In our typical making-it-up-as-we-go fashion, we kinda kicked off the whole Hooniversal Car of the Year on a whim and never decided who’d wrap it all up. I just checked the post queue, and it appears no one else is, so here we go. Jump!
The Saucy Minx, Murilee Martin made a good case for the now-retired (for civilians) P71 Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. V8 power, lots of room, surprisingly good handling and A-pillar mounted spotlights are hard to beat. Nearly indestructible and easy fixed, it’s a weird mix of slow and fast, of authority and rebellion. Anachronistic perimeter frame for the win?

Graverobber left us initially crying cop-out, but then brought us around with his choice of the Mustang (like, all of them) as the HCOTY. A little obvious, but massively undeniable as synonymous with cheap performance. We like cheap performance. Personally, the 5.0L exhaust note is the standard against which I measure all other V8s. Even more personally, The Missus and I spent our honeymoon driving up the California coast in a ’68 GT/CS. It’s hard to be into cars and not have a Mustang experience.

Han Solex brought us the Jaguair. Despite our seemingly devil-may-care attitude, we still enjoy slowing down to appreciate the over-the-top attention to detail and dedication to subtle quality fit and finish found in Jay Eitel’s Jaguair. One doesn’t normally associate this level of work with Jaguar or Corvairs. An oddball motor in an oddball car, done better than either was from the factory? Yeah, we can go for that.

Reversing that idea, our readers (you) decided to nominate a formerly incredible car, turned awesomely terrible through mediocre welding and zip-tie fixes: Der ÜberBird – a 1982 BMW 633CSi turned LeMons racer. I’ve put blood and sweat (no tears…boys don’t cry) into that car, and I can tell you it’s been an absolute blast to turn a car that was 2 weeks from the junkyard into a lousy excuse for a race car. The antics seem to make for good reading, too. The arrival of Mad_Science_Jr is inconvenient for the ’10 LeMons season, but we’ll do our best be be back in action for August’s Thunderhill Arse-Sweat-apalooza.
2009 was a lousy year to be an auto maker, despite the most powerful, fastest crop of cars ever born unto this earth. It’s like the better they get, the worse it gets for them. Case in point – the Pontiac G8 GXP, Tomsk‘s nominee. It’s a car Pontiac could’ve and should’ve been building since the 90s, but when it finally arrived proved to be too little too late. Will the chassis live on? Maybe Bob Lutz is reading right now, and will bring it back if the G8 GXP wins HCOTY. Maybe not.
Ken Imhoff. If you’re reading this site, you need to know that name. Imhoff spent years building an aluminum-bodied, Ford-powered Countach in his basement. Truly, his copy is better than the car it’s based on. Small problem with building a car in your basement: how to get it out? Dig a hole and knock out a section of foundation, of course. Like the Jaguair, this is another custom car that we need a better word than “custom” to describe (hmmm…Hooniverse Asks?). The attention to detail and dedication to doing it right is what sets Imhoff’s Lambo apart. While you’re at it, stop by his site and buy some merch. The man’s got bills to pay.
Mr Significantly Less Fat (until we get him back to The Bucket) Braff is not really an anglophile. He’s not really into trucks, SUVs, or off-roading. Yet for some reason, he loses it at the sight of a Land Rover Defender, the 110, to be precise. It gets major points for rocking an engine with a cool/weird history, being right hand drive, and seating nine. If it wins Braff’s promised to show up to the next Cars and Coffee in a pith helmet.
The most prolific man in amateur car blogging, UDMan, supplied us with some awesome (if a little belated by the time we ran it) SEMA coverage. Rat Rods as a phenomenon are rapidly approaching the “gone pop” stage, so it’s taking more and more to set oneself apart from the crowd. Powered by a Cummins turbo-diesel, Steve Darnell’s rod is trimmed out with all sorts of tractor/truck themed details. 700hp, 1270lb-ft of torque and mid-12-second ETs help, too. If we had to go for a Hooniverse Rod of the year, this’d definitely be it.
Dearthair (a name I still refuse to pronounce) brought up a real doosy: Eric Bana’s 1974 Ford Falcon Coupe, aka The Beast. Bana has crazy stupid rich guy money, he should be rolling in an X6M or Bentley or something. So why is he so dedicated to his mid-70s muscle car? Because he’s One of Us.  He’s dedicated to His Car in a way that only we understand. The Beast is that car. Or are you more of a love-em-and-leave-em kind of man whore hoon?
Because I’m writing this up, I’m taking the last spot. I nominated Sebastian’s 1979 Hurst/Olds Cutlass Calais. Sebastian is a German dude who was in the states on a limited-time visa. He wanted an American driving experience, so he bought this 6.6L Malaisemobile. This is the kind of behavior we started this site to encourage. This is the kind of car we started this site to worship. The bittersweet $1000 quick-sale kept it from going to The Yard, but serves as a stinging reminder that you all need to get off your collective asses and pick up a bitchin’ cheap driver-project car in 2010. They’re out there, waiting for you.
Hit the poll below and we’ll tally the results by some arbitrary deadline 12 noon (pacific) tomorrow.
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