Sabra Johnson has 30-plus years of restoration experience. He started out collecting and modifying vehicles as a hobby. The hobby evolved into City Classic Cars, a flourishing Houston-area restoration business specializing in restomods and ground-up restorations.
In February, SEMA announced an industry first: a new program making it possible for specialty automotive parts manufacturers to meet the legal requirement for emissions compliance under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Tampering Policy. The program, called SEMA Certified-Emissions (SC-E), enables manufacturers to verify that a product meets the EPA’s “reasonable basis” criteria and is therefore legal for sale in 49 states.
The products featured below are from SEMA Data member companies that have attained Gold- or Platinum-level data, which means that their product data is robust and complete—likely to drive customer purchase decisions. SEMA Data members meeting data scorecard requirements are invited to submit product releases for consideration to enews@semadatacoop.org.
The ongoing supply-chain disruption has had ripple effects throughout the global economy, including the specialty-equipment industry. More than 80% of industry companies reported having severe or moderate impacts in 2021 because of it, including production delays, shipping issues and higher prices. However, this year should be better.
Growing up in Ohio, Chris Kersting had five older brothers, “and they were all bigger than me,” he recalled. One morning as he played outdoors with the older boys swinging on vines, he fell and broke his wrist, earning a trip to the hospital. Returning that afternoon with a cast, he again joined his brothers, this time climbing onto a platform in an apple tree. When he got knocked off the platform, he broke the other arm and went right back for another cast. “I think the same shift was still on at the hospital,” he laughed.
Consumer trends and preferences have changed many times over the years, but in the automotive sphere, pickups never really fall out of fashion. They’re the ideal multipurpose vehicles that are equally functional as daily commuters, jobsite workhorses or recreational trail toys. For sheer versatility, nothing compares to them on the road and off, and that’s probably why the bestselling vehicle in the United States for more than 40 years in a row has been a pickup.
Longtime followers of the automotive aftermarket need no introduction to Jim McFarland. Formerly an editor at Hot Rod who attended the first-ever SEMA Show, he became renowned for his work at Edelbrock as vice president of R&D through the ‘70s and ‘80s. Later, he worked in marketing and engineering positions at companies including Flowmaster, Hedman and Hypertech. He is the author of more than 400 technical articles, including SAE papers and publications for the motorsports, TV and outdoor markets. He was SEMA’s Person of the Year for 1985, and he was inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame in 2001.
RPM Act: SEMA and the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) continue to lead the fight to pass the Recognizing the Protection of Motorsports Act (RPM Act; H.R. 3281 and
S. 2736) into law. The RPM Act, if enacted into law, would clarify that it is legal under the Clean Air Act to make emissions-related changes to convert a street vehicle into a dedicated race car.
Barry Moltz revealed 14 of his 100 shortcuts to success at his education session—aptly named after one of his books, Small Business Hacks—during the 2021 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. The author—a three-time entrepreneur, public speaker and business consultant—kept it lively by telling jokes (often at his own expense), asking what strategies attendees used to grow their businesses and handing out $5 bills to those who played along.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020 and the ensuing quarantines and lockdowns it occasioned highlighted the need for companies to build and maintain a robust online infrastructure to optimize consumer outreach and leverage sales when conventional retailing methods aren’t an option. Online sales of specialty-equipment products represented more than half of all parts sales in calendar year 2020, and while that number has declined as retail stores have reopened for business, online sales still account for 40%–45% of all sales in the industry. That fact presents challenges and opportunities for specialty-equipment companies looking to expand their digital footprint to drive brand awareness and sales.