Porsche 911 Race Car, Camaro Convertible, ’80s Camaro Testing With Next-Gen Model, Nissan Maxima

A car’s electrical system can be a challenge for a do-it-yourself hobbyist. That’s why car magazines—for about as long as there have been car magazines—have covered the topic to help enlighten shade-tree mechanics.

For instance, Hot Rod magazine published an article in its June 1963 issue called “Wiring Made Easy” to illustrate the basic tools, hardware and steps needed to wire a hot-rod project. But the car in the opening photograph wasn’t just any hot rod. The subject car was the XR-6—a futuristic, built-from-scratch roadster that was the brainchild of Hot Rod’s LeRoi “Tex” Smith to “investigate the uses of modern ideas in hot-rod design,” as Smith described it. The XR-6 would go on to appear on the cover of Hot Rod’s August 1963 issue and also nab the coveted America’s Most Beautiful Roadster award at that year’s Oakland Roadster Show.

Breaking news from SEMA member companies, including Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels, Aeromotive, The Hybrid Shop, VP Racing Fuels, Royal Purple and more.

It will be no surprise to those who attended: The 2014 SEMA Show bounced off the rev limiter like a street machine on nitrous, posting historic levels of attendance, exhibitor numbers and total footprint. Growth is good, but the key measure of success will always be to create a comprehensive marketplace where quality exhibitors can do business with quality buyers. In that regard, it seems that the 2014 Show served well as a springboard for success for most in the industry in the coming year.

As usual, we’ll be doing research to quantify what worked and what is changing as well as soliciting new ideas and ways to improve. To those of you who returned our post-Show survey, we extend our sincerest thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments.

SEMA members that have taken advantage of a 2011 Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) grant of $500,000 awarded to SEMA have reported $52.68 million in export sales. The funds provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce through this program have helped support projects aimed at increasing U.S. exports to key markets overseas.

Journalists are invited to sit down in private, uninterrupted meetings with executives representing some of the top motorsports parts producers in the business during the 2015 MPMC Media Trade Conference. The conference, which takes place Tuesday–Thursday, January 20–22, 2015, at the Embassy Suites Orange County Airport North in Santa Ana, California, features companies that are members of SEMA’s Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council (MPMC).

Earlier this year, antivirus king Symantec sent shockwaves through the business community with the statement that antivirus software was “dead”—leaving businesses wondering, now what? Symantec dropped the bombshell to make a point: These days, a PC armed with a good firewall and some topflight antivirus software is simply no match against a sophisticated, determined hacker. The reason: The number of new viruses unleashed on the public every day can be as many as 200,000, according to Kapersky Lab, a computer security firm.

E-Mail Retains the Title

While digital marketing always seems to have its own version of the “It Girl” each year, one thing has remained constant for nearly 30 years: E-mail is still the new sexy. According to a barrage of studies released during the past year, e-mail marketing still surpasses all others in the digital realm when it comes to return on investment (ROI) and increasing sales. And companies still see e-mail marketing as a stalwart when they’re looking to hang on to customers, build loyalty and increase website traffic.

An Exclusive Progress Report on the SEMA Data Co-op

When SEMA launched the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) a little over two years ago, the goal was admittedly ambitious: to revolutionize the way automotive specialty-equipment manufacturers (data suppliers) convey product information to warehouse distributors and resellers (data receivers) for the benefit of all. Now, according to Jon Wyly, the co-op’s CEO, the SDC is delivering thousands of data sets a week, representing millions of part numbers and tens of millions of vehicle applications, through a database that continues to grow by leaps and bounds daily.