Since we're fetish n00bs, we turned to Fleshbot editor Lux Alptraum for some insight. While she's no seat belt fetish expert, she does spend all day trolling the Internet for pr0n, so she's probably a better source of knowledge than say, Matt Hardigree, who only uses the internet for cars and Lutheran podcasts.

"It's bondage without having to take on the trappings of bondage," says Lux. "It's like why boys wank to Sears catalogs, because that's what's available. It could be related to a feeling of safety as a child or just be an attraction to restraints.

"Combining the idea of a car as a sexual power symbol with the seat belt as a restraint is a plausible explanation for the attraction."

And that makes a lot of sense. At once empowering women with control of a powerful car, then controlling them with the restraint of a seat belt creates a powerful fantasy. Now if we could just get a shot of Sarah Palin winkin' at us in a seat belt while firing a machine gun we'd be all set. It's still trashy as all hell. But somehow we don't think that'll stop you from walking through the entire gallery.

Image credit: Picasa

Image credit: College Humor

Image credit: College Humor

Image credit: College Humor

Image credit: Picasa

Image credit: AutoJunk.nl

Image credit: Picasa

Living with, and calling a white Volkswagen Beetle, your "girlfriend" is not something that most of us would consider to be normal, but Edward Smith insists that he loves his beloved Vanilla (that's her name...) and insists that he's not sick and has no intention of ever changing his reptilian dragon-style ways. And why would he? Who else do you know that's "been with" 1,000+ partners and doesn't use a healthy dosage of Valtrex?

Smith said in his defense:

I appreciate beauty and I go a little bit beyond appreciating the beauty of a car only to the point of what I feel is an expression of love. Maybe I'm a little bit off the wall but when I see movies like Herbie and Knight Rider, where cars become loveable, huggable characters it's just wonderful.

I'm a romantic. I write poetry about cars, I sing to them and talk to them just like a girlfriend. I know what's in my heart and I have no desire to change. I'm not sick and I don't want to hurt anyone, cars are just my preference.

Right...

Smith, 57, recalls having his first sexual encounter with a car at the ripe ol' age of fifteen and claims to have never been attracted to either women or men, although he slept with women in his early years. His last 'real' (and we mean that in the loosest of terms) relationship with a woman was over twelve years ago, but he was unable to consummate it due to his love for the tail pipe. His biggest claim to fame and admitted 'most intense sexual experience' was with the famous helicopter from the 80's hit TV show Airwolf. Ever since he's had a new attraction to all things mechanical.

Wiktionary gives us this semi-official definition:

mechaphilia

From mechanic + -philia

Noun

Singular
mechaphilia

1. A sexual desire for a mechanical inanimate object.

Somehow our own personal fetishes don't seem all that bad anymore. (Hat Tip To Clay!)

[via Telegraph.co.uk]

...of a more powerful and lighter electric motor will be added to the mix. This motor is tiny at only 77 lbs, but it delivers 300 HP with 280 lb.ft. of torque. Mighty impressive, but then again, it better be for 100,000€. And by today's exchange rate that gives the Fetish a pricetag in 'merican bucks of about $14.2 million dollars. Or something around that.

[WorldCarFans]

Checking the recently-added car videos on YouTube, I found this short film of a British woman wearing really tight clothing attempting (and failing) to start what appears to be a Citro n AX (don't worry, it's safe for work). The loving closeups of her feet made it clear: my brain was being damaged by the onanic fuel of perved-out foot fetishists! Naturally, my patriotic instincts kicked in and I sought out (and found) many more such videos; after all, what does Osama bin Laden hate most about us? Why, our freedom to indulge every imaginable perversion, of course! Seems most of the "car cranking" stuff comes out of Europe (see this site), which makes sense. After all, they have more cars that won't start than anybody. But, dammit, when are we gonna get vids of scantily-clad chicks cranking Pro Mod cars that do start? – Murilee Martin

Related:
Sex With Wheels: British Mechanic Shags Cars [internal]

The Tesla's giving it new competition for the mantle of Best Electric Supercar of Ever, but is the Venturi F tish worried? Non! The company announced today that visitors to the Paris Motorshow this September will get to see the range of precursors leading up to the current (heh heh) electric F tish, as they shuffle by munching on les frites de la libert . We'll be there — you'll know us from the H sker D shirts amid the Fa onnable-wearing Euro press.

Related:
More on the Venturi F tish; Mechanical Resonance: The Tesla Motors Press Intro, Complete With Governator [internal]

Considering France's Venturi Fetish — the first electric supercar —- is basically a six-figure consumer electronics product, it's not hard to imagine all the chips required to manage functions like battery charging and energy storage, systems applications and communication with the home office for upgrades and related software tweaks. It's that last one that's driving a partnership of sorts between Intel and Venturi. The two companies recently announced they were pooling resources, particularly on the WiMAX wireless broadband technology incorporated into the Fetish for data communication. Intel is an industry supporter of the WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) standards, a kind of metropolitan-area version of WiFi. The companies hope to expand the use of WiMax in the Fetish to include communication with other vehicles — to buy and sell energy — or act as an energy node for utility companies. And, of course, for Dodgeball.

Intel Inside the Venturi Fetish makes energy sharing possible [Gizmag]

Related:
$500,000 Fetish: Venturi to Produce First Electric Sports Car; Forbes Names Fetish Electric Supercar Vehicle of the Week; Venturi Fetish Electric Supercar Makes Public Debut [internal]