With SEMA 2009 hype in full swing, and with our Administrator and parent site
AutoGuide.com having brought you my.IS Front Page stories on the
matte black Lexus LFA, the
four custom Lexus IS Cs that were built from the pre-production prototype vehicles that we sampled at
the Press Preview in May of this year and
David Huang's (my.IS member IS300eR) wild 1000hp Lexus IS 300, there is, nevertheless, one more worthwhile bit of Lexus-related SEMA news: the launch of the official
Lexus at SEMA microsite, which can be found at
Lexus SEMA .
The
Project Cars section includes photos and detailed information (or
Project Highlights) on the quartet of Lexus IS Cs as well as the Lexus GS 350 F-Sport by TRD that, like its little brother Lexus IS 350C F-Sport by TRD, has received both the full suite of F-Sport accessories and a four-piece ground effects kit, custom grille insert and signature three-stage Vibrance Orange Glow Kandy paint job by Troy Sumitomo's Five Axis. And, speaking of the IS 350C F-Sport by TRD, notice its unique 10-spoke wheel design with a sort of snowflake pattern in the center. Will Lexus offer a second F-Sport wheel alternative to the current simpler twin-5 spoke design? As of this writing, there's no official word from the company, but you can bet that they'll be closely watching showgoers' reactions to see if there's enough interest. For the record, this author votes strongly in favor.
As to the other project IS Cs, we must congratulate VIP Auto Salon for making the leap from last year's almost Lexus stand-worthy IS F which kicked off our
Lexus ISs at SEMA 2008 Front Page story to this year's Matte Matador Mica Red IS 350C by VIP Auto Salon that occupied its rightful place in the Lexus exhibit tent, located outside between the Central and South Halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center. And, as with last year's IS F, the VIP Auto Salon IS C features an Intake Pipe and True Dual Header-back Exhaust System with Titanium Tips by none other than our Senior Moderator Joe Z.
Making encore appearances as SEMA Lexus customizers are
0-60 Magazine, whose Starfire Pearl IS C, as my.IS moderator (and Club Lexus editor) Flipside909 correctly noted, is misidentified as an IS 350C when its manual shifter clearly denotes its IS 250C origins; and Fox Marketing, whose supercharged Foxy Green IS 350C has been amply documented in not
one but
two my.IS Front Page stories as well as in
an IS-C Forums thread.
Back on 24 September of this year,
a my.IS Front Page story notified our readers of the so-called SEMA Showcase contest, where one customized modded vehicle from the Lexus fan community would be selected to join the other aforementioned rides in the official Lexus SEMA exhibit. The proud winner was David Huang, whose ever-evolving Lexus IS 300 has been the subject of past my.IS Front Page stories from
June 2006 and
November 2006. The
SEMA Showcase Winner section of the official
Lexus at SEMA site gives the IS 300 by David Huang its due, as his own 3-page
Project Highlights section details where his $100,000 investment went, but don't forget to check out the
See the Other Contest Entries link, which leads to
Facebook's Lexus's Photos - Lexus SEMA Showcase Entries page and photos and information of other worthy contest entries such as Johnson Jeng's 2006 IS 350, Clay Bresnan's IS 250, Adrian Roach's 2006 IS 350, James Chou's IS F, Mark Yuen's 2006 GS 350, Edward Granado's IS 300, Chadwick Ko's IS 300 and David Hitchman's 1998 GS 300.
Finally, an
LFA Showcase section shows Lexus' V10 supercar in SEMA-worthy matte black and further links to the LFA section of the official Lexus USA site and its myriad links and, beyond that, to the super-fun and excellent LFA Global site. All in all, Lexus is to be commended for putting together such an informative, appealing, eye-catching and user-friendly site to commemorate its third major official SEMA appearance at the 2009 show. Again, visit
Lexus SEMA, read the Home Page Overview and then follow the links. It's the next best thing to being there...
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