Gallery: the modified oddballs of SEMA 2015

What with their press conferences and strict schedules, it’s easy for the traditional motor show – Geneva, Frankfurt, Tokyo et al – to feel like it's done up too tight.

Thankfully, SEMA doesn’t suffer from this problem. Walking around the show feels like the car industry has clocked off from work early, put on some slacks and cracked open a beer.

For a few days, Vegas’ two million square foot Convention Centre reeks of automotive creativity and sheer ‘why-the-hell-not?’ Apart from lunchtime, where it smells of brisket and pizza.

This jovial and relaxed approach to car design does sometimes lead to the Great Pendulum of Taste swinging drastically from one extreme to the other, but that's why we love it.

So, away from manufacturer show cars, here are the crazy homegrown builder cars.

Look at that paintjob. Seriously, look.

With its Smith and Wesson/cowboy boot and belt buckle-style engraving, you’re probably thinking this is Texas’ answer to the mighty GT-R.

But no, this hails from Japan. Which as we recently found out, is home to an eclectic assortment of vehicles.

That unique, incredibly detailed -and slightly dubious - engraving is actually etched by hand onto metal (not the usual fibreglass) arches and other parts during the painting process.

Kuhl didn’t want to use the standard panels as they could warp when jiggling down a bumpy road, leading the paintwork to literally fall off.  So they swapped them out, but as they were going to all that effort, they made the arches wider; 50mm at the front and 70mm at the rear.

The whole car took seven months to complete and is finished in an Aero Monster widebody kit by Love Lark, a shopping trolley's worth of performance parts from Biltz and a set of alloys by Savani Wheels.

What you’re looking at here is a 1962 Ford Ecoliner with 4,000bhp and Corvette C7 driving components. In case you’re wondering, that’s a double thumbs up from us.

Technically, it’s 1,000bhp x four. All that power is thanks to four all aluminum 4.8 litre V8s from Ford each complemented with a whopping great supercharger.

When fed through the custom carbon fibre driveline, you have FOUR THOUSAND HORSEPOWER. In a cutesy truck from the Sixties. Want.

Wearing worn yellow paint, this 1954 school bus is simply known as ‘The Special Bus’.

It’s a charmingly patina’d kid transporter with a big heart. A big, 5.9-litre Cummins diesel kind of heart.

With a 78mm BorgWarner turbocharger sitting on top of a 62mm turbo, it’s compound turbocharged with 600bhp running through a five-speed manual ‘box and heavy duty Dana 70 rear diff.

Thankfully, with all that power, it’s not running on the original chassis. Instead, it was swapped out for a 1980s Chevy C30 with custom rear suspension and RideTech air bags all around.

An accessory that not only helps kids to scurry on board easily, but also makes it look properly cool. Win, win.

If you are a fan of bonkers build threads, this E28 BMW 5-Series might look familiar.

The 535i gained serious Internet traction back in 2010 when its owner Mike Burroughs decided to rat-rod and slam it. But after a rapid rise to fame, the whole project literally went up in smoke when the car caught fire and burned to the ground.

For SEMA 2015, Rusty rose from the ashes once again. Nearly half of the body panels from the old car were re-used and any new ones were slathered in a cocktail of chemicals and oil to in order to fast-forward the ageing process.

The wheelbase of the car is also slightly different. It has been shortened nearly a foot, to give an old-school Group 5 vibe complete with wide fenders and a super aggressive stance.

If you’re not a fan of its aesthetic, don’t pass judgment until you’ve had a look underneath. Dry-sumped with a E34 M5 tuned engine eeked out to 3.7-litres and pushing out 500-hp, Rusty now sits on a unique inboard pushrod suspension system designed by H&R and guzzles 110 Octane fuel. These are good things.

Also, Rusty Slammington.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream… with a V8.

That was the thought of hot rodder PJ Burchett when he found an old Metro Van in a field near Knoxville, Tennessee. The rust bucket had been gutted and was being used as a storage shed. PJ had a better idea.

He took it home, blasted it down, bonded it up, fabricated some parts and shoved Corvette mechanicals underneath before coating it in a lovely lick of paint.

To, ahem, top it all off, a seven-foot cone was sourced and stapled onto the roof. Now, would you like yours with a flake?

Before you ask, no, this hasn’t fallen out of the props box from Mad Max: Fury Road.

Instead, it’s a car-cum-sculpture by artist Henry Chang who really wanted to scare people at the Burning Man festival this year.

Made completely out of stainless steel, Valyrian Steel – Henry is obviously a Game of Thrones fan – is powered by a 2015 Coyote Ford V8 ripped from a new Mustang.

Wondering what that swirly twirly thing at the back is? It’s a hand-operated kinetic sculpture inspired by differentials, planetary gears and mechanical watch turbillions. We’re sure you’ll see it on the next Honda Jazz.

But, just 2000 hours in, this isn’t the finished product. We have to wait until next year to see that. We’re not sure what they’d do next, but we’re guessing seat cushions would be a good place to start.

Say hello to the Fab Fours Legend 2, a counter-culture mohicaned rockcrawler that doesn’t care what you think of it.

We saw this modified Wrangler last year, but that had a stock engine and transmission and was really just a design study.

For SEMA this year, the Legend has become usable thanks to a hot-cammed GM Performance LS3 motor with 480bhp , Mercedes transmission and some new suspension.

With 10cm lopped off the roof, massive 24-inch wheels wrapped in 50-inch tyres, and the addition of freshly fabricated head-height wheel arches, the old Legend boasted the proportions of a giant RC car. V2 then has smaller wheels, more articulation and is apparently a beast on trails. Don’t worry, we will drive it in the near future.

There are some exhibits at SEMA that are just too weird for words. A Smart ForTwo adorned with an airbrushed zombie minotaur and protruding horns (how they got those through pedestrian safety standards we'll never know) plus a creepy tricycle-wielding companion is one of those things.

Move along now.

Before today, we thought nobody looked at a Ford F550 Super Duty and thought, 'bit small, that’.

Turns out we were wrong. Dubbed, the Super Six, this elongated pick-up is absolutely massive. Like, small town massive.

It’s the work of Diesel Power, a bunch of lads from northern Utah who aren’t afraid of sheet metal and a bit of welding.

The first thing they did was stretch the cab to make it a triple so you can strap six of your mates into bucket seats and show them what cruising Moab from high-altitude feels like.

They also extended the flatbed by 13ft so you can put a trophy truck on the back, before setting the whole thing down on military-grade front independent suspension on every axle.

That means it’s six-wheel-drive, six-wheel-steer with self-levelling and self-locking at each wheel.

Amazingly, they knocked it together in two weeks.

According to the Fiat group, 98 per cent of Jeep Wranglers are sold with something ticked from the accessories list.

That includes anything from floor mats to winches. This Black Ops Wrangler has those and a lot more.

46-inch tyres on beadlocks? Check. A chopped screen? Check. A supercharger? Check. Two chimneys coming out of the bonnet? Check. Not a care in the world as to what people think of it? Check.

We love it.

There’s always someone at SEMA who gets a bit too excited and throws everything at their build. This is a perfect example.

Using Superman as its theme, the airbrushed 300C has had a complete Clark Kent overhaul.

From the red, blue and yellow leather interior, Superman logo steering wheel, Blue Peter style papier-mâché Lex Luther vs Superman battle scene in the boot and even doors that open each and every way possible, the only thing this thing is missing is a cape.

We think you’ll agree, we’ve saved the best till last. But the real question is this: would Lois Lane would approve?