Events Coverage
Event Report: 2008 SEMA Show - Audi Perspective
By by: Fourtitude Staff, photos by Bryan Joslin
Nov 25, 2008, 20:03

Maybe it was the odd economy. Or perhaps the tension of a close national election. Either way, the mood at the country's largest automotive aftermarket show was a little funky for 2008.

With the automotive industry in financial peril, a trade show for its aftermarket might have had better timing. Still, things could have been worse. SEMA 2008 marked a decline of about 100 exhibitors this year, including notables particularly amongst the tire companies. BF Goodrich, Bridgestone, Goodyear and Michelin were all MIA this year. Most of the companies from the temporary display halls usually found in the parking lot were moved into the North Hall of the Las Vegas convention center and only a portion of the truck hall sat empty. In the aisles, there was also a little more room to breath from the usually shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, dropping from last year’s peak of 117,000 to about 100,000.

Even with the doom and gloom, we found a number of companies supporting the Audi aftermarket present and accounted for. We also found some rather nicely built Audi and VAG products peppered throughout the show too.

Audi R8 Razor by PPi

A regular player at Germany’s Essen, the Audi tuning house PPI made the trip across the pond and exhibited two cars bedecked with their products. The company’s R8 Razor showed off even more carbon fiber product, engine tuning, exhaust, intake and magnesium wheels – about $60K worth of upgrades. The company also had a kitted Q7 sporting their widebody body kit that fit in well with the American SUV scene… always strong at SEMA.

Abt Sportsline Audi AS5

PPI wasn’t the only European tuning house to make a splash at SEMA this year with news of an American distributor. GGI Tuning, distributors for Carlsson, Sportec and Hartge, has added Abt Sportsline to their mix of nameplates. To help drive that point home, the company displayed a white Audi S5 badged ‘AS5’ in Abt speak, complete with their body kit, wheels, suspension and more.

STaSIS was also displaying at SEMA. The California based performance house showed off an S5 with their full treatment and in their signature red paint at the Privat Wheel stand.

Lusch Audi S5

A silver S5 parked outside got our attention with a bold carbon fiber slat-front grille. The grille is apparently a product by a new firm known as Lüsch – a design and prototyping startup planning a new line of parts for Audi vehicles. The grille itself is made of real carbon fiber and billet aluminum inserts.

It wasn’t an Audi, but the engine under the hood of Volkswagen’s CC Performance Concept offers a hint at what we’ll be seeing in the future from Alabama-based APR Tuned. The CC, with it’s new EA 888 2.0T FSI engine got the usual turbo upgrade and multi-program setup you might expect from APR. There was the bump in power (311 hp and 313 lbs-ft), but the car also had a new Eco efficiency mode (222 hp and 236 lb-ft) that boosts mileage to 33 highway and 27 city versus 28 highway/19 city for a stock CC 2.0T.

Underground Racing's Lamborghini Gallardo Twin Turbo

Lamborghinis are always a popular choice at SEMA as well. Pirelli, one of the few tires companies to actually show up, showed their big fish status by bringing in a super-rare Reventon. Gallardos were also fairly common, though a particularly interesting green coupe with it’s tail-end missing showed off the guts of Underground Racing’s new twin turbo setup. We hear the North Carolina-based company’s kit is good for 1025-hp. Take that Veyron.

Elsewhere the show halls were most of the usual vendors, showing off everything from brakes and suspensions to wiring harnesses and car stereos. And wheels, of course. Judging by the cars on display in the wheel hall, you might be lead to believe that Roll-Royces, Bentleys and Lamborghinis exist for the sole purpose of showing off 20-inch-plus rolling stock. It borders on vulgar, but hey, that's SEMA.

Click the link in the story navigation for a gallery of Audi and Lamborghini pics from SEMA. Visit our sister site MotiveMag.com for a full show gallery that includes more than 2000 pictures of the entire show.

For more discussion on this story, click on the link to our discussion forums to the left.	For more photos of the car in this story, click on the link to our gallery at the right.

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