Comeback of Street Trucks at SEMA 2024
The place to be this week for auto enthusiasts is without a doubt the 57th edition of the annual SEMA Show. We have been having a blast for the past three days on our booth #61065 at West Hall, and there are limitless builds all around the show. It is near impossible to cover all of them on our blog, but we have tried to show you the most notable ones, so you can check them out.
The SEMA show floor offers visitors the craziest, most inspirational, and most over-the-top builds. The event shows the latest trends in the aftermarket industry and the automotive scene in general, and some trends usually hark back to the past, generally in a 20-year cycle. Remember the 2010s? The 90s were making a comeback. Well into the 2020s today, the trends of the early 2000s appear to become cool again.
Street truck builds from the 2000s seem to be making a comeback in recent years, and two builds from two major automakers in this year’s SEMA show prove our thought. Reviving the street truck craze from twenty-something years ago, Nissan came up with a wide-bodied, drift-inspired 440-HP Frontier, and Ford showcases the F-150 FP700S, a whopping 700-horsepower muscle truck.
700-HP Muscle Truck: Ford F-150 FP700S
Ford was no stranger to street trucks back in the 2000s. Remember the F-150 SVT Lightning? The lowered, souped-up F-150 of the late 90s was the truck’s high-performance variant, with a 5.4-liter supercharged V8 sending 360 HP to the rear wheels through a 4-speed auto ‘box. It was one of the original modern street trucks.
The Blue Oval’s SEMA special revealed this week is a throwback to the SVT Lightning in many ways. The single-cab F-150 is built entirely by factory Ford Performance parts, and it is available as an upgrade package through the brand’s all-new Ford Custom Garage program. The FCG program offers Ford Performance parts as a bundle, and Ford is showcasing several of these packages at this year’s show on different Broncos and Bronco Sports.
The FP700S turns the best-selling F-150 into a fire-breathing supercharged muscle car in a truck guise. The 5.0-liter V8 Coyote is upgraded with a Ford Performance Whipple 3.0-liter supercharger. The blower bumps the stock 400 HP rating up to a colossal 700 HP and 590 lb-ft of torque. Another notable performance upgrade is a Ford Performance Borla cat-back exhaust with black chrome tips.
The upgrade kit goes beyond the engine. The truck is lowered for a better grip with Ford Performance lowering springs and dampers and rolls on bronze 22” wheels wrapped in 275/50 Michelin tires. Exterior modifications comprise a Ford Performance fender vent kit, a front splitter and spoilers for the cab and tailgate. What’s best is that this package does not void your truck’s warranty as long as it’s installed by an authorized dealer. The whole upgrade is 50-state legal and has a three-year, 36-thousand-mile warranty.
Drift-Inspired: Nissan Frontier TARMAC
Nissan’s homage to the muscle trucks of the not-so-distant past blends a supercharged powertrain, a carbon fiber wide-body, and a slammed suspension to create a drift-slash-street truck.
Frontier TARMAC is the Japanese brand’s modern muscle truck concept, with substantial performance upgrades, engineered for track performance rather than off-road trails. The build’s base is a Frontier PRO-X. Forsberg Racing collaborated with Nissan Design America and NISMO, and they spent six months on the build. A water-cooled supercharger is added on the 3.8-liter V8, as well as a prototype NISMO carbon air intake and cat-back exhaust. The powertrain makes 440 HP and 400 lb-ft of torque and sends this power to the rear wheels.
Braking power comes from 15” NISMO brakes. There are two brake calipers at the back, and one is linked to a paint-matched Drift Stick handbrake lever in the cabin for more precise control while drifting. The suspension is another NISMO-engineered prototype that lowers the truck 4 to 6 inches with an adjustable coil-over system up front, a flip kit, and a C-notch at the back.
The stance of the Frontier TARMAC is completed with staggered 20” wheels finished in bronze with sticky 275-section front and 315-section rear Yokohama Advan high-performance tires. Wrapping around the aggressive wheel/tire setup is a set of wide fenders and bedsides made out of carbon fiber. A custom front splitter, vented hood, mirror caps, tailgate spoiler, and a tonneau cover complete the body kit, all made of carbon fiber. The body is painted in the brand's all-new-for-2025 Afterburn Orange shade.
The cabin of the Frontier TARMAC sports Recaro Sportster CS bucket seats, an Alcantara/carbon steering wheel, and Lava Red trim details to match the exterior, rounding out Nissan’s street truck.