Kevin Hetmanski, senior editor at RC Car Action, and Yvonne DeFrancesco, Air Age Media’s EVP and publisher, were in attendance at this year’s SEMA show in Las Vegas, NV. As always, SEMA was a full-size event like no other.
Kev’s Bench: Hot Stuff Spotted at the SEMA Show
The SEMA show in Las Vegas is the place to see the latest trends, parts and builds in the full-size car world and every year thousands of people in the automotive industry make their way to this iconic show. The show is only happening for four days and you need all of that and more to be able to see everything that it has to offer. I do my best to attend the SEMA show every year and you may be asking yourself why would a RC guy want to go to a full-size show such as this? For me the show is a way to get ideas for project builds and articles that I can share with all of you. I brought my camera with me and shot hundreds of photos of awesome cars and trucks and my list of ideas has grown a lot. Here are just a few of the highlights from the show.
There’s so much going on at the SEMA show. It will take you a good part of the day just to check out the stuff going on in the parking lot.
Traxxas has a big booth at the show every year and it’s always full of people. Besides all the cool RC cars and the full-size SST truck they even have the occasional autograph session. The entire John Force racing crew was on hand to sign autographs for the long line of fans that went all the way around the booth.
Axial Racing had vehicles all over the show in various booths and finding all of them was like playing Where’s Waldo. Sometimes you are surprised by what you find like this new set of Falken 2.2-inch tires on an Axial Yeti.
Check out this trick mud truck called Huckzilla. This is a truck that you can totally build an RC version of. With some tubing you can easily have a chassis then all you have to add are axles, tires, rims and transmission from RC4WD and you can top it off with a HPI’s 1979 Ford pickup body.
HPI spent the entire week outside in the Ford Out Front section of the show showing off its Ford bodied sedans and trucks. They even let the crowd get in on the fun by giving them a car and a radio and letting them get a few laps in on the try me track. While in the booth we found this awesome HPI Vaughn Gittin Jr. Spec 5 Concept Mustang RTR. You never know what you’re going to see.
The guys at Rockstar Garage built this trick old school Ford Bronco. They are sponsored by Horizon Hobby and we hope that this project inspires the gang over there to release a vehicle like this.
How awesome is this Jeep FC170? It’s been made even cooler with the addition of those awesome tracks. Someone needs to build an RC version of this truck and submit it to Readers’ Rides. RC4WD has the tracks and the chassis and drivetrain is easy to find. The body however, would have to be custom made. That’s easy!
RC4WD even had a few trucks at the show. These two Trailfinder 2 trucks grabbed a lot of attention all week long. They have the perfect scale look for the SEMA show.
Here are a few more photos for you. Why? I say why not.