drivetofive

Odometer (Legend):  531,768

Odometer (ILX):  103,446

Trip Distance:  1,133 Miles

Vegas + Cars = Fun.  Las Vegas, Nevada is one of the entertainment capitals of the world, but add on top of that the fact that the city plays host once a year to one of the biggest car conventions on the planet, and the fun factor skyrockets off the charts.  The SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Show is a place for vendors to display their wares – and anything that’s automotive-related is fair game.  Some 60,000 domestic and international buyers are expected to visit the 4-day show each November at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Over the next few blog entries, I’ll share with you the highlights of a 4-day, 1,133-mile trip through Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and California.  This first one will include just the SEMA piece.

My friend Justin and I hit the road on Friday morning in the ILX to make our way to Sin City for this year’s show.  Drive time was only about 4.5 hours – not too painful at all.  We found our way to the convention center on Paradise Road and parked the ILX, shuffled our way indoors along with hundreds of other people who were also arriving for the last day of the show.  Right off the bat, I ran into my friend Nyko from Local Motors who had a booth outside next to a huge Meguiar’s display.  My main focuses for the SEMA show during our short visit were to meet up with my friend Jason and to document the Honda / Acura booth so that I could share it with you all.

The eye-catcher this year was the “Andaro Blue” customized 2015 Acura TLX, built by Galpin Auto Sports. It featured:

• Aero body kit with new front and rear bumpers, side skirts and deck-lid spoiler
• ADV5.0 M.V2 SL custom wheels with gunmetal inner and liquid smoke outer – 19×9+38 Front/19×9+35 Rear
• Pirelli 245/40/19 P Zero Tires
• RSR Sport SI Series suspension kit with fully adjustable coilovers featuring 36-way damping adjustment
• Wilwood Superlite 6 Piston Caliper with 14″ Vented Rotor Front Brakes
• Wilwood Superlite 4 Piston Caliper with 14″ Vented Rotor Rear Brakes

Have a look at this beauty.  A camera simply cannot do justice to how eye-popping that custom color was in person.

Indeed I did find “Honda Pro” Jason there at the show – standing among several highly modified Honda Fits in the Honda booth.  I’ve introduced you to Jason before here and he’s a fellow high-mile connoisseur, having logged over 200,000 miles on his now-sold 1997 Honda Civic EX coupe.

The rest our short visit was spent wandering around wide-eyed and trying to soak in as much as possible.  I managed to find my brother and his wife in the show, as well as connect with a few friends who were also there for the occasion.  Below are a few of my other pics from the day!

Vegas-bound!

Highway 93 northbound, approaching Hoover Dam from the Nevada side.

With Nyko from Local Motors.  He and his company were part of the ALV program last month.

Feasting my eyes on the Galpin-modified 2015 TLX.

Overview of the Acura booth.

A few PHX-based friends who we ran into at the show.

Heading up an escalator to eyeball some other vendors.

My sister-in-law and brother, with a wildly-modified, 6-door stretched Dodge Ram pickup.  No, it’s not street legal.

Lexus booth with a couple of RC coupes.

Toyota concept car.

Next up:  An action-packed hike in southern Utah’s Zion National Park.  See you soon.

This entry was posted on November 10, 2014 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Car Show, ILX, Nevada, Road Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.