So here it is @ SEMA, the ShowOpt IS1000 by yours truly:
The booth looks amazing this year with the vehicle lineup from IS250/350C to GS350 to IS1000 & LFA!
Zoom’ed out a bit on the lense..
and I gotta show luv to those that helped me along the way with this project..
Cheers!
Before I jump straight to the debut on the first day of SEMA week, let me share with you all where LEXUS took us out on that night; you probably have wondered what this was from the previous pictures:
Where to you ask? To the best steak in Vegas- CRAFT STEAK @ MGM; it was a very special dinner that LEXUS does annually every year on the first night of SEMA, only less than 30 heads were invited (the vehicle builders, and the top executives/engineers of LEXUS), peep the name tag..
and here’s my table..
no pics of the aptzr, but steaks are served!
no pics of the sea food dishes, but I love the dessert!
I really didn’t have time to take much pics, but that tells you how awsome the dinner was; LEXUS did an awsome job pursuiting perfection, even with food! Although, if you can’t really tell what we had through the pics above, here’s the course menu, LEXUS tagged..
Mind I mention that it’s “entrees” not just “entree”; the dinner was served in family-style, everyone gets to have a perfect portion of everything listed, now that’s VIP style!
Didn’t do much for the rest of the night, had to goto the airport to pick up that buddy of mine whom flew in last minute, but we definately got to enjoy Vegas for once (in awhile) on Monday before the show started; but first, we went to take some peek at the cars in the gold lot, saw the Underground Racing twin turbo LP560-4 that later became my favorite car of the bunch that won the Gran Turismo Award this year:
but what caught my eye were the cars in the rig next to that Lambo..
Yup! that’s the project IS350C from VIP Status /Jtuned, a vehicle I knew ahead of time that staged with ShowOpt’s IS1000 along the LFA super car; speaking of which, found the IS1000 on the upper deck..
Waiting to be staged; is it me or were the decals crooked? LOL
Anyhow, we spent the rest of the day browsing through places where shopping took place, and ended the night with watching a show @ the Wynn’s Le Reve.
Next Up, the Grand Debut @ the Lexus booth inside the SEMA show floor!
It took awhile for me to post this update because internet/wi-fi was wack @ the Bellagio, thus I’ve waited till I got back to LA to upload the rest of the pictures.
Speaking of Bellagio, I’ve to officially thank LEXUS here for compensating the room for the whole week, made a big difference in my entire SEMA experience; how? let me show you what Lexus brought to us just minutes after we checked-in to our room on Sunday night:
too dark? here’s another snap at it with flash..
Call it “bragging” if you like, but I think I deserve a small pay-back after so much hardships that I’ve overcame; here’s another one at a different angle, as you can see some other part of this nice room at the Bellagio..
Curious what’s inside the bag? here you go..
The wine/voss water/chocolate were cool, but..
I was wearing the Lexus badge during the show even though I was able to have my own company badge; besides the fact that it was an honor being able to do that, I lent out my own badge to a buddy of mine whom flew from Taiwan very last minute just for the show. LOL
more to come, stay tuned..
So after the car was picked up, it didn’t head to Vegas right away; instead, it met up with the the rest of the other 5 booth vehicles of Lexus @ the private photo/video shoot session.
Here’s the press video from Lexus North America, peep it from 1:35~1:50 for ShowOpt’s IS1000:
stay tuned for the pics!
Words can hardly do any justice to how overwhelmed I am when I found out that the almost-a-decade-old project car gets to goto SEMA; and to top it off, in an OE Manufacturer’s booth- LEXUS North America!
On top of the first-class vehicle treatment from press-kit documentation to vehicle transport, it was a true VIP experience as the hotel/flight/rental were all comp for; although, I declined the flight/rental option as a trade off for more nights @ the Bellagio as we are able to stay (here as I’m typing this) for 7 days and 6 nights!
Enough with the swagger, here are some pictures that I took when they first picked up the car, aka “IS1000″:
peeping through the side of the rig..
and another close look inside the rig..
more to come..
As most of you guys & gals have noticed, our banner on the top has been given a little color-twist! YES! and I can rest assure you that once you see the picture I post in the next update, you’ll understand why it’s in such special colorful texture!
Before that, I would like to make a public announcement to thank a great friend of mine; everyone of you MUST have already read his dope blog and seen his amazing carS, but there’s so much about the fella that I can’t express my appreciation enough with just one post. It’s no other than Jetson “JAY” B. aka Mr. JDMEGO.
Jay is innovative not only in his automotive stylings, but is also one magical wizard in graphic design (logo/banner/layout…etc for both automotive & non-automotive purposes); through a few brain-storm sessions that I’ve sat myself down in Jay’s design studio, all I can say is, “401y $h17 this guy’s moving at the sp33d of light”, which in English, Jay’s artistic train-of-thoughts is processing at an impressive speed that is really out of this world, sometimes it makes me wonder if Jay’s really an alien and his side-kick Louie is his secret weapon for world domination LOL!
Jokes aside, Jay did an amazing job designing ShowOpt’s logo in various forms and colors, including the one you see above, matching our demo vehicle that is being debuting inside the LEXUS booth @ the SEMA show this week. Big thanks to you buddy!!
more to come from SEMA 2009..
Can you guess what car this is?
Yup, it’s an old school F365BB..
and this is what Heat Magic got for this classic..
with a closer look..
and a nice finish..
it never stop to amaze me that Heat Magic has such a wide range of products just on the Italian horses!
As one of the most famous flagship from Ferrari in the late 80’s, the F40 made a huge hit and encouraged Heat Magic to do some exhaust work on this beast:
Lets take a look from another angle..
Yup, the now-so-famous F458 Italia style Tripple-Tip set-up, BUT, Heat Magic did this years and years ago way before the F458 even made to the drawing board..
From time to time, Japanese established innovation on Euro’s too; and in this case, a super car.
Lets move forward on the timeline for some modern Italian horse, check out Heat Magic’s F430 exhaust work:
Section weld? yup! here’s how it look on the car..
With a closer look..
Again, clean titanium finish..
more to come..
