The Most Popular Car at SEMA 2012: The FR-S and BR-Z

This Custom-Bodied Scion FR-S was painted with a unique flat orange color and a custom body.

Where the Nissan 350z and Toyota Supra have dominated in SEMA’s of old and car shows in general as the display car of choice, this year’s convention exhibitors made a statement loud and clear that there is a new kid on the block – and he’s more popular than ever! There was probably no more than one 4th generation Supra at the show, and it was just in the car show – nobody wanted to display with it in their booths but who can blame them, with the newest Supra being all of 10 years old. You could say that the Scion FR-S is kind of the new Supra, but what about the LFA? Not a single Lexus LFA was at the show, even though there were no shortage of super cars.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this car’s abundance was the fact there were hardly any Subaru BR-Z's (which is essentially the exact same car). Why all the Scion love while the Subaru gets ignored? Is the market for enthusiasts really that different between the twins? The Scion and Toyota have the same tail lights and headlights, many same body panels and interior parts, and most people on the street wouldn’t be able to tell them apart without noticing the badges.

No matter why the reason for the sudden explosion of interest and professional demo use of the car, if you’re looking at the new “king of sports cars”, you’ll find it in the Scion FR-S. Check out this photo gallery of SOME of the FR-S cars that were on display!

The headlights on the new Japanese sports car are modern and sporty featuring a single bi-xenon projector in each headlight.

This Scion FR-S was parked outside the convention.

This Scion FR-S was fully wrapped in red carbon fiber vinyl with yellow headlights.

This Custom-Bodied Scion FR-S was painted with a unique flat orange color and a custom body.

Spyder has been coming out with some really unique tail lights and one of my favorites was this setup for the Scion FR-S and Subaru BR-Z. This is a new product debuted at the SEMA Show in 2012.

This display car had a common theme at the 2012 SEMA Show: Yellow Headlights. This mod is done by adding a film to the outside of the headlight using a product like Lamin-X.

The Takata Racing FR-S had a really cool looking “Seat Belt” vinyl wrap.

This car was outside the convention center and part of the SEMA car show. This was the “Outperformance Shop” built car here to show off the company’s ability to build custom cars.

The Airaid FR-S showing off the new cold air intake available for the Subaru and Scion versions of this car.

This Scion FR-S on display was using a set of LED halos custom-installed in the headlights.

This custom-body FR-S was showcased in the actual Scion booth this year and it featured a wild custom body with no roof!

The Pioneer booth showcased this gorgeous red Scion FR-S to show how their products interface with the newly released car’s electronics.