Aussies Invade SEMA Tour

The Motive DVD team spend months at a time in the USA including five previous visits to SEMA. This means they have all of the contacts, know the best places to visit, and can get you into places normally off limits to the general public.

This is where the entire appeal of the tour comes from. Not only are the flights, accommodation, transport and breakfast all sorted, the Motive team jam the best stuff into 10 days, making it even better value for money. I couldn't wait to go!

After everyone made their own way to Sydney Airport on the Sunday, we met up, got some Motive freebies, final itineraries and a comprehensive 10-page guide to the US! Handy for us first time foreigners. Everyone on the tour is a car enthusiast, so making new friends if you go on your own is pretty easy. After a 14 hour flight, quick stopover and 1-hour flight to Vegas we had arrived!

Monday is a choose your own adventure day, but you can follow Andrew and the Motive guys for some fun at indoor skydiving and indoor shooting. Firing a machine gun really has to be on your list of things to do! Monday night it was off to Ghost Bar on the roof of the Palms Casino for our own party. Quiet one before a big day at SEMA? Hell no! Would love to tell you what happened that night but what happens in Vegas...

On Tuesday and Wednesday the Motive crew organised personal meet and greets with celebrities and drivers at SEMA, so you can follow them around for an inside look at things, or cruise around and check out whatever you like. Trying to tell you how awesome SEMA is would take too long, but take it from me, you must go as your mind will be blown! Wear comfy shoes too.

Being on the tour also meant we got into the best industry parties, including the Formula D party at Aria Casino. Trust me when I say, you've never seen anything like it here, and riding around in limos as a group is cheaper than taking taxis! Andrew seemed to know pretty much every Formula Drift driver there, so we got to meet, drink and party with quite a few of them, making the experience even better. once again, its who you know!

After 2 days of SEMA, Thursday and Friday are choose your own adventure days, but the Motive crew provide plenty of advice on what to do. By luck, the final round of Global Rally Cross was being held on the Thursday on the strip, so we got to watch and meet a host of famous drivers including Ken Block, Rhys Millen and Travis Pastrana! It was wild! Afterwards the biggest limo I've ever seen, called the Dark Knight, took us out to the Mighty Car Mods meet in Vegas to check out the local scene.

The last day in Vegas was spent at the racetrack driving Exotic cars with Dream Racing before racing to the airport to fly to LA. One word of warning about Vegas, make sure you get lots of sleep before you go and bring comfortable shoes, as you will do a lot of partying, a lot of drinking and a lot of walking, but man it was fun!

Driving out of LAX in the tour buses, you quickly realise just how big LA really is, as it takes an hour or more to get anywhere! This is where the tour really makes a difference as each day is planned out to make the most of it, not only checking out car stuff, but the usual sights and sounds. Saturday we were up early to check out the world famous Cars and Coffee in Irvine. It was hard to get up after a week in Vegas, but on arrival, everyone woke up real quick! It was quite simply, the largest, most diverse and best collection of modified, exotic, performance and historic cars. Mind blown!

After Cars and Coffee we headed to Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier for an afternoon and night of sun and fun. A must to visit! Sunday morning we were up again early to head to another meet, Supercar Sunday. Not as big as Cars and Coffee, but certainly woth a look. We then hit Beverly Hills, the Peterson Automotive Museum and Hollywood! Talk about a jam packed weekend!

Monday morning was free time to catch up on sleep, washing and anything else we felt like before visiting the world famous West Coast Customs. Our next stop was one to a place most people hadn't heard of, but cetatinly wont forget now, Bisimoto Engineering. It's not open to the public, but being one of Andrew's buddies, they had food and drink out for us and some of the wildest demo cars you've ever seen on display! It was great to just hang out at an American workshop and shoot the breeze.

Tuesday was the big automotive day, visiting shops you normally can't visit, for tours you normally can't get! First stop was GReddy USA HQ. With a showbag filled with freebies on arrival and their top demo cars on display for us, they certainly pulled out all the stops for us to feel welcome. The next surprise was when GReddy's Formula D driver, Ken Gushi, came down to hang out with everyone on the tour. He even asked some of us for autographs!

Next stop was Rhys Millen Racing, where Rhys took time out from working on Fast and Furious 7 and driving in Global Rally Cross to personally show us around his shop before trading stories and showing us some behind the scenes pics he took on set.  Just when we thought Rhys couldn't be a nicer guy, out came the free t-shirts and Redbulls for everyone!

Our next stop was Cobb Tuning SoCal, where we got to check out some cars they were working on and their dyno facility. Another free T-Shirt to add to  the collection meant my backpack was well past full already!

Our last day in LA was spent doing one essential thing you have to do in LA. Visiting Universal Studios! The perfect way to finish the perfect trip before the 14 hour flight back to Sydney. Not sure if we were all more upset about the tour being over, or the fact we would miss all the new friends we made! The tour really did jam in all the best stuff Vegas, SEMA and LA has to offer. Not having to worry about how to get around, or organisning anything means you can concentrate more on enjoying your time and partying!