By Ashley Reyes

As part of its commitment to help automotive aftermarket engineers, programmers and product developers stay up-to-date on emerging vehicle trends and new technology, the Emerging Trends & Technology Network (ETTN) will host several activities at the 2021 SEMA Show taking place November 2–5, in Las Vegas.

The ETTN-sponsored events are the ideal opportunity for both current and prospective ETTN members to learn about emerging trends and new technology, discuss resources and solutions with like-minded individuals and create peer-to-peer connections with ETTN Select Committee members who can help them get more involved in the industry.

Stay up-to-date on the latest trends and technology that fuel automotive professionals by registering for the following events:

Emerging Trends & Technology Network (ETTN)-Sponsored Networking

Click here to RSVP in advance.

ETTN Tech n’ Toast
Date/Time: Thursday, November 4, 8:00 a.m.–9:00 a.m.
Location: Las Vegas Convention Center, N235–N239

ETTN members, engineers and product developers will connect and learn from each other during this energized networking breakfast. Attendees will openly discuss industry specific ideas and concerns related to automotive technology and have the opportunity to connect with the network's select committee.

ETTN Lunch & Learn  
Date/Time: Thursday, November 4, 12:30 p.m.–2:00 p.m.
Location: Las Vegas Convention Center, N235–N239

This event feature presentations and opportunities to discuss the latest trends in automotive technology. Automotive technicians, engineers and design professionals who want to be on the forefront of emerging trends are invited to attend and learn about technologies that can advance their businesses.

SEMA Education

Add these sessions to your Show Planner when registering for the SEMA Show.

Synthetic Fuels: Paving the Way for the Future of ICEs? Powered by ETTN
Date/Time: Monday, November 1, 1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m.
Location: Las Vegas Convention Center, N259

OEM manufacturers are overwhelmingly shifting resources away from traditional engine development, and regulators and legislatures are increasingly passing laws and regulations that will require the use of electric powertrains exclusively in the future. A few companies, however, are investing in research into an alternate technology, while still preserving internal combustion engine (ICE). A panel of industry experts will discuss the promise and state of this technology, and the changes in the regulatory framework required to recognize its benefits.

Challenges to Modding the Modern Powertrain, Powered by ETTN
Date/Time: Thursday, November 4, at 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Location: Las Vegas Convention Center, N258

This session will include a comprehensive discussion about the concerning new trend of automakers implementing increasingly secure encryption in electronic controls, preventing aftermarket manufacturers from accessing vehicle systems to facilitate modification. This session will feature representatives from the OEMs, the tuning software companies and the aftermarket manufacturers working to overcome these challenges.

Attendees planning on attending the 2021 SEMA Show can prepare for the Show by seeing who’s exhibiting by visiting the updated floorplan. Advanced registration is encouraged to avoid delays onsite and can be obtained by visiting www.SEMAShow.com/attendee.

By Juan Torres

SEMA has announced the finalists for the 2021 SEMA Award—a recognition presented to new vehicle models that provide the aftermarket with the best platforms for customization. Voted on by SEMA Show exhibitors, winners will be announced at the annual trade-only event on November 2–5, in Las Vegas.

This year’s award program includes a new category for mid-size trucks. Other categories include car, full-size truck, 4x4/SUV, and sport compact. Exhibitors identified the top three finalists in each category that best showcase their products and accessories.

The top three finalists in each category are (in alphabetical order):

SEMA Car of the Year

• Chevrolet Corvette
• Ford Mustang
• Nissan GT-R

SEMA Mid-Size Truck of the Year

• Ford Ranger
• Stellantis Jeep Gladiator
• Toyota Tacoma

SEMA Full-Size Truck of the Year

• Chevrolet Silverado
• Ford F-Series
• Stellantis Ram

SEMA 4x4/SUV of the Year

• Chevrolet Tahoe
• Ford Bronco
• Stellantis Jeep Wrangler

SEMA Sport Compact of the Year

• Honda Civic
• Nissan Sentra
• Toyota Supra

These vehicles represent today’s most popular models based on their potential for customization. Aftermarket manufacturers are investing in the vehicles for their ability to have upgraded performance, styling, comfort, convenience and safety. The program creates awareness for aftermarket products and highlights the ongoing collaboration between SEMA, automakers and aftermarket manufacturers to bring quality products to market. SEMA also helps aftermarket manufacturers with product development through the SEMA Garage, measuring sessions, 3-D printing, technology transfer and more.

For additional information about the SEMA Show, visit www.semashow.com.

As we continually look to improve, we’d like to hear your thoughts on our weekly newsletter. Your input will help to ensure that we continue to provide the best possible content and platform for our readers.

Please take a few minutes to provide your feedback.
 

Thank you!
SEMA eNews Team

By Ashley Reyes

Restylers, technicians, installers and business owners in the Midwest recently received expert product training direct from manufacturers in the first-ever PRO Installer Training. Hosted by the Professional Restylers Organization (PRO) and held as part of the council’s General Membership Meeting, the two-day Installer Training was open to all PRO members at no cost, and included in-depth, hands-on instructions from specialists from Katzkin, Llumar, Brandmotion and Auto Additions.

“Many shop owners are interested in expanding to other products or services, but may not quite understand them,” said Josh Poulson, PRO chair and owner of Auto Additions. “By hearing direct from manufacturers and connecting with them in real life, technicians received top quality training. It was the best way for them to discover new products, and to better understand products they already work with.”

In addition to training sessions, presenting manufacturers met with participants in a casual environment and educated attending restylers about their specific brands. Held at Auto Additions Inc. in Ohio, the event provided local restylers with an opportunity to learn from one another and discover different ways of working with dealers.

“The event helped our members get out and see how things could be done a differently,” added Poulson. “Because the event was local, it was easy and affordable for company owners to invest in their technicians and give them the opportunity to network with other shops.”

PRO plans to host similar events as a way to help member companies grow their teams and retain employees for a lower cost and higher ROI.

“This event was huge value-add for being a member of PRO,” said Colby McLaughlin, PRO chair-elect and president of Trim Illusion. “If you’re a restyler, you could have brought your entire staff for training on a handful of potential new revenue opportunities and it only costed your $50 annual dues. Being a member pays for itself.”

To learn more about the SEMA Professional Restylers Organization, visit www.sema.org/pro.

By Ashley Reyes

As young industry professionals start planning their 2021 SEMA Show itinerary, they might have questions as to what resources will be available, and what networking opportunities they should attend to further benefit and advance their careers.    

Young automotive aftermarket professionals are invited to join the SEMA Young Executives Network (YEN) Select Committee as they go live on the YEN Facebook page to share important updates on the network’s plans for this year’s SEMA Show, taking place November 2–5 in Las Vegas.  

Featuring YEN Chair Nick Caloroso and YEN Chair-Elect Matt Beenen, this chat will serve as an opportunity to learn about the YEN Industry Reception, YEN Mixer and General Membership Meeting at Topgolf, located inside the MGM Grand, and be the first to learn about an exciting new program with Dale Carnegie that is slated for late March 2022.

Get your questions ready and tune into the YEN Facebook page on October 13 at 10:00 a.m. (PDT)! 

By Ashley Reyes

Brent LaLonde is the SEMA Young Executives Network’s (YEN) newest spotlight member. Lalonde is the president of Mechanical Power Inc., a global sourcing company that supplies bearings, sprockets, chains and related industrial products.

Find out what keeps LaLonde in the industry and how he prepares for important meetings in his interview with SEMA below.

SEMA: What is the best advice you have ever received?

Brent LaLonde: Be humble. Be Hungry. This advice has helped me in both my personal and professional lives in leading people by example and generating rapport and respect.

SEMA: What keeps you in the industry?

BL: I'm from metro Detroit and grew up loving the automotive industry. I love manufacturing, global supply chain and am a gearhead at heart. I’ve been to the Woodward Dream Cruise every year, and every year it’s a reminder how thriving the car community is.

SEMA: Where can you be found on a Saturday?

BL: I can be found playing with my kids, at a Cars and Coffee event or golfing.

SEMA: How do you prepare for an important meeting?

BL: I prepare with an agenda, data, script, objectives and being at least five minutes early!

SEMA: If you could go to lunch with one industry leader, living or dead, who it would be?

BL: Chip Foose. He’s a nice blend of old school and new school. I like his demeanor. I’d be very curious to see his take on what the next 20–30 years in automotive aftermarket and the hot-rod industry look like considering what the government and OEMs are doing.

If you are a current YEN member, fill out a YEN member spotlight form. Selected candidates may be featured on YEN’s social media, SEMA eNews and YEN-member updates.

By SEMA Editors

John Kilroy, the former longtime editor of Performance Racing Industry (PRI) Magazine and later general manager of PRI, has passed away after a years-long battle with cancer.

Kilroy, who started his career with PRI in 1990, led the company’s editorial operations for 22 years until he was elevated to GM following PRI’s sale to SEMA in 2012. For the next four years, he oversaw the day-to-day management of PRI and produced the annual PRI Trade Show while guiding the overall direction of PRI’s media and communications efforts.

A graduate of Cal State Fullerton, he was widely known and respected throughout the industry as an honest, hard-working professional with a passion for motorsports and those who made their living in the trade. He maintained countless friendships among PRI staff even after his departure from the company in 2016.

“He [John] was a great ambassador for PRI, SEMA and the industry as a whole,” said Bill Miller, SEMA’s senior vice president, operations. “John and I spent hours talking PRI before the deal [with SEMA] was finalized and worked hand-in-hand in those early years to successful integrate our teams. I always appreciated his upfront and candid demeanor. He was a man of great integrity. I only hope he and Robin Miller are bench racing up in heaven. Cheers to you, John!”

In his final editorial for PRI Magazine titled “The Next Turn,” Kilroy spoke of his pride in having taken the concept of a trade show and business publication for racing professionals to “previously unimaginable heights.”

“I’ve had a great run here at PRI,” he wrote. “Along the way, I had the great fortune to work in an industry that taught me a lot about how to live this life. Thank you all for chasing after it the way you did. You inspired me throughout my 26 years.”

A resident of Orange, California, Kilroy leaves behind a wife and three children. He will be missed by all of us who knew, worked with, and learned so much from him through the years.

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

Support for the bipartisan Recognizing the Protection of Motorsports Act (RPM Act), H.R. 3281 and S. 2736, continues to expand each day as members of Congress receive an outpouring of support for the bill from racers and the motorsports parts industry. It’s clear the letters that enthusiasts and businesses have sent are being noticed on Capitol Hill and are making a difference (109 members of the House and 18 Senators have cosponsored the RPM Act).

If you’ve already sent a letter to Congress about the RPM Act, please follow up by making a short call to their office to voice your support for the bill. SEMA has made it easy to call your elected officials by clicking here.

Below is a list of things of other things you can do right now to help to pass the RPM Act:

• Send a personal letter to your lawmakers at: saveourracecars.com. A letter has already been drafted. It takes less than a minute.
• Sign a letter to your lawmakers on company letterhead. Email erics@sema.org for a template and for more information.
• Post about the RPM Act on your company’s social-media accounts using the toolkit of digital assets.
• Learn more about SEMA’s Political Action Committee (SEMA PAC) at www.semapac.com. SEMA PAC allows SEMA members to support the lawmakers that stand up for our industry in Washington.

Over the past few days, five U.S. Senators have agreed to co-sponsor the RPM Act, including Senators Todd Young (R-IN), Tim Scott (R-SC), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Deb Fischer (R-NE). This is great progress, and it is important that lawmakers continue to hear from constituents about the importance of pass the RPM Act.

The RPM Act must be enacted into law to guarantee your right to modify street cars, trucks and motorcycles into dedicated race vehicles, and ensure that industry can offer parts that enable racers to compete. It is imperative that lawmakers continue to be reminded of the importance of passing the RPM Act.

For details, contact Eric Snyder at erics@sema.org.

By Fredy Ramirez

If you ask any driver his or her goal in a race, the answer is usually the same—finish first. Encompassing that feeling, the advent of the electric vehicle is now bringing opportunities that were seemingly decades away.

“I’m a racer,” said Steve Huff of Huff Motorsports. “All I cared about was how fast it was going. I didn't care how fast it was going to slow down. I just cared about getting to the finish line first.”

The most notable example may be Volkswagen’s domination of Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in 2018 with its prototype fully electric I.D. R vehicle. Posting a time of 07:57.148, it beat the previous record by over a minute and remains the only vehicle to break the eight-minute mark.

Although it may not have been the first attempt at racing with a fully electric vehicle (EV), it showed the potential of what a fully electric racecar could do if given the right amount of time and resources. That put manufacturers on notice, and it didn't take long for there to be movement from major players in the industry.

“From a Ford Motor Company perspective, electrification is huge to us,” Ford Performance Motorsport Supervisor Brian Novack said. “I think we are spending $11.5 billion over the next few years in improving our electric vehicle lineup.”

OEMs such as Ford have begun investing heavily in the electrification of their lineups. Ford Performance focused on…well, performance. It developed prototypes in the all-electric propulsion Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 and the Mustang Mach-E 1400.

“The seat-of-the-pants feeling of that type of electric power is just unbelievable,” said RTR Vehicles founder, motorsports champion and professional fun-haver Vaughn Gittin Jr. “It’s perspective shattering.”

The Cobra Jet 1400 put down an 8.27-second quarter-mile time, reaching a top speed of 168 mph in its first outing. Ford accomplished that feat with help from the aftermarket.

Cascadia Motion provided motor-inverter packages that run at 800 volts and up to 700 amps for a maximum output of 350kW per motor. With 1,500 peak horsepower came the opportunity for an advanced management system. AEM-EV assisted Ford Performance in developing an advanced data and control system specifically for the Cobra Jet 1400.

“That's part of what those demonstrators are,” Novack said. “It’s to show what Ford Motor Company is capable of. From a Ford Performance standpoint, it's about us learning as much as we can about a super-high-powered electric vehicle and what it takes to get that done.”

The Mach-E 1400 demonstrations showed the ability of an electric vehicle in comparison to that of a gas-powered vehicle. The seven motors in the Mach-E 1400, pushing out 1400 hp, kept up in almost every major racing category with some of Ford’s best vehicles. Again, the aftermarket played a role, with RTR Vehicles assisting with the aerodynamic development of the vehicle.

“If an electric vehicle with similar power and weight shows up to the starting line next to a combustion engine with similar power and weight, the combustion engine has zero chance,” Gittin said.

Electric vehicles are also starting to infiltrate the dragstrip. Huff and his team at Huff Motorsports designed the first all-electric dragster to break the 200-mph mark. The vehicle started life as a four-cylinder EcoBoost-powered dragster that quickly became a fully electric vehicle. The team at Huff Motorsports started with two electric motors and soon realized the difficulty of controlling them and collecting data.

“We were waiting for an industry leader to have a product that we could use to expand and make all the power we wanted,” Huff said.

At that point, the aftermarket came to help in the form of Cascadia Motion and AEM-EV. Cascadia Motion once again provided the motor inverter package for the dragster that now featured four motors. AEM-EV’s PDU-8 and VCU 300 allowed Huff and his team to accurately control the motors and accurately collect data.

“Their products allowed us to do something we couldn't do a year ago, which was accurately control four inverter controllers and subsequently four motors,” Huff said.

A few months ago, electric vehicles landed in the off-road community when Kyle Seggelin entered his 4-Runner that featured a Nissan Leaf powertrain in the King of the Hammers competition. That marked the first time an electric vehicle competed and finished a race at the event. The rig included parts built by Seggelin and his team.

“Hopefully, that will drive some of the OEMs to get involved with it as well, and we will see a handful of electric vehicles out there racing King of the Hammers,” said Loren Healy, a five-time Ultra4 Champion and two-time King of the Hammers winner. “I know it’s piqued our interest.”

The opportunities in developing parts for EVs are starting to arrive, with companies such as AEM-EV getting a head start. For now, the focus is on making the vehicle faster. Who knows what the future holds, but the aftermarket will be there to make it better.

For more information on racing and performance, follow these sources on social media:

· @stevehuffmotorsports

· @vaughngittinjr

· @loren_healy

· @bailey_cole_racing

· @fordperformance

At the 2021 SEMA Show, look for these exhibitors to unveil the hottest builds and latest new products in the EV space. And visit SEMA Electrified in the North Hall, Booth #12475.

The Switch Lab, Booth #25157

Electric GT, Booth #23683

Legacy EV, Booth #23891

Cobera, Booth #24877

Ford, Booth #222000

The Mustang Mach-E 1400 is the culmination of hard work put forth by AEM Electronics, Cascadia Motion, RTR Vehicles and Ford Performance. (Photo courtesy of Ford)

The Cobra Jet 1400’s all-electric motors pushed out an impressive 1500 peak horsepower. (Photo courtesy of Ford)

Steve Huff’s dragster “Current Technology” became the first all-electric dragster to eclipse the 200-mph barrier. (Photo courtesy of Huff Motorsports)

The Mach-E 1400 puts down a remarkable 1400 horsepower. (Photo courtesy of Ford)

The all-electric powertrain of the Cobra Jet 1400 propelled it to an 8.27 quarter-mile time with a top speed of 168 mph. (Photo courtesy of Ford)

SEMA Member News—October 2021

By Ellen McKoy

MPMC Returns to Trade Venues

The Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council (MPMC) is excited to reprise its role at the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) Trade Show and have a presence at the SEMA Show. MPMC has typically maintained a low profile at the SEMA Show. This year, however, there’s a new “Motorsports Builders Panel,” powered by MPMC.

The session will feature elite builders sharing insights into how they survived the pandemic, what they’ve learned, and what lies ahead in 2022. It is scheduled for Wednesday, November 3, 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m., in room N254 of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Mix, Mingle, Get Smart

With the PRI Trade Show returning to Indianapolis, Indiana, over December 9–11, MPMC is already gearing up.

“We’re excited to have a Show this year,” said Melissa Scoles, council chair. “PRI is the place to bring all motorsports together. MPMC uses PRI as a forum to gather our members and let others know what MPMC is all about.”

The council’s Happy Hour kicks off on setup day, Wednesday, December 8, 4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m., in the Featured Products Section. The networking mixer affords members and newcomers a chance to unwind and enjoy refreshments.

“We started the Happy Hour in 2019,” Scoles said. “It was well attended and well received. It’s a great opportunity for members and potential members to connect with one another and the select committee. Everyone’s invited.”

Education is another component at the event, and MPMC has presented seminars at prior shows. Topics included “Crafting a Sponsorship Proposal,” “Opportunities for Women in Motorsports,” and “Rules of the Road for Motorsports Haulers.” Stay tuned for details on this year’s seminars.

Hat’s Off to Hall of Famers

MPMC wraps up the events at the PRI Trade Show with the Performance Industry Reception, to be held Friday, December 10, 5:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. The festive occasion honors Hall of Fame inductees.

The MPMC Hall of Fame Award was established in 2010. The roster of honorees reads like a who’s who of motorsports—individuals who’ve made significant contributions to the growth and progress of the council and the industry.

“We love to acknowledge those who give back to the industry and to our MPMC community specifically,” Scoles said. “This is an opportunity to recognize and interact with seasoned individuals who’ve had a substantial impact on our industry and who’ve been instrumental in steering the direction of motorsports.”