SEMA 2022: Day 1 Recap

Flight From Hell

While one may think because SEMA is in Vegas, day 1 starts in Vegas. In my case, this was not true. My day 1 started in Milwaukee at the airport, waiting for my flight that had been delayed two hours. We finally boarded the plane, and took off at 12:15 Milwaukee time. Vegas has a two hour subtraction, thank goodness. I attempted to get some sleep during the plane ride and with no occupant in the middle seat, I thought I’d be comfortable enough to get some. That didn’t happen either. Instead, the older woman next to me was doing crossword puzzles with her overhead light beaming down the whole time, making sleep impossible. After a nightmare-like plane ride, with a 22 hour day under my belt, I landed in Vegas and got off the plane at 2:00am. I somehow was able to get myself to the pickup line outside the airport where a dozen taxis were waiting. Since it was 2:00am, it was a ghost town and I just hopped in one. I told the driver where I was headed. He asked me where I’m from, I said Wisconsin and the first question was “Packer Fan?”... yes, but no. I don’t watch football but I know enough to make small talk until I arrive at my hotel. I got into my hotel, much to my roommates' frustration, at 2:30 Vegas time, which is 4:30am Milwaukee time. Thankfully the time change was two hours back, otherwise I don’t think I would’ve even gone to the show that day.

@thehoonigans 2JZ swapped Ford F-150 dubbed “Lord Frightning”.

Wake Up Call

I woke up at 8:00am to the impact of one of the hotel pillows being thrown at my legs. That was my alarm. I got up and got ready for the day, I couldn’t have been prepared for what it had in store.

Day 1 was the only day we walked from our hotel to the convention center. It took us about 45 minutes. We got to the convention center and were immediately greeted to a variety of epic cars including a one of one widebody 8 series BMW, the Batmobile from the newest Batman film and a hayabusa swapped, lifted SmartCar. We wandered around the outside of the convention center for about an hour as none of the halls were open yet. We got to check out Travis Pastrana’s Gymkhana Subaru WRX STI and a number of the Hoonigan crew’s cars including Hert’s RX-7, my personal favorite.

Travis Pastrana’s Gymkhana cars and Hert’s RX-7.

Toyo Treadpass

Once the show halls opened, we went down to the wheel and tire hall to just make sure we went through it at least once during this trip. Then came the Toyo Treadpass, which is an outdoor area by Toyo Tires that showcases cars sponsored by them. There were some seriously cool cars here. A full carbon fiber RB30 R32 GT-R, a non-running V12 swapped RX-7, and a gorgeous golden RWB 993. There were some uncool cars too. Mainly the non-running RX-7, a rushed and poorly executed 935 EV, and a new Ford Maverick truck, with a body kit.

Gooichi Motors says it will run… eventually.

A targa 993, with a twist, by Riko (@rikos_way).

Carbon Fiber everywhere on this R32 GT-R built by Garage-Active4488.

Main Hall

After some time in the Treadpass, we made it to the main hall, where all the insane cars were. The Hoonicorn, Hoonipigasus, the new Dodge Charger, Rob Dahm’s 4 rotor RX-7 (that runs) and many, many more. We spent a majority of our time here. I personally found myself eyeing up every little thing about the Hoonipigasus I could, since my work with Porsche race cars made me curious as to what made the Hoonipigasus so different. I ended up taking tons of videos and photos so I could analyze the car later. Then we got lunch at a Quiznos in the main hall. It was worth it.

West Hall

Next, the west hall, which is the hall for detailing and vinyl wrap products. This hall usually has the most expensive cars of the whole show, as many of the vinyl companies or detailing companies pick a rare, expensive blue chip exotic to showcase their product. This year, there were three big heavy hitters. A Lamborghini Sian Roadster, one of the rarest Lamborghinis ever made. This one featured a light to dark blue fade with the carbon fiber weave being visible in the dark blue section of the fade. The second hypercar in attendance was a Pagani Huayra BC Roadster, owned by a local collector. Finally, my favorite of the three, a Ferrari F40 wrapped pink with a custom titanium exhaust, KW 2 way adjustable coilovers, and some beautiful BBS wheels.

A paint fade to exposed carbon fiber is worth the multi-million dollar price tag.

I’ve only seen one other Pagani Huayra BC Roadster before this one.

Shoutout to @adventuresofgregorio for doing something so crazy to a classic Ferrari.

Starstruck

The west hall also had the best part of day 1. I got to meet Brian Scotto & Ron Zaras from Hoonigan, as well as Jimmy Oakes. We walked by Ken Block signing autographs by his Audi Quattro, already a starstruck moment, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw them. With SEMA being as massive as it is, I knew this could be my only chance, but they were conversing so I didn’t interrupt. Nick motioned me to keep walking around the hall since they could be there awhile but I kept a watchful eye. We went around the corner and the three of them were walking perpendicular to us. I had to say something. I was wearing one of my oldest Hoonigan shirts on purpose that day, hoping I’d run into Scotto, Ron or another member of the Hoonigan crew. I got so lucky. I said “Yo Scotto, Ron, Jimmy can we all grab a pic real quick?” I gave them each a fist bump and they noticed my shirt. Ron said “That’s an OG shirt, is that real or a fake?”. I quickly replied with “No this is 100 percent real! I’ve been watching since I was in middle school and now I’m in college.”. We all stood next to each other, and Nick got a photo of us. I accidentally stepped on Jimmy’s foot since we were all standing so close together, he thought it was his fault and said “Sorry fellow tall boy”, I said it was all good and told him “The VVL S15 is sick! Keep up the amazing work!”. He said “thanks” and they walked away. I was silent for the next five minutes just staring at the photos. I could not believe it.

Jimmy Oakes (far left), me, Brian Scotto (middle right), Ron Zaras (far right)

Post SEMA Exhaustion

We spent the rest of the day drifting around the halls after a failed attempt at going to a Hoonigan Burnyard show, there were too many people so we couldn’t get close enough to see the action. Once the show had closed, we walked back to our hotel at sunset, chilled at the hotel for a few hours and then went out for dinner. Regretfully, we didn’t go out to the strip for dinner. If we did, we would’ve seen a Red Bull V8 blown diffuser F1 car run up and down the strip, filming a commercial. Safe to say we were a little sad we missed out when we saw videos of it the next morning on social media.

SEMA day 1 was amazing. The cars, the atmosphere, all of it was top notch. After watching SEMA coverage for years over the internet, to finally be there with two of my best friends was such a great experience. The best part is, that was only day 1. Did you have a favorite car from this post? Let me know down below!