Yellow Hellcat Challenger
The Hellcat Challenger from Airlift Drift on display at The 2015 SEMA Show
NOVEMBER 3, 2015
The latest news and updates from 2015 SEMA Show from Pennzoil's SEMA Correspondent Christopher Chrouch. 

Before the Doors Open

My 2015 SEMA Show adventure as a social correspondent for Pennzoil® kicked off with a bang last night at the Shell customer party at The House Of Blues with an amazing & intimate performance by Third Eye Blind. This year Shell is returning to SEMA in a big way, with over 10,000 square feet of show space! The weeklong celebration of automotive legends will start at the Pioneering Performance press conference this afternoon at 2:00pm in the Shell Booth (#60005). Stay tuned as the show kicks off this morning, and I’ll bring you the best the show has to offer with blog posts, live tweets, and a lot of photos on the Pennzoil Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Expected trends are extreme rat rods, lowered trucks with off-road tires, wide bodies, and much more!

Day One

The first day of SEMA was incredible. There were thousands of customized cars, trucks, and even semi-trailers to absorb and gush over.

In the Shell booth, there was everything from a historic dune running Hudson from Sleeping Bear, Michigan to a Mustang that was customized in just three days, the legendary Pennzoil race cars. The Shell press conference marked the 50th anniversary of the ’64 Shelby Cobra that broke a whopping 23 land speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

As we moved through the afternoon at the Mopar booth, Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis announced the 2016 Viper ACR has been SCCA certified as having more track records (13 total) than any production car in the world. Pennzoil® is used in every new FCA vehicle sold including the ACR record breaker. Other must see booths at SEMA include the “art walk” which includes work from amazing artists like Ed Tillrock & Detroit’s own Josh Welton of Brown Dog Welding.

There’s much more to see in day two, and we can’t wait to share it with you.

Joey Logano at SEMA 2015
Joey Logano at SEMA 2015.

Day Two

The second day of SEMA 2015 brought out more than just thunder and lightning from the skies above Las Vegas.

Early morning rain showers caused builders to scramble and cover rides exposed to the elements. We spotted Chip Foose alone in the rain wiping down his own creations. The mood inside the convention center was hotter than ever though as we explored the best The SEMA Show had to offer.

Over in the Barrett Jackson booth, they launched a new line of car care detailing products. The Ford booth featured a huge lineup of customized vehicles built by shops across the United States–like the flame spitting wide body Mustang Coupe built by Ice Nine Group in Detroit, MI and a Ford F-150 by Galpin wearing Gulf livery. In the Chevrolet booth you’ll find more Motor City pride in the form of a customized 2016 Chevy Silverado 3500 Kid Rock concept that grabs your attention with its massive exhaust stacks. American cars aren’t the only ones representing at SEMA as we spied a monster Mercedes Benz C63 AMG wearing a massive Magnuson supercharger.

Back outside the Las Vegas Convention Center, Ford had a huge drifting display. It wouldn’t be SEMA without having the smell of racing fuel and tire smoke in the air. In the Shell booth, attendees had the opportunity to meet racing superstars like off-road racer Bryce Menzies and NHRA Funny Car drivers Tommy Johnson Jr. and Matt Hagan. We had an opportunity to sit down with Matt Hagan, who offered up some amazing insight into driving a funny car and how his team at Don Schumacher Racing continues to find more speed in the Mopar/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T.

As the day wrapped up the skies began to thunder as hail rained down. The ice can’t cool down SEMA, though. We’ll be back to see even more of what the show has to offer.

Day Three

The third and final day of SEMA 2015 started out bright with the rides in the surrounding lots sparkling in the morning sun. I took the opportunity to check out the many wild and crazy rides. You’ll find mini-monster trucks to an extreme Monster Jam Ford. Big Diesel’s are everywhere showcasing body parts and lift kits to the Tarmac scraping low rider duallies. One of the most popular vehicles on display at SEMA is the Jeep Wrangler.

Back inside the South Hall, we found a few notable rides in the Hunter Engineering booth. A stretched-out, three-row Jeep Wrangler on a lift may have been the only one at SEMA. There are, of course, a lot of exotic cars, including Lamborghini Huriscattered about the many wheel and tire company displays like the Lamborghini Huracan, BMW i8, and many more.

After taking a spin through the MOPAR booth, fuel starts to race through your veins when you spot the Challenger Drag Pak Supercharged 354 being towed by the DragMaster concept, or jumping onto the rocks with SEMA’s hottest 4×4 SUV 2015 award winner the Jeep Wrangler Red Rock Responder.

One of the coolest new tech items at SEMA that I found from MOPAR came in the form of a new “tech authority” web program that allows you to buy access to repair info for every MOPAR from 1992-2016. Let the mods begin!

Back on the Shell stage with Alan Taylor, Team Penske drivers Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano sat down for a little Q&A that was more of an off-the-cuff comedy skit. Both drivers talked about their personal rides, shared jokes, and laughs before taking a few audience questions and signing autographs. We got Joey to take a pic with the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. He was blown away when told of its $22 million dollar valuation.

SEMA is about so much more than one can put into words. It’s about more than one OEM. SEMA brings an industry together with the culture that powers it and the people who live it. It’s an opportunity to network or find the next crazy design trend. It’s where OEM designers can get first hand feedback found nowhere else. So let us celebrate because there truly is no better time to be a gearhead than right now.

This blog post was penned by Pennzoil SEMA Social Correspondent, Christopher Chrouch. Christopher is a true MOPAR enthusiast and serves as the Founder and Editor of MoparUnlimited. Christopher has taken over the Pennzoil social media accounts during the 2015 SEMA Show from November 2 – 5. Christopher will bring his automotive passions to life for the week as he checks out the #ShellSEMA2015 experience, learns about the latest automotive technology and witnesses all the hottest rides on display at the world’s premier automotive aftermarket event exclusively for us here at Pennzoil® Synthetics.