The Judges Have Chosen: And the Winners in the 2002 SEMA Show New Product Display Competition Are...

LAS VEGAS, Nov. 6, 2002; 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 Vizualogic(TM) Perfect Match(TM) 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.

Each year, the SEMA Show rolls into the Las Vegas Convention Center. For 2002, more than 1,500 exhibitors, an all-time record, unveiled the latest in vehicle technologies, products and accessories at the industry-only trade show, held Tuesday through Friday, Nov. 5-8. For more information on this year's show, log on to www.semashow.com .