By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

SEMA is so big and so crazy that it’s hard to really know what the hell is going on while you’re at the show. It’s definitely useful to come back home, sort through all the photos and blogs and video and reflect a bit. So John, Jen, Jim and I did just that, and then we posted our five favorite rides in each of ten categories. We then turned it over to you guys to vote for your favorites. Well, without further ado, here are the winners of our Best of SEMA 2009 voting, selected by the CarDomain community!

Muscle Cars: Tjin Edition Camaro
Hot Rods: Piss-off-Pete
Light Trucks and SUVs: Cherry Bomb Dodge D-100
Exotics: Underground Racing’s Twin-Turbo Gallardo
Motorsports: Formula Drift Camaro
Off Road Vehicles: Ken Block WRX on Tracks
Sport Compact: Tuner Challenge Scion xB
Green Cars: Factory Five Electric Hot Rod
Luxury: Widebody Bentley Continental GT
Restoration: 1967 Ford Mustang GT500

Thanks to everyone who voted. See pics of all the winning rides after the jump!

Continue reading "Best of SEMA 2009: Here are the Winners!" »

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Welcome to my last post in the “Best of SEMA” series on CarDomain. I have been tasked to bring you the top five “Restorations” from this years nominees. I was absolutely surprised by the number of beautiful, spot-on classics that were represented. I’m not going to include some of the vehicles that look classic, but are actually new builds, restomods, lowriders, or highriders. No, my criteria would be actual vehicles, older than 25 years old, that have been either preserved, or brought back to better than new condition. That’s the rules, now here’s the list.

- There were two Chevrolet Biscaynes in the show with the monster 409, but the 1964 Biscayne wins this round.
- Speaking of Chevrolet, right next to the Biscayne is this knockout 1967 Corvette Sting Ray, with a 427!
- Showing love for the Import Contingent, how about this well preserved Honda N600 Sedan?
- Don Prudhomme’s 1967 Dodge 700 Race Car Hauler, in well preserved condition.
- At the Ford Booth, there was this stunning 1967 Ford Mustang GT500 that was given away.

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By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

Personally, I find most of the traditional luxury cars at SEMA to be a little boring. I just really don’t care if somebody slapped a sweet set of wheels on a 7 Series BMW and rolled it on to the red carpet. Yawn. That said, I’d like to nominate the following cars for best luxury ride: the black Porsche Panamera (not everyone finds it as ill-proportioned as I do) ,  the killer widebody Bentley in the Nutek Wheels booth, the unreal House of Kolor Monte Carlo, this uber-tough diesel powered Caddy, and David Huang’s aggressively attired Lexus IS 300. Even if you think I’m totally high with these choices, vote for your favorite!

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By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

The green category seemed a little subdued this year, and there were a lot of cars we’d already seen during previous visits to SEMA. Still, that didn’t stop us from finding some real standouts in the zero-emissions, electric, hybrid, and alt-fuel divisions–showing that green performance is still alive and well. For one thing, there was the Corsa Motorsports hybrid-electric LMP1 car, which will be running a full series in the American Le Mans Series this year. And the Progressive Automotive X Prize contingent was out in force, vying for the $10 million prize in the race to build marketable ultra-fuel efficient cars–we thought the Saba Motors electric roadster was one of the coolest rides in this section. The LPG-powered ’56 Ford pickup was an absolute knockout with its candy paint, copper-lined engine compartment, and propane-powered 460 big block. That all-electric 1976 Porsche 912 took a more subtle approach to vintage green, looking refined and flawless following its concours-level restoration and EV drivetrain conversion. Then finally there was Factory Five’s new electric hot rod, a total show-stopper that handily lived up to the hype that’s surrounded it in recent months. Vote on your favorite SEMA green car, below!

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By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

While I might be using the term sport compact a little loosely here, I thought all these cars were wicked, so I was able justify shoehorning them into this category. Sue me. Anyway, I’m a sucker for an old-school VW, so I loved Paul Newman’s 351-powered Beetle, and I was really impressed with Rhys Millen Racing’s mid-engine Genesis Coupe, the Fiesta—stock, but awesome—in the Ford booth, the ferocious Fiat 500 and the Scion xB that won the Tuner Challenge. Vote for your favorite below!

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By Jim Brennan

UDMan

I’m still coming off my experience at the SEMA show held about a week ago in Las Vegas. I have been tasked with coming up with the five best off road vehicles at the show. Well, a lot of attendees will choose a high riding pickup truck, but they are virtually useless off road because the axles could not articulate enough. Inside the main halls of the show, there were a lot of jeeps and other vehicles that were on display, and it was very difficult to single them out for nomination. On that note, here are my five distinct off road nominations:

- The Awesome Ken Block Subaru WRX Tracked Vehicle
- This Outrageous Viper Powered Sand Buggy
- The Mickey Thompson Rock Crawler with Wildwood Brake System on the axle.
- The ICON CJ3B
- The TAC-V JAMMA

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By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Ah, motorsports–it’s so much more than racing these days. The motorsports contingent is always huge at SEMA, and it’s one of those categories that can literally go from A to Z: there are so many variations on automotive competition that there’s no way you can expect to capture a representative cross-section. That’s okay–it just allows us to focus on what we find cool, with shameless subjectivity. In the interests of inclusiveness, we’ve tried to hit as many of the hottest motorsports series as our five entries will allow. NASCAR is represented by the new Nationwide Series Mustang, running Ford’s all-new Roush Yates FR9. Then there’s the 2010 Camaro’s debut entry in Formula Drift, which will definitely be on our radar in the coming season. Chris Rado’s insane Time Attack Scion carries the torch for that genre. SCCA is represented, albeit in vintage form, by Bob Boileau’s multiple-championship-winning Civic. And the Traxxas short-course race truck rounds out the motorsports fleet for off-road racing. Um, yeah, we totally skipped NHRA. And a bunch of other stuff. Oh well, time to hit the polls!

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By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

Even discounting the hardware in the Giovanna Wheels booth—which was so dark I couldn’t get decent shots of anything—there were plenty of killer exotics at SEMA this year. As you can imagine, a car has to be pretty special to get attention here, because while a stock Lambo or Ferrari might turn tons of heads on the street, in this sea of insane customization, a machine has to be pretty special to stand out—regardless of its pedigree. All of these machines jumped out at me, but only one of them can win the exotics category. So what should it be, Pagani’s Zonda R, Gumpert’s Apollo, Devon’s GTX, Underground Racing’s twin-turbo Gallardo or Lexus’ LF-A? Vote now!

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By Jim Brennan

UDMan

After completing my first ever SEMA, Rob gave me the assignment to nominate the five best light trucks and SUVs at the show. Are you kidding me? Trying to choose five out of literally dozens of deserving entries is almost beyond comprehension, but I’ll give it a go. So, here is is my list:

- The Cherry Bomb Dodge D-100
- The 1947 Hudson Project
- The Air-Zenith 6 Wheel Topless Mini Truck
- The 1957 Cool Cam Air
- The Pacific Performance Duramax C-10

Cast your vote below!

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Continue reading "Best of SEMA: Light Trucks and SUVs" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

There were scads of hot rods at SEMA this year, even more so than in the last couple of years, when the modern hot rod scene was really diversifying and gaining traction with mainstream car culture. The range of the rod genre was astounding–we saw everything from ultra-built trailer queens to bare-bones rats with the road dirt still on ‘em. And now, it’s time for you to decide on the best hot rod of SEMA 2009. Our candidates include the Rolling Bones ’32 Ford, which wins the distance award for driving from New York to Vegas for the show; Piss-Off Pete, an amazing Peterbilt running a twin-supercharged Detroit diesel; the Truckster in the Painless booth, with its hot flat head V8; Bruce Harvey’s supercharged Ratical Model A; and Priapism, the only rod we found at the show that was running two engines. Cast your votes below!

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