Car Show Articles and Reviews

SEMA 2015 Coverage and More

Published on August 6, 2015

As SEMA 2015 approaches, the CarShowz.com Crew is gearing up for the trip across the nation to rendezvous with the top builders of the industry and to check out the latest Original-equipment Manufacturer (OEM) designs, styles and innovation.

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) is a trade association that consists of a diverse group of manufacturers, distributors, retailers, publishing companies, auto restorers, street-rod builders, restylers, car clubs, race teams and more. 52 years young, the SEMA organization performs many services for its members and for the hobby as a whole.

The SEMA Show is one of the largest premier automotive specialty products trade event in the world and will be hosted in Las Vegas, NV from November 3 – 6, 2015. There will be many custom vehicles and vendors throughout the 3.2 million square feet Las Vegas Convention Center with a lot to see; new products, custom builds, conferences, demonstrations, celebrity appearances, you name it.

SEMA IGNITED

Although the trade show is not open to the public, SEMA is bringing to you SEMA Ignited (More info click here), an event open to the public and an opportunity to mingle with the top dawgs within the automotive industry.

From the outside looking in, there seems to be a misconception of how SEMA builds are presented. A simple design is sometimes the best route, that doesn’t mean a builder or a shop is lazy. In the same sense, SEMA is a venue to put your best foot forward and to show the world what you and your shop can do. As mentioned, that does not mean certain builds need to be over-the-top. Sometimes less is better, especially when manufactureres are debuting a vehicle for the first time and they want to present their new make / model to potential buyers and show them what can be done to customize the vehicle. These vehicles need to be sold to a mass market. At the same time the aftermarket parts that are installed and displayed need to be appealing.

In June of 2011, Mark Williams put together an article titled, “Project Vehicles: How to Present a Winning SEMA Project-Vehicle Proposal” (https://www.sema.org/sema-news/2011/06/project-vehicles-how-to-present-a-winning-sema-project-vehicle-proposal) I highly recommend anyone considering building a SEMA vehicle or attendees who simply want to become more knowledgeable with how the manufactures interact with builders, read this article.