SEMA 2011

[Robert_Maples]

Saw this and thought it to be interesting, a 1960's Cadillac

http://autoholics.com/2011/10/31/60-Caddy-Blows-Minds-578935

[Speach]

That car looks to be a 4dr with the top cut off. I could be wrong.

[The Tassie Devil (Bruce Reynolds)]

The doors look too long for a 4 door, but also notice that the builder has moved the rear seats right back by removing the rear parcel shelf.

Bruce.

[Robert_Maples]

I think it looked pretty awesome! 

[EZ]

Man.  That's beautiful.

[CarFreak]

From 2,000 New Products, a Few Blue-Ribbon Ideas Emerge at SEMA

LAS VEGAS — Despite there being 1,500 customized vehicles on display at the Specialty Equipment Market Association event here, it is not a car show. Not officially, anyway. It’s a showcase for automotive products.

Through Saturday, tens of thousands of them are arrayed throughout nearly three million square feet of exhibition and demonstration space. Of these, SEMA officials evaluate more than 2,000 brand-new products and bestow awards on the best, in several categories.

The most prestigious of these is the Best Engineered New Product blue ribbon, and this year it went to Baer, the brake manufacturer, for its Tracker Full Floating Axle Conversion unit. It’s a swap-out kit for traditional flanged axles that use a single axle bearing to support the weight of the vehicle.

The idea here is to eliminate an old-fashioned part that can flex and break under heavy loads. The Tracker can also be an important intermediate step to updating and replacing old braking systems with modern discs. The Tracker installation does not eliminate the parking brake.

Another winner was a carburetor-to-electronic fuel-injection conversion kit from MSD. The Atomic EFI master kit is comprised of a fuel-injection system shaped like a carburetor; the carburetor is removed, the EFI module bolts right into its place; a couple of plug-and-play digital boxes snap into place; a fuel line is run to the unit; and a line to an exhaust manifold O2 sensor completes the installation. No fuel return line is needed.

“Change it in the morning; go cruising that evening,” said company literature. There is no need for a technician to tune it, as it tunes itself with computer logic.

Auto Meter, the gauge maker, won three awards — one for a universal-mount three-gauge unit, with up to 25 gauges to choose from; a speedometer that is controlled by GPS satellite signals, not the car; and a Web site that allows the customer to design gauge packages by type, lighting color, faceplate design and dozens of other criteria.

The award for the best new tire went to Continental for its CrossContact LX, an all-season tire that combines the seemingly contradictory characteristics of excellent wet braking, long wear and fuel efficiency.

Some award-winning technologies leveraged the iPhone, a technology platform that seemed to have hundreds of unexplored possibilities for the auto industry. Escort, maker of Beltronics-branded radar detectors, won an award for a new technology that, with a special cable hookup, would send radar-trap data to a cloud computing storage system, to be processed and sent back out to other Escort customers via an Apple-approved app. And SCT Performance also won an award for a new Apple-based mobile technology that would allow tuners to wirelessly recalibrate parameters like horsepower output and throttle response on their vehicles.

[Gary]

"nearly three million square feet of exhibition and demonstration space"

I went in 2008 and must have walked all of it.
If you ever go, wear comfortable shoes!

Gary

[EZ]

Is SEMA open to the public?

[CarFreak]

No, but I heard its pretty ez to find a ticket if you really want to go. 

[kevo]

I went from 2003 till last year... I went with a friend that runs a dealership, got a "vendor" pass...


also, I love that car... thanks for posting

[EZ]

I am a manager at a car dealership.  Does that qualify me to get to go?  I've always wanted to go to SEMA.
How do you go about getting a ticket? SHould I just tell 'em I'm buddies with Car Freak?  I bet I'd get the VIP treatment then!!!   

[CarFreak]

I planned to attend several years back, found the website and registered. It was only $20 per person for pre-registration.

http://www.semashow.com/

Stipulation being it had to be an automotive related business. So presumably, your working at a dealership 'should' get you in.

Keeping that in mind, did you say that your position is General Sales Manager?   


Sema 2012 is October 30 - November 2.  IIRC, registration opens in March or April. 

[EZ]

Keeping that in mind, did you say that your position is General Sales Manager?   

I'm actually the Commercial Truck Department Manager but if GSM gets me a ticket then that's what it'll be!!   

[kevo]

I went with my buddy who is a Parts and Service Manager, and he got me a few business cards for the dealership with my name on it, no title, etc... got my tickets online, listed that I worked at the dealership in the parts dept. and went for years... lol