#SemaShow2010

What would you get if you took a Corvette Grand Sport, added Z06 wheels, and opened up the Genuine Corvette Accessories catalog and ordered up everything available with the Corvette Racing “Jake” logo? Well, you’d get the 2011 Chevrolet Corvette Jake Edition Concept debuting this week at the 2010 SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

GM invited us out to Vegas a day early to treat us to a sneak peek at some of their SEMA Show cars. We met at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, home to the Ron Fellows Racing School – along with one of the best private member tracks in the world. The first car that GM showed us looked right at home in this setting – The 2011 Chevrolet Corvette Z06X Track Car Concept.

The Chevy Camaro was definitely the darling of SEMA 2009, and it looks like this last pony car to the party might steal a few hearts this year too. GM invited us out to Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump to preview some of their show cars, and along with the similar Corvette Z06X, they had this Camaro – the 2011 Chevrolet Camaro SSX Track Car Concept.

There’s no questioning that SEMA is the number one aftermarket automotive show of the year, but there’s also no denying that it has lost a lot of its luster the last couple of years. We can probably blame the economy’s downturn for most of it, but at least now we know that SEMA is trying to work harder to get the automotive manufacturers involved with the aftermarket.

This year SEMA is introducing the Hottest Vehicles awards for the most popular vehicle in the pickup truck, 4×4 and car categories. But judging and selecting the winner isn’t exactly based on what you think it would be. Instead of just finding the coolest car of the show, SEMA officials will count the number of registrations per vehicle and the vehicle with the most registrations will be awarded the Hottest Vehicle of their respective category.

Get it yet? It’s more like a popularity contest in order to get the vehicle manufacturers more involved with the aftermarket companies. It’ll be interesting to see if this has any impact to the show as a whole. How much would you value a SEMA hottest vehicle award when choosing which car to buy?

See the official release (including which vehicles have been nominated for the first ever Hottest Vehicles Awards) after the jump:

Based out of High Springs, Florida, Droptop Customs is a specialist in converting coupes to convertibles. The newest creation to their line of products is Cadillac‘s CTS Coupe and we have to say there’s a sort of sporty elegance to the final product. We’ll have to wait for this year’s SEMA show to see it in person, but given their track record we’re confident that it’ll be a solid conversion.

Design-house Gurnade has just teased us with another of its 2010 SEMA projects. This time it’s a Chevrolet Camaro built by Gene Marcel on behalf of aLL STaR Performance. This won’t be Gene’s first stab at building a SEMA project, having done successful ones in the past including a Volvo S40 that we saw ourselves in the Status Racing booth back in 2006 and a Honda Fit recently in 2009.

His 2011 Chevrolet Camaro will truly have an all star cast of products starting with a supercharger from Lysholm under the hood. The exterior will receive plenty of toys from Extreme Dimensions, Air Lift Suspension, Forgestar Wheels and Falken Tires. On the inside it looks like Gene will be gearing up with Status Racing again, STACK, Autometer and custom interior from Trent’s Trick Upholstery. On the outside the Camaro will be painted with a custom blend from Dupont.

We’re sure more exciting SEMA 2010 leaks will be coming soon and we’ll be sure to be one of the first to report them.

Press release available after the break.

Hybrid tuning is about to take on a whole new face now that Honda‘s CR-Z has hit the market. Tjin Edition has been building plenty of SEMA showpieces including their most recent Chevrolet Camaro, and this year they have teamed up with Fortune Motorsports out of Miami, Florida and American Honda Motor Corporation for this year’s SEMA show.

Proving that Honda is adamant in pushing CR-Z sales to the masses, including tuners and builders, Fortune Motorsports and Tjin Edition have already teased their upcoming project well in advance of November’s SEMA Show. From what we can gather, the CR-Z will be sporting ADV1 wheels with Falken Tires, Status Racing seats and Air Lift suspension. With how successful the Prius and Insight are doing in Japan, we can only imagine the potential of the CR-Z. Will this generation of tuning catch on in America? We sure hope so, it’s always refreshing to see something new and exciting.

Official press release available after the break.

As a brand, Scion has marketed its cars to a younger demographic that is interested in modifying/personalizing their vehicles. And with a new, second-generation tC model due out for 2011, it will be interesting to see if tuners continue to be drawn to Scions.

In a definite sign of interest Gurnade (which specializes in high-quality car renders for builders within the sport compact market) has teamed up with Tjin Edition for this Scion tC render.

The bright yellow paint is probably the first thing you’ll notice in this customized tC, but if not, then it’s probably the widebody fenders or chopped roof. The gigantic DPE wheels look a little overwhelming, but is a good fit to the wider tC. A more aggressive front bumper and side skirts naturally go with the package along with the Status Racing seats, Air Lift suspension and custom cage.

For those that have never seen Tjin Edition’s previous Scion tC, it follows a similar idea minus the chopped roof and bright yellow paint. Originally red, Tjin Edition’s widebody tC turned bright blue and was campaigned all across the nation for several years.

Gurnade says that this Scion tC project isn’t planed for SEMA (although we’re still tempted to think it is). The design house will, however, have several other models to show off and AutoGuide will be sure to bring you extensive coverage of the world’s largest aftermarket expo in November.

Plus, say tuned for our review of the all-new 2011 Scion tC in just a few days.

Official press release after the break.