Time to hand out the awards for the Best at this year’s SEMA show:

BEST EXHIBIT: WTW Corp. (Giovanna and Gianélle Wheels)
These guys captured the spirit of customization without going over the top. The lineup of cars was impressive to begin with and they dressed them up to a level that gets attention, but does so with impeccable taste. A random Hulk Hogan appearance neither supported nor detracted from their order of business.

BEST GADGET: Palmer Performance DashCommand
By now you’ve probably realized that your iPhone isn’t that great at being a phone. Don’t put it on Craigslist quite yet, because every day there are more applications that may just make it an indispensable tool. The latest is the DashCommand. It’s an iPhone app that diagnoses your engine and also works as a virtual dashboard, dynamometer, skidpad and race-track timer. It works from the iPhone’s touch screen and can be customized to match you—and your car’s—style.

BEST TOOL: Z Corporation 3D Color Printer
This thing is fascinating and a little spooky at the same time. It’s brilliant, but you kinda get the sense that in the hands of say the mad scientist from Scooby Doo cartoons, it could be used for unimaginably diabolical purposes. Here’s an overly simplified synopsis of how it works: The system is comprised of a scanner that will scan any object in 3D. The file that’s created is sent to a “printer,” which lays down resin a few millimeters per pass to build an exact model of the scanned object. Meanwhile it’s also reproducing the color(s) through inkjet surface printing. In a matter a few hours (it builds at about 1 inch per hour), you have an exact replica of the object you scanned. Here’s the cool-yet-freaky part: the replica comes out of the machine complete with any movable parts that were on your original. It does seem like something the Nazis were working on, but in fact was developed by a team at MIT and brought to market by Z Corporation. At $60K a pop, I’m not seeing this under anyone’s tree this year, but it’s also a fairly small price to pay for making knock-offs a matter of punching a few buttons. It’s foreseeable that down the road, this may come down to a size and pricepoint (as other scanners that did “amazing” things years ago have) such that it will end up under the tree and provide hours of fun copying Matchbox cars. We shall see…

MOST INNOVATIVE: Ronn Motor Company Scorpion
What I really wanted was a photo with Barry Meguiar. I sort of got that only because I was standing next to his stage while looking at the Scorpion from Austin-based Ronn Motor Company (RMC). I have seen the future. Or at least a stepping stone to the future. At first glance, it’s easy to pass this off as another Calloway-like, rebodied C5/C6 Corvette that’s been tweaked here and there and thrown back out in the world as another pretty face (albeit in my opinion, the face is perhaps the least pretty thing about it). The Scorpion at SEMA looked especially demure under the canopy in sort of a 70s Ferrari brown (I’m sure it looks much better in the sun). But believe me, there’s nothing demure, or Corvette for that matter, about it: 450 bhp, 2100 lbs., limited production, twin turbos, carbon fibre monocoque—everything you would expect from a supercar in 2008.

Make that everything you would expect in 2012, but available in 2008 (they are officially in pre-production but have plans to build 200 examples on order). What makes this a breath of fresh air is precisely that: fresh air. The Scorpion achieves all this performance while using RMC’s H2GO Hydrogen On-Demand system that actually produces hydrogen through electrolysis of water as it rolls down the road. The 130-octane hydrogen is then injected, as a gas, into the intake mix of gasoline and air in ratios of 30 to 40 percent. This improves fuel economy to as much as 40 MPG (did I mention this is a 450 horsepower car?), while dramatically reducing carbon emissions.

So, if I’m Ronn Maxwell, know what I would do? Go knock on Honda-san’s door and tell him I have the next NSX ready to go (you see, the Scorpion is powered by the 3.5 Litre DOHC VTEC motor from the Acura TL Type S, but with twin turbos and refrigerated intercoolers). This puts the Scorpion into production, drops the current $150,000 price to maybe under $100K, and perhaps most importantly, provides a basis from which other models can descend until we get to a H2GO Civic. I’ll take mine in matte black.

MOST ANTICIPATED: Ford Transit Connect
It’s not a pony car; it’s not a pimped out truck, but I have been looking forward to this thing since its debut in Chicago. And for some reason, seeing it in metal—at SEMA, in smurf blue, tastefully modified by H&R Springs with custom-made OZ wheels and a Piloti interior—was confirmation that I’m not alone in thinking that the Ford Transit Connect has the makings of a sort of rennaisance of custom vans that we haven’t seen since the days of Huggy Bear and Mr. T. Summer 2009 cannot come soon enough.



BEST HOT-ROD: Webb Automotive Art’s Golden Submarine
After all the googaw and over-the-top paint jobs, there was nothing more beautifully refreshing than this handmade, aluminum skinned, minimalist work of art. It is simplicity to it core. It’s methanol-burning motor and radial mounted disk brakes mean business.

BEST PAINT: WTW Corp Lamborghini Gallardo
This year, as in most year, there was no shortage of intricate, masterworks of airbrush artistry and certainly all kudos to those guys. However, continuing with the theme of less is more, what stood out from all of that was a lime green Lambo in the WTW exhibit. What made this above the rest for me was not that it was a Lambo, not that it had pimp wheels, not that it was a color of lime that actually works better for the nature of the car than the stock pearl lime. It was that the car was painted to match the Giovanna wheels and came off fantastic. We’ve all seen wheels painted to match the body, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen a case where the wheels take the lead. The significance is that, as a specialty equipment show, this car put the emphasis in the right place, subtlely perhaps (if you can call fluorescent lime green subtle), but to the point.



BEST BOOTH BABES: Falken Tire
Tire exhibitors stole the show, and with props to the Pirelli and Continental girls, the booth babes at Falken were stunning in the bejeweled blue! Falken ay!

BEST VIP PARTY: Continental Tire Media Lounge
Okay, maybe it’s a reflection on the general state of the economy. Maybe excess is in rebellion, but can a mooch journo get a little something, you know, for the effort? Or maybe I just wasn’t on the right list. This year’s VIP parties were either austere, low-budget yawns or nothing to indicate any measure of importance in VIP. That being said, the Media Lounge that was sponsored by Continental, though it did not declare itself VIP, made us all feel like we were, I don’t know, important. A morning massage, pretty (damn pretty) girls, Wii challenge for those who wished, snacks, cold drinks made this the place to be in Vegas.