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From the same Dream Build Challenge that brought the DragQouia to the SEMA Show, NASCAR stars Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch also got involved with the competition hoping to win $50,000 for their respective charities. Instead of building trucks like their NHRA counterparts, Bowyer had a Prius built for the contest while Busch stuck with a car he's very familiar with, the Camry.

Bowyer's Tekked-Out Prius is probably about as cool-looking as a Prius can get with its lowered stance, custom body kit, side cameras replacing the door mirrors and black-and-blue paint job matching the car's techie persona. Inside is where most of the mods took place with a totally redone interior including new fabrics throughout (including leather and Alcantara) and plenty of cabin tech such as the 17-inch touchscreen computer built into the passenger side of the instrument panel. Bowyer's charity of choice is the Emporia Community Foundation which goes to benefit Bowyer's hometown of Emporia, Kansas.

Named after Busch's apparent alter-ego (Rowdy Burns from Days of Thunder), the Rowdy Camry shows how mean a midsize Toyota can look with styling upgrades like a wide body kit, rear diffuser with integrated exhaust outlets and a ram air hood. The blacked-out Camry also has a lowered suspension and rides on staggered-width 18-inch wheels, and it was was built for the Kurt Busch Foundation. Scroll down for more information about both of these cars.

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension – a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into... the SEMA Zone.

With apologies to fans of The Twilight Zone, we couldn't help but recite those iconic opening lines when we happened upon these RK Concepts custom motorcycles here at the SEMA Show. The fact that these crazy two- and three-wheeled machines sit in a prominent position right outside the main auditorium certainly doesn't hurt the impression they make on showgoers.

There are five concepts above: The RK S, RK Spring Frame, RK Chain, RK Thing and one more that doesn't seem to have a name but features a frame that's almost completely round. We don't really have words to describe them, other than to say that the designer, Rafik Kaissi, swears each of them can indeed be ridden. Check them all out in our high-res gallery above.

NASCAR driver Tony Stewart is known as "Smoke" to many, and the custom Camaro ZL1 he helped create for SEMA reflects his sometimes mysterious personality. Chevy design manager Dave Ross worked with Stewart to come up with not only the flat red and silver tribal theme, but the custom gray-metallic paint and the red-haloed headlights, as well.

The interior gets seats embroidered with Tony Stewart signatures, suede door panels, French-stitched black leather armrests and piano black trim plates and gauge bezel. The large wheels are custom-designed with a piano black finish and just a touch of red on the spokes.

Underhood lies the 6.2L supercharged LSA engine with enough power to turn the rear tires to billowing clouds of small rubber particles. The engine is factory fresh but handily uses its 580 horses to make a 0-60 run in four seconds with a top-out speed of 184 miles per hour.

For the host of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Chevy cooked up a delectable Corvette 427 Convertible Collector Edition. An avid Camaro fan, spiky-haired Guy Fieri already owns 1968 and 2011 Camaro SS convertibles in matching yellow and black. His new Corvette, however, twists that color scheme for a black with yellow stripes getup accented by the blacked-out 19-inch wheels in front and 20s in back with matching yellow calipers. Stunning would be the correct adjective, and GM should definitely put the package on its menu.

Who knew the Toyota Avalon could be so... sporty? SEMA isn't just about tuning no-brainers like the Ford Mustang and Scion FR-S, it's about showing what's possible for a wide variety of cars, even seemingly geriatric machines like the big Avalon.

But remember, Toyota is seriously considering a sportier version of its Avalon flagship – we first brought you this news earlier in the year. And while these SEMA concepts aren't intended for production, nobody is ruling out that something very similar might make it to showrooms in the near future.

The stealth Avalon you see above is the DUB Edition, rolling on 22-inch matte black wheels and featuring a completely de-chromed exterior with blacked-out elements. The DUB Avalon doesn't offer any tweaks to the 3.5-liter V6, but behind that tinted glass is a totally black interior with suede accents on the seats and many of the touchable surfaces.

Moving on, Toyota has brought a TRD Edition Avalon that uses plenty of parts from the company's in-house tuning catalog, and showing that even hybrids can be sporty, the Avalon HV gets a meaner, sleeker look. Have a look at all three in the attached galleries.

If there's one legitimate complaint that can be hurled at the 2013 Lexus GS 350 F Sport, it's that it has no more power than its less-sporty siblings. It's not that 306 horsepower and 277 pound-feet of torque isn't enough for good performance – as the GS 350's 5.7-second sprint to 60 can attest – it's that a separate model that's billed as a performance version could use a few bonus ponies to keep enthusiasts buyers from feeling snubbed.

And so we present you with this supercharged GS 350 F Sport, which is currently being shown here at SEMA. There's an Apexi CG SPL supercharger kit along with a matching Smart Accel Throttle Controller, joined by a PTS Joe Z Series header-back exhaust kit. The body is equipped with a Wald International Aero Package kit, and the entire car is hunkered down on 20-inch Vossen CV7 wheels via an RSR coilover suspension system.

Horsepower is up by 60 at the rear wheels with the supercharger running a conservative three pounds of boost, which means this F Sport is living up to its name. Check it out in the image gallery above and the press release below.

It's easy to forget it was Holman & Moody that helped first put a Ford Mustang on track in competition. Well before Carroll Shelby ever spun a wrench on one of the pony cars, H&M served up a set of race engines for Alan Mann Racing. That team took four specially prepared 1964 notchback Mustang models to the 4,000-mile Tour de France Automobile and brought home first place in the Touring Car class. Holman & Moody have chosen to celebrate that milestone with a special 2014 Ford Mustang dressed in the traditional Alan Mann Racing gold and red livery.

The car features a horsepower nudge from Ford Racing as well as adjustable SVT shocks and struts, HMPerformance adjustable sway bars, lowering springs and an oil cooler. A set of Ford Racing mufflers and a Ford Racing x-pipe give the car a little more bark, while the one-off 19-inch wheels add some flash to the mix. Holman & Moody will produce just 500 examples, and each one will come with a one-year membership to the SVT Owner's Association. Hit the jump for the press release.

It is unlikely that anybody has ever accused the Audi R8 GT of being a slow car, but like everything else on display at the SEMA Show – where the unofficial motto should be "if there's a will, there's a way" – Underground Racing has proven that fast can also get faster. Starting life as a 560-horsepower R8 GT, Underground Racing has developed four stages for the car ranging from a "mild" 700 hp up to a ridiculously wild 1,000-hp version... and that's just on pump gas.

Underground Racing, known for tuning just about any rear-engine supercar, says that the Stage 1 kit is good for 700 hp through the automaker's Quattro all-wheel-drive system on premium gas and 1,000 hp running on race fuel. Stepping up to the Stage 2 kit will drop 850 hp from the pump and 1,200 hp on race fuel. Both the Stage 3 and Race Version kits are rated at 1,000 hp on 93 octane, but while the Stage 3 tops out at 1,200 hp, the Race Version can lay down up to 1,500 hp.

On display at the Nitto Tire booth, the Underground Racing R8 GT Stage 3 came in a beautiful matte red hue with black 19-inch HRE performance wheels wrapped in Nitto Invo tires. No word on pricing for any of the Stage kits, but we're sure if you can afford a $200,000 (base) R8 GT, a little extra isn't going to break your bank.

Hurricane Sandy's Effect Will Be Delayed

All that's left of Hurricane Sandy, which slammed into the Eastern US this week, is some rain showers and gusts of wind, but the effect of this storm-of-the-century will be felt by those in its path for months to come. Likewise, Sandy made landfall at the tail end of October, which means its effect on new vehicle sales for the month was minimal. However, despite the fact you can't see Sandy's influence in the numbers below, we suspect that next month those Atlantic winds will be impossible to ignore.

Nevertheless, Sandy didn't do too much to shuffle the order of automakers at the top of our sales list. Of the major brands, Subaru, Volkswagen and Dodge were all up over 20 percent compared to October of last year, whereas Toyota Motor Company and Chrysler Group led the way for major automakers with increases of 15.81 and 10.19 percent, respectively. General Motors posted a respectable increase of 4.75 percent, while Ford barely managed to remain positive with sales growth of just 0.39 percent.

Indeed, sales of Ford vehicles were about even, but the Lincoln brand fell 15.4 percent, its whole lineup having been outsold for the month by the Chevrolet Sonic alone.

Also down was Nissan North America, some 3.23 percent. This despite a positive performance by Infiniti (up 27.62 percent) and the newly redesigned Altima selling well.




*Brands and companies are displayed in descending order according to their percentage change in volume sales. There were 26 selling days in October 2012 versus 26 selling days in October 2011, so there is no difference between the change in monthly sales volume and the change in average daily sales rate (DSR) for each brand/company. Also, brands are combined and reported as companies only if their sales figures are released jointly.

Of all the many Scion FR-S models here on the SEMA floor in Las Vegas – and there are a great many of them, have no doubt – the very purpose-built car from Stout Racing is one that we may hear about again in the future.

The Stout Racing team will be campaigning the racy FR-S in the SCCA World Challenge series in the upcoming season, and is currently building some buzz on the Scion SEMA show stand. The car makes use of a supercharger that was jointly developed by Stout and TRD, as well as a front splitter, doors and rear wing – all by Vertex.

Driver Robert Stout will run the FR-S in the GTS class next year, with a debut slated for the Streets of St. Petersburg event, scheduled to go off in March of 2013.

The United Autos Workers, which has endorsed President Barack Obama, announced Thursday that its members want the US Office of Government Ethics to investigate Gov. Mitt Romney for violations.

The UAW leadership held a press conference in Toledo, Ohio, Thursday, alleging that Romney profited from the 2009 automotive bailout of General Motors and Chrysler Group through an investment in a company that itself was invested in Delphi Automotive. The irony, of course, is that Romney opposed a government bailout of the auto industry.

"The American people have a right to know about Governor Romney's potential conflicts of interest, such as the profits his family made from the auto rescue," said UAW President Bob King in a press release. "It's time for Governor Romney to disclose or divest."

The UAW based its claim that the Romney family profited on an article published in The Nation magazine. That article claimed Romney's family made more than $15 million through the auto bailouts based on investments in a company invested in Delphi.

However, after carefully examining the article, as well as another article in The Huffington Post, it remains unclear exactly how that money was made. Furthermore, the original article noted that Romney's disclosures were not illegal, meaning, in fact, that they were legal.

No matter for the UAW.

"While Romney was opposing the rescue of one of the nation's most important manufacturing sectors, he was building his fortunes with his Delphi investor group, making his fortunes off the misfortunes of others," King added.

Personnel at the Office of Government Ethics could not be reached for immediate comment.

There's no doubt that the Jeep Wrangler is a shining beacon of aftermarket success here at the 2012 SEMA Show. If there's any one vehicle that can stake a claim to challenging the Scion FR-S and Ford Mustang in the sheer-number-of-vehicles contest, it's Jeep's iconic off-roader.

So it comes as little surprise that Mopar is interested in picking up a bit more of that market with its own factory-approved line of performance parts. In an effort to showcase what it offers in its catalog – "a portfolio of high-end, hard-core Jeep parts including axles, lift kits, bumpers, winches, skid plates and suspension components," says the company – Jeep has unveiled the Wrangler Sand Trooper that you see above.

Included in the upgrade list is a 5.7-liter Hemi engine conversion, portal axles, eight-lug beadlock wheels and a full underbody skidplate. Body bits consisting of half doors, a vented hood, flat fenders, a massive front bumper fitted with a Warn winch and a suite of LED lighting bits and a smattering of black trim round out the look.

See all these bits and pieces in our high-res gallery above and check out the official press release below.

Chevrolet Performance worked over the Chevrolet Sonic just for this year's SEMA show to create this B-Spec racecar concept. Built to conform to all of rules and regulations of the B-Spec subcompact classes in both the SCCA and the Grand-Am series, the five-door features new coilovers on all four corners with revised mounts, adjustable front stabilizer bar links and a rear axle shim kit. The requisite air inlet restrictor has also been shoved in place, and the ECM and EBCM have been recalibrated accordingly. That's exciting in all, but we're more thrilled about the fact that Chevrolet says the parts are intended for production as a kit any consumer can buy.

That would leave competitors to independently source pricey pieces like the roll cage, seat and associated harnesses. The automaker says some of the parts may change en route to production, including the lightweight 15-inch alloy wheels.

Underhood, buyers can expect to find a stock 1.8-liter four-cylinder mated to a factory five-speed manual gearbox. Look for the production kit to go on sale in the first quarter of 2013. Check the full press blast below for more information.

What's so special about the customized Mustang you see above? Well, first of all, it's very well done – nicely designed and assembled with care – but that's not its main claim to fame. In an industry dominated by persons born with both X and Y chromosomes, the XXs don't want to be overlooked, and so this Ford Mustang Powered by Women came into existence.

The car is called High Gear, and is based on a 2013 Ford Mustang GT. The design was chosen after an online contest was held with three possibilities vying for cotes. Built over two months last summer, more than 40 women volunteered to make this show car come to life. Parts were donated by over 40 companies for this project, including a supercharger signed by Vic Edelbrock himself.

Learn more about the Built By Women Mustang in the press release and video below, and be sure to peruse our high-res image gallery above.

Between recent word of a new turbo engine in the works and these latest spy shots, there is no doubt Subaru is working on a faster version of its sporty BRZ coupe. Our spy photographers snapped these images of an interesting-looking BRZ testing around the Nürburgring that, upon closer inspection, is proudly displaying the STI badges.

Right away, we can tell something is special about this car from its aggressive body kit including a front chin spoiler and extended lower side sills. This car is also fitted with 15-spoke wheels that aren't hiding the red STI center caps and help show off the bigger brakes and STI-branded brake calipers. Of course, you can't miss that adjustable rear wing that replaces the BRZ's regular spoiler, but we're guessing this is more for aero testing rather than a production-ready piece. There are also fatter exhaust outlets on this prototype that should help give this car a deeper growl.

It isn't clear where the turbo engine fits in with this potential BRZ STI model, but with auto show season upon us, we get the feeling we'll be finding out much more about a sportier version of the BRZ sooner rather than later.