At the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas this week,
hundreds of companies entered the New Product Showcase awards
competition, vying for the chance to be singled out over the other
entries as a best-new item. This year, a panel of ten specialty
automotive industry judges reviewed nearly 900 new products.
This year s hottest new trendsetters in each of
the ten product categories are:
Best
New Accessory Product
Lokar Motorsports was the big winner in this category with its
adjustable-level self-locking hood prop. The hood prop automatically
locks when the hood is opened, and it can be adjusted to hold
the hood securely at multiple height levels. Runners up for this
award were Flex-A-Lite and Mothers Polishes, Waxes and Cleaners.
Best
New Mobile Electronics Product
Vizualogic, a division of TMI Products, claimed this year s award
with its VizualogicTM Perfect MatchTM sunvisor monitors. They
replace the factory sunvisors and feature a built-in monitor for
viewing DVDs, videos, games and more reducing installation time
and difficulty for custom entertainment systems. They were followed
by runners up F2P Electronics and Show FX.
Best
New Off-Road/4-Wheel-Drive Product
Chassis Tech s Truckin Suspension lift hanger kit beat the competition
by allowing Ford Super Duty pickup owners to lift their trucks
4 to 8 inches with factory springs for a smooth ride. Right behind
Chassis Tech were the runners up, Dynatech Competition Exhaust
and Extreme Outback Products.
Best
New Performance-Racing Product
Topping the list this year was Design Engineering Inc. s CRY02
Air Charge Freezer. It uses cryogenics technology to freeze the
air going into an engine. This increases the power output because
colder air is denser, allowing an engine to burn more air and
fuel at a time. The air freezes when it passes over a CO2-charged
aerodynamic bulb located in the air intake stream. Runners up:
Edelbrock Corp. and Turbosmart Party Ltd.
Best
New Performance-Street Product
The No. 1 spot this year went to Competition Cams for its ZEX
Nitrous Air Amplifier, which is the first race-quality air induction
system to harness the kinetic energy of nitrous oxide. Tests show
an air flow increase of 50 cfm with just a 75-horsepower nitrous
shot. The runners up were Hawk Performance/Quarter Master and
Evolution Motorsports.
Best
New Street Rod/Custom Car Product
Topping this category was D-M-C with its custom stainless steel
brake master cylinder. It gives custom vehicle builders the choice
of several dual-reservoir, low-profile designs to fit in tight
spaces, plus a variety of custom lid options to suit the owner
s style. Runners up: Aeroquip Eaton Corp. and Flaming River Industries.
Best
New Van/Pickup/Sport-Utility Vehicle Product
The award winner was Street Scene Equipment with its new Street
Scene Hitch Plug and Cover that smoothes out the back end of most
trucks and SUVs and completely covers the hitch area. Next in
line were JSC Engineering and Schefenacker Vision Systems Australia.
Best
Engineered New Product
Davis Instruments runs away with this year s award with its innovative
Carchip E/X that continuously monitors engine and driver performance
and can be downloaded instantly to a PC for detailed analysis
and graphing. Runners up were Hot Rods and Horsepower LLC and
Street Rod Digital Inc.
Best
New Merchandising Display
Leading the pack was Warn Industries with its hot new in-store
display for the 9.5ti Thermometric Winch. Runners up were BCS
by Webb-USA and American Products Co. (APC).
Best
New Packaging Design
Nitrous Express claimed this year s top honor with its TFATF Nitrous
Express Shipping Box, which is visually stimulating with high-impact
graphics that represent the lifestyle of the import racing scene.
Runners up: Automotive Racing Products (ARP) and Centerforce Clutches,
a division of Midway Industries.
Hot new products and designs like these award
winners make coming to the SEMA Show every year mandatory for
those people who want to be successful in our automotive specialty
equipment market, said Christopher J. Kersting, CAE, president
of SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Market Association. Our SEMA
Show exhibitors do a great job each year of outdoing their previous
successes and raising the bar even higher.
Kersting said that this year s new product display
program had new features for both the entrants and those buyers
and media who came to view them. Every product and display shown
in the area had an accompanying press release that featured a
picture of the item, its description, the booth number where the
item was on display and a URL where more information could be
found.
The new product display area was set in a new,
high-traffic location in the North Hall of the newly expanded
Las Vegas Convention Center.
