Never been to SEMA, what's needed to get in?

[Dumpling]

Probably my last chance to go...

[The Magic Ratchet]

I haven't been in a while but it is a trade show and has gotten increasingly difficult to get credentials over the last few years unless you are active in the automotive business and can prove it. Check the SEMA website for more information about what proof they require. It's also pretty late and credentials for this year were at $90, last I checked. It's still a bargain and many of the seminars are free.

I heard that, this year, the general public would be admitted on Friday but I cannot find any solid information on that to pass along. I'm sure there are plenty of members here who go every year and can pass along much more information than I can.

I truly hope you get to go, it's an experience you will remember forever.

Lou Manglass

[preaction]

The emails I received stated masks would be required indoors.

[TomP]

Yeah Friday last time (2019) was open to the public, $25 I think. No way you can possibly see it all in a day but if you don't linger in any one spot you could walk through a lot of it. Credentials are easier when you are "foreign" such as I am, but even still if you know someone in an automotive business that could apply, like a tire store, a race track or dealership or whatever you could probably get in claiming to be an associate of their business . Well worth . I can't this year, communism has reared it's ugly head preventing such trips. 

[rockhouse66]

I tried to get credentials last year and, over a 3 week period, had to respond to repeated interrogations and document requests from them about my qualifications to enter their sacred hall.  In the end, they turned me down.  All of this after approving me 3 years earlier!  Then, of course, it was cancelled.  This year they have been emailing like crazy for attendance.  I hope they get a very poor turnout of visitors after all the crap they put me through.


But, I will agree it is a great show and if the suppliers all show up as they have in the past, well worth going.

[Dumpling]

Well, I'm signed up for Friday.
Thanks all for the info.
Another box checked off...

[TomP]

If you just have a ticket for the Friday heres some tips. You don't need a ticket to see all the stuff in the outside lots so do that Monday to Thursday, you can also see the hallways inside, there are LOTS of cars outside and in the hallways and entrance lobby. Walk all around the buildings, stuff out back too. You could easily spend all day without needing to go inside the rooms. Also get a pocket guide (at info desks) and study it before so on Friday you can figure out where all the stuff you want to see is located. The speed and custom stuff and Ford display is in the Central Hall unless the new additional West Building changes that. It is real easy to miss stuff even if you were ten feet away.                                           
         Stuff goes on at the LVMS race track pretty much every day, testing and then qualifying for the NHRA points meet. Tomorrow, Monday is the Pro test, free and well worth seeing.

[TomP]

Friday is a short day so get there early. Around 3pm they pack up and all the cars in the buildings starting up is quite wild. Then there is the cruise over to SEMA Ignited to see. I jope you can get pix or video for us. So far on You Tube all the lame-o's skip past the cool stuff to show newfangled crap and ricers. I see a white 64 Galaxie in the Ford display as well as a 67 Mustang fastback. Videos have shown 1/2 a second of those on the way to a ten minute long look at a MachE.

[Falcon67]

Last time we went was 2008, using credentials obtained through a friend's Maxxas tire business.  Yea, hard to get before Covid - maybe a little easier but have to be in the biz. 

X2 - no way see it all in a day.  We were there 3 days and didn't cover it all.  But then, where else might you just walk up and have a casual conversation with Jack Roush about old 351 Clevelands and new Roush equipment.  Or chat with some of these TV hot shots if you catch them at the right place and time when they are not over run.  Sawed in half F-150s, Carroll Shelby wine, etc. 

[TomP]

Yeah I got to talk to Jack Roush and Al Joneic together, as well as Edsel Ford , Isky , Warren Johnson and Jay Leno where else can you do that? I see the white Galaxie has a Cammer. Four minuttes in.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qx-rs0Ywls

[Dumpling]

Parked in my cheap hotel's lot...

[Dumpling]

For Tom P 😉

[Dumpling]

The future?
Crate electric engine, as found in the Mach-E.
Can be mounted longitudinally, and in series.
Prototype "block, machined, will be cast.
They're working on the controllers, and inverters..

All electric, just some of them....

[gt350hr]

   Looks like attendance was poor from the emails I saw.

[Dumpling]

   Looks like attendance was poor from the emails I saw.

No way for me to judge.  Would make it easier to take photos and talk with people.  Do you WANT SEMA. to fade away?