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FEATURE INTERVIEWS:

SEMA SHOW SPECIAL 2024 – Episode #2:

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 companies that make the parts we love to use on our cars!

-Rob Kibbe

BluePrint Engines – Norris Marshall: Everyone into working on vehicles has heard of BluePrint engines and I wanted to find out how it started and grew into what it is today. Norris was raised by an entrepreneurial father who was a farmer and always had hard working spirit. His dad was the classic fifties gear head with a flattop hairstyle and a 29 Model A roadster with a flathead Ford V8 that spent the weekends racing, until he had to grow up and go to work to raise his family. Norris grew up hearing the stories of races and driving so it was ingrained in his soul to want to work on cars. He really wanted to go into business for himself in the automotive world and when he was rejected from joining into an existing business at the young age of 20 he decided to open his own machines shop. As the shop grew he got into more than just racing engines and worked on “grocery getter” stock engines and realized there was a larger market for rebuilt motors. Norris says it is important to listen to the customer close and do what they are asking for. BluePrint engines has been in business for forty two years so they must be listening to the right things. BluePrint engines sells engines that are compatible with many OEM platforms and most contain 100% new parts. They even work with a foundry to source engine blocks to make sure the products are the best they can assemble. You can find out more or schedule a tour you can find them at BluePrintEngines.com.

Blazin Rods – Ricardo Salatino : SEMA is a place of stories and Blazin Rodz is one of the newest stories at the show. Ricardo started in the off road world straight out of high school around 2009 and struggled to make it. He was offered an opportunity to build an off road truck for a SEMA build and made the top twelve in the battle of the builders. He was approached by a fomer customer to start a shop and supported Ricardo with what he needed to make a go in the automotive world. This year for SEMA this new company, “Blazin Rodz”, brought two different cars for 2024. These cars were extensively modified and exactly what you expect in a SEMA show car. The 1970 Dodge Charger engine features the very first 1500 horsepower produced by Mopar and has the number one serial number on it. It has a full Direct Connection carbon fiber body sitting on a Roadster Shop Fast Track elite chassis with Compression Wheels one off wheels on it. The whole package was for sale on Hemmings at the time of the show and had a buy it now price on it. It was totally possible to buy the car during the show and drive home with it. Ricardo said that Hemmings was hesitant to work with a one year old shop but he kept sending them photos during the build until they gave in and featured the build.

The other vehicle in a 1970 Chevelle called ‘Doughboy’ that took home the SEMA Best Engineered Vehicle. The car is on a whole other level and was completely redesigned to be wild and shocking which is accomplished very well. Style points from the era were kept throughout the build but everything is different from the base vehicle. Through their sister company “Compression Wheels” they were able to hook up with Dynamat to display the vehicle at the show. Of course Dynamat wanted to know how the vehicle would feature their product and Blazin Rodz went over the top and kept out the trunk floor and laser cut the Dynamat foam to feature all of the names of the builders. This vehicle was also up for sale on Hemmings but Ricardo said he secretly wished it did not sell so he could keep it for himself. This just shows how much of himself he poured into building this car.
If you would like to follow the story from Blazin Rodz you can follow them @BlazinRodz or follow the TV show on Roku or YouTube.com/@blazinrodztv.

HP Tuners – Vinay Hasija: HP Tuners is well known throughout the industry for its leadership in the aftermarket tuning world. They make thousands of hot rods run better, faster, and more efficiently that was previously possible. I was expecting a high end hot rod with the latest fuel burning technology to be in their booth and yet I found an electrified Porsche and I was very intrigued. Vinay said they started with a 1984 Porsche Carrera 911 and worked with Legacy EV to scope out all of the drivetrain components. They then installed their own brand new product  called CORE EV which is a VCU (vehicle control unit) to manage the whole EV system from the motor and drivetrain all the way to turning on the headlights and other body functions. With the HP Tuners system you can start from scratch and control everything instead of reengineering multiple parts to do something different. This will open up the world of EV vehicles to the aftermarket and allow builders

You can follow HP Tuners and learn more about the new EV offerings at HPTuners.com.

RideTech – Blane Burnett: Blane is great friend of the show and has been on many times over the years! It was great to catch up with him at his new role at the RideTech booth. He was able to break down the new offerings and re-releases which were extensive including 6th gen Camaro support with new coil overs and three way adjustable shocks. They also have new late model Mopar support for the LX platform vehicles. Fords have some new product love as well with Fox body vehicles IRS suspension and a SLA (short arm long arm) system which eliminates the strut system and allows more room for the larger engines like the Coyote 5.0L.

You can check out these and more at RideTech.com.