At this year's International Consumer Electronics Show, more Ford vehicles will be on display than ever before . One of those vehicles will be the 2009 Ford Flex.

I never thought I'd say this with a straight face but remember the Funkmaster Flex? It's back. The Funk (those of us that are down can call it that) that was shown at this year's SEMA show will be making an appearance at CES complete with its Dolby Pro Logic II sound system.

Combine that with the fact that Ford will start putting Sony audio systems in their cars and suddenly branding them Audiophile doesn't seem so ironic. Ford will also debut their next gen navigation system at CES in a 2009 Lincoln MKS . Standard on that new nav system will be Sirius real time traffic, local gas prices and weather forcasts.

We expect that system to have a hard drive for music storage and that should be tied in to Sync which means voice command for the entire hard drive. Look for the system to display CD cover art and utllize Gracenote software.

Looks like Ford just jumped from backmarker to technology innovator in less than a year.

Brian Moody, Road Test Editor

This nifty Volvo Surf Rescue Concept was conceived by Volvo and built by Aria, a concept car building firm from Irvine, CA. The car was first shown at SEMA. 

Other than some eye-catching graphics, the 3.2L, 235 hp car has been given a 5" suspension lift, oversized floation-type tires, and modified body panels. The interior has also been given the beach once-over.

Full story here.

Nothing special about this Holden Commodore Ute hawking Australian brakes, right? Maybe not. But it was wearing Michigan Manufacturer license plates. The Michigan manufacturer that owns Holden would be General Motors.

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We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Flat black paint makes just about anything look a little tougher. Take this 2008 Lexus IS-F for instance. It was built by Five Axis and although it’s far less shiny that the IS-F that participated in our recent comparison test, we like the looks of this one much better. Part of the credit goes to its wide body conversion kit and the 20 inch wheels, but it’s the Satin Black Pearl paint that really makes it. Don't expect to see any of its upgrades available as factory options anytime soon.

 Simple, clean, fast - this '69 Corolla has a turbocharged 1.8 liter engine. Less is more - Brian Moody, Road Test Editor

The name of this little device may be a bit of a euphemism if you're a teen driver borrowing the family car. The GPS Buddy  tracks where your car has been and sends that info back to a computer of your choice. On the other hand, if you're a fleet manager it's a plug and play solution to tracking and managing vehicles.

Combined with a Garmin navigation system, drivers can send messages, recieve navigation instructions and route suggestions as well as text messages - Brian Moody, Road Test Editor

Nothing goes better with spinners, donks and gold chains than a Elvis impersonator - gotta love SEMA. This guy was hanging out at the Music Giants Airstream trailer.

Music Giants is a download service that offers high definition, lossless recordings. They also sell something they call Super HD and that essentially means you can download music with DVD-A sound quality. Some are true 5.1 surround.

Select tracks have a sample rate of 11,000 kps so even the untrained ear will be able to hear the difference compared to an MP3. Music Giants also has a service where they will custom build a hard drive for your car that's full of music based on your taste - but it ain't cheap. Prices start at $500 for a 267 song collection. Spend $50,000 and you get a custom collection put together by your own personal Music Giants concierge.

Individual downloads are a $1.29 but most super HD selections are "album only" and those are about $20 each. Oh, and here's the kicker for some people - many selections are DRM free which means you make as many mix CDs as you want and you can legally share these files with friends.

We're not exactly sure where this is all going but it's clear there's a market for this kind of premium download service. If you opted for the Logic 7, JBL or Mark Levinson sound system in that new car, why would you want to listen to low-res music from downloads? Brian Moody, Road Test Editor

 

This vintage funny car was one of the coolest cars at SEMA. When I saw the Vega bodied funny car, I suddenly felt as if I was back at Lion's Drag Strip, sitting in the stands next to my dad, drinking a Coke with crushed ice from wax paper cup. Night races were the best, I can still see fire dancing out of the pipes and feel the ground shake as the cars blasted through the dark, light, dark, light sections that lined the track.

I gotta start taking my kid to drag races - Brian Moody, Road Test Editor

Did you ever wonder what a Toyota 4Runner would look like with an FJ Cruiser front end? Well, nobody else did either, but this is SEMA so the obvious ideas are not always the ones that get built. That said, Toyota did a pretty good job of blending its two truck-based SUVs. Almost all of the changes were made from the A-pillars forward, but there are few updates farther back like the squared-off rear wheel openings and swinging tailgate. The dashboard is from an FJ, too, complete with inclinometers and a compass. -- Ed Hellwig, Lead Senior Editor

The SEMA Show is all about extremes. The biggest. The dumbest. The craziest. It's a show that takes moderation and crushes it under the 30-inch tires of a Donk. Or is it a Bubble? Whatever. It's fun. And it thankfully happens only once a year. Enjoy this tour of SEMA extremes. Look at all 20 and then tell me which is your favorite? -- Scott Oldham, Inside Line Editor in Chief



Extremely high.



Extremely expensive.

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