SEMA Mustang Build Amplifies Women’s Role in Custom Car Design

Mustang Build Powered by Women

SEMA’s Women-only Mustang build project resulted in an awesome car that will hopefully inspire a young generation of women to enter the auto industry.

This year’s SEMA show will include the unveiling of a custom 2013 Mustang GT designed and built entirely by women members of SEMA member organizations. The SEMA Businesswomen’s Network solicited applications from interested parties who had the skills to help carry the collaborative project from design to completion.

The final design concept was chosen by online vote from among three options, and the winner will be developed and built by the selected women over an eight-week period in the headquarters of Source Interlink Media in El Segundo, CA.

Woman painting Mustang project car.

The Mustang transmission, its body accessories, its paint – everything will be modified by the all-woman team in order to reflect the distinctive outward appearance of the chosen design concept and perhaps to tune it to high performance automatic specifications as particularly called for by that design.

The car to be modified was a donated Ford Mustang. The finished product, after being put on display at the SEMA show, will be auctioned on eBay Motors, with the proceeds to be donated to the SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund, which offers $1,000 – $2,000 scholarships to students pursuing any of a variety of careers in the automobile aftermarket industry.

Impact on Young Women

Publicity for the SEMA Mustang Build Powered by Women may encourage more young female students to recognize a place for themselves in that industry.  If so, SEMA will thus help them to both pursue that ambition and to find the financial support to realize it.

Hopefully, being witness to this sort of female engagement in the automobile aftermarket industry will allow certain young women to see a professional place for themselves that justifies the fact they have always found their interest to be held more by a performance automatic Mustang transmission than by a Barbie doll or sewing machine.

As SEMA approaches its 50th year and Ford Motor Company continues to thrive in the wake of its recent financial difficulties, the future looks bright for the automobile and aftermarket industries. And as women continue to make social strides, it looks increasingly like they will have a significant part in that same future.

 About SEMA

The Mustang build showcases skills and inspires young women.

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) was formed in 1963 as a unifying organization for professionals involved at every level of vehicle customization and specialization. To date, the organization is comprised of over 6,000 member companies and groups, including manufacturers, distributors, retailers, installers, racing teams, publishers and more.

SEMA aims to provide broad-ranging support for the hobby of vehicle customization and the consumer market surrounding it. In addition to professional and business development and political lobbying, the organization also holds trade shows, principally the SEMA Show, which takes place in Las Vegas each November.

Now that you have learned about SEMA’s customization project, perhaps you’ll be motivated to learn about Mustang transmission and undertake one of your own.