For the last four decades the SEMA Show has served as a trading post for the annual unveiling of new products and technologies in the specialty equipment industry. Buyers and manufacturers are brought together for this one week event to do business in the $39 billion market. This show is not open to the public so this is a chance to do real business. Over 125,000 industry professionals from over 100 countries attend this show for a variety of reasons including new products, trends, networking and education. Quite the growth from the 1967 show which had 98 booths and 3000 attendees.

If a product is involved in the automotive aftermarket…it's on display here. Also, 15 manufacturers representing 32 nameplates had displays. With more than 60 seminars and 100 professional speakers, the SEMA Show offered industry professionals the ability to take advantage of a premier learning opportunity.
We at WDIFL.com are mainly interested in the performance industry so our coverage is mainly on this area…with lots of photos of the show of shows that most of our readers will never be able to attend.

Photos and story by John Ewald

If a company makes performance parts they had a display here at the SEMA Show. These overview photos just give you a glance at the displays near the front of the building...yes, very colorful.

One of the main reasons for the elaborate displays is to draw customers in to see a companies newest products of which hundreds are introduced each year at this show. It is the one chance most companies have the opportunity to talk to buyers from all over the world.

The SEMA Show is also famous for the hundreds of models used to draw buyers into booths...hey, men are easy!

In the Mastercam booth, ace funny car and Nostalgia Top Fuel driver Sean Bellemeur (center) helped explain their products.

Ace car designer Gene Winfield and the first lady of racing Linda Vaughn...many of the racing worlds stars always attend this show.

Linda Vaughn's new Hurst ride...she is probably responsible for selling more cars than any woman in history.

The belle of the ball...the 2010 Chevy Camero...very hot ride. Hopefully GM will be around long enough to get it to the market.

In the Fine art area all the top automotive book writers were on hand to autograph books for the attendees.

The K&N Filter company had a huge display featuring their full lines of filters. They also had Mattel Hot Wheels designer Jerry Thienpkasiddhi there to autograph a special K&N Hot Wheels 1070 Barracuda.

The ladies of Pro drag racing were featured in the NHRA booth...Ashley Force, Hillary Will, Peggy Liewellyn, Karen Stoffer and Melanie Troxel.

Many new turbocharger and electronics systems were introduced...it's all about horsepower.

Fram's display included one of Cory Mac's old race cars now set up to let fans sit in it for a photo op...don't think the cage would pass tech anymore.

Tim Gibson took the opportunity to introduce his new top fuel and funny car front wheels he is manufacturing. At show time the wheels were getting their SFI approval. Very trick and weigh only 6.5 pounds!