This year's Sema was a complete blur. In my normal fashion I decided to attempt to do all (yes all) of SEMA in one day. SEMA as a whole is gigantic and really impossible to do ALL of it in one day. It's just not possible.
Now I did get close, kinda. So if you only have one day here is my recommendation. Central Hall and nothing else, well, including the side exit out of central hall to see Toyo Treadpass and of course arriving early to see what's outside. So I guess what I'm saying is if you only have one day you can probably see 80% of SEMA but you're going to run. So this year I had one day. And here's how it went.
I flew in on Monday night just before midnight and just enough time to grab a couple hours before getting started extremely early Tuesday morning. Tuesday is the start of SEMA which runs Tuesday thru Friday and because SEMA is technically for doing business the main halls open from 9a-5p. But this doesn't prevent you from walking the outside area
So the cab dropped me off outside at 630am and that was when the sprint started. I love starting outside super early since there are very few other people to get in the way of my pics/vids and I also don't have to deal with the blazing sun that always wants to wash out any pic I try and take.
My starting spot is alway on the side of the south Hall where they have the optima street car challenge cars. This is one of my favorite sections, for me there is nothing better than seeing all these "street legal" race cars from every generation and style.
After Optima is the rest of the South side of things. Typically it's a bunch of trucks, which for me I just kinda skip through seeing 10-20+ lifted trucks that all look the same to me, lol. Honestly I know they all have a ton of work in their projects, the truck thing just isn't me. So I skip through finding the random JDM or cool car that's mixed in.
Walking the cross over bridge starts to bring you into the Central area which always has the coolest cars, half under the covered walkway the other half parked in line down the main street out front. This year was very different as the front central hall entrance was under full construction but there was still a ton of cool and interesting cars and one of the biggest talked about cars at SEMA
The Miata with a Lambo motor
Now this car had tons of people talk about it and tear it apart on social media. The car the way it sat didn't run and that was what everyone's focus was on and seemed to be a re-occuring theme for SEMA.
It's not uncommon for SEMA cars not to run, be it just a concept that looks cool or the builder just didn't get to finish before their deadline to go to SEMA. It happens Now back to my mission. I walked through the outside area (twice) trying to get all the pics and vids I could since I knew I wouldn't have the time to go back through again.
Now for inside and getting the main car on display. This year it was the Build by Legends R34, which was an absolute masterpiece. There was another car there that was completely overshadowed by the R34
With about 20 mins till 9am I walked down to the end of the hallway that runs down central hall to grab a couple pics of the Voltex Evo and then prep at the entrance so I could continue my sprint into Central Hall.
After prepping my batteries, having a couple quick conversations it was time. At 9am the bell rings and security allowed me to enter. I find that entering down one from the main entrance provided me the fastest route to get to Toyo Treadpass area and hopefully a chance to shoot the Mackin Industries booth, which later will be mobbed with a ton of people entering and exiting Central Hall making it impossible to get any good shots.
So I sprinted to Toyo Treadpass again to try and beat the crowd so I could get some clean shots.
The Toyo Treadpass area always has some of the best cars of SEMA and of any booth has the largest number of cool cars. This year was no different although it did feel like they didn't pack as many cars as the previous years.
Walking in I was greeted by OMG Builds Autozam and as I was walking in passed Larry Chen (super cool). Now once in the tent area there was. a JDM overload.. Rywires Tesla powered EG, a widebody J-swapped twin turbo'd CRX, the Garage Active All Carbon R33, an RB powered 427 Cobra and more. Again if you're only going to get one day this is a can't miss area.
So after spending a lot of time in the Toyo area it was time to get back into Central Hall and start walking laps.
Central Hall houses most of the biggest names and companies.
This year Honda came out swinging. Displaying all race cars, from F1 to the HRC Concept Integra
Next up from making my way through JDM companies like HKS & Cusco, although this year
Greddy was absent.
Toyota since they took over the main stage area brought out a ton of concept tuners from their GR line and offroad displays of all their popular trucks and SUVs including a really cool concept using their old Surf name.
Central Hall took a better part of the day, all the way through lunch. I met up with a couple people and then ended up spending some time with McRib47 before I finished up Central Hall.
At this point I still had South, North and West Halls to go, lol
Over the last couple years South Hall which houses wheels/tires on one level and tools of the upper level has turned more into where you go for working displays and demos and it's less about the cars. Some of the wheel companies still had cars on display but I find that it's a handful of exotics and not really much else.
I was able to run through the south hall in about 40 mins. It was funny cause I made my way outside to walk over to West Hall and it was almost dark already, being around 4pm at this point.
So I ran over to West Hall that is Trucks, Off Road and Films, like tint, vinyl and PPF, which is a good place to catch more exotics and JDMs on the one side with the other side having overlanding and work trucks.
This carried me to 5pm and the closing bell letting everyone know it was time to get out and go. I spent a little time organizing my stuff and figuring out where I was going to head for some food and head over to the RWB night meet.
As a bonus I was able to spend a little more time in Vegas hanging out with a couple more friends and getting to see some really cool RWB Porsches before heading to the airport for a midnight flight home.
Well if you're going to try and do it all in one day. This is how it went for me.
Enjoy!!
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