Driving Line also had an absolutely epic collection of cars in their outdoor display, including the vehicle that won the Gran Turismo Best In Show Award (which means it’ll appear in an upcoming version of the Sony PlayStation game).
That honour went to the Fugu Z, quite possibly the nicest S30 build we’ve ever laid eyes on. Built for actor Sung Kang from the Fast & Furious franchise by the crew from Greddy’s SoCal HQ, I wanted to steal the TE37SV wheels and vintage race seats for my Celica very, very badly. Oh, and it’s got a naturally aspirated ITB’d RB26 under the hood. So good!
Speaking of Greddy, their booth was on the second level of the South hall as well, and they had this cool new apparel line called Boost Brigade that includes some Fugu Z swag. We might have to order Ken a Fugu shirt as a little extra inspiration to get his 260Z build going.
VooDoo13, a company FormulaD multi-time champ Chris Forsberg is a part of, had some seriously sexy high angle kits for the 370Z and 350Z on display (we’re assuming both were originally developed for Forsberg’s FD cars). Just look at that billet knuckle!
They also had some rugged looking adjustable control arms for the Scion FR-S. We might just need a set of these for our FR-S next year so we can really dial in the rear alignment and stuff some big slicks in the wheel wells.
The iForged wheel booth had 5, count ’em, 5 RWB widebody Porsches on display.
For me and Pete, this backdated version with the duckbill spoiler was by far the most appealing of the bunch.
Fifteen52 had their unique wheel collection on display, a few of which you probably recognize from Ken Block’s recent projects. We were really digging these deep gold-bronze Porsche wheels, which are a very cool spin on the classic Fuchs.
Over in the Maxxis Tires booth, Pete appeared to be stunned by the ruggedness of their new truck tire, but I was more interested in their new 200 UTQG extreme performance summer tire. The Victra VR-1 was built to be a Advan AD08R killer, with superior wet performance and more dry grip too. We’re stoked to test a set of these out in the spring, because we’re always looking for the hottest new rubber in this ultra competitive street/track tire segment.
Speaking of street/track tires, Continental Tire had their new ContiForceContact offering on display. These are designed to compete against the likes of the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tire, so it’s a street-legal track and competition tire with a UTQG rating of 80.
Nitto had their NT05R drag radial on display, a street-legal DOT compliant drag tire that will initially be launching in popular 17” and 18” sizes.
We laughed, and laughed, and laughed!
Almost as strange as the Superman 300M was the Timberland booth. You just don’t expect to see a clothing company at this show, but apparently they’re getting into the tire business too. I guess they’ve learned a lot about tread from their boots?
I can’t be the only one who expected the “booth babe” at the end of your coverage to be David in a dress, right?
GrantC Oh man, opportunity missed! Where were you when I needed this idea a few days ago??? 🙂