Toyota unveils SEMA show Dream Build Challenge cars

Toyota's SEMA show plans this year are egalitarian: they include cars involved with two separate contests on which you, the custom car enthusiast, can vote online to your heart's content.

Four cars took part in the Toyota Dream Build, now in its second year. Last year, Toyota's Dream Build enlisted people from the world of NHRA and NASCAR, who all came up with some extremely rad stuff. This year's is extreme in a different degree, with contestants hailing from BMX, motocross, and ski teams -- oh, and Kyle Busch is involved because the NASCAR connection dies hard. As per last year, each team had just seven weeks to assemble and finish a car, where it will be voted upon by you, America. Voting happens at Toyotadreambuild.com and will run until November 4th, the start of SEMA.

Toyota built two cars itself, one with the help of DC Shoes -- which ran its own contest. The six on display at Toyota's 2013 SEMA show booth are cars built by snowboarders, motocross riders, and vertically-challenged skiers; cars built for sweaty triathletes, and cars that can transport other motorized vehicles. You can sleep in some of these cars. You can rip the ground to shreds with the bass, or have a nice, relaxing massage. One car comes with a barbeque; another, a fridge, both perhaps a nod to the romantic visions conjured by those brave modern-day nomads, vanners. Skiers, BMX riders, and motocross riders all share that certain je ne sais quoi, anyway.

Enough French. Let's look at the cars.

Toyota
Team Skullcandy Crusher Corolla looks like a rally car, but stuffed to the gills with speakers.

Pro BMX rider Drew Bezanson wanted an "action sports rad vehicle," and the resulting Toyota Corolla mashup with headphone maker Skullcandy might be sufficiently rad. "Drew wanted something that he could use to light up a parking lot," said Marty Schwerter of Toyota's Motorsports Technical Center, which -- when not building Scion FRS Celebrity Cars -- helped build this in Torrance. "None of us knew a lot about audio before. And now, we know a lot."

That means booming underseat bass, via Skullcandy, on the inside -- "Bass You Can Feel," the exterior promises -- and clip-on external speakers in lieu of BMX bikes for annoying Denny's patrons. Was it extreme? You bet. Was it playing dubstep upon its unveil? Of course. Why wouldn't it? That qualifies as super rad extreme, in our book -- possibly even to the max.

Toyota
Kyle Busch Motorsports CamRally Camry is a turbo rally beast.

If you think this might be one of the coolest Camrys ever, you're not wrong. Why not a Camry rally car? Why not a NASCAR driver behind the wheel? Stranger things have conspired on the SEMA floor. Why not a giant ode to selective yellow?

NASCAR driver Parker Kligerman partnered with Kyle Busch Motorsports and Detroit Speed (who's actually based in Mooresville, North Carolina) for the CamRally Camry. Does the paint scheme look familiar? It should—it's a nod to Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Baja trophy truck. It's got Lexan windows, hand-fabricated widebody aluminum fenders, a full rollcage, a front splitter, a rear diffuser, a larger intercooler, custom headers and exhaust, Baer brakes, and two-piece Formula 43 wheels. Oh, and there's the matter of the Turbonetics turbocharger underneath the hood, a "fun surprise," said Detroit Speed.

"It's capable of big boost," promised one of the Detroit Speed builders. They've tested the car around the neighborhood and while they're mum on actual numbers -- to say nothing of production feasibility, sadly -- they say it's just as fun to drive as you might imagine. Only more so, since a V6 FWD Camry isn't as fun to drive as you might imagine.

America, this is a free country, and you are able to do as you please. Still, we suggest the following: a vote for anything other than the yellow-tinted, NASCAR-driven, turbo Camry rally car is a vote wasted.

Toyota
Team Oakley put a Hannibal Lecter grille on this 4Runner.

"He's a bit of a short guy," said the team at Herbst Smith Fabrication, about world-class freestyle skier Simon Dumont. Hence, the trick automated ski rack that pops down for easy access: like a gun rack, Dumont specified.

It's everything Dumont wanted after he got off the hill. So in back there are dryers galore, and an attached grill for cooking hot dogs and even quicker warming of the appendages. JBL and Kicker audio included, because "We knew we were going up against a speaker car," said the fabrication team. A coffeemaker keeps energy levels balanced, while the fact that it's a Keurig means it can also make hot chocolate and soup. Like being a ski bum, without the pesky "bum" part.

Toyota
Let's Go Moto Tundra was built in Texas and is as big as the state itself.

"We thought this was a size competition," said N-FAB of Houston, Texas. "We killed them on that."

The Let's Go Moto Tundra was so hulking that it had to be moved into the garage bay of the Toyota Collection, where its cathedral-tall roof couldn't impede the Transformers-like engorging of the Tundra's inner workings. It is the brainchild of motocross teammates Josh Grant and Justin Brayton, both of Joe Gibbs Racing, who dreamed up a truck that was a paddock garage on wheels. About the size of a paddock, too.

"The biggest mistake was asking riders what they want," said N-FAB. "The list got bigger and bigger."

To that end, on the one side, the mechanic gets busy with the dirty work: tearing apart 450cc engines on the removable engine stand, running through cans of Yamalube, rebuilding front forks and tearing through shop manuals. On the other side, the rider gets busy with—relaxing, evidently. Simultaneously cooling down his smelly helmet and drinking plenty of Monster energy drinks to get thoroughly psyched. After said psyching mechanic and rider alike can come together to play video games or watch highlight reels across two TVs, swap beers via the built-in fridge, then engage in painful water gun fights with the power washer.

When asked about their chances, Brayton stated, matter-of-factly: "We're not losing to a Corolla." Vote early, America, and vote often.

Toyota
Fans overwhelmingly picked the snow version of the DC x Toyota Let's Go Places Build Off.

DC Shoes pitted their motocross, snowboard and skateboard teams in the DC x Toyota Let's Go Places Build Off. Some outlandish creations resulted. The skate team put an elevated viewing platform atop their Tacoma and t-shirt guns in the back. The motocross team put a folding ramp in the back that resembled a Hot Wheels track and wasn't so much used for loading motorcycles but for jumping them over the truck.

Ultimately, the fans voted for the snow Tacoma. (Snowcoma?) And it's not hard to see why: there's a hulking plow in the front, a precariously dangling snowmobile in back, and white bedliner on all surfaces in between. It has room for snowboards, tools, boot heaters, and beer coolers. Plus, you can sleep in it if you so choose.

Some t-shirt guns would also be a welcome addition.

Toyota
The Lifetime Fitness Triathlon RAV4 makes couch potatoes look like the underachievers they are.

The triathlon is a sport that's exploded in popularity in recent years. Tying in a vehicle that can handle the needs of swimmers, runners, and cyclists is not the easiest of tasks. Toyota instead started with the one unifying principle that defined all three types of athletes: they're smelly and gross.

That's why the back of this RAV4 has an integrated shower and hot water heater. That's why there's a portable dryer with an ozonator for squeaky-clean wetsuits. (No Little Tree air freshener, however.) Instead of a rear seat there is a combination refrigerator/freezer and a Blend-Tec blender, for hardcore smoothies on the go—perhaps the name Blend-Tec is familiar, courtesy of Youtube. Will a RAV4 blend? Maybe, but you'd have to cut it into smaller pieces first. We volunteer.

“Do a lot of triahletes go to SEMA?” we asked Jim Baudino, Toyota's Engagement Marketing Manager.

“No,” he said, point-blank. But the great thing is, he later explained, was that Toyota sponsors the Life Time Fitness Triathlon series, whose adherents, after the next triathlon, will surely want a shower and a massage, preferably in the same vehicle.

SEMA — short for Specialty Equipment Marketing Association — is the biggest aftermarket auto event in the world, held in Las Vegas each fall. The show fills multiple convention halls and shows off everything from high-performance OEM specials to custom wheels and graphics from local shops. Get the full rundown on what automakers and suppliers are up to at the industry's biggest trade show at our SEMA Show home page.

By Blake Z. Rong