SEMA Coverage by VWGIRLS

Imagine standing at the front entrance to your favorite theme park, or maybe one that you’ve dreamed of going to since you were a kid. You feel a sense of excitement and the buzz that causes the hair on your skin to stand up. It’s electric- that moment when you’re about to enter through the gates and BAM! It seems as if a whole new world has opened up and you’ve got a million choices and directions to choose from. Now, imagine the greatest theme park on earth when it comes to the likes of an automobile enthusiast; a park full of cars, motorcycles, lifted trucks you can walk under with insane fabrication, manufacturer’s with new products to showcase, car builder’s and their dreams that have come to life, glassed out paint jobs, large manufacturer car playgrounds, machines to make nearly anything your heart desires, wheels and tires galore…are you day dreaming yet?

Each year around Halloween and lasting through the first Friday in November, people from all over the world ascend upon Las Vegas for a four-day automotive adventure they are sure to be wowed by. What originally started out as just a trade show, SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) has become a near stand alone showcase of limitless creations, new product showcasing, and long standing traditions for the past 50 years. For being my second go at such a crazy week as SEMA, I thought that starting my journey a bit early would help to ease into the chaos. I was utterly mistaken; there is no preparing for the week of SEMA. (Ha!) I flew out to Sacramento, CA, the Thursday evening before the week of the show to meet up with friend and CAtuned owner, Igor Polishchuk, and the rest of the CAtuned crew. We woke up early the following morning and headed to the shop for a few hours so the guys could put the finishing touches on their projects. A few of us left around 3:30 that afternoon for Las Vegas with what I call the “Little Monster” (a rat rod turbo M20 BMW 2002) in tow. The last caravan left the following morning with the S54 swapped Minte30 painted Porsche mint green and fitted with a full carbon fiber Mtech kit. The almost 9-hour drive put us into the suburb of Henderson, NV, approximately 20 min from the Las Vegas Convention Center around 2am where we met up with another e30 owner and customer of CAtuned whose car was also accepted into SEMA. After a few hours of sleep, the guys were up early to start their weekend journey of waiting and staging cars for the next few days. I know I am a little biased when I say that these BMW’s were some of my favorite cars of SEMA before the show even began. More about the company, products and their cars can be found at www.catuned.com and IG: @catuned.

Before I begin to dive into the depths of the SEMA ocean, I want to state that my main focus this year was to see SEMA through the eyes of a female in the industry. I can honestly say that it was a lot harder than I anticipated even with my understanding and experience having previously worked in a body shop, being around cars for years and currently working in a machine shop. The main reason? There are so MANY amazing females in this rapidly growing industry that it’s hard to keep up with all of them and what they are doing during that week. I tried to attend as many events geared towards girls interested in the industry and women who were actively working in the community, leading, or blazing trails alongside (or even out in front) of their male counterparts. At the 5th annual Gear-up Girl networking event, I met a group of high school girls and their leader from Belvidere North High School out of Belvidere, IL, who were there to compete in the first half of the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow Engine Challenge Dual Championship. This challenge involves a Chevy 350 small block engine of over 200 parts that has to be dismantled piece by piece in front of a judge and then put back together before time can be called. There were among 20 teams from all over the US there to compete for a Top 4 position so they could move on to the Elite 8 playoffs last December in Indianapolis, IN. After speaking with their leader, Jill Arata, I learned that her husband was a shop teacher at the high school and that she had helped his all-boys engine building teams for years. When she decided it was time to start a team or two of her own, she approached the school board with the idea of an all-girls team and they accepted it. She wants young girls to be involved in engine building to show them that there is reward for hard work and also to show them that they can work in automotive fields just as males can. The final competition happened Thursday evening and I was there to capture part of the action. Her girls rocked the house by taking 2nd place out of 4 top teams in the finals. Their time of 22:04 was extremely impressive being that they were the only all girls team to reach the previous Elite 8 EVER. Watching them compete was exhilarating, and it seemed everyone watching was really rooting them on to do well. I wish them the best of luck in their future competitions.

During the same networking event, the SEMA Businesswomen’s Network awarded several Athena awards to women who worked in the industry, owned high profile businesses in the industry, and some that have held a position of positive influence for female enthusiasts through social media. To say that I felt as if I were this microscopic, unimportant being in such a large industry during that award ceremony would be an understatement. On the other hand, I feel that we all hold value in a place that hasn’t always been welcoming or has been narrow minded at times about the women who were interested in it and their abilities. My eyes were definitely opened up more when I realized that the scope of women actively participating in all aspects of the industry is MASSIVE. There really isn’t a place that a woman can’t be influential if she really wanted to be. Here are the winners of the Athena awards and their descriptions:

''Melanie White of Hellwig Products was awarded the 2016 SBN Athena Woman of the Year,

an award established to honor an industry woman for her outstanding achievements and contributions in the automotive aftermarket.

Ruby Davis of ChickDriven was named the 2016 SBN Athena Rising Star, which recognizes a woman under the age of 30 who is making significant strides in advancing her career in the automotive aftermarket. Recipients are emerging leaders in career development in aspects of business, including networking, education, leveraging the wisdom of others, along with any volunteer efforts within the industry.

MagnaFlow Exhaust was awarded the 2016 SBN Athena Champion Award. The award honors a SEMA member, male or female, or company for outstanding lifetime contributions and dedication to women in the specialty-equipment industry.”

– Source for specific award info and Pictures: https://www.sema.org/sbn-award-winners .

Aside from the planned events, you never really know who you are going to run into or when an opportunity will arise to meet someone you never thought you would get a chance too. My first experience was with none other than designer, builder, and engineer Angelina (Angie) Mead King of Car Porn Racing Philippines and Gi Automotive Group. I met the owner of the famous purple RWB Porsche ”Victoria” by accident last year when my husband happened to see her walking down an isle by the H&R booth. She seemed genuinely surprised when I asked to take a photo with her; it was one of the best experiences from my first SEMA. Fast forward to this year. My husband and I find ourselves in the Toyo Tread Pass booth admiring a full carbon fiber Corvette build called “The Black Manta” when he tells me that Angie is standing not too far away. It took a few encouraging words from my husband before I walked over to re-introduce myself. As I began my wavering sentence, she smiled, reached out to shake my hand and immediately said, “gti_Jayne. I remember you from last year.” I thought, “WHAT?! Out of all of the social media followers and people whose lives she has touched, she remembered me from our random meeting and the picture I posted of us on Instagram last year?!” I was genuinely shocked myself this time, and I’m sure it showed on my face. As we sat and talked for a while about her current build and how she was having a hard time picking a color for her next RWB Porsche build it was easy to see how welcoming and down to earth she really was. She also introduced us to her business partner, Amber Blonigan, female entrepreneur and owner of Gi Automotive Group. They are both not only innovators, but also inspirations to myself and to all female automotive enthusiasts. The Black Manta has since changed from what it looked like at SEMA. It is now dawning a gorgeous illusion style purple wrap. If interested in seeing more about her builds and car journey, look her up at @hailtothe_queen_ on IG. Also check out Gi Automotive Group on Facebook and Instagram!

My next influential experience happened by chance yet again. Igor, the owner of CAtuned, was scheduled to do a podcast interview with Elizabeth White, the founder of the community ItsWhiteNoise, and he asked if I would like to tag along. Once we got to the CSF Automotive Cooling booth, there were a series of microphones with a few people standing around them including Elizabeth. At the time, I was pretty naïve to who she was and the role she played in the car community. I have since learned that she has been involved in the F1 world, has done marketing work for McLaren in North and South America, and is currently the main drive behind the social community ItsWhiteNoise. So what is this community about? Per the Facebook page, it is “THE Social Community for select automotive enthusiasts, content generators, influencers, and industry leaders to experience, share, organize, and showcase deep and rich automotive content. We provide fresh, curated member-generated content that inspires vibrant conversations, builds deep and rich community and pushes the boundaries of how generations of car people consume content – delivering pure automotive enjoyment.ItsWhiteNoise unifies the fragmented automotive marketplace by leveraging our unparalleled global relationships throughout the automotive value chain -- connecting the photographers, videographers and writers who create sought after content directly with commercial consumers of that content in one, easy to use platform.” I have read that the hashtag itself has spread like wild fire since possibly early 2015. Being involved with high end cars day in and out sounds like a dream job honestly. After the podcast interview for CAtuned, I asked Elizabeth for a photo and explained that I was doing a write up for VWGirl’s about SEMA. I can only continue to dream about her next sentence; “We should go for a drive sometime.” I’ll race you to the cars, Elizabeth!

Let’s move on to a few of my favorite builds from SEMA. I promise I won’t be long winded here because I definitely want to get to more eye candy. In my opinion, Samuel Dobbins’ MK7 GTI RS played a huge role in the Euro representation at the show. With the wide body styling of the Pandem Rocket Bunny kit, hand fabricated inner wide body among other pieces by SwoopsBUILT, and Vossen forged LC106’s it was an amazing site to see. The GTI RS is race ready with a welded in 4-point roll cage, carbon fiber race seats, and deleted rear seat. It’s a perfect form and function build; pictures do not do this beautiful masterpiece justice. You can find more by following Sam at @sdobbins_vossen on Instagram.

IDL Design USA’s 997 slant nose Porsche with an Old & New body kit was also exceptional. Taking from old styling and making new has been a huge thing in the automotive industry for years. From the Sea Blue exterior color, the perfect blue/purple Alcantara and carbon fiber interior, and the flawless 19” Rotiform LSR’s this 997 sure stole the hearts of many at SEMA- those who love the iconic slant nose Porsche’s and those who love how unique the styling is. More info can be found at IDLdesignusa.com or @idldesignusa on Instagram.

Another eye opening project debuted at SEMA was a 1972 Ford Maverick called “Project Underdog”. The story behind this resto-mod is pretty inspiring. Sung Kang, Han of the Fast and Furious films, help lead and mentor a team of 3 students from Alhambra High School in the Las Angeles, California, area to build the car. It will be auctioned off once completed and all proceeds go to the SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund, which will also pay for the three students college education. That’s an opportunity of a life time for a car enthusiast.

H&R Special Springs, LP. rocked the house again with an ABT styled MK7 Autobahn performance pack GTI, a Feuerorange II BMW E30, a VW Dune Beetle, Ford Focus RS.

(More info on their projects can be found on their site: http://www.hrsprings.com/projects)

The Airlift booth sure packed a punch this year with the satin black Speedhunters x RAUH-Welt ‘Spirit of 147’ Porsche 964 and an immaculate BMW E30 M3 on a set of matte gold Rotiform’s. I also had to take a photo of the awesome houndstooth interior in the RWB. WOW!

Also found in the Toyo Treadpass booth was this gorgeous 1974 Datsun 260Z. Built by Chasing J’s Dominic Le and John Esteban in his garage in just a few short months before SEMA, it has a Toyota Supra engine with a custom APEX Performance turbo system, LS coils and a R154 transmission. You can follow him on Instagram at @dnicle.

Would you believe that this classic Cadillac involved TWO ATS-V to make the build happen? Your eyes are not being deceived. She is new on the inside with the attitude of a pinup girl on the outside.

Not only does the teal and rust patina just work on this bagged truck, but do you see the two snails? The metal work on it is also insane. Very representative of the fabrication and builds at SEMA.

Speaking of trucks…they were all over the place this year. Some were exceptionally tall and some were body dropped to the ground. My favorite custom truck by far was this plum and silver two tone pickup. The colors were perfect in the sun and all of the details just looked so well put together.

This Pandem Rocket Bunny E30 built by Boden Autohaus and owned by Brandon Sybico (IG: @fastkid_e30) was a shoe in for a spot in my top choices of SEMA.

Of course there was an insane amount of product marketing too. I could totally go for a set of neon yellow Brembo Calipers for my car although these are probably a tad too big.

Have I mentioned the glorious amount of Porsches that were showcased? From Magnus Walker to RWB and other companies in between, there really wasn’t a way to choose a favorite.

If you haven’t followed what Accuair has been up to lately, then you might be missing out. Their new Endo tanks with valve integrated end caps looked pretty impressive. The weldless tank with flush ports and mounting points that are machined into the body are perfect for a clean and precise look. Accuair continues to innovate the visual side of the future of air suspension.

Last but not least: the wheel scene. Rotiform had a pretty impressive showing at SEMA this year, which seemed opposite of the Fifteen52 showing last year. Every corner I turned there was another three piece or cast set that really complimented the project they were on. Vossen also stepped out and had a private gallery to showcase every wheel design from the beginning of the company to now. It truly was a treat to see.

I could continue on and on, but the point will be the same. SEMA is huge! There is really no way to see everything during the short week the trade show is open, and if you blink you’ll miss something. It has taken me what seems like forever just to wade through the over 850 plus photos to find the ones to share with you all. This is my first attempt at photographing, editing and writing all in one. Thank you for being patient with me if you have been looking for coverage. I do this in my spare time and I’m excited to finally share the small amount of photos that I could get through at this time. The slideshow will have more, and if you have any questions ask away! As always thank you, Melissa and ladies who make up the VWGirls community, for the opportunity to share my perspective of this crazy week with you!