SEMA History

In the summer of 1957, Petersen photographer Bob D’Olivo rode with a convoy of 251 Jeeps as it crossed Northern California’s infamous Rubicon Trail for what was then the fifth Jeeper’s Jamboree. As it still does today, the ’57 Jamboree convened in Georgetown, a small mining town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

In 1981, Hot Rod magazine Executive Editor C.J. Baker wrote an in-depth profile of Junior Johnson’s No. 11 “Mountain Dew” Buick Regal, in which Darrell Waltrip won the NASCAR championship that year. This photo opened that story in the November 1981 issue. Johnson is leaning on the race car; the other man in the photo is Gale Banks, posed with a turbocharged V6 engine he built for the Hot Rod project car behind him.

It isn’t often you can capture this many iconic figures in one candid photograph, but that’s exactly what Petersen Publishing photographer Pat Brollier managed to do on a June day in 1974.At left is actor Martin Sheen, next to him is Pete Chapouris, and behind them is Chapouris’ trend-setting ’34 Ford three-window coupe.

Students preparing for careers in the automotive industry may be eligible to receive financial awards ranging from $1,000–$4,000 through the 2011 SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund. The scholarship application, which is due April 1 and requires college transcripts and letters of recommendation, is now available here.

When Petersen Publishing Company photographer Eric Rickman took this photo in October 1958, Paul Schiefer’s involvement in developing a safe, “slipper” clutch for drag racers was still a decade away. So was the honor of being the very first inductee into SEMA’s Hall of Fame.

The cool dude in the hat and shades driving Jamie Musselman’s ’33 roadster is Boyd Coddington.

SEMA members, it’s once again time to recognize your mentors, colleagues and competitors and nominate them for the SEMA Hall of Fame—one of the highest honors the industry can bestow on individual members.