We Found the 5 COOLEST Japanese Cars at SEMA 2026

Rutledge, don't lie to me, don't lie to me. You're an initial D guy, aren't you? Well... Are you delivering that tofu? Midnight runs? I'm a fan. I'm not a diehard, but I will say... No one would admit that, though. Rutledge, tell me about this AE86 that you guys have here at the Toyota booth, SEMA 2026. So this is cool. This is Lola, one of the picture cars from our movie Drifter that Sung Kang wrote, directed, and starred in. But this car really is like the hero car of the whole film. Put the wide-body Rocket Bunny kit on here. This has a 4AGE turbo in it. I love this car. I love seeing it in the movie. And my guess, for all the Corolla fans out there, I think what happened to the value of the Mark IV Supra. With the first Fast and Furious, these cars are already expensive. They're going to go through the roof after this movie. Because, you know, the problem is, like, these cars are priced as if there's a gold bar in the glove box. We also could not afford to destroy the movie cars as we were working. Now, what I can tell you is I've never seen action like we did in the movie. One of the cars lost a wheel, and it is flying. They're on Horse Thief Mile. Right this track out at Willow, and this wheel, you can see it. It's bouncing and bouncing, and they're all trying to dodge it. They come down to the bottom of the hill, and it smacks Lola right in the quarter panel. And guess what? We've got to pop on another fender, wrap it, get it going. There's all these things that we still have to do to love these cars, but it turns out they're still incredible cars. Yeah, it's funny because I was just at the GEICO booth over there, and they were like, yeah, if you talk to that Rutledge guy, let him know he's uninsurable. When you look at the cars at the SEMA show, you notice a lot. of Brembo brakes. It's for the same reason many of the world's finest sports cars and race cars trust Brembo. And now, Brembo makes a full line of top quality brakes for almost every make and model. Every vehicle deserves Brembo. Never thought I'd say this in my life, but this is one badass Honda CR-V. This is a 2000 Honda CR-V. It's a tribute build to my mom that passed in 2020. And this car helped me fight depression and anxiety. And so I'm happy to be here and show it off and just do it in memory of her. This is the unicorn of the CR-V platform. What is the unicorn of the CR-V platform? Stick shift and all-wheel drive. That's the unicorn. This one is a 2000 EX model. I think I have something here. It's different. People like it. I started working at Auto Fashion, and he convinced me to do a wide body. I'm like, we love Freddy over here at Auto Cut. And he definitely helped me piece the puzzles together. And what you see is a combination of five years of my hard work and then six months of his idea and working along with me to get to this point. We spent over maybe 100 hours. Getting the body kit to fit right, sanding down the high spots, filling in the gaps to what you see now. Yeah, the wheels are TE37s. So my original look wasn't wide, but it had TE37s, it had the bronze wheels. So I wanted the overall look to look amplified of what it used to look like. So I imported the hood from Thailand. It is a carbon fiber hood, V20 bottom end, top end is a type R. So it's a 2.0 VTEC motor. Blood, sweat, and tears went into this. 2021, I ruptured my Achilles. So I'm here doing the air suspension on my knee scooter with my boot on with a ruptured Achilles, but it helped me battle what was going on up here. Was this really therapeutic for you? Was it really helpful? 100%. I would say... two reasons i'm here is number one the lord but also me putting something together in memory of her and i had to see it be fulfilled this is the most SEMA 2026 video of all time god and the honda crv bringing salvation dude this is an rx-7 right so basically the car came in it was a 1995 rx-7 stock body it was orange and it had an ls engine when we started the project oh gross so he was like that kane was like man we got to make something uh we got to make it nasty so We decided to put a four-rotor engine in it. 88 millimeter turbo. We put the, basically all of our parts go on it. We built everything in-house. So basically, it's a half bridgeport engine. The side port makes it a lot more drivable, but you still get the braps, the fireballs, all the good stuff people want from a rotary engine. The intake manifold is 3D printed. It was our design. Then we had it chrome plated to really pop. It has an HPT F4 turbo that's not even out yet. A custom intercooler. The Recaro seats, Takata harnesses, it's an external oil pump system. We cut this hood to make sure that we covered all the bolts and all the fender hardware that's kind of unsightly. No one really likes ever looking at where the fender's bolt on. So we gave it this nice finished look. That way it really just brings the whole engine bay together. CCW wheels, it's got a FD GT3 wide body on it, painted Alpine green. And, yeah, I think it just came together really good. It'll be over 1,000 horse when we're done. Honestly, I'm a huge FD fan. I've had so many FDs. I've always loved these cars. The style of them is timeless. And I also feel like if you put your money into an FD, it's one of those things that you can get your money back most generally. James Reeves loves a good Z car, so I'll always stop for one and I'll always stop for my buddy, Freddie. Freddie, good to see you again. It starts off with the love of the game. The car came from... Basically, my friend's front yard, it was basically trash. There's a lot of stuff that a lot of people miss on the car. It's a K24 stroked out to a 2.7 liter. Thank you, Peter. We also did the interior. We added a Garrett turbo and Gritty Performance products on there. We also have a cantilever system. We kind of set up in the back and we are using a Ford 8.8 rear end to kind of put out the power on it. This is in memory for my dad because when I was building this car, he ended up with cancer and then passed away. I'm sure your father would be quite proud of this. Dane, I think I'm too old to own a Skyline, man. The 1972 Nissan Skyline, Hakosuka GTX, okay? The engine is actually an L42, L28 block. Everything is built from the ground up. The head itself came from PAMS Engineering in Japan. Horsepower, what are we talking? We're at 395, normally aspirated, carburetors. So the interior is a... Leather from Acton Craft. I'm a big fan of Porsche Singers, however, at this point in my life, I am not able to obtain it in the meantime. I don't think anyone meets that at any point in their lives, like 99.9% of people, so don't feel too bad. I see. Well, in the meantime, while I have this car, my wife designed this, and we have the hand Hand-woven touches of the Porsche Singer. Okay, and the shift knob is from a recycled skateboard, and the touches are basically my wife's design. Yeah, I love this. Please tell me that's like a, is that a doggy carrier? Yes, it is a doggy carrier, and I love my dog. I wish I could bring him over here, but that's his dog couch. The wheels are actually Hayashi Racing Bombers, and they are very rare. Here in the United States, there's only two complete sets, one in Texas and one over here. How much time did this take you? Six years. Because around that time when I got it, when I started stripping it apart, all these parts are basically unobtainable. So the only way that you can find it is connecting to people from different parts of the world, from Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Philippines, from anywhere parts of England, just to get all the parts that you need to complete this building. As an alcoholic, I see a touch here that immediately caught my eye, in fact I want to crack it open. Yeah, sure. It's actually a Sapporo coolant reservoir tank. That is, I'll give you this, that's one of the coolest things that I've seen at the show. It is a Nissan OEM color, way back in the olden days. It's called Safari Gold. However, I put a little bit of touches in it, put a little bit of metallic flakes in it, just to make it pop when the sun hits it. What do you like best about this car? Actually, my favorite is basically, apart from the engine, the whole thing, it's basically the speakers at the back. Why is that? Is it okay if I can open it for you? Please. I'll show you. Is it okay? These are 1980s Kenwood speakers. However, if you can see, it actually lights up, right? But if I put on the turn signals to the left and to the right, it actually does sequential things. All right? Now. That's clever. The favorite part that I have is actually, you know, it's all about safety, right? So now I press the brake and it turns red. I'm going to say this is the best JDM of the show. Thank you. And one of the best cars. This is beautiful. Congratulations on this car. Thank you. Guys, stay tuned. We're bringing you more from SEMA 2026. Thank you.