SEMA show: Big three sweep show awards

AMERICAN vehicle manufacturers have again taken a clean sweep of all five categories in the annual awards for the “hottest” production cars at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas.

Hot-rodded vehicles from General Motors took two of the awards, for hottest coupe (Chevrolet Camaro) and hottest sedan (Cadillac CTS-V), while rival Ford also grabbed two trophies, for the hottest hatch (Ford Focus) and hottest truck (Ford F-Series).

Jeep Wrangler snaffled the final award – for the hottest 4x4 SUV – for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA).

The awards, which reflect the crowd favourites for customisation, are decided on the votes of the 2400 manufacturer exhibitors at the show – the world’s biggest vehicle after-market equipment exhibition – held annually at the Las Vegas exhibition centre.

A trio of Hot Wheels-themed Chevrolet Camaros tickled the fancy of the voters in the coupe category.

The dress-up package can even be applied to Chevy’s annual limited-edition batch of 69 COPO – standing for Central Office Production Order – track-only supercharged Camaros designed for drag strip enthusiasts.

Dressed in metallic orange paint, called Supercrush, and bearing black, white and orange stripes in the style of Hot Wheels toy Camaros of yore, the livery can also be ordered on lesser Camaros in the United States, including the standard coupe, convertible and SS variants.

A special orange and black interior treatment and orange brake callipers are among the special touches on the special edition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Hot Wheels phenomenon.

If the car is too much, Hot Wheels also offers a die-cast toy edition.

Ford’s Focus and F-Series both went back to back in the SEMA awards in their respective categories.

The Jeep Wrangler has taken out the 4x4 SUV award for the eighth successive year. Jeep says 98 per cent of Wranglers sold in North America have at least one Jeep accessory.