Some News From Sema

[flylwsi]

some info that i found that is pretty interesting...
from www.overboost.com

Each year, the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association (SEMA) hosts a conference allowing manufacturers to get more intimate with the Fourth Estate. This year, it was held at the Embassy Suites near LAX airport, an atrium-style affair making things look more like a high-performance auto parts mall than a conference.





Renowned for their domestic car applications, Edelbrock has been quietly working on a full line of sport-compact parts, including their "E2" nitrous oxide system, Honda fuel rails, various strut braces and even dampers and coilovers. The dampers and coilovers use Edelbrock's "Ricor Inertia Active System" technology, basically a mechanism within the damper allowing it to better isolate the chassis from sudden road shocks (a pothole, for instance) while keeping firmer damping rates over smooth road conditions for better handling. We haven't tried Edelbrock's dampers yet, but when we do we'll give you a full report.






Long a respected name in vintage automobile "restomod" circles, Pertronix has satisfied a niche by designing ignition system components that replace old-style breaker points ignitions with modern igniter-based systems. Drawing on their ignition experience, Pertronix has developed an ignition box they call "Second Strike." The Second Strike differs from other ignition boxes because it can fire a second spark after the initial main ignition spark (hence the name). The timing of the second spark is coordinated by the "C.A.O." (Crank Angle Offset) knob on the side of the unit and the secondary spark can be fired up to 9 crank degrees after the main spark. Available in March, the unit promises to open a whole new door to sport-compact tuners.






In other news, Vortech has recently purchased Paxton, allowing each label to tighten their focus on product offerings. Vortech will be the conglomerate's sport-compact arm, and they're working on supercharger systems for the Ford Focus in "standard" and "high output" versions. The standard systems are non-intercooled and the high-output systems include an air-to-water aftercooler. After we raked the Vortech reps across the coals a little, they let slip that a Nissan 350Z/Infiniti G35 system may be on the way.





A newbie in the industry, Car Chemistry is approaching the market with some new and interesting ideas. Among them is this patented "Forced Air Induction Collector Header." It differs from standard header systems by having an open-to-atmosphere tube. Exhaust gas doesn't go into this tube – atmospheric air is actually drawn in to the exhaust system by the vacuum created by the stream of exhaust gas. Car Chemistry tells us that the design creates a negative pressure void and helps maintain exhaust gas velocity through the exhaust system.






Getting a start manufacturing performance intakes for trucks and SUVs, Airaid is now stepping into the sport-compact arena, and they're coming with their guns loaded. In addition to a large lineup of stock-replacement filters, Airaid is offering throttle body spacers, which increase fuel-atomizing turbulence in the intake tract.





B&M has been cranking out excellent products for sport-compacts, and the line is only getting bigger. New on the list are their Audi TT short-shift lever, Chevy Cavalier/Pontiac Sunfire short shifter and 2000+ Volkswagen Golf/Jetta shift lever. The brackets on the far right are for Mk III Volkswagen Golfs and Jettas and mounts directly to the transaxle.





Advanced Engine Management (AEM) has been working hard not only introducing new products, but improving their existing products as well. First off, their adjustable cam gears have been modified, using a hard anodized finish on the wear surfaces, which increases cam gear life and keeps the gear looking new. They've also introduced a lower priced version of their big brake kit, which uses a blackened brake rotor. The black finish was originally introduced to prevent the rotors from corroding while in the package, but looks nice on the vehicle too. (It wears from the braking surfaces, however.) The one-piece rotor has a two-piece look and is touted as being tougher than the two-piece rotors. Additionally, AEM has been very happy with the sales of their "V2" intakes, which use acoustical tuning principles to fatten torque curves in ways that conventional intakes cannot.





Speaking of buying up other companies, Turbonetics has recently acquired turbo kit manufacturer F-MAX and will be using the F-MAX label on their own turbo kits. (Turbonetics itself only manufactures turbochargers and components.) Several years ago, Turbonetics also acquired Spearco and has since expanded their offering of intercoolers. Taking the next natural step, Turbonetics will be using Spearco's tooling to manufacture high-tech radiators with similar high-efficiency cooling mechanisms used in intercoolers.






You may remember the "blue boxes" put out by Jacobs Electronics in the sport-compact industry's long past. An entirely revamped line of performance ignitions such as the "Fire Control" ignition control boxes and "C-4" high performance ignition coils is superceding the blue boxes. The Fire Control is a fully-potted spark box that is offered in three versions from basic spark amplification to units with built-in rev limiting and full-power multi-spark discharge to 24,000 RPM on four-bangers. Don't think Jacobs is cool enough for you? Check this out: They're QS9000 and ISO 9001 certified!





Flex-A-Lite cracked us up with the label on their Honda fan kit box that says, "MORE SPACE FOR THE TURBO." That just goes to show that some companies know what sport-compact enthusiasts are really looking for when they shop for aftermarket products. The application-specific fans for Honda and Mitsubishi bolt up to the stock cooling fan mounting points and use OEM wire harness connectors for true plug-n-play fit.





Yet another domestic car company trickling some of their technology into the sport-compact industry is Barry Grant. BG has been making V8 fuel systems for years (including carburetors that use high-pressure fuel injectors in place of "perfume atomizer" float bowls) and is now working on a full line of late-model products. Their nitrous systems should work with virtually any vehicle, and we liked some items including their fuel filter/distribution block combo piece. Contained within is a 0.2-micron filter that uses eight linear feet of filtration media (a fine stainless steel mesh) and folds it into a circular patch about two inches in diameter.






Don't be too scandalized by the photos of big-block Chevrolet cylinder heads! They're just representative photos of what's to come from Australian casting giant Pro Topline. They're bringing a Honda cylinder head to the US, but it won't be a reproduction of a stock casting. What they've done was make all the "money" portions of the head thicker, such as the deck and water jackets. They've also straightened out the ports for better flow. Pricing is tentatively set at about US$1,600 – and that includes a CNC porting job!





Also QS9000/ISO 9001 certified, Crane Cams has improved and increased availability for sport-compacts. First on the list is the update of their venerable HI-6 ignition control. Renamed the HI-6S, the new spark box boasts fully-potted internals for better vibration resistance as well as built-in rev limiting capability for staging and high-speed shifts. You won't likely hear this from your Crane dealer, but for a limited time Crane is offering a free ignition coil with a HI-6S purchase and a $20 rebate on camshaft purchases.





Taking gauge technology further up the ladder, Autometer has added various lighting techniques to existing gauges. They've also improved on their playback tachometers and included staging RPM indication to some Shift-Lite tachs. (If the engine is revved outside the staging RPM "window," the Shift-Lite flashes quickly.) They tell us it's a great way to keep your eye on the tree instead of on your gauges – we've blown our fair share of launches staring at tachs instead of trees!






We hadn't originally scheduled a meeting with Electromotive, but after walking by their meeting room and spotting the new TEC3 ECM, we knew we had to visit them "after hours." Capitalizing on Electromotive's awesome crank-indexed fuel and spark systems, the TEC3 advances the state-of-the-art as far as rev limiting and intuitiveness of the tuning software.



Sure, the SEMA Show is nice… but this time around, we got to fondle the hardware, and that's always even more fun.