By Steve Temple

Photos by Steve Temple, Dean Larson and courtesy of SEMA

When the SEMA Show began five decades ago, things were really different. It was first held in 1967, in the basement of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, with only 100 booths displaying their wares. And the acronym stood for the Speed Equipment Manufacturing Association.

Later on, those letters came to stand for the Specialty Equipment Market Association, broadening its focus enormously to the auto aftermarket in general. And the show, now held in Las Vegas, has swollen to a mammoth 1 million square feet of displays, with thousands of vendors and customized vehicles.

Those are some seriously big numbers, but rather than try to gulp down the whole elephant, what we focus on mostly are replicas and restomods, and the components that go into them. That leaves out the majority of displays, as we trek through the miles of aisles in search of items of specific interest to you, dear readers. After all, this trade-only event isn’t open to the public, so we serve as your eyes and ears.

What follows, then, is only a partial view of what’s on display, with much more detail in upcoming issues. So look at this feature coverage as an appetizer of sorts, with the main course to follow soon!