2018 has been a killer year for experiencing and being involved in cool stuff. A personal highpoint was being part of the judging panel for an innovative new awards program that JE Pistons came up with for the SEMA and PRI shows. Called, “Masters of Motors” the contest is effectively the first of its kind because it is strictly based around engines. Not cars, styling, stance, wheels, paint, or anything like that. Literally JUST engines. In their misguided judgement, JE Pistons chose me to be the host of the thing and brought in an awesome judging panel that included Steve Brule, the dyno guru from Westech Performance and Engine Masters, Mike Kojima the editor-in-chief of MotorIQ.com, and David Freiburger of, well, here, Roadkill, and all of his other projects. I was the fourth man in.
We had multiple categories to judge and decide. We each got a zone of the show and went after it in attack mode, looking at entries, seeking out stuff that had not entered but qualified, and generally trying to do the best job we could of seeing anything and everything that we could. We worked into the night for a couple of days and as you will see, this video was shot late at night when we were the only people on the show floor. It was pretty cool.
The show below gives you an idea of how freaking hard this was. To choose the best engines that fit the ethos of the contest was not easy. Also, because it was the first one we were kind of setting the tone of how this thing will go on for years. As you will see, the debates were real and the passion behind our decisions was real as well.
Masters of Motors was contested at PRI as well. When that video comes out we’ll share it here as well.
