Is 10:21am too early for booze? Of course it is. But when you’re travelling at 40,000ft suddenly a Bloody Mary seems entirely reasonable.
And, in past years, that’d be the extent of our thinking for the next 10 hours as we fly over the Atlantic Ocean. Because the start of November signals one very important week – SEMA – and an alcohol-fuelled breakfast is the least weird thing you’ll experience for the next five days.
Las Vegas may be the city that never sleeps, but even this cesspool of sin hasn’t escaped from the global pandemic. After being cancelled last year – much like every major auto show – the 2021 SEMA Show has been given the green light, but not without its fair share of limitations.
Skipping over the obvious, all exhibitors and attendees are advised to be double jabbed and wear face masks where possible. That is assuming you can even get there; for us here in the UK, you currently can’t fly to the United States without a National Interest Exemption.
We did check the government website and watching people pour money into slot machines wasn’t listed.
But this is Speedhunters and we’re immensely proud to have a global group of contributors on board whose sole mission is to hunt out the best, baddest and downright weirdest car culture the world has to offer. The SEMA Show, unsurprisingly, has that in abundance.
That’s why we’ll have Trevor, Brandon and new guy Yaheem all in attendance for the next few days. Because just like you, we’re equally as keen to see what the USA has been up to for the past 18 months, even while 5,000 miles away.
What can you expect from Speedhunters, then? Truthfully, it’s going to be as much of a surprise for us as it will be to you. We know there’s been some major domestic builds going on – like CSF Race’s backdated Porsche 911 – and if you haven’t watched the build series on YouTube already, we urge you to do that now.
If YouTube isn’t your thing, don’t worry. We’ll have a full feature on this beauty tomorrow for you instead. We’re good like that.
If you were a betting person, you’d guarantee something wide, winged and ludicrously expensive will be displayed from Liberty Walk and LT Motorwerks. And if you fancy doubling that bet, I reckon you could easily put another $100 on Long and the team still finishing said cars while you’re reading this post. We love those LTMW boys, and the fact that – even with 12 months of planning – it still goes down to the absolute wire for them.
Toyo Tires will be back again with their mega Treadpass, which in 2021 is made even more special by the fact Brandon’s own Z31 build is being displayed there. It must be both exciting and terrifying to have a personal car displayed at SEMA, and we can’t wait to read Brandon’s last instalment on what’s required to get a car SEMA-ready.
Our friends at Air Lift Performance continue to dominate the suspension game and we’ll be showcasing an entire gallery of our favourite ALP-equipped cars from the show. That’s in addition to all the spotlights and show reports you’ve come to expect from Speedhunters over the years, including a preview day.
We can’t speak for the rest of you, but we’re all properly excited for this – even if deep down we wish we were all headed for SEMA.
That’s 2020/21 in a nutshell, but you know what? We’ll take having some banging stories presented here every day without having to move right now. And it’s an infinitely better way to enjoy the SEMA Show without that wave of anxiety you feel sitting in McCarran International Airport after five days in Vegas. If you know, you know.
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Vaxxed and masked to look look at cool cars. I’ll pass. The world has gone nuts.
No matter what your choice is, we are here to share a mutual love of car culture .
Ah yes, the usual anti-vaxxer. It's called not taking a chance.
"Funny how you say as if you don't care that COVID is still around and want to put yourself and others in danger. It's called being cautious and safe."
Or you could be worried about adverse affects, no long term studies for the jab. For instance in Australia you can look up the TGA website, look up adverse effects database, search for covid, select each covid jab and get the result from Jan 21 - Sep 21 and see that 650 people had an adverse reaction resulting in death. This isn't anti-vaxx simply medical facts and you can look them up yourself.
Not what I would call cautious or safe.
But each to their own.
o0o - that's fundamentally incorrect. There have been 235 cases of myocarditis out of 21 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine in Australia, and 157 cases of blood clotting disorders arising from 12 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. 34.4 million doses of vaccine have been administered, and of 629 reports received of deaths potentially associated with the vaccines, only 9 of those were actually linked.
There's a weekly safety update on all of this published by the TGA, and you're right, they are medical facts and you can look them up yourself. "650 people had an adverse reaction resulting in death" isn't one of those facts though, it's a total fabrication.
SEMA going ahead with masks and vaccination requirements is common sense. Great to see it's back up and running again this year.
Oh yes, 650 people had an adverse reaction compared to how large a population?
Smoking a cigar and eating red meat his entire life with no ill effects worked fine for George Burns - does that mean that works for everyone? NOPE.
Some have an adverse reaction, including death to peanuts?!?! OMG, does that mean that no one should ever eat peanuts? Nuts are a conspiracy!! You obtuse individual. You're only looking to confirm the facts you agree with.
I didn't mention any conspiracy. You did. "You're only looking to confirm the facts you agree with". It is called informed consent for a reason. I used a .gov publicly available database to see if there were any reports of adverse events. That is the oposite to obtuse.
When looking at figures such as "650" v poulation you need to take into consideration a number of factors such as:
The number that had taken the vaccine up to the date the adverse reaction stats were taken.
The length of time the between those adverse reactions and the dates the vaccine was taken etc.
This also applies when analysing covid death figures that are provide. How man people died WITH covid but not OF covid, how many of these people would have died regardless?
The 650 so far was for a period Jan - Sept. The number of covid deaths (not OF covid but WITH covid) in Australia for the first 12 months of the pandemic are in line with the current rate of adverse reaction deaths. They (covid deaths) are also lower than previous years flu/pneumonia deaths (In Australia).
Keep in mind there have been NO long term studies of the affects. I do understand the reason for this. Again informed consent comes into play here.
I will leave it there and apologise for posting this in reaction to someone being called an anti-vaxxer. If an individual questions the validity of a particular vaccine does not mean they are anti-all vaccines. It is a false consensus bias. I will not do this again and only post about car culture.
I hope you have a really nice day.
By posting the same nonsense twice, in spite of the facts being put in front of you, firmly highlights the intelligence of the tiny minority group you openly represent. I hope you are managing your stress ok - the rest of us can only imagine how difficult you are making life for yourself. Thank the rest of us that Sema can go ahead, and celebrate our small but wonderful part of humanity called car culture.
I'm really excited for the Sema-Show. Someday i will be there t, but its a long expensive trip from europe.
Its really good, that there are limitations because of the pandemic.
I'm sorry to read about longterm-effects of vaccination here.
The Vaccination against COVID-19 is the most effective way to reduce deaths and severe illness from infection. The protective benefits of vaccination continue to far outweigh the potential risks.
The side effects of a vaccination come about because the vaccination triggers an immune reaction. The immune reaction can last a few weeks, after which it is complete. The vaccine also disappeared from the body about 50h after the vaccination. Side effects are existing, but definitly no long-term-effects because there is no vaccine for long.
Its like driving with prepared Tires through a mile of nails. If you are done the mile and dont have a single nail in your tires, you cant blame the preparation after a thousand miles for a flat tire. Then there has to be something else.
Ah yes, the usual basement-dwelling mandates-man.
Looking forward to your SEMA coverage SH.
Funny how you say as if you don't care that COVID is still around and want to put yourself and others in danger. It's called being cautious and safe.
Glad to see another year of SEMA
Can't wait to see all of the builds there!
Glad SEMA is back.
Am I just seeing a good selection or is the "broken axle look" starting to become less common?
Sema Nuts