Drive to SEMA 2025

SEMA trips are never just "fly in, fly out".

This one started with a 14 hour flight out of Brisbane into San Fransisco, and the second we landed, we started driving straight away. 

San Francisco to Sacramento

We made our way to Sacramento to meet up with Mike, who generously let us use his personal 392 Wrangler for the journey. This thing is the ultimate offroad touring car. 

This isn't a rental spec runaround. This is Mike's pride and joy, already wearing Carbon accessories, ready to be displayed on our booth at SEMA. 

Our first night on the road was in Truckee, tucked up near Lake Tahoe. Cold air, mountain town vibes, and that feeling you get when you know the next few days are going to be an epic time on the road stacked with exploring new roads and filming.

The next day was mostly spent driving around Lake Tahoe, pulling over constantly for content. Tahoe is one of those places where every "quick stop" turns into another shoot because the backdrop is consistently amazing. Water, forest, mountain, windy roads. 

From Tahoe we stopped in to see Jeff and his workshop at IH Parts America and had a catch up with the crew we went snow wheeling with on the Rubicon Trail last year. It is epic to link back up with people who live and breathe the same world in a different geographic terrain.

Into the desert: Death Valley

Somewhere along the way the scenery flipped completely. We ended up staying the night in Death Valley at a hotel across the road from the general store. The next day, we got up early to catch the desert sunrise, and it was easily one of the most surreal locations we've ever shot.

The sky colour was unreal. Soft light rolling across the sand. Total silence, apart from the sound of the 392 and our footsteps. The sun is low, punching through the mountains and light up the valley felt like you were standing inside a postcard. The sheer size of it, the emptiness, the scale of the terrain, it's nothing like we have in Australia. 

We realised there were sand dunes nearby we hadn’t even seen the night before. We arrived in the dark, crashed, and had no idea what was sitting right there. In daylight it was a whole new landscape, and it turned into one of those accidental shoots you couldn’t replicate if you tried.

Rolling into Vegas: meet the crew, prep the car for display

After the final stretch through the valley we pulled into Las Vegas and met up with the rest of the crew, who had flown direct. First job was simple. Make the Wrangler booth ready.

We cleaned it up, dialled it in, then drove it straight to the convention centre. After days on the road, the car goes from advednture weapon to showpiece, and the trip officially turns into SEMA mode.