SEMA HOT RODS ELECTRIFIED!
The giant annual Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show was on hold last year due to COVID-19, so there was plenty of pent-up demand from builders, suppliers and spectators for this year’s version. Attendance from overseas was limited due to travel restrictions, so I anticipated a smaller show, but it was even smaller than I’d imagined.
For those who aren’t familiar with SEMA (pronounced SEE/ma), here’s a quick primer: Initiated in the ’50s by Robert E. Petersen, the young founder of Hot Rod Magazine, SEMA began as a small trade association for a handful of burgeoning speed equipment manufacturers who w a n t e d to legitimize their businesses at a time when “hot rod” was a pejorative term. Illegal street racing had given the sport a bad reputation as newspaper headlines blared against stripped-down, sometimes shoddily built cars and their reckless drivers. Something had to be done.
At Petersen’s suggestion, a group
