The final day of the SEMA Show is followed by a post show event, but it’s no ordinary after-party. Hosted directly across the street from the Las Vegas Convention Center, SEMA Ignited offers enthusiasts a chance to share in the excitement of the trade-only event that rocks Sin City each year.

This unique post-show happening allows every-day car enthusiasts the rare opportunity to view some of the newest and most innovative performance products for 2018 installed on many of these vehicles as well.

The event includes food, music, drift demonstrations, celebrities, iconic builders, and displays. Filming for a nationwide TV special also takes place, as the winner of the SEMA Battle of the Builders competition was crowned at the event.

But what many people don’t get to experience is just how much fun it is to be in the driver’s seat of one of the project vehicles as it makes its way through the Las Vegas Convention Center to the SEMA Ignited event.

At 4 p.m. on the dot on Friday, SEMA Ignited sparks up as thousands of fans packing the bleachers outside watch and cheer as the first of the featured vehicles makes its way out of the convention center for the SEMA Cruise. After four days inside the LVCC, it’s almost a right of passage to be able to fire up your project vehicle and cruise the parade route.

This year, we had the chance to attach our GoPro Camera to the top of Ford’s hottest hatch and follow the Optima Ultimate Street Car team, whose chosen vehicles kicked off the cruise this year, as they made their way to the after party. Led by a full police escort, these performance machines made their way down the convention center road, revving their engines to the delight of the crowd.

Taking part in the cruise and acknowledging the crowd was important to us this year as Las Vegas was still healing from the tragic events that took place only a month prior. It truly was awesome to see the huge crowd of supporters that came out in full force this year.

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While there are plenty of  videos showcasing the cars and trucks as they made their way to SEMA Ignited, we shared the raw video footage here to show fans exactly what we experienced, from a driver’s point of view, as we made our way to SEMA Ignited.

We had a blast cruising this year. Even though we were stuck behind a non-Ford vehicle for most of the cruise, witnessing the large crowd of Vegas Strong car enthusiasts who came out in force to support the event was really what it was all about.