Performance Racing Industry 2014: Part 1

We’ll be talking about Garrett Turbochargers in a subsequent part, but this Pro Mod dragster running twin Garrett GTX4718 snails reminded me of a Stars Wars storm trooper. 

PRI 2014: Part 1

The Performance Racing Industry shown through the eyes of a first-timer.  Oh my!

by Pablo Mazlumian

I’ve been in the automotive media industry now nearly 15 years.  Granted, nearly all of those years have been part time.  Even so, I was a late bloomer getting to SEMA with my first attendance in 2008, followed by an encore in 2011.  I haven’t been back since.

I liked SEMA.  It was huge, with events going on inside and outside the convention center, along with dozens of show-entered cars parked outside.  Las Vegas isn’t the most boring place on earth to be with friends, either.  But SEMA wasn’t something I was going to want to go to every year, because it’s simply exhausting.  I would be fine with returning there every three to four years. 

On the other hand, people kept insisting I just had go to the PRI (Performance Racing Industry) show, which at the time was in Orlando, Florida.  But I never made it happen.

This year, after finding out just a handful of days before the actual event that it was in Indianapolis, Indiana (much closer to KC, where I live, you see), the wheels started turning in my head.  Then later, when I confirmed that the majority of the MotoIQ crew would be there, I turned toward the kitchen and told my wife, “sweetie, I think I’m going to drive to Indianapolis next week!”  She was supportive, bless her bare feet!

I’m sure glad I went, and I was fired up driving home.  Over the next many pages you’ll see some parts and cars you might have come to expect already, but others that may surprise you.  You'll see PRI 2014 through the eyes of a first-timer, but I must prepare you with this fact:  There was so much to see and share with our readers that I have to spread the coverage over three large articles.  As you might imagine, this show is for every performance-minded gear head!  Now please, follow me…
 

This is one of the entrances to the show.  While it took place over three days, Thursday through Saturday, I was only able to be there Thursday and Friday. 

Before we go in, we must get registered.

This is registration, which was impressively efficient.  I even overheard others talking about how quick it was to get our credentials.  It took me less than five minutes to walk in and out of this room.

Along with my badge, PRI gave me a PRI guide to the city of Indianapolis, a show map, and a 390-page PRI show magazine that I’m sure was expensive to produce, and definitely deserves a shout out!

You may be asking why I'm showing you all of this.  Well, if you had seen the mass of people we entered with the first morning, you would have thought this process was going to take over an hour.  I even tried to take a picture at the time but I had no room to reach around for my camera in my backpack, and stepping away from the herd was going to cost me a few minutes.  But I was wrong.  These guys had their act together.

This may not come as a shock, but the PRI show is a real dude-fest, most of which are either older, or young but looking like Jesse James fabricator wanna-bes.  Still, don't be afraid to come out to PRI 2015 with your beautiful wives because most of us will be looking like we're playing a part in the Invasion of the Body Snatchers (if you got that, you're old too).

Okay I just had to get that out.  Please, allow me…