SEMA cars tend to be one-and-done kind of exhibitions of excess. Often, the cars will leave Vegas and head straight for the scrap yard, or to go on a press tour before being relegated to the dark and dusty corner of a shop somewhere. This one, though, seems to have survived to hoon another day. We spotted this one-of-one custom at last weekend’s Shift-S3ctor half-mile drag racing event in middle-of-nowhere Coalinga, Ca. RMR’s 2009 SEMA entrant was parked up with both hoods open, showing off the amazing engineering underneath. Take one part Genesis Coupe, add eight cylinders of 500 horsepower Genesis-Sedan-sourced 4.6 liter Tau, blend liberally with a pinch of Mendeola sequential gearbox, and a dash of Rhys Millen insanity, and this is what you get. V8 swap cars are always interesting, but make that doubly so when said V8 is not of the LS variety, and triply so when it’s been mounted amidships in a car that is normally of FR orientation. With eight individual throttle bodies, and a nearly unrestricted exhaust, this car is aural heaven. The engine was appropriately beefed up with 11:1 compression JE pistons, while a piggy-back AEM management system was used in conjunction with the factory ECU in order that the original dash could be retained and remain functional. Aside from the custom valances and fascias, the car appears relatively sedate from the outside. The huge Stop-Tech brakes sitting behind 20 inch HRE wheels certainly help give the car a sporting appearance, and afford it some extra wide rubber for the grip it surely needs. When it was at SEMA, the HRE wheels were wrapped in Toyo T1R tires. As it sits now, a more street (and wallet) friendly Hankook Ventus V12 Evo is used. I have that same tire (though in 17″ diameter rather than 20) on two of my three cars, and I really like them for the price. A good all-around summer tire, for sure, and certainly an equal to the Toyos. Helping those tires grip is a custom 5-link rear suspension and a highly modified version of the stock MacPherson strut front suspension, all four corners using KW components. I’ll never really understand California laws, but somehow this thing is tagged and street legal. I was under the impression that engine swap cars were extremely difficult to insure and tag for street use in the land of happy cows. Regardless, I am certainly happier to see this car on the street than if it had taken residence at the bottom of a junk yard stack, or in the back corner of RMR’s Huntington Beach headquarters. Look for more on our time at the Shift-S3ctor event later this week, the FD RX7 shown above will be heavily featured, and you can bet that it will appeal to the Hoon in all of us. All images ©2014 Hooniverse/Bradley C. Brownell, All Rights Reserved. [I promise, Hankook has not compensated me in any way to promote the V12 Evo, I just really like those tires…]