(Photos by Dave Nutting, the author, random people about town, Charles Wickam, and a cat named Boots) – Hello and welcome to the 2013 BangShift Awards For Automotive Excellence. These awards were decided on by a panel that included a five and seven year old boy, the recycling truck driver on our street, and me. We’re looking back at the BangShift cars of 2013 and awards those vehicles that made a major impact on the lives of you the readers. Sure, if we wanted to get an accurate picture of that we’d have asked YOU to vote on stuff but that’s not how we roll. We give you the awards and you’ll like it. OK? Is that too much to ask? There was much clamoring and fighting among the panel making these selections because I promised candy to the participants and they freaked out long before we got done. Therefore most of the selections were made by me alone.

Without further adieu, let’s get on with the awards!

The Car That On Paper Should Be Weird But In Real Life Rules Award Goes to…..

The War Horse! Wickam shot this car and it is hella neat. When he said it was a straight axle Mustang with lace paint on slot mags I was nervous, but he was right. Full on badassery!

Check the feature here: THE WAR HORSE MUSTANG

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Best recreation of a super obscure historical drag car –

Kelvin Cannon’s recreated and totally homebuilt Bill Thomas fastback Chevy Nova! Only six were originally built…this is their cousin once removed

Check the feature here: A Homebuilt Bill Thomas fastback Nova

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The most amazingly dangerous and completely pointless car of the year –

The Deathmobile RX7…that’s you! We mean pointless in a good way. This thing sounds like the end of the world and is capable of causing mass casualties in the wrong hands.

Check the feature here: The Deathmobile – A blown V8 RX7 that will kill you without remorse

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The coolest car built in my neighborhood this year….or since ever –

The AMX-GTO come on down! This car was literally built less than a quarter mile from my house. It is a 2006 GTO mashed up with an AMX and it rules.

Check the feature here: The AMX/GTO is homebuilt badassery

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The car that finally made my wife think that this whole BangShift thing may work out after all –

The 2014 Mustang GT convertible! Of all the cars that have passed through the BS driveway this year, it was the Mustang that captured by wife’s heart. A perfect summer whip!

Check the feature here: 2014 Mustang Convertible review  

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The most huge truck that I was obsessed with and Dave Nutting didn’t understand award goes to…..

This totally effing awesome and unstoppable snow fighting Unimog! Nutting looked at me like a psych ward patient when I broke down in tears while scoping this baby out. He doesn’t get it.

Check the feature here: Unimog Snow Fighter 

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The highest performance fatty fatty two by four award of 2013 goes to….

The 2013 Ford Taurus SHO! Waddle on down here tough skins. You weigh like 4,500lbs but you haul ass, handle great, and have a sweet, sweet sexy interior. You carry it well.

Check the feature here: Run Silent, Run Deep, We Drive the 2013 Taurus SHO

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The vehicle I laid eyes on for the first time and is forever seared into my squirrel sized brain award goes to —

The Costella/Cunha/Bassasno Nebulous Theorem VIII. There are really no words, just a memory of my brain trying to short circuit itself when gazing upon this at Bonneville

Check the feature here: The Most Insane Vehicle I Have Ever Seen

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The car I have driven but not written anything about yet even though I actually liked it and was shocked by its performance award –

I thought for sure I was going to hate this and then it turned out to be pretty fast, handled like it was on rails, and had a sport mode that was the balls. Stick around, comparison feature coming soon!

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The car I would most likely sell a child to own award goes to….

This flipping incredible Chevy gasser from the Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion. Olds engine, blue tinted glass, absolute and utter perfection –

Check the feature here: 1935 Chevy Gasser is green perfection

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The most shockingly expensive vehicle we got the chance to test out this year award goes to….

The $65,000 GMC Denali 2500 HD truck! Loaded with more options than a Lear Jet, this thing was fun to drive, stupid fast for its size and fit in as Nutting and I cruised around nice parts of Boston leering at the ladies.

Check the feature here: GMC Luxury Liner

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The car that made my kids cry for joy when it came and weep for sorrow when it left award goes to….

The 2013 Hot Wheels Edition Camaro! This also won the “Car that should have had a freaking stick shift” award as well. Tom broke down in tears of joy when it arrived at our house and wept when it drove off.

Check the feature here: 2013 Hot Wheels Edition Camaro

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The most absurdly giant truck featured on BangShift in 2013 award goes to….

The Kenworth 963 oil field truck! With an 800,000lb payload capacity and a diesel engine capable of overthrowing the government, these are the ultimate trucks.

Check the feature here: Heavy Iron – How the Kenworth 963 is built

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The most cool and odd thing we saw sitting at the side of the road in Maine that has historical value award is handed to….

The Greyhound Transporter from the 1964 World’s Fair that lives near Old Orchard Beach, Maine! Rare, weird, and totally BangShift approved!

Check the feature here: 1964 Greyhound Transporter

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The most awesome and functional truck built by an old man with 50 forward gears award lands in the capable hands of….

This Cummins powered Dodge with a 10-speed Road Ranger and 5-speed auxiliary box. 50 forward gears, ac, tucked dually rear, and tan paint. We died and went to heaven.

Check the feature here: This bitchin’ truck has 50 forward gears

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The blunt force trauma makes physics its bitch every time award goes to….

Sean Mote’s 186mph (in the standing mile) Caddy with turbocharged 500ci Cadillac power. This was one of the most popular features of the year because this car is so good it makes us yell swears.

Check the feature here: Sean Mote’s turbo Caddy powered Caddy is gunning for 200mph in the standing mile

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The not overdone, not over thought, gets the wheels driven off of it and does epic burnouts award was won by….

This 1966 Buick Special that embodies everything a street machine should be. Plus Wayne shows up to my house and we drink beer in the driveway. He wins.

Check the feature here: 1966 Buick Special is simple and awesome

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The coolest freaking race car that I rode around in on slicks in the rain award is happily granted to….

The Jeep Cherokee XJ-R! The feature has only been up for a couple days but as cool as it is in the photos and stuff, it was even ballsier in person!

Check the feature here: The turbo Jeep XJ-R

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The vehicle that took on Chad and his mighty ZL-1 Camaro and took him to the mat multiple times, scoring glorious victory and accolades from around the globe award…

The 2014 Chevy Silverado 1500 Z71. While I may not have been the clear cut victor in the Chad/Brian Chevrolet death match, it was a great truck that I’d cruise across country in a heartbeat.

Check the feature here: We drive the 2014 Chevy Silverado 1500 Z71

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The little car I drove, liked, gave an honest opinion on and then got reams of hate mail from people near and far award goes to….

Goes to the 2014 Mazda 3. This little bastard got people all kinds of up on the chip. It swallowed all of our luggage, took us to the mountains, and was fun to drive. I can’t apologize for that.

Check the feature here: 2014 Mazda 3 short shift

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The car I love the mostest out of everything else this year award…

Project Buford T Justice, our in house ugly bastard of a Chevy Caprice. I drag raced it. Autocrossed it. Added parts and violence along with lots of laughs in 2013. It’ll be back in ’14. I promise!

Check out all of Buford’s antics here: Buford T Justice -the saga of an ugly Caprice

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The absurdly expensive cars we’ll be running our first ever head to head comparison story on next week award goes to…

The $72,000, 430hp luxomatic Hyundai Equus and the $71,000 410hp Cadillac XTS-V Sport. They’re big, they’re fast, and they’re wayyyyyyyyyy out of our price range. We’re giving ’em hell!

Jeez, there’s not a 1969 Camaro in the bunch….huh. We must be doing it wrong. NAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

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The Vehicle Most Likely To Cause Me To Wander Off Into The Woods And Live In A Cabin Award (Also known as the “I forgot to add this to the story and just sent Nutting a text message to fill this in last minute on his lunch break” Award)…

The 12V92 Detroit diesel-equipped 1999 Ford F-250 that Brian lusted over all week at Bonneville. Yes, the fact that a truck that Brian literally named the “Blunt Force Truck” wasn’t able to walk away with the “Blunt Force Trauma” award confused me as well. With an 1100 cubic inch motor fed by two turbos each big enough to swallow a toddler, backed by a Road Ranger ten-speed manual transmission, and with a top speed of 220 MPH, this should have cleaned the Caddy’s clock. Consider this an upset on the level of the 1980 US Men’s Ice Hockey medal round against the Soviets, only it’s a 788 horsepower Caddy defeating a 14,000 lb truck…Wait, where I am going with this?

Anyway, this truck may want to make Brian go off into the woods, but it makes me want to smoke the tires at 100+ MPH.

Check out the feature here: Blunt Force Truck: A 220+ MPH Bad Ass 1999 Ford F-250 Powered By A Twin Turbo V-12 Detroit Diesel