SEMA News—November 2015

LEGISLATIVE AND TECHNICAL AFFAIRS

Boost Your Political Horsepower at the SEMA Show

The SEMA Action Network (SAN) is debuting a home-built  hot rod at its 2015 SEMA Show display.

	Stop by the SEMA Action Network booth #60003 at the SEMA Show to see this home-built ’31 Ford Model A hot rod.

Founded in 1997, the SAN is a growing alliance comprised of U.S. and Canadian industry members and consumers fighting unfair automotive laws and regulations. Hand-crafted by SAN Director Colby Martin and his father Al Martin, the coupe will stand as a visual symbol for Show attendees of the types of vehicles and equipment that many states seek to restrict and regulate. Stop by booth #60003 (outside the convention walls of Central Hall near the Meguiar’s “Car Crazy” stage) to see the finished project and learn more about the SAN’s efforts to keep these vehicles on the road.

The 2016 presidential election is in full gear. The next president will guide policies that impact your business and livelihood. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines while others determine the future of the industry. SEMA’s Political Action Committee (SEMA PAC) helps us keep pace by supporting the car guys and gals in Washington who have our backs.

Who would you like to see win the race to the White House? During this year’s SEMA Show, stop by the SEMA PAC booth in the North Hall Upstairs Lobby and make your voice heard by becoming a SEMA PAC member. It takes seconds, and there is never an obligation to contribute.

SEMA News—November 2015

LEGISLATIVE AND TECHNICAL AFFAIRS

Boost Your Political Horsepower at the SEMA Show

The SEMA Action Network (SAN) is debuting a home-built  hot rod at its 2015 SEMA Show display.

	Stop by the SEMA Action Network booth #60003 at the SEMA Show to see this home-built ’31 Ford Model A hot rod.

Founded in 1997, the SAN is a growing alliance comprised of U.S. and Canadian industry members and consumers fighting unfair automotive laws and regulations. Hand-crafted by SAN Director Colby Martin and his father Al Martin, the coupe will stand as a visual symbol for Show attendees of the types of vehicles and equipment that many states seek to restrict and regulate. Stop by booth #60003 (outside the convention walls of Central Hall near the Meguiar’s “Car Crazy” stage) to see the finished project and learn more about the SAN’s efforts to keep these vehicles on the road.

The 2016 presidential election is in full gear. The next president will guide policies that impact your business and livelihood. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines while others determine the future of the industry. SEMA’s Political Action Committee (SEMA PAC) helps us keep pace by supporting the car guys and gals in Washington who have our backs.

Who would you like to see win the race to the White House? During this year’s SEMA Show, stop by the SEMA PAC booth in the North Hall Upstairs Lobby and make your voice heard by becoming a SEMA PAC member. It takes seconds, and there is never an obligation to contribute.

SEMA News—November 2015

LEGISLATIVE AND TECHNICAL AFFAIRS

Boost Your Political Horsepower at the SEMA Show

The SEMA Action Network (SAN) is debuting a home-built  hot rod at its 2015 SEMA Show display.

	Stop by the SEMA Action Network booth #60003 at the SEMA Show to see this home-built ’31 Ford Model A hot rod.

Founded in 1997, the SAN is a growing alliance comprised of U.S. and Canadian industry members and consumers fighting unfair automotive laws and regulations. Hand-crafted by SAN Director Colby Martin and his father Al Martin, the coupe will stand as a visual symbol for Show attendees of the types of vehicles and equipment that many states seek to restrict and regulate. Stop by booth #60003 (outside the convention walls of Central Hall near the Meguiar’s “Car Crazy” stage) to see the finished project and learn more about the SAN’s efforts to keep these vehicles on the road.

The 2016 presidential election is in full gear. The next president will guide policies that impact your business and livelihood. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines while others determine the future of the industry. SEMA’s Political Action Committee (SEMA PAC) helps us keep pace by supporting the car guys and gals in Washington who have our backs.

Who would you like to see win the race to the White House? During this year’s SEMA Show, stop by the SEMA PAC booth in the North Hall Upstairs Lobby and make your voice heard by becoming a SEMA PAC member. It takes seconds, and there is never an obligation to contribute.

SEMA News—November 2015

LEGISLATIVE AND TECHNICAL AFFAIRS

Boost Your Political Horsepower at the SEMA Show

The SEMA Action Network (SAN) is debuting a home-built  hot rod at its 2015 SEMA Show display.

	Stop by the SEMA Action Network booth #60003 at the SEMA Show to see this home-built ’31 Ford Model A hot rod.

Founded in 1997, the SAN is a growing alliance comprised of U.S. and Canadian industry members and consumers fighting unfair automotive laws and regulations. Hand-crafted by SAN Director Colby Martin and his father Al Martin, the coupe will stand as a visual symbol for Show attendees of the types of vehicles and equipment that many states seek to restrict and regulate. Stop by booth #60003 (outside the convention walls of Central Hall near the Meguiar’s “Car Crazy” stage) to see the finished project and learn more about the SAN’s efforts to keep these vehicles on the road.

The 2016 presidential election is in full gear. The next president will guide policies that impact your business and livelihood. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines while others determine the future of the industry. SEMA’s Political Action Committee (SEMA PAC) helps us keep pace by supporting the car guys and gals in Washington who have our backs.

Who would you like to see win the race to the White House? During this year’s SEMA Show, stop by the SEMA PAC booth in the North Hall Upstairs Lobby and make your voice heard by becoming a SEMA PAC member. It takes seconds, and there is never an obligation to contribute.

SEMA News—November 2015

LEGISLATIVE AND TECHNICAL AFFAIRS

Boost Your Political Horsepower at the SEMA Show

The SEMA Action Network (SAN) is debuting a home-built  hot rod at its 2015 SEMA Show display.

	Stop by the SEMA Action Network booth #60003 at the SEMA Show to see this home-built ’31 Ford Model A hot rod.

Founded in 1997, the SAN is a growing alliance comprised of U.S. and Canadian industry members and consumers fighting unfair automotive laws and regulations. Hand-crafted by SAN Director Colby Martin and his father Al Martin, the coupe will stand as a visual symbol for Show attendees of the types of vehicles and equipment that many states seek to restrict and regulate. Stop by booth #60003 (outside the convention walls of Central Hall near the Meguiar’s “Car Crazy” stage) to see the finished project and learn more about the SAN’s efforts to keep these vehicles on the road.

The 2016 presidential election is in full gear. The next president will guide policies that impact your business and livelihood. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines while others determine the future of the industry. SEMA’s Political Action Committee (SEMA PAC) helps us keep pace by supporting the car guys and gals in Washington who have our backs.

Who would you like to see win the race to the White House? During this year’s SEMA Show, stop by the SEMA PAC booth in the North Hall Upstairs Lobby and make your voice heard by becoming a SEMA PAC member. It takes seconds, and there is never an obligation to contribute.

SEMA News—November 2015

LEGISLATIVE AND TECHNICAL AFFAIRS

Boost Your Political Horsepower at the SEMA Show

The SEMA Action Network (SAN) is debuting a home-built  hot rod at its 2015 SEMA Show display.

	Stop by the SEMA Action Network booth #60003 at the SEMA Show to see this home-built ’31 Ford Model A hot rod.

Founded in 1997, the SAN is a growing alliance comprised of U.S. and Canadian industry members and consumers fighting unfair automotive laws and regulations. Hand-crafted by SAN Director Colby Martin and his father Al Martin, the coupe will stand as a visual symbol for Show attendees of the types of vehicles and equipment that many states seek to restrict and regulate. Stop by booth #60003 (outside the convention walls of Central Hall near the Meguiar’s “Car Crazy” stage) to see the finished project and learn more about the SAN’s efforts to keep these vehicles on the road.

The 2016 presidential election is in full gear. The next president will guide policies that impact your business and livelihood. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines while others determine the future of the industry. SEMA’s Political Action Committee (SEMA PAC) helps us keep pace by supporting the car guys and gals in Washington who have our backs.

Who would you like to see win the race to the White House? During this year’s SEMA Show, stop by the SEMA PAC booth in the North Hall Upstairs Lobby and make your voice heard by becoming a SEMA PAC member. It takes seconds, and there is never an obligation to contribute.

SEMA News—November 2015

HERITAGE

By Drew Hardin
Photo Courtesy Petersen Archive

Biggest Year Ever

What a difference a year makes. While the first High Performance and Custom Trade Show drew about 100 exhibitors to the drafty halls of Dodger Stadium in 1967, the second edition a year later moved to the modern, well-lit Anaheim Convention Center, where 140 exhibitors used 201 10x10-ft. booths to display their products and make their 1968 sales pitches to 3,800 distributors and dealers from all over this country, Mexico and Canada.

Ray Brock, publisher of Hot Rod Industry News (HRIN), proudly trotted out those facts in his editorial column for the trade magazine’s February 1968 issue, which featured extensive event coverage.

Already, attendees and show organizers—as well as Brock and other HRIN writers—were abbreviating the event’s cumbersome official name to “The SEMA Show,” helped, no doubt, by the SEMA-themed banners hung throughout the hall. The 1968 event kicked off with a cocktail and dinner party for the exhibitors, hosted by Robert E. and Margie Petersen at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. On Thursday night, SEMA’s annual holiday banquet closed the show. In between were shop tours, product demonstrations and lots of face time in the booths. “Activities for the ladies” included sightseeing trips to historic Olvera Street and the “newly moored” Queen Mary in Long Beach.

Among the trends cited by writer Bob Leif in his show coverage: Volkswagen speed equipment (“the VW is another flathead,” he said), off-roading (a “new market getting a good portion of dealer interest”), high-performance apparel, fiberglass items (“everything from hoods to bodies”) and even smog-friendly speed parts.

The California Air Resources Board had a booth with a VW Squareback “equipped with a new fuel injection system, and a pair of engines that featured speed items such as manifolds and cam,” Leif wrote. “Jardine headers even displayed some models that were equipped with the air pump openings. It looks like a good year coming up for both the high performance business and the smog legislators, now that it’s been found out that we can all work together to solve some of our common problems.”

Leif may have been a bit optimistic there, but he was closer to the mark when he predicted that 1968 “will be the biggest year ever for the high performance and custom field. We don’t make that statement idly, as several of the guests at the show noted that they were presently in the process of expanding their facilities or moving to larger quarters to handle the increased flow of business through their doors.”

Brock, too, was bullish, noting that 1968’s exhibitors used just half of the convention hall’s available 100,000 sq. ft.

“Next year we anticipate using at least three-fourths of the hall, or 75,000 sq. ft. and, who knows, maybe by 1970 we will have the whole hall filled with specialty equipment manufacturer exhibits,” he noted.

In fact, the hall that seemed so spacious and accommodating would hold the SEMA Show for fewer than 10 years before a new, bigger venue was chosen—Las Vegas.

SEMA News—November 2015

HERITAGE

By Drew Hardin
Photo Courtesy Petersen Archive

Biggest Year Ever

What a difference a year makes. While the first High Performance and Custom Trade Show drew about 100 exhibitors to the drafty halls of Dodger Stadium in 1967, the second edition a year later moved to the modern, well-lit Anaheim Convention Center, where 140 exhibitors used 201 10x10-ft. booths to display their products and make their 1968 sales pitches to 3,800 distributors and dealers from all over this country, Mexico and Canada.

Ray Brock, publisher of Hot Rod Industry News (HRIN), proudly trotted out those facts in his editorial column for the trade magazine’s February 1968 issue, which featured extensive event coverage.

Already, attendees and show organizers—as well as Brock and other HRIN writers—were abbreviating the event’s cumbersome official name to “The SEMA Show,” helped, no doubt, by the SEMA-themed banners hung throughout the hall. The 1968 event kicked off with a cocktail and dinner party for the exhibitors, hosted by Robert E. and Margie Petersen at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. On Thursday night, SEMA’s annual holiday banquet closed the show. In between were shop tours, product demonstrations and lots of face time in the booths. “Activities for the ladies” included sightseeing trips to historic Olvera Street and the “newly moored” Queen Mary in Long Beach.

Among the trends cited by writer Bob Leif in his show coverage: Volkswagen speed equipment (“the VW is another flathead,” he said), off-roading (a “new market getting a good portion of dealer interest”), high-performance apparel, fiberglass items (“everything from hoods to bodies”) and even smog-friendly speed parts.

The California Air Resources Board had a booth with a VW Squareback “equipped with a new fuel injection system, and a pair of engines that featured speed items such as manifolds and cam,” Leif wrote. “Jardine headers even displayed some models that were equipped with the air pump openings. It looks like a good year coming up for both the high performance business and the smog legislators, now that it’s been found out that we can all work together to solve some of our common problems.”

Leif may have been a bit optimistic there, but he was closer to the mark when he predicted that 1968 “will be the biggest year ever for the high performance and custom field. We don’t make that statement idly, as several of the guests at the show noted that they were presently in the process of expanding their facilities or moving to larger quarters to handle the increased flow of business through their doors.”

Brock, too, was bullish, noting that 1968’s exhibitors used just half of the convention hall’s available 100,000 sq. ft.

“Next year we anticipate using at least three-fourths of the hall, or 75,000 sq. ft. and, who knows, maybe by 1970 we will have the whole hall filled with specialty equipment manufacturer exhibits,” he noted.

In fact, the hall that seemed so spacious and accommodating would hold the SEMA Show for fewer than 10 years before a new, bigger venue was chosen—Las Vegas.

SEMA News—November 2015

HERITAGE

By Drew Hardin
Photo Courtesy Petersen Archive

Biggest Year Ever

What a difference a year makes. While the first High Performance and Custom Trade Show drew about 100 exhibitors to the drafty halls of Dodger Stadium in 1967, the second edition a year later moved to the modern, well-lit Anaheim Convention Center, where 140 exhibitors used 201 10x10-ft. booths to display their products and make their 1968 sales pitches to 3,800 distributors and dealers from all over this country, Mexico and Canada.

Ray Brock, publisher of Hot Rod Industry News (HRIN), proudly trotted out those facts in his editorial column for the trade magazine’s February 1968 issue, which featured extensive event coverage.

Already, attendees and show organizers—as well as Brock and other HRIN writers—were abbreviating the event’s cumbersome official name to “The SEMA Show,” helped, no doubt, by the SEMA-themed banners hung throughout the hall. The 1968 event kicked off with a cocktail and dinner party for the exhibitors, hosted by Robert E. and Margie Petersen at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. On Thursday night, SEMA’s annual holiday banquet closed the show. In between were shop tours, product demonstrations and lots of face time in the booths. “Activities for the ladies” included sightseeing trips to historic Olvera Street and the “newly moored” Queen Mary in Long Beach.

Among the trends cited by writer Bob Leif in his show coverage: Volkswagen speed equipment (“the VW is another flathead,” he said), off-roading (a “new market getting a good portion of dealer interest”), high-performance apparel, fiberglass items (“everything from hoods to bodies”) and even smog-friendly speed parts.

The California Air Resources Board had a booth with a VW Squareback “equipped with a new fuel injection system, and a pair of engines that featured speed items such as manifolds and cam,” Leif wrote. “Jardine headers even displayed some models that were equipped with the air pump openings. It looks like a good year coming up for both the high performance business and the smog legislators, now that it’s been found out that we can all work together to solve some of our common problems.”

Leif may have been a bit optimistic there, but he was closer to the mark when he predicted that 1968 “will be the biggest year ever for the high performance and custom field. We don’t make that statement idly, as several of the guests at the show noted that they were presently in the process of expanding their facilities or moving to larger quarters to handle the increased flow of business through their doors.”

Brock, too, was bullish, noting that 1968’s exhibitors used just half of the convention hall’s available 100,000 sq. ft.

“Next year we anticipate using at least three-fourths of the hall, or 75,000 sq. ft. and, who knows, maybe by 1970 we will have the whole hall filled with specialty equipment manufacturer exhibits,” he noted.

In fact, the hall that seemed so spacious and accommodating would hold the SEMA Show for fewer than 10 years before a new, bigger venue was chosen—Las Vegas.

SEMA News—November 2015

HERITAGE

By Drew Hardin
Photo Courtesy Petersen Archive

Biggest Year Ever

What a difference a year makes. While the first High Performance and Custom Trade Show drew about 100 exhibitors to the drafty halls of Dodger Stadium in 1967, the second edition a year later moved to the modern, well-lit Anaheim Convention Center, where 140 exhibitors used 201 10x10-ft. booths to display their products and make their 1968 sales pitches to 3,800 distributors and dealers from all over this country, Mexico and Canada.

Ray Brock, publisher of Hot Rod Industry News (HRIN), proudly trotted out those facts in his editorial column for the trade magazine’s February 1968 issue, which featured extensive event coverage.

Already, attendees and show organizers—as well as Brock and other HRIN writers—were abbreviating the event’s cumbersome official name to “The SEMA Show,” helped, no doubt, by the SEMA-themed banners hung throughout the hall. The 1968 event kicked off with a cocktail and dinner party for the exhibitors, hosted by Robert E. and Margie Petersen at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. On Thursday night, SEMA’s annual holiday banquet closed the show. In between were shop tours, product demonstrations and lots of face time in the booths. “Activities for the ladies” included sightseeing trips to historic Olvera Street and the “newly moored” Queen Mary in Long Beach.

Among the trends cited by writer Bob Leif in his show coverage: Volkswagen speed equipment (“the VW is another flathead,” he said), off-roading (a “new market getting a good portion of dealer interest”), high-performance apparel, fiberglass items (“everything from hoods to bodies”) and even smog-friendly speed parts.

The California Air Resources Board had a booth with a VW Squareback “equipped with a new fuel injection system, and a pair of engines that featured speed items such as manifolds and cam,” Leif wrote. “Jardine headers even displayed some models that were equipped with the air pump openings. It looks like a good year coming up for both the high performance business and the smog legislators, now that it’s been found out that we can all work together to solve some of our common problems.”

Leif may have been a bit optimistic there, but he was closer to the mark when he predicted that 1968 “will be the biggest year ever for the high performance and custom field. We don’t make that statement idly, as several of the guests at the show noted that they were presently in the process of expanding their facilities or moving to larger quarters to handle the increased flow of business through their doors.”

Brock, too, was bullish, noting that 1968’s exhibitors used just half of the convention hall’s available 100,000 sq. ft.

“Next year we anticipate using at least three-fourths of the hall, or 75,000 sq. ft. and, who knows, maybe by 1970 we will have the whole hall filled with specialty equipment manufacturer exhibits,” he noted.

In fact, the hall that seemed so spacious and accommodating would hold the SEMA Show for fewer than 10 years before a new, bigger venue was chosen—Las Vegas.