By Dean Larson

The transition from October to November means only one thing in the automotive world, SEMA is here. Every year, the premier trade-only event takes place over a four-day period at the Las Vegas Convention Center, showcasing a whose-who in the automotive world. Countless numbers of builders, buyers, OEMs, vendors and media descend on Sin City for an epic week of demos, displays and debuts. Our focus here at RCN Mag is the replica, kit car and continuation industry, and every year, there’s more and more to see at SEMA from this niche market. We’ll be on location, trekking through the hundreds of displays on the Convention Center grounds, and here’s a quick look at some of the things we’ll be seeing.

Our friend David Miller of Brand New Muscle Car will be in attendance, debuting his completed Yenko Camaro continuation car. As the first new Yenko Camaro built in nearly 40 years and the star of the Velocity Channel’s series Brand New Muscle Car, sYc-001 is a high-profile build. The car is an all-steel 1969 Yenko Camaro 427 S/C built with full licensing.

The crew at Factory Five Racing will have their largest presence ever at SEMA with three separate booths on the Convention Center grounds. Dave Smith summarized FFR’s upcoming displays in a recent Factory Five newsletter:

“We have our traditional indoor booth (#23229), our big rig will be featured outside by the drift ring (#61013) along with five Factory Fives, and lastly, we are doing a live build of a Type 65 Coupe in the Ford Out Front area. The live build will start Tuesday morning, and will end with us drifting the car at the end of the show!” – Dave Smith, President of FFR

We’re pretty excited to check out the live build, which is sure to be a nice mix of FFR’s component design and Ford Performance parts. We’ll do our best to check in with the build team regularly for updates.

Other prominent FFR builds on display will be several FFR ’33 Hot Rod trucks, one built by our friend Erik Treves, and the 2019 London Cobra Show raffle car — a Mk IV roadster built by Forma Cars.

As in years past, Superformance will have indoor and outdoor booths showcasing their lineup of replica vehicles. Always a crowd pleaser, the Superformance drift Cobra driven by Pablo Cabrera will be in attendance to shake things up a bit at the outdoor drift course. The 1,000-hp capable roadster shreds the best rubber with ease, proving Superformance’s mettle for SEMA attendees.

We’ve enjoyed the Lingenfelter-built Superformance Grand Sports that we’ve seen in the Lingenfelter booths the last couple years, so we were excited to hear we’ll be seeing another one this year. Suoerformance will also be unveiling a brand new build, known as the Future GT Forty, in the Magnaflow booth.

“[This] Custom build pays tribute to both the 50th anniversary of the historic privateer GT40’s, MkI P1075, victory at Le Mans in 1968/69 and the current Ford GT’s racing success. By putting a competition-prepped twin-turbo Ford EcoBoost 3.5L with custom Magnaflow exhaust and a host of aftermarket components in a Superformance MkI GT40 wearing the current Ford GT endurance racer’s livery, we’ve creating the ultimate Ford Performance tribute vehicle.” – Superformance

With official licensing from SAFIR GT40 and a lineup of modern components, the Future GT Forty should be one of the most unique GT builds ever untaken. Stay tuned for a full feature.

Our friends at Cheetah Evolution will also be present, displaying what is certainly the most radical Cheetah ever built of any design. Powered by a V12 engine from V12LS.com, this new Cheetah goes where no Cheetah has ever gone before. With help from Haltech Engine Management Systems and Ron Francis Wiring, the V12-powered Cheetah roared to life in this recent video by V12LS.com.

With thousands of vehicles and new products to see, we have our work cut out for us for this week. Be sure to tune in next week for our first reactions from the show and be sure to check out our social channels for more frequent updates.