By Dean Larson

Photos by Dean Larson and Jeff Bruss

Blowers, throttle bodies, triple carbs and radical intakes. They're like the jewelry of the automotive hobby. Nice meaty machined surfaces, all made even better looking by their dedicated purpose of horsepower. Sure some of these selections lean slightly more toward form than function with gold-plated valve covers and fancy paintwork, but just as many trade in the decorative finishing touches for raw horsepower. Take Bigfoot's blown V8 with Predator racing carburetors for instance! 

But a fair few of these engines are an ideal mix, a utilitarian form beautified by trick components and alluring details. My choice is this turbocharged HEMI (see featured photo), which powers a 1964 Dodge Polara built by the Roadster Shop. The 426 ci Mopar engine was built by Wegner Motorsports and is force fed by a pair of Garrett GTX3582R turbochargers. I've raved about this Polara in a few other blogs, so I'll leave it at that for now, but if you have a favorite from SEMA 2017, let us know in the comments below.