Each year, the Los Angeles Auto Show rolls through town in a bustle of press releases, vehicle announcements, and invitations to mingle with the OEM manufacturers. It seems that the LA show tends to be where car companies announce their new electric and fuel efficient vehicles, admittedly stuff that's not really up our alley at Modified. However, there is also a Tuner Hall at the LA Auto Show, a place where you never quite know what to expect. Since the show is so close to SEMA, a lot of the cars you'll see downstairs are going to be things you've already seen just a few weeks prior. This year, the downstairs hall had some iterating stuff, and some not so interesting stuff. For lack of a better term, we saw the good, the bad, and of course, the ugly. Here's our take, we'll start with the less than ideal vehicles:
"This GT-R had a very unique style to the body kit. We're not sure how or why they decided that the quarter panels line behind the door should protrude randomly from the rest of the body, but at least the color is subtle... Right?"
"Egads! In case you were wondering how to make a Ferrari 458 Italia, one of the most beautifully designed supercars of all time, look cheap and tacky... Here you go."
"We're going to have to go ahead and categorize this 350Z in the 'WTF were they thinking' file. We can see a vague inspiration being drawn from the Japanese Super GT aerodynamics styling trying to make it's way to the surface, however the overwhelming and generally awful aesthetics sadly take all our attention away from what could have been a pretty cool Z car."
"This Dodge Stratus (we're pretty sure that's what it is) looks like it's straight out of the year 1998... But not in a cool nostalgic way."
"We recognize this car, it looks much better now on gun metal wheels than when we featured it in our May 2010 issue. With so much power (compound charged inline-4) and such a unique looking custom wide body, it's not surprising that this car gets a lot of attention."
"This original Mini Cooper is a pretty cool little number. The color choice is a bit intense, but it looks pretty good, and the car is powered by rear-mounted a turbocharged Honda K Series. Not bad we say!"
"Here's a couple of fun SAE Student project race cars. You gotta start somewhere, and we can bet these little guys are fun as heck to throw around a karting track."
"Another Lotus, this one much more close to the stock form. You don't need much to make the Evora a fantastic car - straight out of the box, it's one of the best things we've ever driven!"
"This was our favorite European 'VIP' styled cars. We know that 'VIP' is probably not the correct term, but this car is clean, has good taste, does not have excessive amounts of useless vents and louvers, and above al else, it just looks damn good no matter how you slice it."
"A little good old fashioned American muscle never hurt no body. This '55 Bel Air means business with a massive blower poking out from beneath the hood. You can't go wrong with a classic like this."
"This Ford Fairlane looks great in it's rat-rod style. And check out the roof, that is just plain awesome, I don't care who you are."
"And here's something that we really appreciated, file this one under "more than you can afford, pal." The German company Mechatronik who built these two cars is a special tuning haus who takes modern Mercedes Benz components (like engines, suspension, interior technology, etc...) and seamlessly blends the modern technology into classic Mercedes chassis'. Who says you can't have your cake and eat it too?"
"And to finish it off, here's a couple halo cars - The Bugatti Veyron and Lamborghini Aventador."
Stay tuned for our coverage of the OEM halls coming soon!