The best pictures from SEMA’s rowdy after party

Aside from the scale and general whiff of sweaty processed meat, one of the worst things about SEMA is that the glitzy neon-clad doors to Las Vegas’ Convention Centre aren’t open to the general public.

Being a trade event, you have to be in the biz of modifying cars – or replicating major components for a lot cheaper in China – to gain entry and bow at the altar of aftermarket. That’s why we’re forced to produce a monster gallery because we know you have an opinion on the cars. And there are a lot of cars.

Luckily, for non-industry types in Sin City’s vicinity there’s a thing called SEMA Ignited. It’s a public event where anyone in the area can pop on down and see some of the craziest SEMA cars in action.

As soon as the clock strikes 4pm on Friday, the world’s biggest modded car show shuts its doors for another year, but that’s just the start for a host of cars and exhibitors who are then freed of the enormo halls and into the fresh air to blow off some steam, rev their exhausts and generally go a bit nuts.

The police close off the surrounding roads to allow all manner of wacky rides onto the public highway. Monster trucks, race cars, drift cars, bonkers bikes and even cars that don’t have wheels all snake around the block and into a giant car park.

There, the smell of burning tyre smoke (courtesy of the Formula Drift boys doing a pop-up shop of sideways for the locals), vape pipes and taco trucks take over. For the next six hours Brodozers (lifted trucks with a whole B&Q lighting department fitted underneath them) toot train horns endlessly, muscle cars do burnouts, Steampunk slammed sleds sit pretty and lost speedboats park up for the public to peruse.

It’s only a tiny percentage of cars that were imprisoned within the convention halls, but still, the selection is quite a sight – especially when backlit by Vegas’ twinkly neons and sat in a more natural environment than a carpeted show hall.

So, check out a slice of what was on offer in the gallery above and tell us what’s hot and what’s not.

Photography: Mark Riccioni