Demonstrating the superior performance of one's product is a top goal of most exhibiting programs. However, we gave attendees an unimaginable – and unplanned – pre-show demo after a lead-footed carjacker boosted our supercharged show car.

In the run-up to the 2019 Specialty Equipment Market Association Show (SEMA), a trade fair for specialty automotive products, Quintin Brothers Auto & Performance in Vermont (where I work as a project manager) was customizing a Dodge Challenger for ProCharger Supercharger Systems (a brand of Accessible Technologies Inc.) to display in its exhibit. We spent more than 900 hours completing the project and were still putting the final coat of paint on the back bumper mere hours before the car was scheduled to ship to Las Vegas for the expo. Once it was out of our hands, we breathed a sigh of relief and looked forward to flying out to Vegas a week and a half later to help show it off.

On Friday morning six days before the show opened, we got a panicked phone call from our driver, who told us he'd parked the enclosed trailer containing the car in a Las Vegas casino's lot and turned in for the night. When he came back the next morning, the trailer – along with the $200,000 car – was gone!

At first we thought our driver was pulling our leg, but we soon realized he was quite serious. Our high-performance vehicle had vanished in the middle of the night. I couldn't help but think that we'd been thrown into a nightmare version of "Gone in 60 Seconds." After we picked our jaws up off the floor and managed to slow our racing hearts, we all shifted gears and started problem-solving.

The first thing we needed to do was find that car. I immediately phoned the vehicle's owner and informed him that it had been stolen. Before he could launch into a zillion questions, I told him to report the missing car to the Las Vegas Police Department and Nevada State Highway Patrol so they could find it before it wound up in some chop shop. I knew the police might be able to track the Challenger using the vehicle's Uconnect Access system – unless the thief disabled it, which any 8-year-old could manage.

Next I dialed up ProCharger to let the company know about the unbelievable situation. Once the calls were made, all we could do was wait for updates from the owner. Fortunately, the carjacker was no genius and didn't think to deactivate the tracking device. The police immediately pinged the car at a parking garage at the Golden Nugget Hotel and sent several undercover vehicles to recover it. Alas, they showed up right as the culprit was leaving, and since undercover cop cars still look a lot like regular cop cars, the thief, heretofore known as Ricky Bobby, spotted them and laid rubber as he sped away. Since he careened dangerously toward busy Freemont Street, the officers didn't pursue.

Around midday, the highway patrol tracked the car to another garage at the Rio. This time, the police sent a fleet of squad cars to lock down the garage. A state trooper found the driver backed into a parking space and stopped his patrol car right in front the Challenger, blocking it in. However, the 850 horses under the hood didn't want to be corralled just yet. Ricky Bobby rammed the officer's car out of the way and shot out of the parking ramp. The officer was unharmed, but based on his description of the events, we were under the distinct impression that our show car had a few dings.

This time the police, who were increasingly concerned about the driver's erratic behavior, pursued. After exiting the Rio's parking garage, the guy – who likely watched too many episodes of "The Dukes of Hazzard" – blasted through a fence and lurched onto a go-kart track. Luckily the course was empty when Ricky Bobby took to the track with police in hot pursuit. Before officers could disable the vehicle, the driver exited the arena going about Mach 1. The police soon gave up the chase because the squad cars couldn't keep up. (Clearly they weren't outfitted with a ProCharger supercharger.) The state patrol next located the car at a shopping mall, and that's where the drama quickly decelerated. In a turn of good fortune, Ricky Bobby had abandoned the vehicle, and security cameras showed him hopping onto a bus. So the chase was off. Police impounded the Charger for about five hours that afternoon as they collected fingerprints and evidence. After that, our shipper retrieved the sports car along with the trailer, which had been found that evening. He sent us photos of the vehicle, the likes of which no car-lover should have to endure. The entire front end was mangled beyond immediate repair. It was like the car had gone into the ordeal looking like a greyhound and come out looking like a pug.

Reluctantly, I sent the photos to ProCharger to see how it wanted to proceed. Given the battered appearance of the Challenger, the company wanted to scrap the original plan and abandon the centerpiece. However, where it saw an off-brand eyesore, I saw a potential advantage. I pointed out that our fiasco had made national news and the entire car community was following the saga online, so parking our mangled muscle machine might be a massive traffic builder. After giving the proposition considerable thought, ProCharger agreed and got to work getting signs made identifying the vehicle.

So on Sunday, our transporter delivered the vehicle to the venue, and we parked it in the exhibit with its battered nose right against the aisle so it couldn't be missed. Then we wrapped the exterior with a strand of yellow caution tape and popped the hood to show off the miraculously undamaged supercharger. We even left the thief's garbage and tools inside for the full effect. (He'd strapped a child's car seat in the back. Yikes!) And in case any attendees hadn't heard of the vehicle's recent exploits, we put up signage giving the dastardly details and placed an iPad on the grill that looped news broadcasts about the nefarious escapade.

When the show opened Tuesday morning, our exhibit was bumper to bumper with visitors who wanted to check out the car and hear us tell its sordid tale, which of course led to conversations about the supercharger and its obvious power. And the buzz continued when the news reported on Wednesday evening that our nemesis had been apprehended after a shooting incident. By turning this car wreck of a situation into a couldn't-miss attraction, ProCharger had one of its best shows ever.