I made it out to Las Vegas for the SEMA show this year. My flight arrived as LAS late Wednesday night (11/6) and I flew back home Friday night - I had two days to take in as much as I could. It was as much of a vacation for me as it was a business trip, stopping to take hurried pictures of cool cars between visiting exhibitors. I'd never been to Las Vegas nor had I even flown in the last 12 years so it was a great experience for me (minus the red-eye flight back home on a very uncomfortable Spirit plane). I've uploaded a bunch of pictures to my Flickr page but below are a few of my favorites.
Miami just after takeoff; cool to see my home town lit up from the air (American Airlines allows you to keep your phone on airplane mode so I took a few pictures out the window).
Pagani Huayra
Mickey Thompson's "Challenger I"; this went 406mph in 1960.
1970 Challenger 426 4-Speed with Ralph Gilles (CEO of Chrysler's SRT division) in the background.
Chip Foose's "Magnatude"
First-gen Ford Econoline
1939 Bugatti Type 57C from the Petersen Automotive Museum
ICON "Thriftmaster" F-100
“Gentleman Joe” Schubeck's nitro dragster
There were approximately 135,000 SEMA attendees according to what a cab driver said. There was a notable absence of Nissans from the show; speaks to how much Nissan cares about automotive enthusiasm. I saw a couple 240sx's and GT-R's but no official presence like there was from so many other auto makers. FR-S' and BRZ's with the Rocket Bunny kits were a dime-a-dozen though. I walked the strip and checked out some hotels after the show each day so you'll see more than cars in the photo set on Flickr.
The trip was a sensory overload with all the people, cars, lights, music, noise, activity, and lack of sleep. Hopefully I can make it again next year for more days and go to the AAPEX show as well. Anybody else make it to SEMA? Share your experience!
