Tricked Out in Vegas - automotive manufacturers now cooperate with motor vehicles conversions industry

Automotive Industries, Dec, 2000 by Ken Gross

Not long ago, SEMA's merchants had to beg the automakers for access to vehicle specifications. Now, the OEMs hand it all over -- fast.

Tom Gale stood grinning, microphone in hand, alongside Frank Sinatra's old swimming pool at the soon-to-be-history Desert Country Club in Las Vegas. One by one, eight radically tricked-out, slammed and flamed PT Cruisers rumbled by. "Here's one from Boyd Coddington," Gale enthused. "And one from two-time Oakland Roadster Show winner Fred Warren. Check out this full-custom PT lowrider from Black Byrd's Robert Lopez. We think we take things pretty far in Detroit, but these guys go one step further."

"These guys" are the automotive aftermarket, and Chrysler's veteran design chief was just one of hundreds of OEM execs on hand for this year's Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas. If you didn't make it, you missed seeing over 800 new products and more than 400 custom and project vehicles, many of which will influence the factories' future vehicles.

This year, cooperation was the theme. Ford Marketing Vice-President Jim Schroer bragged about sharing full production details of Ford Motor Co.'s hottest new products early on so the aftermarketers could present wildly customized vehicles at SEMA, loaded with ready-for-production accessories. Not long ago, SEMA merchants had to beg for access to vehicle specifications. Now, the OEMs hand it all over -- fast. They compete with one another to showcase custom cars developed out-of-house, displayed on their own factory show stands.

Time and degree of difficulty just don't dissuade hot rodders. Center stage on the huge Ford stand was a channeled black Explorer SportTrac with a bitchin' hand-crafted aluminum bed and custom everything, built by Detroit metal magician Dan Webb in just six weeks. "I haven't had much sleep," Webb confides. "And Ford's designers can't believe it, but here it is, the hot rod of the future."

Ford's J Mays gave reporters a sneak peek at a custom show car, fittingly previewed at the House of Blues, that would have done credit to Hollywood's George Bards a few decades back -- except this one was Dearborn-designed.

GM, Honda, Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Toyota were just a few of the OEMs with custom vehicles. GM'S floor space was half the size of a football field. I counted over 50 customized Ford Focuses, probably as many PT Cruisers and dozens of slammed Civics, Integras and Mirages with big wheels, rubber bands for tires and big-bore exhausts. These affordable sport-compacts have immense youth appeal; thus, both sides of the SEMA coin are attacking the market head-on.

A few years back, there was a tiny overflow of concept cars outside the Convention Center. Now, because SEMA is a terrific test market, it's a car show in itself. Chevy's last-generation Impala (the V-8-powered taxi and cop car) was a Vegas hit that went straight to launch; this year there was a customized version of the current V-6 Impala. I was also impressed by Ford's clever Focus Panel Van, Lexus' BMW-fighting L-Tuned IS 300 and a PT Cruiser jointly modified by Johnson Controls and ASC. Designers and engineers are definitely listening.

It's a quantum leap from SEMA's humble beginnings decades ago when a gaggle of speed equipment vendors like Weiand and Edelbrock banded together to help legltimize their efforts. Today's early cooperation with accessory makers means OEM products, suitably tricked, will be ready for SEMA -- and that jump on the market Research confirms many consumers personalize their rides to the tune of $2,000 to $3,000, hot off the showroom floor. Many truck and SUV customers spend even more. And it's not just customizing. Telematics, high-end audio and security, collision-avoidance radar -- it's all here.

The action's huge, and everybody wants a piece of it. But you'll miss out if you don't make it to Sinatra's old stomping ground next November. The SEMA guys do indeed go one step further.

KEN GROSS is director of the Petersen Auto Museum in Los Angeles. A former brand manager of a global consumer goods company, Ken has written extensively about automobiles for three decades.