Ray Ho – 11/04/2018

The Specialty Equipment Market Association show better known as the SEMA show in Las Vegas should not be unfamiliar to the car enthusiasts.  For this year’s show, over a thousand exhibit booths are displayed in the Las Vegas Convention Center and the adjacent Westgate Resort and Casino.  There are also hundreds of displays at the Sands Expo for the AAPEX (Automotive Aftermarket Product Expo) show.  Attracting over 70,000 domestic and international buyers and about 3000 from the press/media, SEMA is the premier show for everything automotive aftermarket.  Unfortunately, since these are trade-only showings, they are not available for the general public, except for the after-show party dubbed “SEMA IGNITED”.

For those lucky ones attending, be sure to plan out what you want to explore especially if you are only there for a day or two.  The exhibits are both inside the convention center and outside the parking lots.  You can easily be overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the show.  There are many new and modified cars and trucks with some mods are really over the top.  Everywhere you turn you are greeted with endless displays of aftermarket products and services; engine parts, suspensions, performance mods, exhausts, lights, wheels and tires, seats, body repair and finish, window films and wraps, etc.  You name it, if it has anything to do with cars, it is there.  Don’t forget the trade seminars and countless celebrity appearances.  Of course, there is also the Battle of the Builders contest to celebrate the builders of custom SEMA cars.  If you are going there for the first time, it is very important to take breaks unless you are auditioning for the Walking Dead afterward.

A little bit of trivia, SEMA used to be short for Speed Equipment Manufacturing Association.  But speed had a bad stigma so in light of political correctness, it was changed to Specialty Equipment Market Association.  Speaking of political correctness, the polls open all day next Tuesday!