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!

I had three other trucks that I had a very tough time excluding, and they were:
- The Blastolene Piss-Off-Pete
- The TAC-V JAMMA V-22 ITV
- and my favorite Big Truck, the 1947 Diamond T

There were a lot of over the top high risers, and very cool low riders in the truck contingent. There were some especially cool heavy duty trucks that were ineligible in this category (and that included the Diamond T), but I was looking for originality, as well as true engineering. All eight of these trucks had it, the top five especially so. Look for my post on the top five off-roaders, and no that list won’t include the high rising trucks either.

It seems crazy to try to pick 10 winners out of over 2,000 rides at SEMA, but we did just that—with your help. So here are the cars that came out on top this year. Thanks to everyone who voted!

Muscle Cars: Dale Jr. Edition Chevy Camaro

Racing and Motorsports: Viscardi Boyz Pro Mod Mustang

Exotics: Lamborghini Reventon

Off-Road: Skyjacker F-150 but still close…

Trucks: Baldwin Motorsports F-150

Luxury: ASI’s Bentley Continental GT Speed

Restoration: Old School Skyline

Sport Compact: Vivid Racing EVO X

Hot Rods: ‘31 Studebaker

Green: X Prize Fox Body Mustang

See pics of all the cars after the jump!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

SEMA took a small step forward in the green category this year. Some of the top "green" vehicles were the Hi-Pa Drive F-150 (via Truck Trend), the E-85 X Prize Fox Body Mustang, the John Deere Smart, the Electric Blazer and of course the Vertical Doors Prius. Which is your favorite?

We didn’t really get out much during the day while we were at SEMA. We were mostly inside wandering the halls of the convention center, or holed up in the media room hammering away on our laptops. But Andy Thomason, who posts over at VWVortex, got out and about during the day while he was at SEMA, and he took some great shots around the city. Be sure to check out all the pics at VWVortex. This set is mostly buildings and exotic cars, but the Charger shot below cracked me up. Oh, and dialup beware!

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Hot rods just keep getting bigger at SEMA every year, especially with the whole traditional scene gaining traction. And the best thing about rods is that they’re infinitely customizable–on these cars, most stuff is purpose-built, and no two are alike, or even similar. For our Best of SEMA voting in this category, we’ve got a whole pileup of wild hot rods–and I have to warn you, Fords are overrepresented, just as they are in the hot rod scene as a whole. At this point it’s a toss-up between the Popeye Model A roadster, the ‘31 Studebaker from the Toyo booth, the Nissan-powered Ford Z-Rod, this crazy Peterbilt rat rod, and the Viper V10-powered ‘32 Ford. What’s your favorite?

By John Coyle

Editor

Part of the fun of going to SEMA is not knowing exactly what you’re going to see. And since we’ve been hearing rumors about the sport compact scene being "dead," nobody on the CarDomain editorial team was sure what kinds of rides we’d find to flesh out this category. But fortunately, the rumors of death were greatly exaggerated, and there were plenty of awesome sport compacts to choose from. So which do you think was the hottest one at the show? The Vivid Racing EVO X, Rhys Millen’s tuned Genesis Coupe, the widebody Yaris 5-door liftback, the Cartel Customs Scion xD or the BatSmart? Cast your vote now!

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

SEMA is all about over-the-top customizing, which is part of the reason why showroom-perfect stock restorations provide such a nice contrast at the show. Don’t be fooled, though—these blast-from-the-past beauties are rarely 100% factory, and it’s always interesting to see what the builder was able to tweak while retaining the original looks. For our Best Of SEMA voting in the Restorations category, we’ve nominated the ‘61 Ford Starliner, this old-school JDM Skyline, this immaculate 1968 GTO, the 1980 Corvette Turbo concept, and this daily-driver Camaro RS. Which of these restos was your favorite?

By John Coyle

Editor

There are always plenty of sweet luxury rides at SEMA, and this year was no exception. I’d never seen the Rolls-Royce Drophead Coupe before, and while it’s huge—damn, is that puppy gigantic!—I thought it was sexy as hell. I also liked ASI’s Bentley Continental GT Speed, the Carlsson Tuned CK50RS, the Silver Shadow with a Hemi swap, and the stretched 300C in the Mopar booth. Which one is your favorite?

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Trucks are HUGE at SEMA. The Baldwin Motorsports F-150 looked tough in photos and even tougher in person. I loved the paint on the Matrix System Silverado. Planet Color had the coolest SSR At SEMA. Orange Crush was my favorite diesel-powered ride at the show. And Mr. Angry loved the Matte Black Tundra in the Toyota booth. Vote for your favorite!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

There are always a ton of cool off-road vehicles at SEMA, and this year was no exception. We followed the ICON builds closely leading up to SEMA, and I got a chance to talk to Jonathan Ward about his awesome ICON FJ43 at the show. The Subaru Mountain Rescue vehicle pretty much dominated the Subaru booth. Mr. Angry really loved the Bushwacker Jeep with the paintball guns. Skyjacker always has cool rides in their booth, and their pre-production 2009 F-150 did not disappoint. And Jen went nuts for the retro style Tacoma in the Toyota booth. So what’s your favorite?