There are certain things I have learned can be expected no matter what during our yearly sojourn to Las Vegas to cover the SEMA show. The first is that I will, at some point, drink a lot of whiskey. It is going to happen. Secondly, we will eat horrid pizza one night. No one from Italy moved to Vegas and opened a pizza shop. People from Pakistan may have, but the Italians and their skills with making tomato pies have not gotten there. Thirdly, I’ll be in deluxe pain by the end of the week from the miles of walking, standing, and chatting we do at the show. On all accounts, I wouldn’t change a damned thing. 

This year’s trip was cool on some diffent levels. Firstly, I had a crappy long layover in Kansas City due to the fact that we fly only budget airlines that have roll down windows on their planes. Instead of staring out at the tarmac for about four hours on my own, I put out the bat signal to KC area BangShifters and we had ourselves a get together at a local sports bar. There were five dudes that showed up and Kris, Ed, Don, Jeff, Ron, and I all sucked down some beers, bench raced, and laughed a lot. We then climbed back into Don’s bitchin’ four-speed Road Runner and made Sure-Grip tracks back to the airport where I squeaked onto my flight mere minutes before lift off.

Cue the shitty pizza. Chad bought the junk beofre I showed up. I was hungry as a mother and expecting some Coronas (they were there) and good pizza (it was not there). I am sure there are plenty of fine people that work at or for Pizza Hut, but their product is horrid. I will forego the food review, but safe it to say, I received more nourishment from the Coronas that night than the poor excuse for a pizza my right hand man acquired.

Chad’s been to far more SEMA shows that I have, so he’s got the whole “cool guy” attitude going on while I have the whole
“awe struck dork” vibe rolling. I’m pretty sure I’ll have that when I attend my 50th SEMA. I get wowed by junk every year. The engineering, evolution, and passion these people and companies have for the stuff they built is infectious. It is the week of eternal hope. Some companies have all of their chips pushed to the middle of the table, rolling the dice on a new product they have sunken years and unknown thousands into developing. Other companies continue to massage and tweak on the stuff they have been building for decades.  Both of those scenarios are good in my book.

Some potentially unanswerable questions:

What is the freaking fascination with turning the new Camaro into a Firebird (I kind of get this one) or a GTO (HUH?!) or something other than a new Camaro?

How do ultra high end wheel companies that sell stuff to a marketplace that is roughly the size of the average retirement community do enough business to keep themselves open?

Why doesn’t Ford do a better job of getting Coyote engines into SEMA projects? Once again, SEMA was DOMINATED by the GM LS family of engines.

Why do jackass idiots think it is OK to punch a vintage race car to, “see if it is really metal”, attempt to open the doors and sit inside custom display vehicles, and wait in line for autographs from off duty strippers?

Annnnnd we’re back…

So I took a steaming dump on Proform’s rhinestone encrusted small block Chevy prior to the show when they sent a media notice out about it. More than one company head appreciated the humor. None of those company heads worked for Proform.

While at the give away of the kick ass Raybestos 1964 GTO we spotted Chuck Zito, the infamous bodyguard to the stars and teller of tales on the Howard Stern Sirius Radio Network. Zito still looks like a man who could cause harm with a simple glance. Chad nearly whizzed his sandals.

The blown Cadillac shown below with the big block Chevy engine in it was my favorite piece at the event. The dude who built it owns a body shop and did the car by himself in his spare time. It is perfect on all levels other than the fact we do not own it. Obnoxious? You betcha…just like a good hot rod should be. 

There is an incredible amount of suspension development happening in the marketplace now. Several companies are going all out to advance the science of stick and they are doing it in various different ways. Traditional springs and shocks, coil overs, remote resevoir shocks, air suspension, etc. There has never been a time in this hobby where you could build a legit handling muscle car like you can now.

Seeing the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational cars pull out of the convention center on Friday afternoon is as close as I will ever get to the glorious days of the real Gumball Rally and Cannonball Run. All that was missing was a punch clock and Dom Deluise. 

On Friday evening, I was invited to attend a media launch event for the V-Werks built, Red Jacket Firearms Jeep truck. V-Werks is a new custom vehicle venture that we’ll tell you more about tomorrow, but we will tell you that Pat Muldoon, the former chief engineer at Mopar is overseeing the operation and Muldoon has schemed up some killer stuff in his time. The Red Jacket Jeep is 100% bad ass. 

Anyway, this event took place at the Gun Store, a Las Vegas shooting range that allows common folk to fire machine guns for fun. I was able to fire a semi-automatic pistol as well as run a few magazines through a legit Tommy Gun. Others fired a huge SAW machine gun (the same model as used in Rambo, although our ammo was live!) as well as a whole bunch of other great firearms. The place literally has a menu of guns to choose from and there is more than 100, I’d say.

I ended up in a shooting group with Rick Pewe the long time editor of Peterson’s 4-Wheel and Off Road. Rick was a great guy to shoot the breeze (and some targets) with. A good time was had by all and the V-Werks is an impressive creation. 

From a business perspective, this was the best SEMA show Chad and I have ever had, by a lot. You’ll be seeing new and familiar names being added to the site in the coming weeks and months as we fire up the relationships built at the show. It is deeply flattering and humbling to see where we have come from our beginnings. We owe every bit of it to you lunatics that read BangShift every day.

Thank you.