Actually, the photo you see here represents the dawn of several eras. The picture was taken at the very first SEMA Show, which was known in 1967 as the High Performance & Custom Trade Show and was held in January of that year at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The car in the booth is a Camaro, Chevrolet’s answer to Ford’s wildly popular Mustang.
After letting Ford own the personal sporty-car market for more than two years, Chevrolet finally introduced its entry into the pony-car segment just a few months prior to the trade show. For musclecar enthusiasts, the booth represents a watershed moment—the very first Chevrolet dealer, Nickey Chicago, to offer a big-block conversion for the Camaro, developed by Nickey and race car builder Bill Thomas.
Find Profit With Performance Parts From the 2013 SEMA Show
Thousands of reporters and journalists attend the SEMA Show each year with the goal of sharing new products and trends with consumers who are unable to see what’s happening in person. Many of the journalists represent automotive publications. However, as vehicle customization becomes more mainstream and consumers seek to personalize everything from cell-phone covers to coffee orders, general interest in the SEMA Show increases. Representatives from daily newspapers and mainstream outlets come to the SEMA Show to share with their readers news on how they can personalize their vehicles, whether with something as simple as a custom floor mat or seat cover or with a new paint scheme or engine component.