If there’s anything I’ve learned from SEMA this year, it’s that the best place to enjoy the event is from the comfort of my own home, some 5,000 miles away.
Okay, maybe I’m a little bit jealous of our own Team Brexit enjoying the Nevada sunshine, the neon lights and the general positive vibes of Sin City, but I don’t envy the mammoth effort required just to get around the show while trying to identify the cars which need to be captured and shared.
Factor in a healthy dose of jet lag, and the rain outside my window doesn’t feel so bad after all.
I do think the best way to document SEMA is to cast as large a net as possible. It’s pointless to become fixated on one or two builds at the expense of the rest, as there’s nearly always something just as, or even more exciting around the corner. SEMA rewards graft.
Mark must be of the same opinion, as this gallery of engine bays from the Las Vegas Convention Center covers pretty much every major engine layout you can think of: vees, inlines, flat-fours, turbocharged, supercharged, naturally aspirated and even spinning triangles.
By presenting such a wide variety of applications, it also allows us to gauge what you’re most interested in, so we can chase them up at a later date. I’ve definitely spent longer looking through these photographs than writing the short pieces of copy which accompany this gallery (quelle surprise I hear you say), but there’s definitely more than one in here that I want to know much, much more about.
For starters, there’s this billet 26B with two huge turbochargers mounted either side in an AWD FD3S RX-7. How can you not want to know more?
Then there’s this humble looking Honda B-series in an ’85 Civic. Although there’s not much humble about a 240whp B16B on ITBs.
There appears to be more motor than car in this 1973 BMW 2002, which is fitted with a single-turbo-equipped S55. Ryan was quick to point out that they’ve done away with the top-mount charger cooler and made a V-shaped cooling pack at the front instead.
But what about the longitudinally-mounted K-series engine in that Civic Si? There’s also the GReddy-equipped B58 along with the red Camaro drag car with an LSX Tall Deck and a not-so-small 106mm Garrett turbocharger hanging off the front. There’s some big superchargers on display too, along with some exquisite bay work and velocity stacks glinting under the lights. There’s definitely a lot of engine bays here that reflect the excesses of Las Vegas, but I see nothing wrong with that.
The more I see from SEMA this year, the more questions I have. Maybe being there isn’t the worst thing?
Paddy McGrath
Instagram: pmcgphotos
Twitter: pmcgphotos
paddy@speedhunters.com
Photos by Mark Riccioni
Instagram: mark_scenemedia
mark@speedhunters.com