Finally! SEMA coverage at last. Well, in this series of coverage, we’re gonna be taking a look at all aspects of our trip to Las Vegas for the 2010 SEMA show. It would be so easy just to show you guys pictures of the cars at the show and what not but that’s not really what I like to do with event coverage. I like to give you guys that behind the scenes type of feel to everything I do so you guys who enjoy coming to this site get a chance to see what we’re all about and what we do in and out of the shows. If you’re here just for the cars, that’s cool too but don’t bother complaining about the other stuff. If you don’t like it, there are plenty of other sites out there that cover just car shit. Anyways, let’s get going…

We spent that early Monday morning at a Chevron gas station in Glendale meeting up with Mikeyyyy, who was rolling up in his xB and Salem and Murdock, who was cruising up in Salem’s daily. May and I had the Yaris of course because my 4Runner is at around 256K on the odometer and the trip to Vegas would not be a good idea for that car. It’s definitely getting up there in age so we try to take the Yaris because it’s good on gas and well, it’s pretty new still and very reliable. Once we all met up, we decided to grab some food before heading to Nevada…

Here is the “300HP Club” in front of the Sonics that we stopped at. While Phaze2 Tony was already in Vegas at NSXPO with what someone deemed “3,000HP” worth of NSXs, we were near the 300 mark, which meant that not only did our cars not have power for shit, the high winds that day meant that there was a strong possibility that we could get blown off the road…

I like Sonics but shit, it has the worst fuckin’ ordering system I have ever seen at any food establishment. I mean, I get it, it’s a drive-up, park, and eat in your car kind of spot and that was their niche but shit, why can’t they just have a regular ordering window for people who aren’t eating in their cars? You gotta talk into this fucking speaker when you order, you can’t understand what the fuck the lady is saying, and she’s like 3 feet away behind a glass window staring at you…

After eating it was time to get on the road…

After a couple of hours of driving, we stopped by at Baker or wherever it was because we had to use the restroom. We stopped at the Starbucks to grab a drink too and sat down for a couple of minutes….

We also walked over to the gas station to get an unhealthy serving of Amp energy drinks and pork fat…

A few more hours of driving go by and finally, we make it to the state line where we stopped once again so that Mikeyyy could fill up his xB…

We finally get to our hotel near the strip and unload all of our stuff…

We had two separate rooms that were actually joined into one suite so we all had plenty of room to relax. It was basically a 2-bedroom condo with 2 living rooms and 2 bathrooms. Super good deal too, so we always make it a point to stay there…

The internet there however, sucks complete ass. I couldn’t get a steady connection, probably because Murdock was busy watching music videos on Youtube….

May with the workout gear ready to take advantage of the gym that was there…

While Big Mike and the others were waiting in line for hours and hours to stage their cars inside the SEMA show, we killed time by going to a Trader Joe’s nearby to grab some groceries since we planned on staying in some nights and cooking. Spending a whole week in Vegas means that you’re either gonna spend a shit load of money, and/or you’re going to be eating out all the time so we made it a point to cook since we already had a kitchen…

Once the other guys finally got out situated and dropped their cars off at the SEMA show, we met up at the M Resort to get buffet at Studio B. The buffet is crackin’ over there, especially when they have seafood…

Blurry ass picture but here’s Ryan Der aka Airbag Club charging his phone while we were waiting in line at the buffet…

What’s cool about the buffet at the M is that they have free alcohol there, which everybody took full advantage of…

If Ryan had three arms, he would have been triple fisting drinks that night…

Not sure what was going on here but I think it’s fair to say that Big Mike was serving Salem his treats…haha…no homo…

After we ate, we had to work off all that food by sitting on our asses out in the cabana/pool area of the M Resort. We chilled and BS’ed for a couple minutes before heading back…

Before we headed back to our rooms, we stopped off at Food 4 Less so that we could stock up on drinks and sodas for Mikeyyyy to drink. Now if you don’t know what “Food 4 Less” is, especially for you overseas guys that are reading, it’s kind of like a supermarket where they have, well, food for less. That means they usually substitute name brands where cheaper brands to lower food costs…

Now I’m sure many of you are familiar with Ruffles. I mean, if you’ve ever been a kid and had chips, you’ve eaten Ruffles potato chips before. Food 4 Less has Ruffles, but they also have the Rota version, which they creatively have decided to name them “Wavy”. Not Raffles or Roofles, not “Wavys” because that’s what the chips are, but simply…Wavy.

…they also have Kool-Aid and the Rota version of that, which they have also creatively named….DRINK MIX.

Anyways, we grabbed what we needed and took off back to the room…Not sure why Salem grabbed the Rota version of alcoholic beer but whatever…

After a full day of settling into Vegas, it was time for some rest. The next day was going to be filled with lots of walking…

We got up the next day around 10:30 or 11 and got ready to head down to the Las Vegas Convention Center for SEMA. The moment I got there and walked into the show, I saw one of my favorite cars of the week…

I absolutely loved this flat black R35…I swear I must have taken a new picture of it every day I was at SEMA. The car flows so well with the custom red Advan RS-Ds…

Also saw this Corolla that was right across from the R35. Shits pretty crazy with the BEAM’S 3S-GE swap and widebody. Make note of the header and the custom brake lines…

Source Interlink, the company that writes my checks and puts money in my pocket, was one of the title sponsors of the SEMA show. They had an entire section dedicated to just their publications, which made it possible for guys like Big Mike, Ryan Der, and the other homies to have their cars at the event…

One of the lowriders from Lifestyle was on display for Lowrider Magazine…SEMA is usually filled with all kinds of cars, of all different styles of customization, which meant that you could see a lowrider one minute…

..and turnaround and see a Job Designs Lexus LS the other minute. It was automotive sensory overload for sure…

Mikeyyyy had told me about this Civic a couple days before. Brian from Auto Concept, who we have come to know and has become one of the homies, was showing him pictures of this car that was from his crew. They are known to do some pretty wild builds and this one is no different. For us, it may be waaaayyyy over the top, but hey, one can appreciate the amount of work that was put into a build like this. It’s not for everyone, but again…there is definitely a significant amount of work down to this Civic…

Me resizing this picture has made it impossible for you guys to read the complete mod list but the K20 R motor is fully-built. There’s no part of this car that hasn’t been touched or modified…

Built K20 and boosted…The Benen tow hook on the shock tower is an interesting touch. With so much crazy shit done to this car, the teal valve cover and Mugen wire cover almost seem out of place here, if that makes sense…

Mugen steering wheels, STACK cluster, Mugen S1 buckets too I believe…if this was an interior inside a more streetable hatch, guys would be going crazy over it…

As a show car, it’s fucking bananas. Out east where it’s from, it probably wins lots of awards. For us, who are into a different style of Hondas, it’s a little much. Definitely cool to see though, huge HREs on a Civic with flares and a BYS wing…where else can you see something like this but at a SEMA show…

That Civic was so recognizable that we used it as a meeting spot to meet up with everyone else. Everyone knew what car we were talking about and knew it’s exact location so it was easy to meet up…Here’s Tony and Jared talking black-framed glasses, and flannel shirts…

Ejay randomly decided to come to Vegas by himself and stay with the guys over at Luxor. I guess when you get featured in Honda Tuning, you can do stuff like that…haha…

Here’s a terrible picture of Brian from Auto Concept, who came by to tell us more about that Civic you guys just saw…

Here’s a random Skyline that I took a picture of as we walked inside one of the main halls…

May was thirsty so we walked into the food court area to grab a drink. There were a couple more people that hadn’t met up with us yet so we got our drinks and just chilled inside for a few minutes…

Ejay and Ryan…

Jared when I told him to pretend that he was taking a shit and how big the theoretical shit would be…

Big Mike with his one-off BROWN Honda Tuning shirt…Supertwinz John, who was working at the AEM booth that day, seemed to enjoy Mike’s shirt…

Rywire spotted an asian chick…

After drinks, it was officially time to start making the rounds throughout the show. The first section was walked into was the Scion display, which is usually in the same spot every year. They didn’t seem to have that many crazy Scion builds this year but there were a couple of 2nd generation Scion TCs on display…I took a couple of pictures of them but on a different day because at that time, it was so crowded that I couldn’t take a picture of shit without people walking into my shot…

S2000 that is owned by one of the guys at DC Sports…Rodrez tells me that this one is equipped with the iVTEC conversion by Design Craft…

While I was in that area, I ran into Jonathan Wong from Super Street and Scott from Import Tuner. Not sure what JDM Wong was trying to do and I think Scott was wondering the same thing…The guy in the middle I don’t know but based purely on assumptions and the shirt he was wearing, he’s a representative from BOWLS LA…

We then walked over to the Exedy booth. They had a huge display this year and I really wanted to get a good shot of this R35 but those girls insisted that they be in the picture. Then they started talking to us about some other random shit. I don’t know, I just wanted to see the car…thanks ladies…

Saw this Lamborghini with a chute on the back of it. Why, I don’t know…

Walked over to the Anzo booth and saw these ladies there. The one on the left is Alexia Cortez I think. I know of her because ItsJDMYo Tony talks about her all the time and how hot she is. The middle one is Corissa Furr. I know of her because she announced the awards at the RPM show we did earlier in the year and because Big Mike always goes “Hey, is that Corissa Furr?” Even if it isn’t her I just tell him it is. The girl on the right I have no idea who she is and she just seems totally uninterested to be there in both pictures…

Came across the Cusco booth which didn’t have any models, but directly across from them was a Chinese engine parts manufacturer, who was so professional…

…that they had a fucking apple on display next to their connecting rods…

We came across this giant monster truck that was so huge that we told Ryan to try to get inside one of its wheels. Of course, he was down to try it…

The OS Giken booth…

One of their OS Giken built L28 engines…

…and their OS Giken equipped RB26DETT…

Alright, time for a break. That’s it for today, next set of pics will cover the first of the first day at SEMA and then the industry party at XS night club inside Encore. Stay tuned…and thanks for looking…