Monday, January 30, 2012

Report from LA Third Day of Meetings! DIESEL Motorsports . . .

It's always exciting to end the week by meeting with new people at the SEMA MPMC Conference and find out about new products that relate to DIESEL Motorsports. But then again, that is what this week's meetings are all about. Editorial content and reporting of NEW products and services to report on for the magazines. Rules are you are not supposed to sell (sell ad space) but talk strictly about their products.

Does this happen? Not so much sometimes since I saw many companies there strictly to sell ad space or services. I try to honor if all possible to stay to guidelines of the meetings, meaning I do not sell space and if I am asked I defer to talk to them in the following weeks.

They do want to hear about this last year's activity regarding DIESEL Motorsports, which I do tell them what happened at the shows and within the marketplace. Sometimes they tell me they do not have anything for diesels but yet when talking to them about their products I spot a couple of applications that can be used in our marketplace - that's what makes this conference important.

I met with the following companies on Thursday: Bilstein Shocks, Meziere, Coker Tire, SPAL, SPX, Hypertech, GM Performance Parts, Falken Tire, SuperChips, Hellwig, Federal Mogul, and Eaton Performance. Also spent a good amount of time meeting with our sponsor ARP where we discussed how educating the masses about their quality products is important to a company who has helped many in DIESEL Motorsports the past years.

ARP showed the different displays they have set up to show how a simple head stud being made is not that simple and over 10 different steps are taken to make a quality Ford 6.0 head stud! Make sure it's a true ARP stud by the marking of their logo on the product and box.


Bilstein Shocks had a wide range of shocks for the diesel trucks and they reported high activity for their products, and Meziere had of course their water pumps plus inter cooler pump and HD Flex plates. Coker tire had some drag racing tires that definitely can be used by our trucks along with some pulling possibilities. SPAL does not have anything currently for diesels but should have some brushless fans by fall. SPX always has their gauges but for the shops they carry Actron analyzers that can help read thrown codes plus they now a free download for Smart phones that can tell you what thrown or shown codes means (explanation), - pretty cool! Hypertech has a legal tuner box for the new Duramax 2011-12 that will gain 40 hp and more mpg, all of their boxes are made for trucks that require no upgrades (stock). GM Performance Parts does not have anything for diesels in their catalog but are considering short blocks in the near future. Falken Tire carries a nice line of street and road tires for our diesel trucks and SuperChips/Edge is now offering their new legal box for the new Ford 2011-12! Hellwig had some very nice stabilizer bars for our diesels that are badly needed for our trucks along with shocks. Federal Mogul had the usual line of gaskets for our diesels but Eaton had some very impressive Made in America products. Eaton for years has supplied our sport with quality lockers and differentials that are HD and made tough to withstand the pressures our pullers put on them!


I also met and talked to industry leaders at dinners and at the local watering hole at the hotel in the evening. Some great people who all want to hear about our growing sport and how it effects their automotive aftermarket. 

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