We brought you our “Top Truck Picks” from SEMA 2014, along with our LIVE SEMA Show coverage, so now it’s time to see what the rest of the show had to offer. The Slam’d Mag crew was on the lookout all week hunting down the best of the best brought from all over the world to the show floors in Las Vegas. When it came time to narrow down the choices for our Slam’d “Top Customs & Rod Picks” of SEMA there were plenty of amazing rides to choose from, and as mentioned before – if we had unlimited time and resources we could easily add 100 more rides to this list. But we feel that those chosen below represent some of the very best customs that the custom automotive industry has to offer. Check out our Slam’d “Top Rods” below (stay tuned for our final Luxury Top Picks as well):
CUSTOM CLASSICS & RODS
G3 Rods’ ’37 Packard
Built with an all-steel body atop an Art Morrison chassis, this gorgeous ’37 Packard proves that even the most classy and elegant hot rods look good slammed flat to the ground and with a fully-built 383ci under the hood, it also proves that slammed rides can have plenty of tire-melting performance at hand. Built over the course of a year’s time, the Packard features a Ridetech air suspension system and planting the car to the ground are 16 and 18-inch custom painted steel wheels from Wheel Vintique wrapped in custom Nitto whitewall tires. With the body fully massaged it was topped with a BASF-based 1954 Ferrari inspired paint scheme, and full custom to match. Weber’s Custom Interiors in Alexandria, Minnesota handled the full custom internal transformation. Along with an all-leather 1939 Ford bench seat, Weber’s stocked the car with Classic Instrument gauges, a Juliano’s steering wheel, Vintage Air cooling, and an Alpine stereo system. One gorgeous car, which fully proves our theory – Slam’d rides are the BEST rides!
Photos: Mike Alexander, Lindsey Fisher, Johnny O | Words: Lindsey Fisher & Mike Alexander
Jesse Osborne’s 1960 “Criminal” Cadillac
When it comes to low-slung rides, you can’t beat a low rolling 1960s Cadi and Jesse Osborne pulled off the look perfectly with his ’60 Cadillac aptly named “Criminal.” Built atop the car’s modified stock frame, the Criminal is a nasty mix of modified Cadillac 390 power and a sleek low-lying stance thanks to a custom air suspension setup. Custom body work and a fiberglass trunk topped with House of Kolor Eclipse Orange paint with a mix in of Kustom Mix Pearl, give this Criminal Caddy the menacing look it deserves. A slew of electronics are powered by Kinetik batteries, from the push-button start to a full-custom Kicker audio system, are the perfect finishing touches to this comfortable, yet powerful ride. Inside, the car also features a custom dash and center console among other things – definitely one to keep an eye out for in the near future!
Roadster Shop GoPro 1970 Camaro – “RAMPAGE”
Easily one of our favorites from this year’s SEMA show, the Roadster Shop built 1970 Camaro known as RAMPAGE was a head turner and topic of discussion all week long. Not your traditional 2nd Gen “mullet machine” by any stretch – this 1970 Camaro features a custom wide-body that are all hand-fabbed carbon fiber panels and along with a one-off-a-kind racing chassis, which sports a custom cantilever coil-over suspension setup. Powering this amazing machine is none other than a tuned LS7 hitting roughly 750hp to the wheel and only adding to the wicked stance showcasing the gold Jongbloed racing wheels. Hats off from the entire Slam’d Mag crew to builder Jeremy Gerber and his Roadster Shop team for this radical build along with all of the other stunners they brought out this year, this shop is definitely one to watch closely in the coming years!
Lee Milinich’s ’65 Cadillac Coupe Deville
Representing the traditional slammed scene is this Lewis Milinich Body Shop 1965 Cadillac Coupe Deville owned by Lee Milinich. It features a stock 4-link rear suspension that’s been ‘bagged and supported by AccuAir management components, laying the car out on Centerline smoothies. Under the hood of the car, you’ll find a 429ci engine backed by a Turbo 400 transmission. Giving this Cad it’s sleek appearance is the perfectly straightened sheet metal thanks to a complete frame-off restoration. Everything on the car was striped bare including all the metalwork, which has been re-chromed. The Cadillac was then topped off with an Electric Black paint scheme and a custom interior from Interiors by Joe for that perfect custom cruiser appearance, completed just in time for this year’s SEMA show.
Steve Tornari’s 1967 Pro-Touring Nova
If you’ve ever seen a Ridler Award contender or a Goodguys Street Machine of the Year Award winner in person, you know just how spectacular they can be. This ’67 Chevy Nova owned by Steve Tornari is no different. Built completely in-house by Miranda Built in Palm City, Florida, this award-winning Nova is definitely the cream of the crop from top to bottom. Featuring a Rick Hendrick-built NASCAR 355ci Chevy SB2 engine, Precision turbos with custom manifolds, Ridetech Shockwaves, Isis Inteligent Multiplex System and custom-colored Budnik Gasser D wheels. Rounding out this fine machine is a custom interior designed by Eric Brockmeyer and pulled off by Extreme Performance, as well as a Charley Hutton-laid paint scheme making this one of the baddest performance/customs built to date!
Bob Bruhn’s Black Marlin
Sleeker than a baby’s bottom, we ran across this gorgeous slammed and ultra rare Marlin in the House of Kolors booth. Obviously, a ton of work went into this car, including into the paint, which is a custom mix of House of Kolors Jet Black base coat, Russet Peal FX with FX Karrier Base, Brandywine Kandy Basecoat, Apple Red Kandy Basecoat and clear coat. And that’s not even diving into the extreme amounts of custom metal work under the paint that makes it pop so well. Aside from the insane body mods and paint, the Marlin makes use of Wilwood brakes, Toyo tires, MSD ignition, Magnaflow exhaust, Comp Cams custom camshaft, and Bilstein shock absorbers paired with a custom air suspension setup.
James Hetfield’s Black Pearl
A true example of a full-custom build from the ground up is Metallica front-man James Hetfield’s coach built “Black Pearl”, a custom interpretive fusion of 1930s European cars imagined by Hetfield and the creator/designer Rick Dore. Built atop a 1940 Jaguar frame, Black Pearl is a completely coach-built car with an aluminum handmade body built by Marcel and Luc DeLay and topped off with a PPG Deep Black paint scheme, which was laid by Darryl Hollenbeck. Powering the car is a Ford 302ci engine capable of producing 375hp tied to an automatic overdrive transmission. Truly one-of-a-kind, Black Pearl is certainly the kind of creative styling that we love here at Slam’d so we just couldn’t leave it out.
Kicker Audio’s 1950 “Eagle Eye” Studebaker
Rounding out our top custom picks from SEMA 2014 is the stunning Studebaker that sat front and center all week long in the Kicker Audio booth. A truly unique build, done completely in-house by the Kicker Installation team, you can bet that this thing is loaded with the very best in Kicker Audio equipment from front to back. Sitting low thanks to an air suspension setup from Air Lift Performance, tucking the copper colored Dayton Wire wheels perfectly into the wheel wells. This 1950 Studebaker has been in the works for quite sometime, but this year’s display showed all the finishing touches including the custom color and copper accents throughout. Body-worked to perfection and painted by Chico and The Men, this work of art was definitely a refreshingly different build that we can’t wait to bring you more on – so stay tuned!
Other Top Customs & Rods From SEMA 2014:
