SEMA-fied Performance Chevy Concepts Debut

With the 2013 SEMA Show in Las Vegas just a week away, we’ve prepared ourselves for a deluge of custom cars from every corner of the automotive world. Chevrolet, as always, is preparing a huge lineup of customs and concepts for this year’s SEMA show, though they waited until early this morning to release the first teaser images.

There’s a little bit of everything on tap from Chevy at SEMA, except for the two biggest performance icons that happen to wear a bowtie. Yup, Chevy is still keeping a lid on its Camaro and Corvette SEMA cars, at least for now.

That leaves us with concepts like the Chevy Sonic RS, which saw Chevy engineers install a high-flow intake and exhaust system to wake up the 1.4 liter turbo engine. The engineers also installed a track-tuned suspension and bigger brakes featuring Wilwood calipers. 18-inch wheels, a body-colored grille, and other interior and exterior enhancements (including a wild yellow paint job) add a lot of excitement to this Sonic.

The other Sonic Concept came from the mind of NASCAR driver Ricky Carmichael, which also included a Stage 1 turbo kit for the 1.4 liter engine, suspension enhancements, bigger wheels and bigger brakes. The exterior is a lot more toned down than the RS concept for a car that flies under the radar, or just plain flies.

Chevy also has concept cars based on the new Malibu and Impala, as well as the new Chevy Cruze Diesel, but none of those are too terribly exciting. What is exciting, however, is the Chevy Spark EV Tech Performance Concept, which combines high-tech features like a military-style flip-up “activation” switch on the instrument console. Engineers also added stronger axles and lighter components to help the tiny electric car silently zip around town with 400 ft-lbs of torque to play with. A mini-muscle car indeed.

As for the Camaro and Corvette concepts? Well we’ll just have to wait a little bit longer.