Hasta La Gadget!

Late last month I mentioned that Pioneer Electronics was holding an AppRadio Hackathon at the 2012 SEMA show. The event was designed to get developers to make new and interesting apps for the Pioneer AppRadio allowing owners of the radios get new and expanded functionality. The contest offered up prizes worth over $50,000 in cash and merchandise with winners picked from three different categories.

The event lasted four days, and pioneer has now announced the winners of the contest. The competition lasted three days continuously, and Pioneer says that nine new apps were created to work with the platform. The apps range from software designed to read Facebook postings and tweets to drivers to car maintenance apps that monitored and measured tire pressure and looked for air leaks.

The contest had three Categories that included safe in-vehicle use of social networking services through voice recognition and text-to-speech, geo-tagged automotive related location-based services, and apps that incorporated technology, products, or services on display at the 2012 SEMA show. The app that won in the social networking category was called Tiles. The app automatically aggregated social media content by taking into account the current time, location, and social activity of the user among other things.

The location-based services app is called CarTourin’. This at is a sightseeing application using location-based services to guide users along a series of tour destinations. The app that showcased technology on display at the show was called CAMBUDDY Drive. This app allows users to control the new GoPro HERO3 camera from inside the car and overlay the recorded video with real-time performance data using the PLX Kiwi 2 and sensors integrated into the iPhone.

Pioneer announces winners of SEMA 2012 AppRadio Hackathon is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Mopar and SRT have unveiled a very cool customized 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT8 at SEMA. The car was customized for comedian Jeff Dunham and looks like a muscle car straight out of the 60s. The car was dubbed Project UltraViolet and is far from stock.

The engine under the hood of the customized car is a new Mopar 426 crate engine producing 550 hp and 490 pound-foot of torque. The car was customized with help from the crew at Palmer’s Customs of Camarillo, California. The car also features a Mopar T/A good with a functional air scoop to feed more air to the massive engine underneath.

The Mopar 426 crate engine was custom tune by Arrington Engines. The company has Mopar-authorized tools and software to create performance calibrations for select 2011 through 2013 Chrysler vehicles. On the outside of the car, the custom Challenger is lowered by 1 inch and rides on 22-inch HRE performance wheels.

The rear of the car was widened by 4 inches allowing for dramatic wheel arches and larger rubber. The car also has numerous custom parts including a new rear diffuser, dive-planes, a new front splitter, new rocker panels, new lower-rear spoilers, a new deck lid spoiler, and custom aluminum side sills with side exhaust. The inside of the car is also customize with full-grain Napa leather and color keyed panels.

Mopar and SRT debut custom Dodge Challenger at Sema is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Hyundai has unveiled another concept car that will be traveling to the 2012 SEMA show in Las Vegas. This concept car is an Elantra GT that has been significantly modified by Bismoto Engineering. On the outside, the car is covered in blue and black paint with a graphic scheme that looks like it’s straight out of the 80s.

I’m not particularly keen on the splatter paint graphics, but the appeal of the car isn’t custom graphics, it’s what’s under the hood. Bismoto equipped this car with a built 1.8-liter NU family Hyundai engine. With the stronger engine, the car is able to survive under the increased pressure provided by a Bismoto Turbo kit and special camshafts.

There are a number of other custom engine components used in the vehicle that combine to produce over 600 hp from the little four-cylinder engine. The car also has a full roll cage, coilover suspension, custom wheels, and heavy-duty clutch to survive all the extra power. The questionable exterior graphics and paint scheme are actually a custom body wrap.

Inside the vehicle are custom racing seats, a Racepack IQ3 Dash, and a lot more. This may be the most track ready of all Hyundai’s concept cars that will be seen at SEMA this year. With all the power this car produces, I can’t help but think that the 18 x 8.5″ wheels won’t be able to fit enough rubber to put all that power to the ground.

Bismoto Engineering and Hyundai build a 600 HP Elantra GT concept for SEMA is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.