by the Editor of ModernRacer.com

Well, you all might have guessed this was coming sooner or later--our own car awards. We are calling it the Modern Racer Car Crazy Awards. In our own little corner of the web, we will choose the most influential cars of the year defined, with a twist, by our various categories.

Some of our choices involves input from our loyal readers, including data from our homepage polls and hate mail. Note that just because we think a car is good (or bad) does not mean you may not like it. We are just expressing our opinions, just like every other award-giver out there. And be aware that car companies have no input in this whatsoever. They don't know about our virtual awards ceremony, and we don't intend to contact any of these manufacturers to give them a medal. Besides, car companies should not be rewarded for their achievements. Otherwise they get sloppy. Think of those Germans.

Also, keep in mind that these awards only include performance-oriented affordable cars under the US $50,000 price mark. So Kias, Hummers, Lamborghinis and Maybachs are all out. And only 2005 models are included--and maybe some 2004.5 models--but no so-called 2006 models show up here.

So without further ado, here are the categories for our first ever awards ceremony:

• Most Underwhelming New Car of the Year
• Most Hyped New Car Release of the Year
• Most Low-Budget New Thrill of the Year
• Most Practical Performance Car of the Year
• Most Outrageously Cool Design of the Year
• Most Overwhelming New Car of the Year