Wild cars, cool tech and a lot more
It’s possibly the world’s largest trade show for aftermarket auto equipment — and it’s 50 years old
Ever wanted a tool box you can lock with your phone? How about wheels that change colour as they spin, or plastic blocks that you drive over to jack up your trailer?
After the recent SEMA show, they may be coming to a store near you.
The acronym stands for Specialty Equipment Market Association, and it’s possibly the world’s largest trade show for aftermarket auto equipment, celebrating its 50th year in 2016. It’s amazing just how much stuff you can get for your vehicle, and it’s all here.
This is where manufacturers and distributors show off their products, and some 70,000 trade buyers from around the world decide what will make it into their stores and repair shops. It’s business only, and it’s not open to the public.
And for the 3,000 media reps that show up, it’s one giant photo opportunity. It’s also an incredible auto show, packed with wildly customized cars, a drifting course out front and race rides in behind, and a giant after-show event that draws hundreds of local cars.
Honda showed a custom version of its new Civic Hatchback, with all of the Honda Factory Performance aftermarket parts available at dealers shown in red
The show covers everything from tools and collision repair supplies, wheels and tires, truck parts and restoration kits, right to floor mats and air fresheners. There are three aisles devoted just to window tint, and another two to auto paint.
There are always a few Canadians in the mix, and this year, Toronto-based Robert Calisi was showing buyers Element Advanced Fire Protection, a hand-held fire extinguisher that you strike like a match.
The small red tube is equally useful for kitchen fires, but the sheer size of the SEMA exposure made him decide to start with automotive use.
“It’s made in Italy, but the exclusive rights for North America belong to us in Toronto,” Calisi says. “Once we get the volume up, we’ll start manufacturing it in Canada.” Like many new products here, it’s currently sold online, but Calisi hopes that at least a few of the many buyers will decide to put it in stores.
The custom cars are to draw attention and to show off the products in use. Some of the major automakers are here, too, with cars they’ve commissioned for the event.
There was a four-door Corolla turned into a tuner car in Toyota’s booth, while Kia played on autonomous driving with cars that had no steering wheels.
Fiat Chrysler’s Mopar division showed a 1950 Dodge pickup turned into a hot rod by Saldana’s Speed Shop
In some cases, cars were also there to showcase their builders. Jason Groulx of Red Deer, Alta., is the lead builder on a 1928 Dodge Brothers sedan parked outside the front door. It took six months of full-time work to get this far, and the car’s in the running for an international championship.
It’s built in the popular “rat rod” style, made to look rough and worn, and with unusual items for its parts. In Groulx’s case, there are 1930s gangsters pictured on the inside door panels, a Tommy gun for a shifter handle, and house switches to turn on the lights.
A rendition of a Canadian flag is welded into the corner of the body, and the hood ornament is a skeletal hand, made of metal rods and nuts, holding a key.
“That’s based on my hand,” Groulx says. “We laid the rods down on my hand and tack-welded them together. And we had to do it really quickly, because that gets pretty hot.”
The scope of this show is tremendous.
There are huge companies with massive displays, showing off tires, car care products, oil and headlights. But it’s also a place to get small ideas off the ground, and in some cases, it’s a single entrepreneur at a small table, showing something he developed in his garage.
One displayed a fold-up snow brush, another a plastic circle that you slide under a tire when washing your car, so the hose doesn’t catch under it.
And while not everything takes off, you shouldn’t dismiss even the strangest stuff. A few years ago at the show, everyone smirked at the guy who created a pair of plastic testicles meant to hang off a pickup truck. But a distributor liked them, and next thing you knew, they were hanging off hitches across the country. (Fortunately, a plastic stripper that spun around a little pole that you glued to your dash wasn’t quite as successful.)
The colour-changing wheels might never actually make it to market, but Craftsman is bringing out the “connected” tool box in its display, which automatically locks when you walk away from it, and sends an alert to your phone if someone’s trying to steal your tools. The plastic blocks that lift up your trailer axle when you drive over them won a “best new product” award in its category.
No matter what it is, if it’s auto-related, chances are good that it first saw the light of day at SEMA.