Does Our Industry Have Five More Years?

Recently I had the opportunity to address a large professional gathering of specialty-automotive business leaders.
I began by reading a sobering editorial from an industry publication. It was titled, “Does Our Industry Have Just 5 Yrs. Left?”
Its author opened by asserting that we may well wake up some morning a few years hence to find that, except for racers, there are no customers left to buy our industry’s performance products.
“We also may wake up and discover that a future generation of young people aren’t all that interested in the automobile because the glamour and excitement of it is gone—legislated away by safety and clean-air bills…,” he continued. “You, yourself might be driving a ‘sensibly styled’ and compact-sized sedan, capable of [a] speed no greater than 85 miles per hour.” The possibility isn’t that remote, the writer warned. Regulation presents a clear and present threat to our shared passion and livelihood.
You could’ve heard a pin drop. The article clearly resonated with the industry professionals I was addressing. They felt the danger.
But that silence broke into applause when I revealed that the editorial was from High Performance News & Products, a forerunner to this magazine, back in 1971.
My point is, we’ve been here before. In the ’70s, that editorial’s author, Robert S. Cusick, proposed several strategies to confront the crisis. First, a concerted effort through a full-time Washington, D.C., office to protect consumers and the industry from onerous legislation. Second, a voluntary industry testing program through an independent lab to demonstrate emissions compliance. And third, he urged developing a forum for industry leaders to gather regularly to solve shared problems and issues, including advancing technologies.

Does this sound familiar? Today we can proudly say the industry has done all this and more. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of SEMA founders and industry advocates like former SEMA General Council Russ Deane, Hot Rod Editor Jim McFarland and others, we successfully challenged regulatory overreach in the ’70s, and have continued the battle ever since. We ultimately established the SEMA Garage program in 2012 to help members achieve emissions compliance (see p. 18) and harness emerging tech to speed their products to market. And through SEMA’s various councils, networks and forums, we continue to solve shared problems, set industry standards and educate our members on critical topics.
We haven’t slowed our efforts, either. Today we are pushing to forge new relationships in Washington, D.C., state legislatures and local governments—winning new allies to our cause. We are rallying our consumers to join the fight. We have greatly expanded our SEMA Garage programs to stay abreast of emerging technologies and are taking our seat at the table to ensure we aren’t locked out of OEM platforms. And this is only a quick rundown of our efforts to protect our industry and advance car culture.
Our industry overcame the challenges of the ’70s and is stronger today than ever. Now it’s up to our generation to again come together, roll up our sleeves and create an even greater future.