SEMA 2011 - Day 1

Day one is over and my feet are glad. But what a day! I started with breakfast and made it through the North and Center Halls. I'll give you a brief run down but first some photos, some even with captions!

 Alex Xydias' Streamliner

Streamliner's Edelbrock equipped Merc Flathead

 '67 LeMans winning GT40

 Jim Clark's Indy winning Lotus

 A nice F150 @ the Ford display

 1901 race winning Ford "Sweepstakes"

 The crowd from the Ford stand, Center Hall

 I actually had a AMT model painted this color when I was young.

 Chevy Sonic

 2012 Rhys Millen RM500 Hyundai Genesis Coup (as in 5.0 V8)

The day started off with a nice breakfast courtesy of SEMA. When I signed up for it I figured it would be a Continental breakfast - you know sweet rolls and coffee - but it was a full on sit down breakfast. Thanks SEMA. The reason for the breakfast was to announce the "Hottest Car, Sport Compact Car, Truck and 4x4 SUV."

The winners were (in the order above) the Chev Camaro, Fiat 500, Ford F-Series and Jeep Wrangler. Congratulations to everyone.

After breakfast I walked the complete North and Center Hall. I didn't try to make press conferences, my intent is just to see the show. I can't list every single exhibitor, and I didn't try to collect stuff from each, but I did collect product info from the ones that really interested me. I was impressed by the Dynacorn International Inc. display of the "new" old cars they produce, including the just announced 1964-66 Ford Mustang Convertible. Their full lineup includes the '67 Camaro, '69 Camaro convertible, '69 Firebird and convertible, '70 Chevelle and convertible, '47-'50 Chevy pickup cab, '55-'57 Chevy pickup cab, '68 Mustang Fastback, '70 Mustang Fastback, '67 Mustang convertible, and '70 Challenger couple.

The show isn't just about hot rods, muscle cars and performance parts although that's what I focused on. If you are a shop or parts house owner there are hundreds of exhibitors with stuff to fill your shelves or help you run your business.

I'm heading back tomorrow and probably Thursday. I'll write more after that.