WHEELS IN MOTION

PETE CHAPOURIS . October 16, 2022 . All Feature Vehicles

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SEMA Show 2014 Part 1

Go ahead, pick an adjective: unbelievable, incredible, amazing, astonishing, great, enormous, mindboggling, extraordinary, because they all just barely describe the 2014 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Marketing Association) Show. Seriously, I’ve been attending since 1973, back in the days of the Anaheim Convention Center, and I’ve never experienced anything the likes of this year’s event!

To put things into perspective, I leaned on my pal Mike Spagnola (SEMA VP of OEM and Product Development Programs) for a few statistics and was reminded that the association doesn’t actively promote the size or attendance numbers; they instead strive to be the best show as opposed to the biggest. Nonetheless, the numbers are truly impressive: buyers 61,510 (up 4%); media 2,864 (up 1.3%); total attendance 145,487 (up 5%); international buyers 24.9% of the buyer total; total number of exhibiting companies 2,379; total net square feet of exhibit space 1,127,999! Yes, the numbers are truly impressive, but so are the ancillary activities.

ZZ Top front man Billy F. Gibbon’s electronic portrait courtesy of San Francisco artist Jeremy Sutton. Photo by Jeremy Sutton.

Gibbon flanked by Jimmy Shine and yours truly at a meet and greet in SEMA Central with Billy’s new ride WHISKEYRUNNER. Photo courtesy of SEMA.

This year, SO-CAL was involved in several of those activities, namely bringing ZZ Top front-man Billy F. Gibbons and wife Gilligan to a meet and greet in what’s now known as SEMA Central. Basically, SEMA Central is the front door/entry hall of the show where Billy was able to meet his loyal fans and show off his new ride, WHISKEYRUNNER. Even though the severely chopped ’34 Ford three-window coupe isn’t finished, its primary role was to show off the Alberto Hernandez-designed “Z” side trim. The side trim project is a joint effort between Billy, Stratasys 3-D Printers and the SEMA Garage to bring attention to the rapid prototyping program now being offered as a SEMA membership service. I just want to say it saved our WHISKEYRUNNER project hundreds of hours of labor costs—absolutely amazing piece of work.

Another interesting ancillary item was San Francisco artist Jeremy Sutton doing electronic portraits in SEMA Central. Next month, I’ll continue my visit to SEMA 2014 to cover the awards banquet, SEMA Ignited and the first ever Shift and Steer video blog featuring Brad Fanshaw, Aaron Hagar, Matt D’Andria, me and a surprise guest.