Trends in the market dictating style and function

Enter The 2021 SEMA Show, held in Las Vegas at the mind-blowingly vast Las Vegas convention center. The SEMA Show has always been the premier automotive aftermarket specialty equipment products trade event in the world. It draws the best and most innovative creations, products, and developments to one place. This makes it the perfect place to help answer the question, “Where is car culture trending?”.

Resto mods are red hot

Resto mods seemed to attract the most attention throughout the show. Custom builders in booths made famous in part by all the restoration shows on TV bring lots of new blood, customers, and popularity into the fray. I counted no less than ten vintage Mopars that had Hellcat (or Hellephant) engines stuffed into their engine bays. The red hot resto mod market sees no end to the possibilities. Many more builds had the ever-reliable and powerful LS engine upgrade. Custom independent suspension, rack and pinion steering, coil-over shocks, and whole new aftermarket frames altogether were the norm with ridiculous amounts of horsepower. Customers want beautiful old school body lines with all the new power, tech, and reliability of today’s best equipment.

Willie B’s “Sick Six Six” 66 Wide Body Charger at the Heidts Booth

But hold on to your bank accounts. These resto mods aren’t cheap. People want their projects done correctly and are willing to pay for it! $500,000+ are builds not unheard of. One quote overheard at the show is that, “the $10,000 paint job doesn’t exist anymore”. Yes, bring your wallet, but even if you have the money be prepared to get in line. Just about every builder we talked to is flush with business, some out to 2024 and the project orders just keep rolling in. The COVID glut in the market, the painfully long shipping times for parts with just about every special part on backorder at some point assures us that the market will not loosen up anytime soon.

Electric future?

It’s not just crate engines replacing the vintage mills anymore. Electric-powered hot rodding is, inevitably, on the horizon. Conversion kits from the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to electric were easy to find. In fact, even the heavyweights like Ford and GM are investing and betting heavily in the technology. They’re even offering electric crate engines at only 205 pounds in weight and diminutive in size. They can be installed in the front or rear of the car or on all four wheels. 281 horsepower with 317 ft/lb of torque each is nothing to sneeze at. The motors with the control pack are currently just under $4,000. This tech is only going to improve and the batteries are going to get smaller, cheaper, and lighter.

Electric Mustang built by HR Manufacturing

There were clear signals, however, from the car culture at the SEMA Show that the technology is not yet fully embraced by the car culture at large. At the SEMA Show Monday Night Reveal, Dave Kindig unveiled two of his new custom 53 Corvettes, he also made the announcement that not only will these cars come with ICE motors, but they will be releasing an all-electric version for next year. The pause to await the cheer from the crowd was rewarded with awkward silence instead. It is clear the culture feels the electric option does not have the hot rodding soul, allure, or feel of a well-tuned V8 with all the familiar rumble, smell, and earned reverence that goes along with it. Looks like the public is going kicking and screaming into the mandated electric EV era.

Kindig-It Design blue Lingenfelter powered 53 Corvette Concept

Dave Kindig and Kevin Schiele reveal the Kindig-It Designed 53 Corvette Concepts

Hydrogen calling?

There may be hope for hot rodders unwilling to jump into embracing electricity while still wanting to try a more environmentally-friendly option, hydrogen power! At the Red Line Oil booth we found this sweet hydrogen-burning LS-powered 1949 Chevy pickup truck built by Mike Copeland and team at Arrington Performance. It doesn’t contain a hydrogen fuel cell like previous prototypes. It carries its very own hydrogen fuel tank, and keep in mind hydrogen is three times more explosive than gasoline. That means there’s the potential for more power, and with the fuel being more concentrated, you get more miles using the same volume of fuel, much more efficient.

The Zero Emissions hydrogen powered truck by Arrington Performance as seen at the Red Line Oil Booth

The only byproduct is water. How great is that? This has the potential to be even cleaner than electric. No more factories pumping out batteries with all their caustic chemicals, recycling issues and no drain on the power grid. We won’t have to worry about this type of power being slow, as they claim the LS engine made north of 500 horsepower on the potent gas. As a bonus, hot rodders would even get their classic V8 exhaust rumble back, which electric so harshly took away. Seems like a win-win to us.

Rat Rods

Rat rods still had their place at the show. Upon entering the show, participants were greeted with one particular outrageous rat rod 47 Fargo FL1 named “Chain Smoker”. Like the name says it was adorned with chains over the fenders, hood, and wheel openings. Stuffed with a gigantic Cummins-Powered turbo-diesel engine, it was definitely a showstopper at the 2021 SEMA Cruise-out, billowing smoke straight up out of its gargantuan smokestack. Rat rods at the show are maintaining their aggressive, cartoonish looks in defiance of the pristine cars that otherwise dominate the show floor. Rat rods have a mean street, steampunk gangster vibe that many hardcore hot rodders can appreciate and admire.

Warwick Andrews 47 Fargo FL1 named “Chain Smoker” at the SEMA Show Cruise-Out

Where are we headed? 

So what feeling did we come away with from this year’s SEMA show? If the young guns in the famous Battle of the Builders are any indication, we are in good hands. We had time to talk with the young up and comers in the builder arena and it gives us hope for the future. They are building cars that the people want to see. Gone are the days of dissimilar sized tires jacked up in the back in the classic muscle car pose. The main thing is getting these cars close to the ground in the perfect lowered suspension stance. Concours restorations will always have their place, but resto mods are clearly the king for now and in the near future. It’s hard for builders to ignore the sky high prices they’re commanding at the Mecum and Barrett-Jackson auctions as of late. The consumer’s appetite seems insatiable at this point in the game.

The electric revolution is desperately trying to gain a foothold in the performance aftermarket but they’re not quite there yet. Hot rodders of today want it all. They want the classic lines. They want super car handling. They want all the bluetooth conveniences that modern day tech holds. But most of all, they appreciate mechanical beauty mixed with the heavy metal chaos that 1000 horsepower transplants bring to the table. This formula brings a permanent smile to their face and leaves them wanting more, and we’ll be right there with them at the gas stations until the octane runs out…