heres some of mine, went last minute on weds, it had been a couple years so what the heck! One of the reason was my oldest son is into hot rods now so this was an educational trip. (as far as the wife knows) MY BABYS ALL GROWD UP AUSTIN HAD FUN WITH THE GIRLYS SO DID I, ME WITH LINDA VAGHN, SHE MORE MY STYLE THIS PIC DIDNT EVEN COST ME $20.00 ANYWAYS HERES SOME CARS. NOT A WHOLE LOT OF HAMB CARS BUT I FOUND A COUPLE
SOME MOE THIS THING WAS THE SHIZNIT, NOT SURE WHAT IT IS <a href="http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc288/tiki989/?action=view¤t=P1010684-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc288/tiki989/P1010684-1.jpg" ="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
First year we havn't gone in a while, thanks for the pics, How was the crowd? was the number of vendors down this year?, it was down a little last year from years past.
Obviously it is a 34 Ford. It was built around Ford's new twin turbo 6cyl engine called the Ecoboost with a few tweaks here and there of course for Sema. Here is a link from Autoblog about the car: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/28/sema-preview-ford-stuffs-400-hp-ecoboost-motor-in-34-hot-rod/
vendors were down. The South hall was empty (blocked off) from the Mopar Alley entrance doors east, and on the south edge to the Mopar middle section from the doors. The big tire display (pirelli?) in the south hall with all the exotics on the ramp was gone. The upper South hall was thin. In the central hall, the Roush corner was missing, and a lot of the extra cars were parked there. No Hot Wheels booth either. There were also extra cars in the North hall. The outside was thinner, and there was no display tent. Attendance seemed to be a bit down. Still had fun! THIS THING WAS THE SHIZNIT, NOT SURE WHAT IT IS That was built for James Hetfield.
Attendance by the vendors was most noticeably down this year. Very large areas of unused space. It was, I agree, hard to determine how the spoectator attendance compared to years in the past, but from my observation there did seem to be fewer people walking about. And, like you I still had loads of fun. My feet are just now recovering!
the story I heard was Chevy, Ford and Dodge wasnt going to participate this year due to the costs, so SEMA gave them a hell of a deal to be there. Other vendors heard of the negotiations and wanted the same deal, Sema said no, so alot of vendors didnt show up. A friend of mine who works for a company who has been doing the show for the last 25+ years couldnt aford it either and wanted the same deal and SEMA told them to pound sand! So they did.
this is what is happening in the industry.......... IF the huge corporations keep these big prices up.........there wont be any more Mega shows I will be interested to see how the vendors turn out at the World of Wheels shows and the Good Guys- the car counts will remain high........ cause all these people have invested all this money in the cars over the past years..... but once the people get there - they may not have the $$$ to spend on the vendors. IF............ we will see - I will be doing some of the World of Wheels shows this year to determine if the bottom was last year............ I sure hope so Lets hope that the economy turns around and SEMA has a waiting list again with the entire place full of some of the best stuff...........
This is second-hand info, so I can't verify how true it is. A friend had a booth a couple years ago. Single booth, X dollars. Carpet rental, table rental, 2 chairs rental. More dollars. Brought his own paperwork, small displays and sign. Had an engine on a wheeled stand for display. They charged him $500 to "install" and "remove" this item from his booth. He was not able to do this himself. I can't even imagine what the big displays cost to set up and tear down. I wouldn't doubt that the big 3 got a discount. I was impressed that GM and Chrysler were able to justify any presence to the new owners. Still a great show and I appreciate darn near every vendor that participates. It's also interesting how products ebb and flow. One year, there may be 50 bedliner application booths, another year hydrogen for tires is huge. This year there were a lot of car video cameras. Another thing that is interesting to watch is the Chinese booths with the knockoffs of past year's products. Lots of SBC valve covers and billet steering wheels this year from those guys. Even some SFI suits and seat belts (no thanks)....
There were some hard feelings last year when some vendors found out that the big name company across the aisle got a better deal on floor space than they did. That's a real slippery slope and could effect future shows.
Hope Denny from Ionia Hot Rod Shop gives us his take on the show when he returns. I've been in contact with Matt and he said his dad was out there. They have been real busy so I hope they made some good contacts to keep the ball rolling. Frank
The Jalopy Journal
