The Specialty Equipment Market Association show kicked off today in Las Vegas -- 2 million square feet of some of the craziest, coolest, most out-there tuner projects you can imagine from manufacturers and aftermarket pros alike.

Here are some of the biggest stories from day one at SEMA. (Click through the links to read the full stories from MSN Autos.)


Definitely one of the coolest -- and no doubt one of the most restrained -- of the concepts on display was Mazda's MX-5 Spyder concept, a collaboration between Mazda North American Operations' design team and Magna Car Top Systems. The cloth soft-top gives the vehicle a low-slung appearance without sacrificing headroom. And it looks, for lack of a better term, badass.



Kia came to SEMA with four tuner cars, plus one race car and a pace car for 2012 United States Touring Car Championship events. The show pieces included several sports-related vehicles, with the Hole-in-One Soul inspired by golfer Michelle Wie, a Slam Dunk Optima inspired by basketball player Blake Griffin with "custom orange basketball paint," a Retro Surf Rio and a hockey-themed Hat Trick Rio. One of the best, though, was the Rio B-Spec racer kitted out by Kinetic Motorsports. The race car will compete in races sanctioned by World Challenge, Grand-Am, the National Auto Sport Association and the Sports Car Club of America.



Kia wasn't the only manufacturer with a surf-inspired vehicle. Toyota also showed up with a ride for the wave riders as part of a collaboration with athletic eye wear and apparel company Oakley. The Oakley Surf Tacoma was unveiled with the help of all-star surfer Tom Whitaker, and includes not only a supercharger, lift kit and integrated grill, cooler and board storage system, but a shower as well.



Honda debuted a Civic Si Coupe HFP (Honda Factory Performance) for $4,244 more than a base Civic. It includes HFP sport suspension to lower ride height by 15 millimeters, stiffer springs and shocks, body mods and 18-inch HFP wheels with Yokohama Avid W4S tires. It comes with a 3-year/36,000-mile warranty when the kit is installed on a new car. Honda also showed a V6 Accord coupe with both the HFP body kit and suspension and a Honda Performance Development-tuned supercharger, intake and exhaust systems helping to boost output to 333 horsepower and 285 lb-ft of torque (the base V6 coupe's output is 271 horsepower and 254 lb-ft).


Check out all the stories at MSN Autos' 2011 SEMA page.