After last year's TomTom Traffic Index study named three major Canadian cities to the top 5 list for worst traffic in North America, it seems things just aren't looking any better for frustrated drivers in BC. Although we love to see Canadian cities rank high on top of many international surveys, it's clearly no honour to have Vancouver, BC named the most congested city in both Canada and North America.

That's right folks, Vancouver's traffic jammed highways and byways have officially been placed ahead of the infamous gridlock found in Los Angeles (which had previously defended the title). Current travel times throughout Vancouver are said to take about 36 per cent longer at peak hours when compared to the exact same route during non-rush hours. According to the annual survey performed by navigation and traffic management experts TomTom, this data puts Vancouver one per cent ahead of the car driving chaos in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the survey suggest other Canadian rush hour rivals have surprisingly improved, as both Toronto and Montreal managed to sneak further down the list this year, respectively holding down seventh and tenth place. Worldwide this most recent ranking also places the city of Vancouver in seventh overall among the 169 cities ranked in TomTom's global traffic index.

Our best advice to all Vancouver commuters out there would be to get this Blow-Up Traffic app and start blasting your way through gridlock with a few good laughs. Click here to view the complete list of most congested cities in North America.

The Middle East is a vital market for Rolls-Royce, particularly in the Gulf emirates. So the British automaker wouldn't let the region's premier auto show go by unnoticed, and to that end has rolled into the Dubai Motor Show with an array of special editions.

Chief among them is the Celestial edition Phantom, a customized limousine that initially debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show but has returned to Dubai with the addition of 446 diamonds hand-set into the door panels, centre console and cabin privacy partition. Taking the spirit of the Phantom's trademark starlight headliner even further, the Celestial edition reproduces overhead the constellations exactly as they were on the evening of January 1, 2003, when Rolls-Royce delivered the first Phantom to its owner, as verified by the South Downs Planetarium in Chichester, England.

The Bespoke division also fitted the Celestial Phantom with inky blue leather, special glassware and a custom picnic set. The wheel hubs are also engraved and the Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament uplit, demonstrating just a few of the possibilities awaiting those with the means not only to buy a new Rolls-Royce, but also commission special features from the Bespoke department.

The Celestial Phantom is joined at the Dubai Motor Show by the Chicane edition Phantom Coupe and the Alpine Trial edition Ghost, as well as the Middle Eastern debut for the new Wraith coupe.

Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) announced yesterday at Ford's SEMA press conference that it will field a Ford-Riley Daytona Prototype with the 3.5-litre EcoBoost V6 in the 2014 United SportsCar Championship (USCC). CGRFS is the second team to commit to the new Ford-Riley car, behind Michael Shank Racing (which has already used the racecar to break a 26-year-old top-speed record at Daytona International Speedway).

"Over the last 10 seasons we have been able to experience a great deal of success in Grand-Am," Chip Ganassi says, "and now with the dawn of the new United SportsCar Championship we feel that Ford power will be a key ingredient to writing the next chapter of our sports car program."

In the last Grand-Am season, CGRFS raced a BMW-Riley Daytona Prototype. The team has won seven Daytona Prototype championships, all in the past ten years. Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas return as the team's prototype co-drivers, and will attend their maiden race in the Ford-Riley at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.

To mark the announcement, CGRFS brought the racecar in all its blue-and-white glory to SEMA's show floor, where one of our photographers stumbled upon it. Enjoy the photo gallery of CGRFS's slick new ride, and feel free to visit the press release below for more information.

The big guns are starting to roll out at the 2013 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. This is the Bisimoto Hyundai Genesis Coupe, the promised 1,000-horsepower monster that was first shown at the end of September. We ventured across the SEMA floor to get an up-close look at this hugely powerful two-door.

The list of aftermarket parts fitted to this Genesis Coupe is extensive, ranging from that huge intercooler up front to a pair of Bisimoto/Turbonetics turbochargers to an AEM engine management system, all of which allow the 3.8-litre V6 to produce upwards of 1,000 hp. A full roll cage and Buddy Club seats and harnesses are fitted to the cabin, while a coil-over suspension blesses this Genny with some extra agility. We don't know what size Toyo R888 R-Compound tires those are, but as they're fitted to 20x11-inch wheels in back and 20x9.5-inch wheels in front, we're betting they're huge. We've got a full list of aftermarket goodies in the press release below.

We also have a full gallery of live images of the Bisimoto Genesis on the SEMA Show floor up top, so be sure to hop in and take a look at just what kind of potential can be found in this two-door Korean sports coupe.

We've talked about Pure Vision Design before, a California-based company that made waves at last year's SEMA show with its Martini-liveried, Indy-car-powered Ford Mustang. That same car later starred in a Petrolicious video we showed you just a few weeks back. The company's latest creation is a menacing car it calls the Pure Vision Design TT Camaro. Based on a 1972 model, this car shares the Martini Mustang's clean styling and obsession with details.

Unlike the Mustang, which draws its power from a mid-60s Lotus-Ford Indycar engine, the "TT" in this Camaro's name implies something far more potent. The Nelson Racing Engines 427-cubic-inch V8 has been fitted with a pair of turbochargers, with a claimed output of 1,400 horsepower. That's almost 1,000 more than the Martini Mustang.

A six-speed Magnum transmission dispatches that power to the ground, while Pirelli PZero tires are tasked with (somehow) trying to grip the road. Baer brakes hide behind those HRE rims, while JRI coilovers and HyperTech springs bless the Camaro with some degree of competency in the bends.

Being a Pure Vision car, this Camaro is absolutely striking. Borrowing the Tungsten paint and Bitter Chocolate leather from Aston Martin, there's a sense that despite its tire-incinerating power, the TT Camaro is more than just a monster engine in a tin can.

Take a look up top for our full gallery of images of the Pure Vision Design TT Camaro. Like the Martini Mustang, this is the kind of custom job that doesn't come along every day.

You know, the last time I drove a Honda Odyssey, I thought, "Man, this thing could really use another 781 horsepower!" Thank goodness for the folks at Bisimoto, then, who have brought this "Power-Van" to the 2013 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. It's your standard seven-passenger Honda Odyssey with massive powertrain tuning to deliver a full 1,029 horsepower. Honda has not listed the torque output, but we imagine it's roughly eleventy billion foot-pounds (give or take).

That crazy power bump has been achieved through the use of – *deep breath* – an Infinity ECU, Arias pistons, ARP headstuds and bolts, Bisimoto's own 360-degree oil cap, a cat-back exhaust system, stainless mufflers, an improved fuel pump, new spark plugs, custom headwork, R&R custom steel rods, Turbonetics BTZ7265 twin turbochargers, a wastegate, blowoff valve, VP racing fuels and a whole lot more. Honda says the only chassis/suspension modifications come in the way of Fifteen52 wheels, 225/30-series Toyo T1 Sport tires and Young Guns performance exhaust coatings. So as far as we can tell, this thing still uses a front-wheel-drive setup. I bet it'll do somersaults.

Of course, this is SEMA, where we assume there's a four-modification minimum for any car that enters the Las Vegas Convention Center, so the Odyssey has been given added visual flair, as well. Outside, that means there's a Denmatic design theme, a whole mess of Honda accessories (check out that roof tub) and some new paint. Inside, upgraded upholstery has been fitted, as have Recaro sport seats.

It's hella absurd, this Odyssey, but boy oh boy, do we want to drive it (or, at least, watch someone else attempt to). Have a full look in the photo gallery above, and read the complete details in the press blast below.

This is the Devel Sixteen, and it might be the king of lofty statistics. Its Dubai-based backers are claiming it'll use a 5,000-horsepower V16 and will reach a top speed of 560 kilometres per hour (348 miles per hour). The sprint to 100 km/h (62 mph) will take just 1.8 seconds. Sounds great, right? So, what's the problem?

Everything. To put in perspective the absurd engineering undertaking that would be this car, it's worth pointing out that it took Volkswagen, one of the world's largest automakers, years to reliably squeeze 1,000 horsepower from an 8.0-litre, quad-turbocharged W16 in the Bugatti Veyron, without requiring a Formula One-style engine teardown after each outing. It took several more years to generate an extra 200 horsepower, on top of that. Oh, and each Veyron was sold at a massive, multi-million-dollar loss.

Then there are the physics of traveling at 566 km/h (350 mph) (at that speed, you're covering almost two football fields every second), and the fact that there are only a very small handful of places on the planet where those speeds are possible. But the problems are actually far more simple than that, as Emirates 24/7 points out – there are no road-legal tires available that can handle that speed.

Incredulity about its performance aside, we must say, this is a striking car. With no shortage of inspiration from the likes of the Lamborghini Veneno and Pagani Huayra on the exterior, and a healthy dose of Koenigsegg in the cabin, the Sixteen looks like the marriage of a Le Mans Prototype and a modern hypercar. Also, the back end looks like it has afterburners, which is awesome.

We love the idea of wild and crazy engineering projects as much as the next group of gearheads, but there's so much here that seems impossible that it's hard to view the Devel Sixteen as anything more than an elaborate joke or ruse. Take a look below for a walk-around of the car from Shmee150.

Looking to appeal to the compact tuner crowd, Mazda brought two different flavours of its 2014 Mazda3 to the SEMA Show in Las Vegas this week. The Club Sport 3 Concept hatchback (above) has more of a racing vibe to it, while the Vector 3 Concept sedan (right) looks to inject a little extra fashion into the all-new Mazda3.

Hotting up the 3, Mazda stuck with the stock 2.5-litre engine on the Club Sport 3 Concept but added a limited-slip differential and six-speed manual gearbox, the latter of which was lifted from the CX-5 crossover. Other upgrades include coil-over shocks, a performance exhaust, Brembo brakes and an aero body kit – the latter of which will be offered to buyers at a later date.

While the Vector 3 Concept does get some performance bits like two-piece Brembo brake rotors and grippier tires, the focus on this sedan is all about styling. Starting with a custom paint job and ghost stripes, the whole look is tied together with 19-inch, V-spoke Rays wheels.

A man who lives in Miami recently posted a Craigslist ad containing 15 cars for US$25,000, and he somehow managed to sell the whole collection to a Los Angeles-based buyer, according to Hooniverse. The sale list included vehicles by Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Lotus, Alfa Romeo and BMW, spanning 14 model years.

Apparently, the ad spurred enough hype for the seller, identified as Bruce, to write a mini-autobiography documenting his former jobs as a stockbroker and a car dealer, the expensive cars he used to own, a mob connection and more. Somehow all of it leads to why he had a collection of 19+year-old cars that he ended up selling for US$1,666 each.

If you have a spare ten minutes or so, head over to Hooniverse to read Bruce's story.

The winners of the 2013 SEMA Awards have been announced, and, well, the group is identical to the winners of the 2012 Awards. The Ford Mustang was named Hottest Car, while the Scion FR-S earned honours for Hottest Sport Compact. In the heavy machinery classes, the Ford F-Series won Hottest Truck and the Jeep Wrangler captured the Hottest 4x4-SUV crown. All same as last year.

This is the fourth year the SEMA Awards have been handed out by the show's organizers. The Jeep and Ford have been undefeated in their SEMA categories since the inception of the Awards in 2010, while the Scion and Mustang each captured their second title this year.

Previous winners include the Chevrolet Camaro, which won the Hottest Car category in 2010 and 2011, and the Fiat 500, which captured the inaugural Hottest Sport Compact crown in 2011.

Unable to find an image that best represented the winning ways of these four vehicles, we went with another title the Mustang earned from us back in 2007. We crowned this particular 'Stang the Ugliest Mustang Ever, a title it has also held every year since we made it up.

Chevy's goal at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas this week seems to be to show as much of its Performance and Accessories catalog as possible. That's why it brought three different Camaros - two with V8s and one powered by a V6 - with all of the best goodies from the catalogue already fitted.

We gave a more in-depth recap of the Performance Camaro V8 Concept, the Performance Camaro V6 Concept and the Performance Garage Concept the day before yesterday, but we figured you'd like a short recap for each. It should be noted, though, that you can order all of the items you see here for your own Camaro, so be sure to take a long, hard look at our live gallery, just in case you're in the market for some mods.

Essentially, the Performance Garage Concept and the Performance V8 Concept are the same car - the only difference is that the later features a whole host of aesthetic tweaks in addition to its aftermarket, shorty exhaust headers and 2.75-inch exhaust. (The Performance Garage Concept has been usefully placed on its side; the better to see the new parts added to the vehicle.) The Performance V6 Concept is notable because, despite being a V6, there's no shortage of performance goodies fitted. All three of the Performance Camaros benefit from items from the Camaro ZL1, which can also be ordered through the catalog.

Finally, Chevy built a Spring Special Edition Camaro SS Convertible, to help remind those of us that live in the icy north that winter is coming. The Special Edition will enter limited production with 2LT and 2SS trims, and can be easily picked out by its Summer White paint with Blue Ray striping. Large, 21-inch wheels, a ground effects package and a body-coloured spoiler borrowed from the ZL1 help to finish off the fetching drop top.

Ford, along with KISS bassist Gene Simmons and his wife, Shannon Tweed, used SEMA as a backdrop to pull the covers off Snakebit, a 1956 Ford F-100 pickup truck that's been updated with Shelby Mustang-derived styling bits and a 5.4-litre supercharged V8 engine. All 550 horsepower are funneled through a six-speed manual gearbox to the rear wheels.

Underneath the custom bodywork sits a chassis that's been stretched five inches and a bed widened and bedecked with billet machined pieces that are supposed to look like wood. The 20-inch rear and 18-inch front wheels ape those of past Shelby Mustang models. The interior is swathed in two-tone leather with a bench seat designed to look – try to act surprised – like a Shelby Mustang.

Like what you see? Bidding for the truck will take place in 2014 at an unspecified Barrett-Jackson event (we'd assume Scottsdale). Proceeds will be used to help build a children's hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where Ms. Tweed grew up in Canada. See the high-res gallery above and the press release down below for more.

As much as we enjoy obsessively covering the more mainstream auto show circuit, it can rarely match the kind of excitement found surrounding the annual SEMA show in Las Vegas, NV. Each and every year, aftermarket tuners, auto manufacturers and the world's best car builders battle for everyone's attention with their most outrageous creations.

With SEMA 2013 now officially underway, we wanted to bring you a behind-the-scenes look at how it all unfolds when literally hundreds of cars and trucks line up to get inside the Las Vegas Convention Center. So while our entire editorial team works around the clock on delivering the latest SEMA news, we wanted to kick things off with this massive pre-show photo gallery of the many concept cars and project vehicles we spotted during SEMA's roll-in.

Click here to get a whopping 300+ photo taste of what's still to come, as our Autoblog Canada team continues to deliver live coverage from SEMA 2013 all week long.

Enamoured of the Dodge Challenger but wish you could get one with a shaker hood? We've got good news, because Dodge and Mopar have teamed up to bring it back.

The 2014 Dodge Challenger R/T Shaker packs the same 5.7-litre Hemi V8 as the standard Challenger R/T, but upgrades the business end with a through-the-hood exposed cold-air intake system. The retro hood scoop protrudes from the center of the hood in satin black (matching the decklid spoiler) to feed the Hemi and shakes with the engine just like the original from 1970. The Shaker model also comes with a Super Track Pak that adds a new steering rack, brake linings, shocks and 20-inch Goodyear Eagle F1 Super Car rubber. You can also shut off the stability management system completely in this car. A series of interior and exterior trim enhancements round out the look. The whole package adds US$2,500 to the price of a Challenger R/T Classic for an all-in MSRP of US$36,995.

In case that's not enough, Dodge is also offering a limited-edition Mopar Challenger that follows the 2010 Mopar Challenger, 2011 Mopar Charger, 2012 Mopar 300 and 2013 Mopar Dart. Limited to just 100 examples, the 2014 Mopar Challenger gets the same Shaker hood intake, unique graphics and wheels, an enhanced interior and a long list of optional extras from the Mopar parts catalog. Dodge isn't saying just yet how much the Mopar Challenger will cost, but you can bet it will command a considerable premium for the exclusivity alone.

Dodge and Mopar are presenting both of these special Challengers at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas this week, but if you're not in Vegas, you can read more about them in the press release below and scope them out in our pair of high-res image galleries.