(Only at SEMA could one see a Bentley-looking Chrysler 300 and with vertical doors, yet; why someone built it, we're not so sure, but it sure got our attention - for better or worse!).
Flush with victory and a good old-fashioned mandate, President-elect Barack Obama, in his first press conference since the election said, "The auto industry is the backbone of American manufacturing and a critical part of our attempt to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. I would like to see the Administration do everything they can to accelerate the retooling assistance that Congress has already enacted."
But many observers think that grave damage has already been done to the Detroit Three, and that the $25 billion in direct government loans already approved and starting to trickle into GM, Ford and Chrysler will be too little, too late.
Several analysts have said that if even one of the Detroit Three files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, when a 
company dissolves, rather than Chapter 11, which allows a company to stay in business while it reorganizes, more than two million Americans will lose their jobs. (The 2009 Pontiac Solstice Turbo GXP looking better with its hardtop than even Mazda's MX5; but the Mazda's hardtop opens and closes at the touch of a button; below, a T-bucket sponsored by Firestone and the American Trucking Assoication captured many eyeballs at SEMA).
Last week, we spent time at the annual automotive high-performance orgy known as the SEMA Show. Founded in 1963, the Specialty Equipment Market Association is a lobbying group and professional organization made-up of some 7,000 companies worldwide, which manufacture performance and appearance products for a near-$40 billion automotive aftermarket: consumers wanting to personalize their cars and trucks.
Their annual exhibition in Las Vegas draws about 100,000 participants from around the globe, including those from product manufacturers, buyers ranging from teams working for giant chains like Wal-Mart to a single person from a local hot rod shop, members of the enthusiast and general-interest media and the car-makers themselves.
Many of the people and companies we saw at SEMA last week may very well be out of a job or out of business by next year's show. And those on the losing side could range from a closed two-person aluminum wheel repair company run out of a garage to General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.
To its credit, SEMA did try to create some excitement for "green" products, services and marketing approaches. One exhibit showcased companies active in the development, deployment and marketing of green technologies, while SEMA tried to prove that being environmentally friendly can also be "cool."
Click below for more on the 2008 SEMA Show, why it was so important as a harbinger of all our automotive futures, and what the "green" quotient was at the show.
They've also begun a new program, partnering with the Auto Club of Southern California, called the Fuel Economy Challenge. SEMA member companies can submit powertrain products for testing to determine their effect on fuel economy. A good outcome of this challenge will be real-world results to help consumers save some of the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted every year on gimmicks and gadgets sold by companies with just one target: Americans' wallets.
While many SEMA member companies make and sell appearance products, from expandable plastic car covers to paints, waxes and cleansers and all the tools to apply them, the membership is firmly rooted in high-performance. These are companies which design, manufacture and sell turbochargers and superchargers, replacement aluminum cylinder heads offering car-owners more horsepower, nitrous oxide systems (not the kind in-use at your dentist, but the kind to add 100-or-more instant horsepower), "slick" racing tires, gasoline high-octane additives and hundreds more. To these companies, the majority of SEMA's membership, all "green" means is the cash needed to make a car or truck go faster. (Photos, top, Dodge's Challenger, the new Camaro, the Smart (!) and Nissan's GTR seemed the favorites of most exhibitors; with only 1,500 GTR's to be sold in the US this year, only two or three were at the show and most who saw them were enjoying their first live sighting of the nimble street racer, and GM didn't allow a Camaro in any display except their own, below, a Harley-Davidson done-up like a '70s-era cafe' racer helped make the K&N filters exhibit a winner, and bottom, two Shelby cars show their stuff at SEMA).
A few companies at SEMA did seem to "get it."
One, Snow Performance of Woodland, CO, takes their existing products, water/methanol injection 
systems which cool gasoline and diesel engines to produce more power, and is re-marketing them to green buyers. How? The technology can also increase fuel economy and reduce emissions.
Powertrain Integration of Sterling Heights, MI, specializes in small runs of engines and transmissions (from one to several thousand) built to different specifications than those built by the car-maker. For example, taxi companies using GM-produced engines and transmissions will hire Powertrain Integration to modify engines to run on natural gas rather than gasoline and modify transmissions with gearing allowing for more miles-per-gallon.
With support from the President-elect and his obvious determination to see an American car-building culture survive and prosper, perhaps SEMA and its members, while rolling with the economy's ups and downs, will see high-performance and green combined into all-new products which allow everyone to have the car and truck of their dreams - while protecting the environment and keeping "fun" a powerful part of that industry.
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