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Brad, seated; from left, Brady and Cory Ranweiler pose with their 1963 Chevrolet station wagon that has won a number of worldâs most prestigious custom car contests in Detroit and Chicago besides the 2020 SEMA Battle of the Builders in Los Angeles last fall.
NEW ULM The Ranweiler family’s customized 1963 Chevy wagon has earned yet another award recently in Los Angeles, winning the SEMA Battle of the Builders contest.
The event is considered to include some of the most talented automotive sculptors and builders on earth.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, only Brady Ranweiler was allowed on the TV set at the Specialty Equipment Market Association contest in Los Angeles in November.
Enthusiasts could always buy kits and assemble such vehicles themselves, but the manufacturers couldn’t sell a turn-key version with the powertrain installed and ready to drive. Under the new regulation, it’s full steam – or at least full internal-combustion engine – ahead.
The law covers replica of vehicles manufactured at least 25 years ago, and both the vehicles
and their manufacturer must be low-volume. That means no more than 325 copies of each model per year, and the company can only make up to a total of 5,000 vehicles overall annually. That rules out, say, Chevrolet making a batch of new Corvair look-alikes.
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DIAMOND BAR, Calif. The Specialty Equipment Market Association s Wheel & Tire Council (WTC) will host a webinar Jan. 20 on Standards for Determining Rim Width & Load Capacity.
The webinar, part of the WTC s Wheel and Tire Insights series, will include input from Gary Ruede, technical supervisor with Discount Tire/America s Tire, and Kent Hobson, TBC operations with Sam s Club, who will discuss address the specifics of load index and load ranges, when and where they apply, and how to calculate the correct air pressure for certain applications.
WTC Chairman Tyson Boyer will moderate the webinar, which is scheduled to last 45 minutes, including at least 10 minutes for questions.
Toyota GR Supra Sport Top Toyota
Toyota has unveiled a concept Supra with a Targa-style top, along with a TRD-Sport Trailer based on the back end of a Tacoma pickup.
The car and trailer would normally have been unveiled to a live audience at the giant SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) auto aftermarket show in Las Vegas in November – except that COVID-19 turned it into a virtual event.
The two concepts are part of Toyota’s “second wave” of 2020 SEMA creations. The first included two Supra drift cars, a hand-painted one, and a customized Tacoma.
The 2021 GR Supra Sport Top was inspired by the GR Supra Heritage Edition that Toyota debuted at SEMA last year. The car’s frame was reinforced so the roof could be cut off, and the two removable composite panels can be stored in the trunk.
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Big celebrations require plenty of planning sometimes years of it. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed SEMA-supported legislation to create a commission “that would recommend ways to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Route 66” in 2026. The historic 2448-mile stretch of road was commissioned in 1926 as the first all-paved U.S. highway.
According to SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association), the “Route 66 Centennial Commission Act,” S. 1014, creates a 15-person commission with representatives appointed by the President of the United States. The appointments are based on recommendations from the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. House and Senate Republican and Democratic leaders, and the Governors of Route 66 states Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.