It just so happened that during my weekend in Vegas, the annual SEMA show was being held at the Las Vegas Convention Center. It’s a trade show for makers of automobile aftermarket parts. Wheels, suspension, interior, car care, you name it. What’s most awesome about the SEMA show are the numerous project vehicles that get built especially for the occasion. It’s the North American version of the Tokyo Auto Salon, heaven for car enthusiasts who like to tinker with their pride and joy.
Sadly, being a trade show, SEMA is not open to the public. Even though it’s the car enthusiast public who are spending money on their cars, the show is catered towards B2B sales. That means the lay person cannot go to Las Vegas to see the awesome cars, unless you know a person already attending (badge sharing is a thing, apparently).
To my surprise, this year’s SEMA show has a Friday component that is open to the public. For a hefty sum of $70 dollars for a ticket, regular ole Joe blow like me can walk the same convention halls as the people in the trade. Serendipitous that I was in Vegas the same weekend, this provided the perfect opportunity to tick the SEMA box off my car enthusiasts bucket list. The Las Vegas Convention Center is easily accessible by the tram from the strip, which is what I took to get there.
It seems a lot of enthusiasts had the same idea: the line to pickup badges was nearly two hours long. I arrived at around 9:30 AM. By the time I had my badge in hand, it was time for lunch already. And the line was still the same size. I felt sorry for those folks as they probably won’t get into the halls until after 2:00 PM. And the show that day closes at 4:00 PM.
Overall I would say the SEMA show is definitely worth a go, at least once. The amount of interesting cars there, in varying degree of price (there was a Pagani Huarya at one booth) and modification, is simply amazing to see. On that alone you cannot have a bad time at SEMA. Being there have certainly rekindled my car enthusiasm. The whole time I was missing my BMW M2, and could not wait to get home to drive it again. More so than modifications - and I grew up on Super Street and Fast and Furious - it’s really about driving the cars and putting on miles.
There’s even a really live F1 car there.