The Biggest Tuning Show In The World
Text and Pictures by J. ONG For DSF
Our good buddy and occasional contributor J. Ong was sent to Las Vegas in December 2009 for a closer look at the worlds biggest car and truck tuning show and here are some of the exciting pictures that he brought back for us. There were too many to upload and so we chose a selection of the bast pictures for your visual pleasure.
The SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Show in Las Vegas is the biggest vehicle aftermarket tuning show in the world right after the European version, the ‘Essen Show’, which we have regularly attended in the past few years. SEMA however a real eye opener for us as it was the biggest, craziest, and by far the most extravagant automotive trade show we have ever been to and with more than 2,000 exhibitors, a million square feet of Las Vegas Convention Center floor space being used to display some of the wildest modifications possible we were shutter crazy the whole 3 days at the show.
This years SEMA saw about 100,000 people milling through the seemingly endless halls and to keep the boys happy, stand owners made their yearly effort to ensure the prettiest and sexiest ladies were hired to keep the crowds entertained in between hot flashy metal.
Despite the economic slowdown in car sales, tuned products were still doing well as owners looked at keeping their rides and sprucing them with accessories. Leading the pack was the Chevrolet Camaro as the most accessory-friendly car at the show, earning its position with its reasonable accessory prices, which should leave plenty of cash in your pocket for the many styling accessories for the retro futuristic body and performance accessories for its mod-friendly LS-series V-8 engine.
The JDM cars also were in full force with some European imports taking in a close second.
Modified Nissan GT-Rs were surprisingly few at the 2009 SEMA Show, but the ones that were in attendance were impressive machines.
Kia’s big news at the 2009 SEMA Show was the announcement of the brands foray into motorsports, but the track-ready Forte Koup wasn’t the only car on display at the Kia Motors booth.
After much anticipation, Rhys Millen Racing finally unveiled its mid-engined V8-powered Genesis Coupe at the 2009 SEMA Show.
Ken Block took a Subaru WRX STI rally car and did wonders to it.
We already know that MPV’s are actually incredibly popular in Malaysia as well as USA. They get a huge variety of different models,
often smaller than what we get here in the Malaysia, and the Americans love to dress them up. This one is a Toyota Vellfire completely wrapped in the reddest vinyl you’ll probably ever see.
The new Kia Soul has made quite a sales splash for Kia, even outselling rivals Scion xB and Nissan Cube in America and we in Malaysia are still waiting to see it here.
There’s not much to share about this particular Kia Soul, except that it proves the right paint scheme can transform what many consider to be a “cute” car into something with way more attitude.
