• For the third straight year, Pit+Paddock and ENEOS Oil joined forces with Dai Yoshihara to award one lucky project car builder with a feature vehicle spot at the SEMA Show.
• Last year’s grand prize winner was Ashley Robinson and his dual-engine Nissan 350Z, which was one of the most talked-about builds of 2023.
• This year, Justin Cashmore stunned the judges with his 1960 Renault Dauphine, which he rescued from the California desert and transformed into a one-of-a-kind creation.
• Top mods include a custom chassis, carbon-fiber widebody, mid-engine VR6 swap, and right-hand-drive conversion.
• Ahead of the SEMA Show, Motor Trend photographer Renz Dimaandal captures the French sedan within the world-famous Lower Grand Tunnel in Los Angeles.

For anyone who modifies cars, we all have a dream: break a certain track time or lap record, make a certain number of horsepower, or if you’re into showing cars, it’s about getting your car to the annual SEMA Show. While SEMA is an industry-only affair that was originally meant to be more of a conference for companies to make deals and introduce new parts, it’s become the Super Bowl for show car builders over the last few decades. I know this very well, having set a goal to bring my first Volkswagen GTI project car to SEMA back in 2003. It’s an awesome feeling to have your car in Las Vegas in November when you really have no business being there in the first place. But from an enthusiast’s standpoint, it’s so frickin’ cool, which is why in 2022, Pit+Paddock and ENEOS Oil teamed up to create the SEMA Show Car Contest that would give one lucky winner a golden ticket with all expenses paid to exhibit their project car on the world stage of aftermarket performance.

HALL OF FAME

Our inaugural winner was Alex Alfaro, whose DC2 Acura Integra represented the epitome of how Honda should be built, with a myriad of rad JDM parts, including a JUN B18C engine. The following year, Ashley Robinson’s imagination wow’d crowds as his all-wheel-drive Nissan 350Z boasted one of the most ridiculous dual-engine setups humanity has ever seen. Both builds served the contest well and demonstrated what’s enjoyable about today’s modified car culture.

AND THE WINNER IS…

So how could we top one of the cleanest JDM Integras in the country? Or find something as insane as a double-K-swapped Nissan Z? For four months, we hosted a campaign with pro driver Dai Yoshihara calling out for this year’s best contenders. Our staff narrowed several entries to the top ten finalists, which also proved to be an extremely tough contest. In the end, after polling the public and enduring several heated debates among the judges, Justin Cashmore and his 1960 Renault Dauphine is this year’s SEMA Show Car Contest grand prize winner!

ABOUT JUSTIN

Justin tells us he’s just a normal car guy; however, we don’t believe that for a second. He was in the Navy for over 20 years, stationed in Japan, Italy, and Florida. Through his experiences and travels, he developed a unique skill set and style, working on vehicles of various makes, models, and eras while soaking in car culture first-hand from three different continents. The result is a man who lives in Simi Valley, California, where his job is to wrench on his buddies’ cars while dedicating his spare time to creating individual masterpieces.

In the case of the Renault, it was a Facebook Marketplace find where the owner didn’t know what she had. A trip out into the desert where it lay buried in dead grass, he found his next project where he could let his imagination run wild. Talking about a full custom chassis with roll cage, bespoke push rod/cantilever suspension with NASCAR sway bars, mid-engine 24-valve VR6 from a Volkswagen GTI, right-hand-drive conversion (just because he enjoyed driving in Japan the most), and his most recent addition is the carbon fiber widebody he shaped by hand himself that’s 22-inches wider than stock.

Justin might be a normal car guy in the sense that he works on all his cars himself and doesn’t have wild budgets to throw at his project, but we can all agree (even Dai agrees after driving it!), that his eye for awesomeness and raw talent to create a jaw-dropping build from desert scraps, is what makes him truly a champion, and worthy of the 2024 SEMA Show Car Contest crown.

FRONT AND CENTER

As promised, Justin’s Renault had prime placement at the SEMA Show. He and the ENEOS Show Car Contest runner-up were front and center in the Silver Lot where thousands of SEMA attendees were able to check out this build in person. Congratulations again, Justin. And thank you to ENEOS for helping make another enthusiast’s dream come true to display their car at SEMA.

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