foosetopia; SEMA belongs to Chip Foose this year, and the Hemisfear is the star of the show.(News)

Byline: MARK VAUGHN

At this year's SEMA show there were at least 30 Chip Foose cars. As near as anyone can tell, that's a record for an individual builder (attention outraged readers: Please send any letters about the 31 cars and two skateboards shown by long-forgotten hot rodder Fester "Stinky'' Kosromulen at the 1974 SEMA show to awletter@crain.com).

This year, almost everywhere you looked in the north, central and south halls, as well as in the sprawling Bedouin tents and several hundred acres of concrete and asphalt surrounding the Las Vegas Convention Center, there was something that Foose either drew, built, chopped, channeled, salvaged, shaved or shampooed. Each of those creations had a look of near perfection, be it a pickup truck, a stylin' lowered sedan or the mighty and all-conquering Hemisfear, a coming production vehicle that redefines not only the hot rod but the muscle car and the high-tech limited-production supercar.

Now, we have only 1000 words here, and we've already used up 150 of them, so we're going to spend the rest on the most significant and best Foose of show: the Hemisfear.

Let's start at the beginning, which was 16 years ago when a nearly unknown Art Center student made a model. It was not just any model, not the usual design-school project that forced students to "imagine what the Chevy Citation will look like as an anti-gravity car in the year 2050.'' No, this one was the culmination of Foose's then-young automotive life, a life that had consisted mostly of hot rods, thanks to the good luck of being born the son of hot-rod-builder Sam Foose.

"This is a continuation of my childhood,'' said Foose of the Hemisfear. "Just as my career is a continuation of my father's career.''

At the time, 1990, Foose was attending Art Center courtesy of his employer, designer and automotive entrepreneur Alain Clenet. Foose was working on a Chrysler-sponsored hot rod project and had built a model that was similar to the Hemisfear but with slightly more rounded rear corners. Foose traces the evolution of that Art Center model to what became the Plymouth Prowler. He still has that original model, a design he has wanted to build for 16 years and which, with this, he has finally brought to full scale.