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FEATURE INTERVIEWS:

SEMA SHOW SPECIAL 2024 – Episode #1:

Welcome to the first special show from our coverage of SEMA 2024! Producer Bernie McPartland and I hit the pavement in Las Vegas and captured a TON of great interviews. This episode is dedicated to the builders that make the cars we love to look at and drive!

We began day one at Optima track with a drift car ride with none other than THE Tanner Foust of the US version of Top Gear with many racing wins, as well as being a talented stunt driver/performer in many movies (Fast & Furious, Bourne, Ford v Ferrari). It was amazing to experience the skills Tanner has built up over the years of racing and performing professionally. He was smooth and could make the car do anything he wanted it to do. It was a great kickoff to an amazing week in Vegas.

-Rob Kibbe

Jason Engel and Jarred Morris – Trick Rides: A year ago I talked to Jason Engel (Classic Recreations) and he admitted he had a secret that he could not say just yet. Many months later at the show known for product reveals he drops the bombshell of a full carbon fiber, widebody Mustang (except the OEM framework) built by an all new company named Trick Rides. The car will be a very limited run so it will not have the expensive production set up costs and tooling but is one hundred percent created and designed in CAD from scratch. Jason said this has been a massive undertaking and it has brought all of their combined skills into use. It also takes a lot of paperwork to get an all new design approved so Jarred and Jason started with an original Mustang framework which means it comes with an original Mustang Vin.

“Scorched” will be the first full CAD engineered and wind tunnel tested resto mod Mustang and you can contact the guys at TrickRides.com to find out how you can order your own. Jarred said that once he is done creating a new vehicle that it is time to move on to a new one and indicated yet another new project being planned for next year. I am looking forward to seeing the next stage in the process.

Hemmings : I met up with Jonathan “Jono” Shaw in the Hemmings booth to find out how the muscle car market is progressing in this election year. Hemmings sells an incredible amount of vehicles which means they also have a massive amount of data related to vehicle sales. The market has still been on the rise and classic vehicles are still a good investment but which cars are increasing can be surprising. Jono said that muscle cars from many different decades can be a good inflation hedge to retain a value higher that you would get in a normal savings account. The Fox body Mustang and Third gen Camaro are good examples of  vehicles that have beat the inflation rate in return on investment. The numbers also suggest that 2000-2010 model year vehicles are hot right now and values are starting to return on that era of collectible cars. Sixty two percent of buyers right now are under forty four years old which is driving the prices up on the cars they know and love. One surprising stat was that the average car sale on Hemmings is only $30,000. If you consider that many vehicles on the site sell for more than $200,000 that means there are a lot of great priced deals to be had. If you would like to know more, you can check them out at Hemmings.com.

The Ring Brothers : The Ring Brothers are always a special interview and I am lucky to have once again had the chance to get to talk to them about their latest creations…plural! Many shops struggle to bring just one show car and the Ringbrothers struggle to bring three show stoppers. They did admit that they were still thrashing on “Invadr” the week before SEMA and may have still been putting bolts in at the show.
Invadr is the Buick Grand National, twin turbo V6 muscle car that has the Ringbrothers treatment, Roadster shop chassis, and puts out a genuine 1200 horsepower from the Duttweiler Performance built engine. Their very talented staff pulled it out and got it done just in time to be a major showcase at SEMA 2024.

The brothers also brought a Chevy K5 Blazer named “Tuka” and a Plymouth Barracuda called “Infected”. “Tuka” is aptly named since it Tuka lot of money, time, and effort to get the truck built. The ’72 Blazer looks similar to a GM offering but has had everything chopped and parts changed out from multiple different vehicles and manufacturers to culminate into an amazing creation.

The “Infected” Barracuda has a Redeye motor and has been chopped, lowered and hammered into yet another show stopping car. Even the paint is a familiar shade of Mopar Pink but they refined it to make it even more pink.
They gave credit to Steve at Upholstery Unlimited (Clinton Ia.) for doing amazing interior work and making seats that truly stand out in the crowd. If you would like to see more Ringbrothers creations you can check them out at www.Ringbrothers.com.

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