Toyota, Honda, Mazda steal the show at SEMA 2016

Toyota, Honda and Mazda are the centre of attention as more than 100,000 automotive lovers gathered at the 2016 premier automotive speciality products trade event currently going on in Las Vegas Convention Centre, USA.

Toyota took the show as an opportunity to show off a heavily modified Land Cruiser decked with a twin-turbocharged V8 engine Land Cruiser, which is capable of hauling at top speed of 220MPH.

To show the length, which the automaker can go in customizing their cars, Toyota said their entries were either to honour the past, explore the present or revel in the extreme.

“From the outside, the Land Speed Cruiser appears quite normal, quite subtle. This is what makes it so special. Every single system and component has been touched. The trick is getting the body back onto the heavily modified frame,” Toyota motorsports technical centre manage, Chuck Wade said.

The build team actually went to the trouble of removing the body of the unique LC200 to make the chassis stronger and more rigid to handle the extra power. They also significantly dropped the ride height of the Twin Turbo Land Cruiser to make it more stable when going over at high speeds.

Under the hood, the 5.7-liter 3UR-FE V8 has been fitted with twin Garrett GTX4718R turbochargers, along with several other upgrades like: two AEM in-tanks feed pumps, Custom MTCI intercooler, MoTec ignition system and Borla/MTCI headers and downpipe.

Honda’s display at the 2016 SEMA show shows its potential to continue the tuning legacy of the Civic as the company tapped three outside companies to create custom Civic models, and also showed its own work.

First up is a bright yellow Civic Coupe from perennial SEMA show builder, TJIN Edition. In addition to giving it a name that will give editors nightmares, TJIN gave the Civic modifications to its appearance and handling with the goal of making it the “ultimate street cruiser.

Honda also showed a race-prepped version of the Civic Coupe that will be eligible for racing around the world. Among the modifications done to it are an FIA-certified roll cage and an absolutely enormous wing.

Finally, Honda also showed off a Civic hatchback with all of the Honda Factory Performance (HFP) goodies you can get through the company’s catalog.

Mazda brought two MX-5 Miata concepts to the 2016 SEMA Show floor. The first is the company’s new retractable hardtop Miata, the MX-5 RH Kuro. The second is a revised version of the MX-5 Speedster that the company showed off last year, dubbed the Speedster Evolution.