Kicker's Air Bash has become THE event at SEMA. This year Funkmaster Flex joined Kicker to lend his DJ skills and master of ceremonies expertise. In addition to the event, Kicker also had some big news with the unveiling of one truly heavy-duty amplifier, the Warhorse. Look for that story in an upcoming issue.
SEMA seems to get bigger and better every year. Of course, they now host Trifecta so... But OEMs also have a bigger presence. There are regulations governing how much space OEs can buy at the show, but let's face it, if a manufacturer has a cool car that the aftermarket embraces, there's no way to control how many of those vehicles occupy floor space. That was what happened with Scion. They were simply everywhere with some of the best customized features.
The audio and electronics portion of the show is also growing. With the growth in the navigation market as well as more and more electronics that can be added on to the car, you can expect SEMA to be the place where more upgrade products get launched. Some key products are covered here in our SEMA special. There's a lot more we could've added to this section, but frankly, there's no way to give you an idea of the breadth and scope of the show. You simply have to be there. It looks to us as though SEMA is giving CES a serious run for their money.
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and '07 Gran Turismo Award Winners"The 2007 Gran Turismo Awards showcases the collaboration between the automotive culture and the gaming industry," says Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of the racing franchise and president of developer Polyphony Digital, Inc. "We are proud to honor auto enthusiasts for their passion of cars and to celebrate the automotive lifestyle that Gran Turismo embodies."
Whatever, man, let me get on Prologue and check out the new Nissan Skyline GT-R. Seriously, though, the guy is a genius so we don't begrudge his success. So get this, they ran the Skyline on a track and then in the video game and had virtually the same times. We're talking differences of fractional seconds. So where does the virtual begin and reality end? After seeing Prologue we can't wait another year for the full GT 5.
We won't lie, we weren't at the GT Awards just to hear who would be included in the next generation of GT. We didn't mind partaking in the open bar and listening to Chris Cornell, of Soundgarden and Audioslave fame. Held at Tryst inside the Wynn Hotel & Casino, we did find out that Marcel Horn and his Audi TT have achieved virtual immortality by winning Best in Show. Actually, as far as awards go, that's pretty profound.
Previous Gran Turismo Awards Best in Show winners include Stephen Papadakis (2005) and his '04 Honda S2000, Horn (2004) and his one of a kind HPA Volkswagen R32 and Ted and Sue Richardson of Oregon (2003) with their '62 Buick Special. Both cars from 2003 and 2004 can be seen in GT 4 for the Playstation 2 computer entertainment system. Last year's Best in Show award-winning '60 Chevrolet Corvette (seen here) will be unveiled in the next GT game.The individual category '07 GT Award winners include:
"Best European Import" - Marcel Horn; '07 Audi TT"Best Domestic Automobile" - Gary Cheney; '07 Factory Five GTM"Best Hot Rod" - Jim and Mike Ring; '67 Ford Mustang Fastback"Best Japanese Import" - Michael Chung; '07 Nissan 350Z"Best Truck/SUV" - Mike DeFord; '07 Dodge Ram
Scion held the 2007 Tuner Challenge, inviting tuner teams to trick out the 2008 xD. Scion picked three SoCal clubs and gave them three identical 2008 xD's, and $15,000 (they were not allowed to exceed this budget), to modify it. The participating teams include Team Hybrid (last year's winner), Team Auto Concept Elite, and Team Koshak. They were just some of the customizers who brought great Scions to the show.