6 SEMA Show Concepts We Never Built

With SEMA fast approaching, it is kind of a relief that I don't have a SEMA project this year, while we have designed built several popular cars in the past like the Camo Mini Cooper or the Gulf Racing Ford Fairlane, not all of the cars I dream up make it Las Vegas for the biggest car show in the world. Some of these renderings are just rough concepts others were the final versions of what we would have liked to build. The Mustang land speed racer concept (above) I designed in 2014 was inspired by a combination of the P-51 Mustang fighter plane and the land speed racing cars from Bonneville.

Another Concept from 2014 was a widebody Chevrolet Sonic, inspired by IMSA and WRC racing cars the goal was to build a streetable race car for events like autocross and hill climbs. Chevrolet ended up building all their cars in-house for SEMA this little pocket rocket never got off the ground.

Designed in 2013 this really rough rendering of a wideboy Fiat 500 Abarth, inspired by the original Abarth race cars of 1960's never was to be. The original Abarth race cars were rear engined and the trunk lid was fixed in an open position that ended up eventually being morphed into a rear spoiler, the plan was to mimic that look with a large rear deck wing fixed just below the window.

In 2014 as the editor of Cassidy Magazine (a Western Lifestyle and Fashion Print Magazine), we played with the idea of building a promotional vehicle for a give away to our readers. Inspired by one of my favorite parts of the country the Taos Silverado project never made it beyond the design phase, but it would have been a great truck.

Last year we were approached by a brand to create a serious for a show about the process of designing and building a SEMA show car. This concept was based on a 1969 Ford Mustang Sportsroof. My focus was to turn the 1969 Mustang into a true Grand Touring car making it lighter, leaner, and more sporty. The two-seat GT would be radically different on the inside with a more driver-focused cockpit and the plan was to power it with a modern V6 EcoBoost motor.

Last year one of our current project cars was almost tapped to be turned into a show car to promote one of my clients, Kinforest Tires from China. The plan was to use the car to produce content in the US for the Chinese Market. If you do ever happen to be in China at a Tire Expo there is a good chance you will see me om the TV screens in the Kinforest booth talking about their tires. The BMW 1 Series is still one of the project cars I have been collecting parts for, so look more on this car being built out, just without the Kinforest livery.

These, of course, aren't all of the projects I have designed over the years, but these were some of the ones that would have been really fun to build out. As you can imagine there is nothing more awesome than seeing your concept go from paper to reality.