- Thanks to our partner Powerstop, we treated our booth guests to complimentary Vietnamese bánh mì sandwiches at lunch each day.
- With the same gorgeous and unique cars on display daily, our booth had plenty of attractions.
- If the autos and sandos weren’t a big enough draw, we had iconic industry professionals signing autographs during lunch, including Larry Chen, Dai Yoshihara, and our spokesmodel, Janey B.
- Standout builds at the lounge in our booth outside SEMA’s Central Hall included a unique pairing of old/new Acura Integras, an eye-catching McLaren P1 with BBS LM wheels, a fascinating one-off Toyota 4Runner build, and the impressive Built By Legends Mine’s R32 GT-R.
After hours of walking the 2022 SEMA Show’s depths, it’s easy to work up an appetite. Around that typical lunch hour, the stomach starts to growl — seemingly unanimously among all SEMAgoers — and the lines at lunch spots fill up quickly. With only a handful of convention center food choices at the ready and a long line as a necessary evil, making a choice can be stressful. Add to that the noisy, crowded atmosphere of the food court area, an apprehension toward inopportune food poisoning, and the same recycled air that’s been circulating inside all week, and it’s enough to contemplate skipping lunch altogether. To combat this, we created the Pit+Paddock Power Lunch presented by PowerStop. We offered sandos, industry professionals’ autographs, fresh air, a relaxed atmosphere, and the views of our unique booth vehicles that guests have come to love.
PRESENTED BY POWERSTOP
We had glorious visions to bring a pop-up lunch activation to SEMA this year, but it wouldn’t have been possible without help from PowerStop, the company responsible for making brake upgrade kits for just about anything. Since 1995, PowerStop has been working tirelessly to bring one-click braking upgrade packages to every driver and vehicle on the road, no matter the type of vehicle. With the typical consumer rotor/pad matchup guesswork eliminated in the company’s formula, PowerStop offers pads, rotors, hardware, and more in one box. Its kits are available for 98% of vehicles on the road, covering everything from current trucks and minivans back to ’60s muscle cars and everything in between. With every pad sold comprised of 100% copper-free carbon fiber ceramic material, each is noise-free, dust-free, and fail-free. If you want more information on the company’s direct bolt-on replacement kits, visit its website.
THE SANDOS
Gourmet Vietnamese bánh mì sandwiches aren’t your typical SEMA nourishment, far from it. Lucky for us, our contact at Las Vegas local eatery, This Mama’s House, provided the solution we needed. The Fremont Street comfort food/Asian fusion restaurant cooked up and catered the perfect blend of daily options for us to offer our guests.
Using only the freshest and highest quality seasonal and local ingredients, This Mama’s House staff devised a daily-changing menu, including delicious pork, beef/kimchi, and chicken sandos — with equally delectable vegetarian options available, too. The ever-changing bánh mì ingredient list each day provided a good amount of intrigue for anyone who ate a sandwich (or two). Guests returned each day eager to try the next option. With ingredients like Korean marinated beef, gochujang aioli, pickled kimchi, cucumber, scallions, cilantro, and jalapeño on a fresh roll, it’s easy to see what filled them up and brought them back. The trick PowerStop and Pit+Paddock co-branding on the sandwich wraps was the icing on the cake for us.
THE AUTOS (3 OF 5)
Our last article touched on it briefly, but our booth vehicles were also a main attraction all week. To start, we had a modified McLaren P1 right out front. Let that go ahead and sink in for a moment. Only 375 P1s exist worldwide, and we had the fortunate opportunity to house one in our booth with custom-finished BBS LM wheels (with coated hardware) and a brand-new, luscious Inozetek Metallic Spectrum wrap. Needless to say, it drew a crowd.
We also showcased Scott Kanemura’s Toyota 4Runner, but this is not your mom’s 4Runner. No, this 1,200hp, stroked 2JZ-GTE-swapped, Chromoly tube chassis is not meant for grocery-getting. Homebuilt by the owner, it’s intended to lift the front wheels at the dragstrip and to change the perception of Toyota’s faithful SUV. I think completing the former will achieve the latter.
The third we’ll discuss today is likely the most unsuspecting yet valuable of the whole lot: the Built By Legends Mine’s R32 Skyline GT-R. To the untrained eye, this bright white R32 is just a very clean example of the fabled Japanese muscle car. In reality, it’s a complete ground-up restoration performed by Japanese tuning icon Mine’s, infusing modern materials like dry carbon fiber and commissioned by the brilliant team at Built By Legends. All of this input combines to produce an immaculate representation more akin to a Porsche 911 Reimagined by Singer than a typical GT-R build. It’s the embodiment of #IYKYK, and when guests came running up to the booth asking, “Is that really the BBL R32?” It immediately put a smile on my face!
THE AUTOGRAPHS
As if the sandos and autos weren’t enough, we organized some industry celebrity signings mixed in for a truly VIP experience. Our hot shoe driver, client, and former Formula DRIFT Champion Daijiro Yoshihara was on site grabbing some lunch, completing some on-camera interviews, and signing our giveaway posters for his adoring fans.
Jointly responsible for the production of said posters was all-star industry photographer and media magnate Larry Chen, who also enjoyed some tasty bánh mì sandwiches, filmed some content, and met with fans during our Power Lunch.
The final signing was the star of our booth inside and outside of lunchtime. Our spokesmodel Janey B. carried the torch for Pit+Paddock, personalizing/signing her posters for admiring fans, offering warm conversation (even on cold days), pertinent information about everything going on with our brand, and a pleasant smile that kept foot traffic circulating all week long. We’re grateful to be involved with each of these industry professionals and thank them for taking part in our 2022 SEMA festivities.
We also thank PowerStop for partnering with us at our inaugural Power Lunch during the 2022 SEMA Show. To be expected when serving up delicious and unique lunch options to hundreds of showgoers within a private area, our guests loved the Power Lunch. So, we appreciate having PowerStop on board for this activation! Check back for more coverage of our antics from this year’s SEMA Show, and look at what we’ve already published here and here.
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