Guess who's back, back again. Shady's back, tell a friend. Aw shut up already, Marshall! But you know what else is back-SEMA's International Auto Salon. And we have to confess that much like Eminem's tired rants we weren't too excited about the return of the IAS. During the first three years, the show was on a tear getting more popular than that limber cheerleader who could do the really high kicks. Last year, a scheduling change and a venue change conspired with some torrential weather (OK, it was only some light sprinkles, but that's torrential for So Cal) to produce a show that just missed the mark. Kind of like that well-developed cheerleader with the braces and horn-rims-you know she'll look tight once she loses the orthodontics and discovers contacts.
But this year the IAS turned into one helluva house party. A real pajama jammy jam. With Bilal working the turntables even Uncle Otis and Mr. Strickland got into the act. Uh, maybe that didn't really happen but the '02 IAS was still a great show and Jonny is still trying to do his hair up like Kid's high box fade.
In all seriousness, this year's show was a dramatic improvement over last year as consumer attendance was at 12,426, up roughly 60 percent from last year. We asked Jonny what he could make of these numbers and he said, "These numbers? Why I could make a hat, or a brooch, a pterodactyl..." More important than the numbers is the story. The story, what is it? Well, it's a bunch of words and pictures that we put in the magazine, but that's not important now. What is important is that this show was bigger than both of Jonny's nostrils.
The ExhibitsOn the Long Beach Convention Center floor the biggest news was the increased involvement of the OEMs. American Honda, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Mazda, Nissan and Toyota/TRD all brought a few choice concepts and tuner cars designed to appeal to our oh-so discriminating palates. The "Ford Focus on Performance Live" project over at the FoMoCo booth drew crowds throughout the weekend. The project was one of those deals in which a stock Focus ZX5 was magically transformed from zero-to-hero in the course of the show. You can see some of the noteworthy products from the Salon as documented by Britney's ex-boyfriend elsewhere in this issue.
The IAS even featured a car show within the show where cars competed in four separate categories. Vision Entertainment also set up its own little party inside the convention center with all sorts of music, smoke, and crazy lighting. With all the commotion we didn't even notice Miss HIN or the Girls of Import Revolution. Well, maybe we noticed them a little bit. And maybe we stared at them a little bit. And we may have even tried to follow them to their cars after the show. And maybe security had to beat us down with their Maglites and the GReddy girls beat up Jonny for being on the Super Street staff, but other than that we can't really say too much about the girls. Which is true, because the restraining order prevents us from saying anything about the girls
The CarsAt IAS it was all about the J-spec (symbol alert!). Japanese tuner cars were littered about the show floor like little planets each with a seemingly stronger gravitational pull than the next, and sucking in crowds like a Death Star tractor beam.