As if you needed yet another reason to gather with your friends for a wild time in Las Vegas, the annual Sema Show rolled into town and set up shop in the Las Vegas Convention Center, which encompasses more than 3.2-million square feet of space.
Sema is among the largest conventions Las Vegas sees (still smaller than CES, the Consumer Electronics Show), but it's probably the largest automotive-based gathering in the world that the Average Joe can't get into. (You have to at least "be in the business" to get through the door.)
Over the past few decades, the automotive aftermarket has grown into a $31-billion concern, and Sema (Specialty Equipment Market Association) has been there to promote and help regulate the massive industry. The annual show allows more than 2,000 companies a place to set up their display tables and show the world what they have to offer. And the world comes, too; for four days the aisles are crowded with folks (up to 114,000 attended in recent years) who want to see the absolute newest products available for cars and trucks.
Plus, when you have companies such as Ford, Chevrolet, and Chrysler all debuting new vehicles and products, you know the show is taken seriously. SEMA counts 552 new first-time exhibitors, and the kit and replica market could be found in every nook and cranny of the Convention Center.
Over in the Roush Performance booth you could find Superformance dealers Dennis Oldhoff, Lance Stander, and Bill Ostrower hanging out with two of their company's lineup: a roadster and their new SPF-GT, a GT-40 clone that debuted at the Carlisle Kit and Replicar Nationals last June. Across the aisle in the Master Shift booth, Thunder Ranch's Tom McBurnie and Chuck Hirsch were displaying their new center-steer Porsche 718, which stopped a lot of folks in their tracks.
Every type of vehicle, and therefore every type of product, is represented at this show (SEMA says there were 49 different vehicle manufacturers in attendance), from nitrous-powered Japanese imports to blown flathead-equipped Deuce roadsters. A separate New Products arena near the show's entrance showcased 1,400 new items, from off-road wheels to valvesprings, occasionally something that could be used in the kit and replicar world, such as the Cobra Roadster SS bucket seats from Sube Sports Seating of Huntington Beach, California.
One of the best things to do at Sema is just wander the miles of aisles and take in what you can. There is so much to see, a case for sensory overload can easily be made (and we're not talking about the dozens of scantily-clad poster girls). Often companies will bring something to the show to test the market. Ford wanted to see what the reaction was to a GT roadster they had displayed in their booth (we couldn't find anyone who didn't think it was great!), and we wondered how long it would take for one manufacturer in the kit market to produce its own GT roadster.
Dropping into booths, one can learn a lot about what's coming up in the market, too. Over in the March Performance booth (makers of serpentine belt-drive systems), Craig March told us about plans to offer a belt system for both Ford FE and Cleveland motors soon. Another bit of news: Turnkey Engine Supply (Oceanside, California) will soon be offering a 427 LS7 with stock fuel injection. Ray Currie of Currie Enterprises (Anaheim, California) mentioned their company is working on an aluminum independent rearend. All good info to know.
And besides the debut of hundreds of new automotive parts, many manufacturers employed celebrities to attract attendees into their booth. Racers such as Bryan Herta, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jeff Gordon, plus Michael and Mario Andretti were on hand, as were wrestlers Goldberg and Hulk Hogan, TV star Chip Foose, and even Jay Leno, who made an appearance at one evening banquet. If you wanted to sit down for a while and still keep up on what is happening in the auto aftermarket, there were nearly 50 seminars and media conferences held-everything from the world debut of new cars from major automakers to design-award presentations from DaimlerChrysler.
But besides producing the show, Sema's real business is as a base for industry research (tracking trends in 16 different niche markets), as well as helping the legislators in many states who are working on laws that affect the automotive aftermarket and car enthusiasts in general. There are almost 6,500 companies that are currently Sema members, so when they speak, people (as well as lawmakers) listen. For more info on Sema, you can call (909) 396-0289, or visit www.sema.org.