SEMA 2021 was a little bit of a let down with the whole pandemic and all it uncertainties that it brought. Last year was probably half of the normal volume of cars and attendees. For 2022 everything was back in full swing... well kinda.
There were a few very large companies missing from this years SEMA show, which one of the biggest was Ford who Always have the same gigantic place at the split of the wall in Central Hall. This year that section was happily taken and filled by Toyota who predominantly had their GR lineup of cars on display.
I attempted to see the entire show in 2 days which arguably is possible but not in a way where you can enjoy everything. Its more of a full sprint fueled by and much energy drinks and coffee that your body can handle and this year I did things a little different since on each day I was with someone that had never been to SEMA. For me I was prepared for the 12-15 miles of non-stop walking for the guys with me, not so much. With one of them even falling asleep during lunch.
Back the show itself, there seemed to be a greater focus on the import side of things and less on the US muscle cars. Now don't miss understand the USDM cars still dominated the overall floor space but you could see that without Ford and couple others their foothold on the SEMA floor seemed to be slipping. Now for me this is great since I'm huge into the JDM and also the Euro sides of things.
As always the Toyo Treadpass area was incredible. It's like they cherry pick all the best cars at SEMA for their display. They always have the most incredible builds and looking cars/trucks and vehicles. I went through this area multiple times each day trying to get additional content.
For the first time ever I have to say I was a little disappointed with the Wheel/Tire section. Now I'm not sure if its all the exposure I get being in SoCal and going to all the meets but the cars weren't really as good this year and their seemed to be less crazy builds in this section. Maybe its just they way they had all the cars spread out in other sections.
Also for the first time since I started attending SEMA for was no longer had the outside area out front where they typically put on driving displays with Mustangs, Raptors and other Ford vehicles. This year it was taken over by the Hooligan group for days of endless burnouts and drift demos. SEMA also setup a small drift demo area for Toyota to swing their Supra. If this is how it going to go moving forward they will have to re-organize the space a little better since there was a lot of unused space that could've been better utilized.
The addition of the new West Hall, which they had last year os absolutely incredible. The size and the amount of vehicles that they fit in this new hall is crazy. For me I only end up looking through about half since half is over-landing and trucks. The half I do go through though is the film section (Wrap, PPF, Tint and etc.) this section is always nuts with a bunch of really cool super/hypercars and really nice street tuned builds.
As a whole SEMA is an incredible event and place to see a huge number of cars, builds and vendors and is impossible to see everything in 1 or even 2 days. It was interesting to see a greater swing towards the import market this year. We'll have to see if this continues.
For now I'll close out this years SEMA (Check out the vid link below) and just like its impossible to see everything that goes the same for this article. Stay tuned for more posts.