FORD SLAMS IT AT SEMA WITH THE BIG GUNS BLASTING :

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The 2010 Cobra Jet Mustang. Hide your womens. (FORD)

 Ford brought out the big guns at SEMA 2009, and the Blue Oval continues to show the most promise of the beleaguered Big Three. Yea, so Ford is the main sponsor of this year’s event and you would expect it to assure that everything neat, new, shiny or fast made it to the show. But what was to stop its government-sponsored brothers from trying to steal the show? Was Bill Ford Jr. running security and telling GM and Chrysler “no guys, that’s too cool, you can’t bring it in. IT’S MY PARTY DON’T RUIN IT!!” at the door? Probably not.

It seems that GM and Chrysler are still failing to innovate beyond some creative marketing strategies. GM goes on saying, “may the best car win” when for the most part, these are the same boring appliances it was making before the bailout debacle, with the exception of the Camaro and some awesome cars at Cadillac. The “new-new” Chrysler is still in the midst of its Fiat/government backed restructuring, so it is hard to say what the deepest-in-the-doo-doo American automaker has in store. No matter the fate of the other guys, let’s take a look at some of the cool goodies from Ford and Ford tuners at SEMA 2009.
 

Let's just call it AwesomeBoost. (Ben Wojdyla, Jalopnik) 

Baddest-assed-award: Twin-turbo EcoBoost-powered ’34 coupe: Generally I frown upon modern fuel-injected engines in hotrods, simply because they look silly and out of place and they are usually stuffed into those hot-pink and chrome-slathered atrocity-rods. However here I am willing to make an exception. Not only is this the first non-wrong-wheel-drive application for the EcoBoost V6, but also twin-turbo anything in a ‘34 Ford is totally kick ass. The f’-yea factor is there and nobody else has done this, so it does qualify for genuine hot rod status. I do not see this becoming a trend, nor would I like it to, though. “Hot rodders have always lived by the motto ‘There's no replacement for displacement’… Ford Powertrain and Detroit Street Rods are out to prove that thinking out-of-date with their EcoBoost™-powered '34 Ford hot rod,” said Ford in a press release about the car. This of course is wrong and there is no replacement for V8s in hotrods and muscle cars, and outdated will always be in. The silly notion of turbo-sixes replacing V8s aside, this is one cool ride and the Ecotech V6 is a helluva neat engine.
 

Press types hovering around the Cobra Jet. (SEMA)

I’d slap a baby in the face for it award: 2010 Super Cobra Jet by Ford Racing:  After the 2008 Cobra Jet mopped up the competition at the 2009 NHRA Winternationals and racked up a bevy of other wins, Ford has freshened up its turnkey dragster for 2010 and yes, you would push an old lady to the ground while slapping a row of cute children to drive one. This is a for-real stripped-down racer that is only equipped with what is needed to drive 1320 feet as fast as possible. There is no radio or silly airbags, power brakes or a glovebox—just a clapped-out 5.4 Liter Mod motor with a 4.0L Whipple supercharger that is probably capable of sucking up and combusting a dump truck if it gets too close, and a full cro-mo roll cage in case things get all flippy.  The HP rating is not specified in the press release, but I bet it is somewhere between a sh*tload and a f*uckton. New to the 2010 'jet is Launch Control, so you just hit the button, put it in gear, stomp on the gas and drop the clutch (or release the brake in the slushbox) for a face-smashing launch.  The price has not been set, but the 2008 CJ went for $77,000 to $98,000 so you can bet this track-only car ain’t cheap, and somehow I don’t think that Ford will accept infants for payment, slapped or not.

PBR redneck dream truck award: Ford SVT Raptor XT Is $99,950 the right price for a truck that can only haul one thing? If that thing is TONS OF ASS on dirt roads, then yes, $100k is pretty sweet for a 500hp Baja Pre-runner. OK, so this truck is not your typical lifted with cinderblocks and skateboard wheels redneck pickup with two inches of wheel travel. How’s about 15”/18” in front/rear wheel travel? That is enough to soak up jumps at 80mph without your Truck Nutz even dragging on the ground. Toss in a rollcage, beadlock tires, 5-point belts and you have yourself “a turnkey professional pre-runner with all the comforts of a production Raptor,” so says the Ford press release. However, my dreams of zipping round traffic on the fire roads that surround the 101 are for naught, because this nasty machine ain’t street legal. In all, Ford has produced the pinnacle of truck badassery, and thanks to the price we’ll never see it on cinderblocks or with three couches tied to the roof on the freeway.

WTF, don’t do that again award: All-carbon fiber bodied Mustang RTR-C by pro-drifter Vaughn Gitten Jr. : Have you ever wanted a $135,000 Mustang that looks like your kid neighbor’s Honda Civic? Is a bare carbon fiber hood just not enough for you? I didn’t think so and I am not sure who the hell would want this thing besides delusional teenagers with no money or maybe Michael Phelps. What kind of d-bag attention fiend do you have to be to drive a Mustang wearing a carbon fiber dress? It couldn’t make the car much lighter, it is butt ugly and IT COSTS $135K! Then again this is drifting we are talking about here, which is the pro-wrestling fashion show of racing-if you want to call it racing at all. This car pretty much proves my point and it is such an abortion, I won't show a picture of it here. If you are in the mood for some two-girls-one-cup sort of gagging, look it up yourself. I know this was supposed to be about Ford doing well, but I had to make fun of something, right?

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General Motors 2009 SEMA Design Awards - SEMA Show