wheels, halls full of audio equipment, halls full of scantily clad... oh, never mind. Pretend we never said anything!
Adding to the attraction is the event's Las Vegas location, which certainly provides some interesting distractions to take your mind off car parts!
The wildest show car was the...
The wildest show car was the '09 Tetsu GTR in the Toyo Tire booth. Built by Japanese tuner ASI, it's based on the Bentley Continental GT. The extravagant concept was valued at $3.5 million. The widebody features an enormous grille, plus Audi-style LEDs. There was plenty of dry carbon in the front splitter, rear wing and roof overlay. Artist Nakamura Tetsuei painted artwork in 24k gold and natural pigments on the hood and interior. The interior also features carbon accents and upholstery in a complex silk weave sourced from Kyoto and commonly used in kimonos. The wheels are 22x9.5/10.5" with a 24k gold stripe, while the 6.0 engine has been bumped to 800hp using larger turbos (www.asi-as.com)
Over the following pages, we've compiled the best European cars and parts we could find in the huge halls. And as you'll have deduced from this month's cover story, it was Volkswagen of America that made the biggest splash.
Its latest SEMA offering, the PerformanceCC,follows hot on the heels of the previous R GT programs and the phenomenal R GTI. And just as before, the new car was the star of the show.
You can read all about the car and its conception elsewhere in this issue, but the Performance CC proves the latest VW coupe has tremendous tuning potential. And what makes this show car perhaps more remarkable than its predecessors is that it's totally out of the blue. After all, we know what to expect from a modified GTI, right? But who would have thought the sleek Passat-derived CC would make such an incredible autobahn-stormer?
If you aren't already looking at this $26k bargain with an eye to what you'd do to yours, may we suggest you check out the CC Photochop Challenge elsewhere in this issue to see how your fellow readers would tackle it.
You can also find our First Drive report on the stock car to discover just how good the CC really is in stock form.
One of our greatest honors at SEMA was to nominate the Best European car for the annual Gran Turismo Awards presented by PlayStation. Previous Euro winners have included HPA but this year we didn't hesitate in nominating the VW PCC.
Actually, that's not entirely true. We did consider the outrageous Tetsu GTR Bentley GT for a second or two. Come on! That's possibly the most outrageous Euro we've ever seen. It's so bad it's deeply cool.