If we had to sum up this year’s SEMA Show in one word it would be – GINORMIDICULOUS. Record number of vehicles, record number of exhibitors, and what seemed like every single person on the planet piled through the doors of the Las Vegas Convention Center for the 2014 SEMA experience. The halls were jam packed wall to wall, which of course makes it quite “fun” to photograph, but that’s another story for another time. You could genuinely feel the excitement and adrenaline filling the halls as debut build after debut build filled the display booths and show grounds.

SEMA 2014 took place this week (Nov. 4th through Nov. 7th) and has now become the world’s largest gathering of automotive enthusiasts, aftermarket and OE companies, custom cars, amazing builders, celebrities, media, artists, and the like all swarming Vegas for what is generally the longest week of the year. Work all day sharing product and builds, then it’s off to the many industry hosted events, dinner meetings, VIP parties, and concerts galore. If you’re lucky, maybe grab a couple hours of sleep only to be back at it again the very next day – but ya, we wouldn’t have it any other way!

For the first time at SEMA, there was a dedicated “Art walk” section where Max Grundy led the charge to bring out a bunch of extremely talented artists from all over the world. Multi-genre and mixed mediums were represented with everything from strict penciled realism to hand formed metal sculptures. A really fun and unique addition to SEMA that we hope will continue to grow in years to come. Featured artists included the metal master himself – Josh Welton of Brown Dog Welding, along with various illustrators including Keith Weesner and Ed Tilrock.

This year Slam’d Mag was proud to partner with Royal Purple to bring a custom ride out to the SEMA Show, and present one lucky winner with the trip of a lifetime. We were proud to be part of such a great group and the expierence was one that we won’t soon forget. Winners Valerie and Adrian Garcia brought out their 1949 Chevy 3100 that was family built to honor their late father and to continue to cruise the truck with their heads held high in his memory – and we’d say they have done much more than just honor his memory with the rebuild of his Chev Pickup, they have helped keep him alive and cruisin’ with the family for years to come!

As always there was the best of the best represented out on the show floor with some companies really going all out this year on huge booth displays and some really cool setups. We have to give Royal Purple some major props as the “Slam’d Choice” for the best booth setup this year, really pushing the limits with a custom container all graffitied out, Snap-On tool boxes cut up to house custom Kicker audio sounds, and some of the coolest rides in the show. All around, definitely one of the coolest setups we’ve seen to date!

Other booths that stood out for us here at Slam’d included the huge McGaughy’s setup, Kicker with their freshly completed and stunning Studebaker completed, H&R Springs killer setup, and the boys at CT-Sounds had 10 total vehicles on display including a radical off-road Jeep built for the Injen booth. Dakota Digital, Powermaster, KEG Media, Air Lift Company, Coker Tire, MSD, Kinetik, Red Kap Clothing, Toyo, Miller, Nitto Tire, and more – all brought out some really cool new products that we will be showing you first hand in the coming weeks.

Each and every year we’re excited to see what new innovations await us and what ideas we’ll see incorporated into future builds. This year the quality was high, the cars came out in full force, and we’re ecstatic to see that the automotive aftermarket has come full circle and is alive and kicking – in a BIG way! Great things are on the horizon, and we’re proud to be able to bring it to you FIRST! Stay tuned as more coverage gets added through the rest of the week and check out the gallery updates below: