As a festival of automotive excess, the SEMA show is unrivaled on this continent. As a looking glass into the future of the aftermarket, there is none better. As a place to actually find next year's cool new stuff, it's hopeless. With something like 9,000 exhibitors, it is literally impossible to find anything. But on the bright side, if 90 percent of those exhibitors are hocking utterly useless crap, that leaves 900 companies making stuff you actually want. Through a process of random wandering, we managed to find the absolute best 20 things that were there.
We think.
The Coolest Damn Thing We Saw At The Sema Show:
1. Prodrive Active Shock
Get this. Prodrive just announced it's putting the finishing touches on an active computer-controlled suspension for the WRX. The system consists of conventional coil springs and inverted dampers, but here's the amazing part: The valving in the dampers is able to change up to 1,000 times per second. A built-in position sensor and microprocessor at each corner lets each damper deal with the rapid calculations and adjustments individually, while a central chassis-mounted computer with accelerometers and yaw-rate sensors gives the dampers a bigger picture of how all their hard work is paying off.
Think about what this means. Ok, so you're pounding down your favorite mountain road with the shocks on stiff when you hit an unexpected bumpy section. No problem, the shocks automatically go soft to soak up the bumps.
No. Think bigger. Try pounding down that road, hitting a bump, and having each wheel individually go soft just long enough to soak up the bump, then automatically switching back to stiff.
Getting warmer. Think even bigger. Think of a system that can recognize when you're entering a turn and momentarily stiffen compression damping on the outside front and rebound on the inside front to improve turn-in, then switch to a more rear-biased stiffness profile for the rest of the turn to help the car rotate. Think about a system that controls body motion so well you can jump two feet in the air, land with just enough damping to use the dampers' full travel to absorb the impact, then rebound exactly to ride height without any oscillations. Think of a system that can let your car dominate on the track, then drive straight to the airport to pick up your 97-year-old grandmother.
This system turns such fantasies into nothing more than an (admittedly monumental) software challenge. If Prodrive can program this system right, make it last, and make it affordable, it could obliterate the old ride/handling compromise.
Oh, and about that affordable part: Nothing's final yet, but less than $3,000 is apparently the target.
I don't know what they put in their Wheaties at Prodrive, but I want some.
Prodrive USA
(949) 757-1799
www.prodrive-usa.com
2. Innovative Manifolds
Innovative Turbosystems is celebrating its new fabrication shop by offering tubular stainless steel turbo manifolds to put a variety of turbos on a variety of cars. In addition to off-the-shelf manifolds for the expected B- and H-series Hondas, Mitsubishi's 4G63, and Nissan SR20s, Innovative is also offering manifolds for front- and rear-drive versions of the Volkswagen/Audi 1.8T and the FSD 2.0-liter in the Mazda Protg. Manifolds are available for both internal and external wastegates. Innovative can also fabricate custom manifolds.
Innovative Turbosystems
(805) 526-5400
www.innovativeturbo.com
3. Another Edelbrock Turbo Kit
It wowed us the first time with its incredibly comprehensive C.A.R.B.-legal D16 turbo kit and it's wowing us again with a B16 kit. The B16 kit's feature list is familiar. A cast NiResist manifold and downpipe for high heat resistance, a whole new intake manifold, a Garrett bar-and-plate front-mount intercooler and every hose, fitting, wire and zip-tie you could possibly need. There's even a boost gauge. Engine management is via a non-programmable Link piggyback controlling four 19 lb/hr injectors hiding on the underside of the intake manifold runners.
In addition to the comprehensive parts count, the detail work on the system is impressive. The turbo is a ball-bearing Garrett GT28RS (that's a Disco Potato to you and me) with headroom for 320 hp, the cast downpipe elbow has a separate exhaust path for wastegate flow, there are two O2 sensor fittings to allow the use of a wideband sensor, the compressor inlet is tapered just the amount the turbo engineers wanted it to be, and we could go on, but we won't. The kit is designed to fit a '99 to '00 Civic Si, and Integra GS-R kits are not far behind.
Even better, for tweakers like us, there are plans for an "open track" version of each kit that trades emissions legality for more power. The option to buy just the parts you want (like everything but the turbo if you want a bigger one, or everything but the piping if your engine is in the wrong car, etc.) is in the works as well.
Edelbrock
(310) 781-2222
www.edelbrock.com