Tag Archives: sema

Toyota celebrates NFL partnership with the Ultimate Tailgate Tundra featuring satellite internet

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SEMA Show in Las Vegas concluded with much fanfare this past weekend. The humungous gathering of automotive enthusiasts and aftermarket professionals was taken aback when Toyota unwrapped the Ultimate Tailgate Tundra. Part of Toyota’s exciting vehicles in Vegas, the Tundra is way beyond anything we have seen in the past: It’s an inspiring new vehicle designed as an audio-visual powerhouse for sports fans and adventurers.

Designed per se for tailgating parties that are nothing without a game of football; the Tundra is a tribute to the Japanese automaker’s partnership with the National Football League. As an official partner, Toyota has done great deals with NFL, now by offering this tailgating extravaganza, the company is giving fans a reason to uplift their fandom.

Designer: Toyota

If you’re an NFL fan, you know the significance of those pre-game gatherings – booze, large screen displays, and aggressive conversations – I feel chills running down my spine even as I write. The atmosphere is electrifying and unescapable, but some of us want that secluded space with a bunch of friends in the parking lot or out in the wilderness. That’s what the Tundra with tailgating entertainment system intends to target.

By offering the ultimate rig for the outdoors, Toyota is ensuring a fan never misses a game no matter how distant he is from the pitch or the confines of his home. Ultimate Tailgate Tundra is a pickup truck that would transport small tailgating get-togethers into a theatre-esque live game showdowns. On the staging shell powered by four electric actuators – rising up from the truck bed at the push of a button – are five 55-inch weatherproof outdoor screens that combine to give you the ultimate audio-visual experience on the move.

Tyler Litchenberger, Toyota Vehicle Marketing and Communication manager informs, “This build is more of an audio-visual experience than a typical tailgate setup. We wanted to create something that not only draws attention to the truck, but is also an activation that invites people to experience the Toyota Tundra as the ultimate sporting and adventure machine.”

The five screens that work in tandem and are viewable from almost 180-degree angles are provided with exceptional audio combinations. The JBL Club Marine Series tower speakers draw power from the Club Marine A5055 amplifier and a Marine 600 amplifier drives two 10-inch subwoofers. The experience would be worthless without a generator powering the entire setup that runs on satellite-based Wi-Fi connectivity onboard.

The post Toyota celebrates NFL partnership with the Ultimate Tailgate Tundra featuring satellite internet first appeared on Yanko Design.

Modellista brings insane overlanding capabilities to Land Cruiser 2025 that’s dressed to impress

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At SEMA 2024 the newly launched Toyota Land Cruiser 2025 model saw a chunky makeover thanks to the in-house bred Japanese aftermarket company Modellista, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation. The Overland Vision Concept is one of the prototypes shown off by Toyota at the automotive mecca.

The vehicle is modded to bring extreme overlanding capability to the otherwise benign Land Cruiser. According to Modellista their core vision behind this design is to explore the potential of the brand in the U.S. If they intend on achieving what they’ve set their eyes on, the ultra-rugged Land Cruiser model will be a reality in the future pitted against the futuristic Cybertruck.

Designer: Modellista

This concept is a heavily armored vehicle that made heads turn at the SEMA show for its Cyberpunk look and bold character. It comes with an array of inclusions like aggressive off-road tires, lower body panels, fender flares, skid plates, a lift kit, headlight protection, side-carrying containers, a roof-mounted tent and a centrally mounted ladder. The aftermarket specialist made judicious use of amber green LED lights and a full-width light bar above the grille. These green LED accents extend to the whole front fascia and rear section to lend the ride an intimidating persona.

Overland Vision Concept has brush wires all around to protect against dents and scratches from exposure to the tough off-roading adventures, a dystopian future, or an apocalyptic warzone. Modellista has given the grille a good treatment of the TOYOTA logo with the Land Cruser branding below the bumper. The vehicle carries a two-tone theme in black and silver spilling over to the dark black tinted windows which make it a good candidate for a VVIP entourage.

It’ll be exciting to see how American adventure lovers see this lucrative Overlander pitted against the likes of the Ford F150 Raptor, Land Rover Defender, Jeep Gladiator, or Toyota Tacoma!

The post Modellista brings insane overlanding capabilities to Land Cruiser 2025 that’s dressed to impress first appeared on Yanko Design.

This gull-winged DeLorean DMC-12 in low-rider boots steals the limelight at SEMA 2021

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DeLorean DMC-12 changed the landscape of science fiction movies to a level that has automotive fans still reeling over “Back to the Future”. We see the reason though – the iconic 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 “Time Machine” made it through to the elusive club of cars at the National Historic Vehicle Register and is only the 29th car to make it through. The cult status the DeLorean enjoys is justified!

A great example is this outlandish carbon widebody modification by Boca Raton-based customization shop Salvage2Salvage in close quarters with automotive designer Khyzyl Saleem. This baby stole eyeballs at the recently concluded SEMA 2021 show. The Back to The Future ride was nowhere near this cool when the S2S lead fabricator Tim Moceri picked up a wrecked DMC-12, stripped it down to the barebones, and got down to giving it this drool-worthy makeover. While it looks like a beast from the outside, it doesn’t have the stock V6 engine or the flux capacitor with 1.21 GW of power to make one go tumbling down into the past.

Instead, it gets the 5.3-liter LS3 V8 engine hooked to a pair of Garrett turbochargers – churning out an impressive 1,000bhp. The gearbox is salvaged from a 996 generation Porsche 911, making it a classic mix of retro goodness any automotive lover will be willing to shell out a hefty sum of dollars. Alright, coming back to the mechanical components, the drivetrain is snug in place on the back – the turbo literally hangs underneath the car, making it a sports car you won’t want to ride on the race track chicanes or speedbumps of-course.

The final build seen at the automotive show is based on Khyzyl’s concept renderings, and it pretty much managed to emulate in real life, the vision on paper. It gets right the rear engine louver, blade-style headlights, and the active grid taillights. Or, for that matter the lowered suspension for a low rider-like appeal and the bulbous wheel arches draping the deep dish Sköl alloy wheels. Modern inclusions come in the form of custom wiring harnesses, a soundproof cabin, bumped-up STATUS seating, and the bespoke aluminum trim.

According to Tim, the wide-body kit will be replaced by carbon fiber in the future. So, will the modified KW suspension that’ll give way to an Air Lift Performance air-ride set up to strike the right balance? Until then, this DeLorean classic’s remake will be etched long in our memories.

Designers: Salvage2Salvage and Khyzyl Saleem

DeLorean DMC-12 at SEMA 2021

The post This gull-winged DeLorean DMC-12 in low-rider boots steals the limelight at SEMA 2021 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Chevrolet just unveiled the ‘Beast’ Concept, so you might want to get that Cybertruck deposit back

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Designed with the same “Drive fast, leave a sexy corpse” bad-boy attitude that the Cybertruck promised back in 2019, the Chevy Beast promises to turn any terrain into a road you can drive on.

Unveiled at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas just hours ago, the Chevrolet Beast is the closest thing you’ll probably get to owning a Halo Warthog. Designed to be the crown jewel of Chevy’s already jam-packed roster of trucks, the Beast is a desert-ready mammoth created specifically to “take the popularity of high-performance off-road trucks to the next level,” said Jim Campbell, GM U.S. vice president of Performance and Motorsports.

Sure, you can’t really compare the Beast to the Cybertruck without acknowledging the fact that they’re both completely different categories of vehicles. One’s a master of terrain, the other’s designed specifically to be a heavy-duty cargo-pulling vehicle… but they do have a common intersectional audience – the people who just want to own a badass vehicle that has ‘big chassis energy’.

Built from a modified Silverado chassis, the Beast concept was created to turn any terrain into tarmac, although the photoshoot heavily hints at desert-driving. Under its hood lies a Chevrolet Performance LT4 crate engine – a 6.2-liter supercharged V8 that’s rated at a mind-numbing 650 horsepower, paired along with a 10-speed automatic transmission that sends torque directly to a two-speed transfer case and distributes it to 37-inch-tall off-road tires mounted on 20-inch beadlock wheels.

Although it’s built strictly for performance, the Beast is, as its name suggests, rather intimidating to look at. Aggressive angular lines and slim lights give the truck a mean, no-nonsense demeanor. Tubular doors and a simple clamshell-type front end reflect the functionality and aesthetic of desert running while the rear of the vehicle was intentionally designed with almost no overhang to maximize the angle of attack on steep grades, and an open design, to let dust pass through without it gathering inside your vehicle. Additional unique design cues include a custom front grille, front and rear bowtie emblems, and powerful off-road lighting from Baja Designs®.

On the inside, the Beast’s cabin has a minimalist, functional design, featuring a quartet of seats with four-point harnesses, as well as a pair of 7-inch-diagonal LCD screens that monitor vehicle functions and performance data, including pitch and roll during off-road driving scenarios.

“There’s nothing else like The Chevy Beast,” says Jeff Trush, GM program manager, Pace Car and Specialty Show Vehicles. “It delivers a ton of performance and capability, which makes it adept at conquering rough terrain — and it flat-out flies in desert running.”

You can’t really buy the Beast for now, although the fact that Chevrolet unveiled such a mean machine at SEMA definitely shows what direction the company’s heading in. The Beast is accompanied by 8 other concepts unveiled at the Vegas event, and you can visit Chevrolet’s own SEMA microsite to know more about the vehicles being showcased at the event.

Designer: Chevrolet

Chevy’s electric hot rod truck mimics the sound of a V8

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Ford isn't the only automaker who rolled into SEMA with an electrified version of a familiar car. Chevy has unveiled an E-10 Concept hot rod that looks like a slammed vintage pickup truck (the 1962 C-10), but packs thoroughly modern EV tech. It's p...

Ford’s electric Mustang project car packs a manual transmission

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Sports car enthusiasts will sometimes balk at electric cars due to their usual lack of manual transmissions (there's no need for a gearbox, after all), but Ford has hinted that stick shifting might not be completely dead. The automaker has partnered...

Pizza Hut’s hydrogen delivery truck hauls a robotic kitchen

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Pizza Hut will not be outdone in the pursuit of over-the-top delivery vehicles. The restaurant chain has teamed up with Toyota to unveil the Tundra Pie Pro, a concept hydrogen fuel cell truck that not only cooks pizzas, but uses a pair of robot arms...

Best Cars at 2016 SEMA

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This year the annual SEMA event will have its 50th automotive market show in Las Vegas. SEMA is undoubtedly known as the single largest gathering for small businesses from all around the world. This...