The short answer
A car gets into the SEMA Show one of three ways: a manufacturer or brand puts it in their booth, a feature programme like the Toyo Tires Treadpass selects it, or it is entered in SEMA’s Battle of the Builders and makes the cut. All three depend on the quality of the build, the relationships the builder has with brands, and a car that is genuinely finished months before November. Garage 46’s Z went in through the Treadpass in 2025.
What SEMA is
The SEMA Show is the Specialty Equipment Market Association’s annual trade show at the Las Vegas Convention Center, held the first week of November. It is a trade event, not a public car show; the vehicles on display are there because an exhibitor or programme put them there. More than a thousand cars fill the halls and the lots outside, and getting one of those spots is a build goal in itself.
Route one: a brand booth
Exhibiting companies, from wheel makers to tuning-software firms, fill their booths with cars that run their products. They pick builds that photograph well and reflect the brand, usually from builders they already work with. The Z carries products from Air Lift Performance, SSR, Toyo, EBC, Fi Exhaust, Mishimoto, Seibon, Corbeau, Fast Turn Fittings and EcuTek, and several of those relationships started years earlier with the Supra.
Route two: a feature programme like the Toyo Treadpass
The Toyo Tires Treadpass is an invitation-only showcase of complete builds on Toyo tires, in its own dedicated space at the show. In 2025 it featured 28 vehicles. Builders submit, Toyo selects, and the chosen cars are listed on Toyo’s SEMA Builds page with their full specifications. The Garage 46 Z was one of the 28, as the first Kuhl Racing Spec-D widebody Z in North America.
Route three: Battle of the Builders
Battle of the Builders is SEMA’s own competition. Vehicles already on the show floor are entered, a panel of past winners judges them, and the field is cut to a Top 40, Top 12 and Final Four across categories including Sport Compact, Truck and Off-Road, Hot Rod and Young Guns, the designation for builders under 29. Garage 46’s founder made the Top 21 overall and Top 7 Sport Compact with the Supra in 2016 and was presented with the Young Gun award.
What it actually takes
- A finished car. Not “finished except the interior”: selection happens in late summer and the car needs photos that prove it.
- A build that is genuinely new or first: a kit no one has fitted on this side of the ocean, a combination no one has tried.
- Documentation. Every part listed, every brand credited correctly. Brands check.
- Logistics from Manitoba: transport to Las Vegas, insurance, a week on the floor, and the drive or haul home in November.
- Years of showing up. The Supra in 2014 and 2016 and the A90 in 2019 are why the Z was taken seriously in 2025.
Why a repair shop talks about SEMA
Because the standard that gets a car through selection is the standard in the bay the rest of the year. If you want a build that could stand on that floor, or you just want your coilovers installed by people who know what properly fitted looks like, that is the point.