SEMA 2026 opened with a Ferrari that someone had, by most accounts, thoroughly wrecked on purpose, and the crowd loved every bit of it. That tension between reverence and destruction is exactly what draws builders and gearheads to Las Vegas every year, the shared belief that no car is too sacred to reimagine from the frame up. The Laughing Lion walked the entire show floor to find the ten builds that made even seasoned attendees stop mid-sentence.
From a six-wheeled monkey to a three-wheeled spaceship
At number ten, Gas Monkey Garage arrived with what can only be described as a philosophical statement about corners: a six-wheeled custom that raised the immediate question of whether the extra axle actually improves handling. The tires were pulling outward with noticeable camber, leaving that debate firmly open.
Number nine belonged to the Lotus Evija, tucked inside the Vegas Auto Galleries space and wrapped in Halo flexible film coating by G Technique. The all-electric hypercar runs four individual electric motors producing roughly 2,000 horsepower and 1,700 Newton meters of torque, sprints from zero to 62 miles per hour in under three seconds, and exists in a worldwide production run of just 130 units. The exhibitor confirmed the PPF on the spot.
Number eight was a head-scratcher that turned out to be a CLK 750S, wearing a Benz emblem but carrying enough ambiguity that comparisons to a McLaren were entirely reasonable at first glance.
At the Borla booth, number seven was the Shark Bite, Dave Kindig’s tribute to the legendary 1957 Chevy Corvette SS race car. Originally conceived by designer Eric Brockmire, Kindig added custom body refinements, a dramatic one-piece tilting hood, and headrests shaped like shark fins. Power comes from a 480 horsepower LS3 V8 topped by Borla’s eight-stack electronic fuel injection system, eight polished individual 50-millimeter throttle bodies feeding into a precision-engineered downdraft manifold, with custom stainless steel Borla Pro XS mufflers underneath giving the whole thing what the booth described as an assertive, unmistakable, muscular voice.
Number six came from a company called Appera, and the rep who drove it up from San Diego explained the pitch directly: ‘You kind of forget you’re in something that looks like a spaceship, and next thing you know you look around and three people all at once are taking videos of you.’ The three-wheeled, carbon fiber solar EV weighs 2,200 pounds, reaches 100 miles per hour, pulls up to 40 miles per day from its rooftop solar panels alone, and connects to a 400-mile battery pack that charges from a Tesla charger. Priced at $40,000, with the first deliveries planned for the end of the year, production is set to begin in San Diego.
The Canadian engine that stopped everyone cold
Number five produced the most genuinely jaw-dropping engine bay of the entire show, a Porsche build by a Canadian company with locations in Calgary and Toronto, logged at 4,000 hours of build time and sent out to RSpec Performance for finishing. The paint drew its own crowd. The website listed in the booth was jrponline.com.
Number four was the Ronin at the Dapper Lighting exhibit, built around a Nissan VK45 engine in a 3.5-liter V8 flat-plane configuration producing 450 horsepower and 300 pounds of torque, with indie-style lighting and sections of bare metal that raised the question of whether the bodywork was carbon fiber or a wrap.
Number three came from Brad and his son Austin, all the way from Sarasota, Florida. Brad drew the design three years before the build started, then spent seven months turning a 2002 Gem cart into a fully custom LSV running dual 850 controllers, two 10,000-RPM IPM motors, and close to 300 foot-pounds of torque on a 73.6-volt system. The air suspension lays the frame completely flat on command. JBL partnered with the build after seeing the existing swing framework on the vehicle, eventually loading it with 13 JBL speakers total, six at the rear, two in front of the wing, and three over the batteries, all controlled from a custom stand beside the car.
Number two was a 1955 Porsche Speedster by John Sarisian, built on a VW pan with S-Club suspension, Willwood brakes, a custom interior by S-Club, and a 1,950cc engine under the rear lid.
Number one, the build that closed the countdown, Ford F-250 Super Duty, Harley Davidson Edition which cost an estimated 1 million dollars, see it for yourself in the video!
The Shark Bite hood, still tilted open
The one-piece tilting hood on the Shark Bite sat propped open at the Borla booth, exposing the full eight-stack injection setup to anyone who walked past, eight polished throttle bodies pointed straight up, catching the show floor light.
For a 1970 Barracuda with a 6.1-liter Hemi and a 1984 Chevy C10 built by Wilco Classics and Speed in Round Rock, Texas, running a GM LT4 with a Whipple 3.0 supercharger, the show floor offered a few more honorable mentions worth noting. SEMA 2026 did not run short of builders willing to start from scratch and go further than anyone expected.
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