The economy is hitting everyone hard and now it’s starting to hit SEMA. Nissan announced it is pulling out of SEMA and Mazda said it is not going to have a full presence either. Mazda will only be releasing cars to tuners and shops and not having its own booth.
Everyone including Honda is evaluating SEMA and the results are not looking good. This has me wondering about where the scene is going.
It seems like there are not enough shows out there right now. It used to be that there were a small group of enthusiasts who would go all out and build crazy show cars to take to all the shows. Then the masses would go to those shows and want to have what they had. Those people, mainly younger kids, would then go out and spend all their money to try and emulate what they saw. This was the cycle that seemed to fuel the scene.
I think the scene is experiencing a reboot, going back to its roots. All this started with drag racing and kids having the need to take what they could afford and make it as fast as possible. Not everyone had the skill or resources to go fast, so those who couldn’t turned to looking good and showing off in another way.
It seems like it is going back to motorsports and away from the show scene. All the buzz right now seems to be with Drifting, Time Attack and autocross at the local levels. I think it’s because that skill can even the paying field between those with it and those with more money. I’m hoping it’s just a matter of time for the economy to recover and the show scene to come back.
What do you think is happening?
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