The good, the bad and the ugly

Welcome to the Speciality Equipment Market Association Show in Las Vegas. That's SEMA to you. And if you've not heard of it before, it's a massive convergence of very modified cars and tuning parts.

Now, historically, we'd maybe point a mocking finger at a lot of this and laugh, but SEMA's changing somewhat. As a plump man with a tucked-in polo shirt told us, the tuning industry's now worth $27.8 billion a year in the US, and SEMA hosts most of it. And that means lots of mainstream manufacturers - Hyundai, Ford, Toyota and Kia among them - are joining in with their own takes on core models. Some of what you see here might actually reach production, albeit somewhat diluted.

So click on for a mélange of good, bad and ugly...

Photos: Andy Tipping

MX-5 wears Porsche Boxster Spyder-like roof.

As GM celebrate their 100th birthday, 50 years of Corvette gets jumbled into this '58-bodied '08-powered mentalist. Those aren't whitewall tyres - that's all alloy.

White on white is this year's new black. Which was the new red.

Lamborghini Murcielago gets shouty paint and a carbon gurn.

Porsche Panawhaaaaa? This is actually a Nissan 370Z. No, really.

Toyota reveals the iQ Raceplough. Is it terrible that we want one of these?

Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima's record-breaking Pike's Peak Suzuki. Probably the best thing in the history of EVER.

This Euro-style Rauh-Welt 911 actually comes from Japan.

Kia fits Ferris Bueller's bedroom in a boot.

Proper drag-spec Camaro cocks a wheel.

Old hot rod in eighties combat-sim camo.

Someone has a low iQ.

Impreza in QPR colours. This makes our online editor happy.

See what we mean about the white-on-white look being everywhere?

Sad Veyron cries white tears.

Isn't that sticker missing an S?

Footballers - sustaining the aftermarket tuning industry since 1995.

Big-rim arms race: WON.

This could take Bumblebee DOWN.

We think we've had an accident. The good kind.

Does the fact that we know these wheels are 15x10-inch Volk TE37Vs without consulting Google make us sad? ANSWER: yes. 

MPV? Pah! This is how you carry six in style. Well, perhaps not style...

Big daddy Mack. Mack Firetruck, to be precise. Note the Dodge Viper engine.

A stable of ponies.

You can actually see through the glass from the inside. We can't work out how awful this is.

The Ford Focus Shoreditch - skin-tight tyres, fixed-wheel bike and unhealthy pallor.

MAKE IT STOP

Someone's accidentally fitted a turbo from a train onto this car.