A few weeks ago I was standing on the beach talking to John (or ‘Johnny’ as he is known in the biz). He told me about this cool thing he does every year called the SEMA show in Las Vegas. I hate Vegas, or at least the Strip and the Convention Center of Vegas, but I loves my bro. So I scraped together $7 for a ticket on Southwest, and headed out.
Ever waited for a cab at the Vegas airport? I decided to try LAS pedestrian-style. Here’s what the airport authority decided was acceptable for people entering and leaving the airport on foot:
The show was cool–my brother is so connected to all the aftermarket hotrod-type stuff. Everybody seemed to be following us around in order to talk to Johnny for a few minutes. Once when my brother was on the phone, this guy who was waiting to talk to him engaged me in conversation about something called an ‘RTS pocket ride’ which I think has something to do with airbag suspension systems (I thought airbags were for safety, but apparently hotrodders use them to lower their cars for show while the car is parked). I have a knack for looking like I’m following, but then he hit a hitch in his pitch, and halted, asking, ‘oh, what’s the name of that thing? the pin-based roller traction system for 65-69 Mustangs? you know?’. I thought the guy was going to die of embarrassment for not knowing the manufacturer of one of the kits he had installed. He almost ran away, except that my brother returned from his phone call and saved the guy by patching the holes in his pitch. After, we went on to see a 1100-horsepower muscle car that runs on BioDiesel:
One of the highlights for Johnny at the show is that he was receiving a car from a guy in Alabama who took his $2500 1976 Camaro and turned it into an $85,000 show car. Here he is, brushing the dust off for a day of gawkers:
