Drive On: Some hot new cars to customize

Every year, the nation's top aftermarket car products show seems to always produce one vehicle that rises above all others. You see more of them because they are tops when it come so the cool factor.

For this year's Specialty Equipment Market Association trade show in Las Vegas -- it's just called SEMA -- we can already see one car rising above the pack. Well, two, but they're nearly identical. It would be the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ.

Affordable sports cars like the Scion/Subaru always have an edge. Look at how the Hyundai Veloster dominated last year, or the Chevrolet Camaro before. But not always. We recall in past years when Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger took their star turns.

Anyway, we'll know for sure in a week if our prediction is correct. The show kicks off next Tuesday. We're already hearing about crews that are customizing the Scion/Subaru in hopes of cranking up enthusiasm for aftermarket parts from buyers.

We were provided with one example. Here's what the backers say it will contain:

• Custom exhaust. Within weeks of the FR-S and BRZ release, an exhaust maker called Flowmaster already had a stainless-steel system designed to add power and noise to the pair.
• Sport suspension. Hotchkis Sport Suspension is applying its race-proven engineering into the development of a complete handling solution for the FR-S/BRZ -- sport coil springs and adjustable sway bars, among other things.
• Fancy wheels. The Scion/Subaru is proving to be the perfect place for HRE Wheels to expand into lower costs wheels sets. Its usual line costs upt ot $10,000, but for the Scion/Subaru sports car they are coming in around $3,000.