This year's
SEMA and AAPEX shows may be over, but the Centric Parts team is still
celebrating our 2012 participation. Not only did these shows give us a chance
to meet with customers - old and new - and to show off our latest products and
catalogs, but the shows were also very memorable for other reasons too.
During the
Auto International Association (AIA) Import Products Awards ceremony held at
the Sands Convention Center, Centric's President Dan Lelchuk accepted two awards
on behalf of the company. The 2013 Brake Systems Catalog was deemed the
best of the bunch, and the new Posi Quiet with Hardware line took the overall
highest honor in being named Best Product. Centric was the only company
present to claim wins in two categories this year.
Over at the
Las Vegas Convention Center, StopTech and Power Slot were well represented,
mounted on a dozen or more high profile show cars this year. One of them even
won a top award at SEMA. A StopTech supported project earned the Gran
Turismo Award for Best Truck or SUV.
The project
was a very special Toyota Sequoia made over into a family dragster by the team
of newly crowned NHRA Top Fuel Champion Antron Brown. Brown was competing
against three other Toyota sponsored racers in the Toyota Racing Dream Build
Challenge. His 650-hp, five-seat 'DragQuoia' was the favorite of video game
creator Kazunori Yamauchi, who will feature the creation in an upcoming
edition of the Gran Turismo game series. The DragQuoia
was also chosen in several top ten SEMA show car lists by major publications
like Car and Driver and Motor Trend.
In addition,
the StopTech/Power Slot booth featured one of only three brand new 2013 SRT
Vipers at the show. The one in our booth (top) was a black GTS model with the optional
Track Package, featuring StopTech AeroRotors as an upgrade to the standard discs fitted to lesser models. The car received a ton of attention from
attendees and the media, as it should. This newly updated version of the iconic
American super car features an 8.4-liter V10 producing 640 hp and 600 ft-lbs of
torque. With a price starting at just under $100,000, it is actually quite a
bargain too, competing head to head with Porsches and Ferraris costing up to
three times as much.
Another
award that came in just before our trip to Las Vegas was the Toyota Quality
Alliance Gold Supplier Award - a huge honor. The Gold Supplier Award is
presented to top Toyota parts and accessories suppliers who have consistently
demonstrated their commitment to product development, product quality,
operational quality and product support. As a long-standing technical partner
with Toyota, Centric products have shown up on several Toyota, Lexus and Scion
models, including the newest Scion FR-S sports car that features a StopTech
Trophy Race Big Brake Kit on its World Challenge GTS race car.
In fact,
StopTech BBKs were found on several versions of this hot new sports car -
from tuners like Perrin, AEM, Hotchkis, Injen, DC Sports, Outperformance,
Five Axis, Forgestar, Rocket Bunny, and more. In addition, we saw StopTechs on
Mustangs, BMWs, Audis, Porsches, Camaros, Hyundais, Acuras, Subarus and others.
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