On the surface, it's little more than a featureless piece of asphalt. Unless you're a civil engineer, a museum curator, or a hooker, there is little difference between a good one and a bad one. Its primary purpose is to hold parked cars, a task that most people view as dull. To Joe Public, the lot is little more than a civil appliance.

We beg to differ. In fact, we'd like to offer up a revolutionary thought: The parking lot is important. It matters. It is the car's unloved (and yet wholly necessary) offspring, and it has soul.

Think back to the first time you drove somewhere on your own. Chances are, if it wasn't a friend's house, it was a parking lot. Remember what it felt like to climb out of the car, to realize that you had finally gotten somewhere real on your own? Would it have meant half as much if you had pulled up to a valet, left the car running, and simply strolled away? How would you have felt if you hadn't been allowed to get out and walk around?

Without parking lots, we would have places to go, but we wouldn't have anything to do when we got there. It starts early; Americans may live in their cars, but they grow up in their parking lots. What teenager hasn't leaned up against a borrowed car on a boring-ass Saturday night in the middle of nowhere? What suburban mall lot hasn't played clubhouse, garage, and impromptu bar for thousands of high-schoolers? Is there anyone out there who didn't spend at least part of their youth under the fizzy glow of a twenty-foot halide?

We see The Lot playing a pivotal role in film so often that we tend to ignore it. Films as diverse as Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and the cult documentary Heavy Metal Parking Lot have effectively made lot culture a part of our collective memory:

Even Say Anything, Cameron Crowe's quirky ode to teenage love, contains a key piece of Lot Theory. Crowe is fully aware that lots are where we go when we have nowhere else to be:

Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack): I got a question. If you guys know so much about women, how come you're here at, like, the Gas 'n' Sip on a Saturday night, completely alone, drinking beers with no women anywhere?

Joe (Loren Dean): By choice, man. We choose this.

Happily, there's also something called The Parking Lot Movie, an independent film that focuses on one lot and the obsessive people within it. It contains the following quote, which summarizes Lot Theory in a nutshell: "That's like the word of the day at the parking lot — hanging. Can you hang? It's a combination of being really relaxed and not letting someone talk you down." (For reference, the film is a riot.)

The list goes on: Football tailgating. The unplanned, pre-concert lot party — hippies make this sort of thing last for weeks — that takes place before stadium shows and club gigs alike. Autocrossing, where weekend racers compete on the cheap in their own cars. The blue-collar cruise-in. Cars and Coffee. Any of these could happen without a parking lot, but they wouldn't be half as accessible, cheap, or fun.

Like any American icon, the lot's family tree runs far and wide. Consider the drive-in movie, which is little more than a parking lot with a giant screen in front of it. (The town of Ann Arbor, Michigan once took this concept to its meta conclusion, showing films on top of a multistory parking garage.) Or take the Midwestern-style field party, which requires little more than a grass pasture, a keg of beer, and ten or fifteen pickup trucks. (Hello, impromptu lot.) The Lot is versatile, it changes with the times, and it loves you.

That love aside, nothing lasts forever, and lots are no exception. Given enough time, the parking lot as we know it will disappear. It will likely be replaced by automated garages, more effective mass-transit systems, and future infrastructure we cannot yet imagine. When this happens, we will have lost one of our greatest unintentional achievements. And we will be worse off for it.

Douglas Adams once pointed out that people like to congregate at boundary conditions — where land meets water, for example, or where earth meets sky. We like to be on one side, he said, and look at the other. Parking lots — where people meet pavement — fit nicely into this theory. They're not without flaw, but they matter. They deserve our respect. The next time you park your car, do a Lot mitzvah: take a moment to say thanks.

Good on ya, Lot. Long may you run.

Photo Credit: iMorpheus, Ben McLeod, Ypmiley / Flickr

Ahh, Thanksgiving — turkey, family, angst, and burnouts. (Your holiday doesn't have burnouts? What are you, a commie?)

Also lists. We make lists every day, and on holidays, we sit around and stuff our faces full of food and make more lists. What are we thankful for this week? Turkey, that's what. We're also thankful for these ten cars — even though we can't afford some of them, we're happy that they exist. Dig in.

Bugatti Veyron

Because it's proof that one man can still go stark raving mad and build a world-beating car that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Makes the idea of a focus group seem like a fate worse than death. One set of its tires likely costs more than your first car did. It is yin and yang, Jalop (engineering masterwork) and anti-Jalop (heavy, unattainable). Do not try to understand it. It just is.

Photo Credit: Jason Thorgalsen / Flickr

Chevrolet Corvette

It is an American car made by American men and women. It is like walking down the street wearing a T-shirt that says, "I'm with Penis." It is remarkably modern and wonderfully crude all at once. And for a short, glorious while, it went to Le Mans and reminded the world that Yankees could kick ass. All hail the LS7. All hail the LS9. All hail Detroit.

Photo Credit: Sam Smith

Lotus Elise/Exige

Because someone, somewhere, forgot to tell the boys in Hethel to make it fat, ugly, and boring. Because it is a real car that happens to be built out of gossamer and fiberglass. And because I once flung one sideways through Road Atlanta's Turn Twelve — not entirely on purpose, mind — at triple-digit speeds and lived to tell the tale. It made me look less than stupid. I am eternally grateful.

Photo Credit: Horgakx / Flickr

Nissan GT-R

It is heavy, clublike, and run by a million computers. It is surprisingly sterile and undoubtedly better at driving itself than you are. (You get the feeling that no matter how you treat it, it is toying with you, watching you from afar.) It is on this list because it is unique. Because it is everything wrong with Japan's car industry. Because it is also everything right.

Photo Credit: Jason Thorgalsen / Flickr

Volkswagen GTI

Volkswagen's GTI is the ultimate automotive success story, a model that lost its way only to find it again years later. Sure, it's not the most durable thing on the planet, but that's part of its charm — it's cheap, cheerful, and faster than it seems. If you haven't embarrassed a supercar on some winding back road in one of these things, then you haven't lived. Hot hatches don't get much better.

BMW 335i

It is very nearly the perfect automobile, but this is no surprise. The 3 Series has been exceptional for decades, and save the odd dose of corporate German hubris, it just keeps getting better. Build a better sport sedan than this 300-horse, velvet-glove monster, and the world will beat a path to your door.

Photo Credit: Fabio Aro / Flickr

Mazda RX-8

Quirk, and for little reason other than satisfying a decades-old obsession on the part of its maker. Painfully slow around town. Those once-trick doors are now almost too much work, and the RX-8's Renesis rotary sucks dino juice like it's on OPEC's payroll. But the chassis is flat-out magic, the kind of magic you only discover at nine-and-a-half tenths when you're trying to eke out that last little bit of speed and you think nothing is left. It reminds you of a Spec Miata with more weight in the tail. It is the attainable sports car for people who truly understand what that phrase means.

Photo Credit: Michael Banovsky / Flickr

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution

Now that both Subaru and Mitsubishi have left the international rally stage, the WRX STI and the Lancer Evolution seem a bit lost. (Homologation specials need something to be homologated for, no?) Were we forced to choose between the two, we'd probably pick the Evo, but it's a tough call. It depends on the roads you're on, on how you feel that day, and on whether you have be someplace very quickly and with little drama (STI) or absolutely nowhere at all (Evo).

The STI is an amazingly talented car and arguably the better all-rounder. The Evo is the dirty, rough-edged monster that everyone thinks rally cars are supposed to be. We like them both — a lot — but only one of them feels as mean as it looks. Mitsu by a hair.

Ford Mustang

The Mustang is a rolling contradiction, equal parts modern muscle and hopeless anachronism. It is an argument for and against everything we stand for, a piece of yesterday bound up in a slightly cheesy modern wrapper. It is both much better and much worse than you expect it to be, but somehow, that's part of its charm. It is very, very difficult not to like.

Exhaust rumble. A rompy V-8. A stick axle so well-controlled, it makes the concept almost seem relevant again. These things are not the future, but we love them all the same. Were we to wake up tomorrow and drive off into the soul of America, we would do it in a Mustang.

Photo Credit: Sausyn / Flickr

Caterham Seven

One long-dead man's ridiculous dream turned reality turned company-bill-payer turned neglected relic turned reality again. Impossibly small. Sillier than almost anything else on wheels. Older than dirt. And still fantastic.

Happy turkey!

Photo Credit: Exfordy / Flickr

Turn: 1, First Half of Big Bend
Description: The entry speed corner comes at the end of the main straight, so you want to maximize what speed you're able to gather (about 110 MPH in the MX-5) by braking as late as possible. Since the entry is very wide and the curve is relatively gentle, that means you're going to be shedding that speed while turning.
Gear: Starting in 5, finishing in 3.
Difficulty: High
Method: Brake gently at the last braking marker and turn in, heading in a straight line towards the apex. Now brake harder, shifting into 4th, then 3rd. Keep the car around the middle of the track as you approach turn 2.

Turn: 2, Second Half of Big Bend
Description: A late apex in a decreasing radius corner that sets you up for a short straight leading into the following corner.
Gear: 3
Difficulty: Medium
Method: turn in late, lift slightly to tighten your line and hold the car against the curb to the point where it ends, then let the car track out to the left. You need to be at wide open throttle to maximize the short straight. If you do it right, you'll bounce off the limiter a few times, but changing up a gear, then down again for the next corner probably won't save any time unless you're very fast.

Turn: 3, The Left Hander
Description: As the name suggests, the only left hander at Lime Rock. Deceptively long, there's a couple of usable lines through it, but either way you need to be able to get all the way to the left of the track on the exit to set you up for the next corner.
Gear: 3
Difficulty: Medium
Method: Enter in the middle of the track, trail braking as you turn slightly. Once you can see the apex, turn in sharply, clip it, but hold the wheel to left as you use the throttle to exit. You need to hit the turn in point for Turn 4 all the way to driver's left.

Turn: 4, Entry On To No Name Straight
Description: A fairly standard right hander that sets you up for the following series of slight bends known as "No Name Straight."
Gear: 4
Difficulty: Low
Method: A basic corner with a textbook approach: just turn in all the way over at driver's left shift into 4th, clip the curbing at the apex and track out. Get the throttle fully open as soon as you're in 4th. Straight line the straight as much as possible, no need to hit curbs or anything.

Turn: 5, The Uphill
Description: A fairly straightforward right hander that's been made complicated by sticking a steep hill in the middle. If you don't have your wheel straight when you crest it, you'll spin and the barriers are very close to the track.
Gear: 4
Difficulty: High
Method: Brake lightly at brake maker 4, then turn in at marker 1. Clip the apex and get on full throttle pointed out towards the curb halfway up the hill on driver's left, then once you hit that hill use the compression to tighten your line the rest of the way. Hands straight as soon as you've done that and hug the edge of the track over the crest and down the short straight. It's easier than it looks.

Turn: 6, West bend
Description: A right hand sweeper that can be taken very fast. The inside curbing is very tall, so get close, but don't clip it. Sets you up for The Downhill, which is super important to lapping quickly, so the exit is all important here.
Gear: 4
Difficulty: Medium
Method: Brake lightly, then turn in for a normal apex, get fully on the throttle early and hold it there as you ride the curbing on the outside.

Turn: 7, The Downhill
Description: If you're going to crash at Lime Rock, it'll be here. A very fast downhill right hander with compression on the entry that aids turn in. Sets you up for the main straight, you'll lose lots of time if you don't get this corner right.
Gear: Start in 4, finish in 5.
Difficulty: High
Method: Very confident drivers only need to lift slightly down the hill in the MX-5, but I still brush the brakes a little for some added confidence. Make sure you're on maintenance throttle at turn in, which is just where the hill flattens out. You need to use the compression this transition creates to maximize front end grip on turn in, so predict where its going to happen and turn in aggressively just as the front suspension compresses. Roll on the throttle as you clip the apex, getting it fully open as soon as possible, then track out fully the left, shifting into 5th when revs dictate. Huge the left side of the track all the way down the straight.

Here I am trying to put what I learned into practice. The cars are Mazda MX-5 Cup racecars. Over the standard vehicle, they add a $5500 Mazda racing package that includes a new intake and exhaust, boosting power from 167 to 200 HP. There's also remote reservoir Eibach dampers, considerably stiffer Eibach springs, solid antiroll bars, racing brake pads and 225/45WR-17 tires. The cars are also stripped of their interiors and soft tops, have a full cage welded in and you sit in racing buckets with five-point harnesses facing a removable wheel. The whole thing weighs just 2,600 Lbs. In short, it's a real race car with much improved throttle response, steering and outright grip. It's an extremely neutral car that'll understeer if you push it too fast into corners and let you tighten your line if you lift the throttle, making it near perfect to learn on.

Quality Planning — a company that validates policyholder info for auto insurers put together this list based on data gathered between August 2007 and September 2008, using a sample size of 1.7 million vehicles.

Click "next" or select any car to learn how it made the list.

[via AOL Autos]

Photo credit: Kipp Baker

Vehicle: 2009 GMC Sierra 1500
Place: #10 (tied)
Percentage lower than average: 60% less likely
Why it isn't ticketed: It's a big pickup truck. Unless you're outfitted with the entire JC Whitney off-road catalog, pickups are as good as invisible on the streets. Well, not invisible, more like moving blind spots blocking your view of traffic. Still, given the utility and apparently lower ticketing rate, the higher fuel consumption and parking woes might be offset.

Vehicle: 2009 Buick Lucerne
Place: #10 (tied)
Percentage lower than average: 60% less likely
Why it isn't ticketed: It's a Buick. More accurately, it's a part of the "Old Buick." Recently we've seen signs of life in GM's tri-shield brand with the Buick LaCrosse and Buick Regal, but the Lucerne is positioned staunchly in the "old-man driving 10 MPH under the speed limit in the fast lane" stereotype of Buick. This car isn't ticketed because its drivers don't break the law, well, they don't break speeding laws. Tickets for no turn signals and late turns across three lanes of traffic into Old Country Buffet are rare.

Vehicle: 2004 Oldsmobile Silhouette
Place: #8 (tied)
Percentage lower than average: 63% less likely
Why it isn't ticketed: Nothing says "I'm not worth your time officer" better than a minivan, especially a GM minivan sadly badged as an Oldsmobile. The Silhouette was GM's pity offering to Olds dealers with nothing interesting in the showroom and acted as a footnote in the last days of the brand. It's nothing if not completely invisible in the real world and the drivers are too busy trying not to be seen to go around breaking traffic laws.

Vehicle: 2007 Buick Rainier
Place: #8 (tied)
Percentage lower than average: 63% less likely
Why it isn't ticketed: Platform prostitution at its finest, the Buick Rainier started life as the Chevy Trailblazer, which begat the Oldsmobile Bravada, which died with the brand, so it was rebadged as both the Saab 9-7x and Buick Rainier. A lesson in how not to manage a platform for success. The Rainier has not one but two invisibility shields: 1) it's an unremarkable looking SUV, and 2) it's a Buick. Might as well have that fancy cloaking technology the Predator used.

Vehicle: Mazda6
Place: #6
Percentage lower than average: 66% less likely
Why it isn't ticketed: Despite the Mazda 6's more sporting character compared to other mid-size family sedans, it's still a mid-size family sedan. There are more than enough hot-heads in pony cars and German prickmobiles to collect revenue from.

Vehicle: 2005 Buick Park Avenue
Place: #5
Percentage lower than average: 68% less likely
Why it isn't ticketed: Quite a preponderance of Buicks on this list isn't there? Of the cars on here, we've always felt the Buick Park Avenue got the short end of the stick. The final generation actually wore some pretty crisp styling but was always burdened by terrible old-fogey wheels and later boasted tacked-on ventiports. The supercharged 3800 V6 would scoot off the line but the floaty suspension and drowsy interior made the idea of breaking the law a non-issue. Plus, what cop wants to ticket the nice little grandma behind the wheel.

Vehicle: Chevrolet C1500, K1500, 2500HD, 3500HD
Place: #4
Percentage lower than average: 72% less likely
Why it isn't ticketed: Same reason as its GMC Sierra twin, it's a truck and thus nothing more than an large lump taking up space on the road. With the 6.0-liter V8 they can be pretty fast and they're surprisingly agile around a corner, but nobody buys a truck for the go. As to why the Chevy has such a remarkable difference in ticketing rate we haven't a clue, perhaps since GMC buyer paid more for theirs, they feel like they should drive it faster and park in goofy places.

Vehicle: Chevrolet Tahoe
Place: #3
Percentage lower than average: 79% less likely
Why it isn't ticketed: If there was a way to make the Silverado more invisible to law enforcement, it's to close up the bed, add a pair of doors and call it the Tahoe. Even the name says law-abiding-white-bread-citizen. There's an interesting paradox here in that based on anecdotal evidence a great many Tahoes are driven with reckless abandon, weaving in and out of traffic as if they own the road. And yet, with their inevitably beige, black, or maroon paint jobs, Tahoes blend into the background like a chameleon.

Vehicle: Chevrolet Suburban
Place: #2
Percentage lower than average: 84% less likely
Why it isn't ticketed: Take everything about the Tahoe and add more girth. The big, bad, 'Burb has been sailing American roadways so long it's practically an institution. A last bastion for the family of eight which isn't interested in a full-size van, the Suburban is so big as to be imperceptible on a normal human scale, making it perfect for eluding the radar guns gaze. Their relative rarity these days helps out a lot too.

Vehicle: Jaguar XJ
Place: #1
Percentage lower than average: 89% less likely
Why it isn't ticketed: The Jaguar XJ has a shape almost as old as the idea of the car. Until Ian Callum came along and boogered-up the design with the 2010 Jaguar XJ, the car was so ubiquitous, and favored by such old buyers, it's practically never ticketed. The colors are generally sedate and unassuming, British Racing Green is as crazy as it gets, none of those obscene reds and yellows that draw radar guns. The trick is beneath the 40 year old skin is the possibility of an all-aluminum automobile sporting a 400 HP supercharged V8. It's a perfect sleeper and the car least likely to get you ticketed.

We know what you're thinking: The American economy is barely alive. Detroit is busily attempting to reverse decades of bad choices. Speed has never been cheaper, interest rates are still in the gutter, and everyone and their brother — hello, Black Friday — wants you to buy, buy, buy. It looks like an easy call.

We're here to tell you to hold off. If you can stomach it, we suggest you do something radical: If it has wheels, don't buy it new. Period. Sound like sacrilege? Maybe, but there's more to it than you might think.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Argument One: Cost

As obvious as it seems, the money bit can't be overlooked. Sure, you lose a hefty chunk of change the moment you drive your new snazzmobile off the lot, but that old saw rarely stops people. And yeah, interest rates are low, and the guy in the nice tweed suit is going to talk to his boss and almost lose his job so you can save a few bucks. It's tempting. But it's also a game for suckers.

Look at it this way: Yes, there's never been a better time to buy a new car. But by the same token, there's also never been a better time to save your money and buy something older and a heck of a lot cheaper. The same economy that made that brand-new Porsche 911 seem affordable also trashcanned the values of every used car on the planet. Never has so much fun been available for so little, and the tradeoffs are relatively benign. (In the case of the 911, a good used 996 Carrera will be almost as fast, half as expensive, and just as much fun to fling into a fencepost ass-first.) And if you're worried about repair costs, don't — unless you buy in the rain, at night, and while drunk, a year's worth of fix-it bills will rarely outweigh the heft of twelve car payments.

Take the cash you saved and go on vacation. Invest it. Hell, for that matter, just use it to — wait for it — buy a second car. (What can we say? Jalopnik wants you to roll.) The possibilities are endless.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Argument Two: The Environment

It doesn't matter what you buy, how old it is, or how much it says "hybrid" on the trunk — if you're buying a new car, you're consuming resources. Great strides have been made in the field of automotive recycling, and for the most part, large-scale manufacturing is cleaner than it's ever been. But you can't negate the laws of physics: If it already exists, then you don't have to make it. Creating things takes work, and work, by definition, makes something happen by using up something else.

A few years ago, a company called CNW Market Research created a "dust to dust" study that examined the net environmental impact of a host of new cars. The study received a lot of press, largely because it claimed that a Jeep Wrangler used less energy from cradle to grave than a Toyota Prius. The firm's methods have since been the subject of a great deal of controversy, but the argument they make is valid: Things aren't always what they seem, and planetary harm has a lot more to do with sustainable design than with tailpipe emissions.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Argument Three: Safety

This is the bit that comes with a caveat: No matter what you drive, the newer it is, the less likely it is to kill you in an accident. Vehicle safety standards are like the laundry — they never rest, and the only thing you can do is try to keep up. That said, thanks to Ralph Nader (I can't believe I just typed that), the curve isn't linear.

By and large, things are much better than they were fifty years ago. Your dad's '61 Cadillac may have killed him if he so much as looked at it funny, but anything built since the first Bush administration is going to be safe enough that you shouldn't feel terrorized by traffic. When in doubt, err on the side of newer, more airbags, and more crush space. Just because it's older doesn't mean that it wants you dead.

Argument Four: Fun

If you regularly read car magazines, the following may come as a shock: New cars aren't always more fun. Here at Los Jalops Con Carne, we've driven everything on the market, and most of what's out there simply isn't that special. Thanks to ever-increasing safety, emissions, and comfort standards, the average new car is a lumpy pile of bloated meh. There are exceptions — a lot of them, thankfully — but they aren't available for beer money, and most of them are either wildly impractical or more expensive than a small house. Buy older, and you get access to the once-costly fun stuff at cut-rate prices; you also get lighter curb weights, better steering feel, and more seat-of-the-pants Kickass.

The Caveat: Sometimes…

OK, we give — none of this is set in stone. There are obviously exceptions to each and every one of these arguments, and sometimes a new car is simply the best answer. We feel your pain. But if you remember nothing else, remember this:

Save the old cars. Please. Don't let your children grow up thinking that 4000-pound sport sedans with foot-thick doors are the way of the future. Help us, before it's too late. This is Jalopnik, signing off from the future. You have been warned.

Good Deal #1

What: Buy A 2010 Suzuki SX4 For Under $15,000
Where: Suzuki Dealers
Regular Price: $15,849
Black Friday Price: $14,599
Savings: $500 Holiday cash on top of current deals, for a total savings of $1,300.
Why Its A Good Deal: You won't find a better utilitarian vehicle in this price range. Better yet, it comes with an in-dash navigation system featuring Garmin software.

Good Deal #2

What: GM Dealer Closing Sale: $2,000 Off For Certain Customers
Where: Cadillac, Buick-GMC, Chevrolet Dealers
Regular Price: Already heavily discounted
Savings: $1,000-to-$2,000
Black Friday Price: Between $1,000 and $2,000 cheaper
Why It's A Good Deal: Nearly one-million customers living near a closing dealership will receive a letter in the mail this week offering them an additional $1,000-to-$2,000 to purchase a vehicle at a dealership staying open. Deal ends at the end of the month.

Good Deal #3

What: BMW Diesel Luxury Sedans — More Than 10% Off
Where: BMW Dealers
Regular Price: $43,900
Savings: $4,500
Black Friday Price: $39,400
Why It's A Good Deal: BMW is trying to get U.S. buyers to accept diesel vehicles as luxury vehicles and is putting $4,500 in cash where its mouth is. Powerful and efficient, BMW diesels at a discount is a great deal.

Good Deal #4

What: 2009 Cadillac CTS-V: $5,000 Savings
Where: Cadillac Dealers
Regular Price: $58,575
Black Friday Price: $53,575
Savings: $5,000
Why It's A Good Deal: The CTS-V is a world-beater and the few remaining 2009 vehicles on dealer lots qualify for a $5,000 cash back deal. It's the fastest stocking-stuffer on the block.

Good Deal #5

What: Remaining 2009 Dodge Rams Up To $5,500 Cash Back
Where: Dodge Dealerships
Regular Price: $21,510 - $39,935
Black Friday Price: Up To $5,500 Off
Savings: $5,500
Why It's A Good Deal: Dodge is hoping they'll have a few less 2009 Rams sitting under their tree and are offering up to $5,500 in cash back if you'll help rid them of a nicely-loaded one.

Bad Deal #1

What: Ford's Year-End Sales Event Unremarkable
Where: Ford Dealers
Regular Price: Fairly Cheap
Black Friday Price: $1,000 less plus 0% financing
Why It's A Bad Deal: Ford is not as poorly positioned as other American automakers so they're offering a measly $1,000 cash back and 0% financing. This is a good deal — on Black Friday 2006.

Bad Deal #2

What: Baja MotorSports Phoenix 250cc Street Motorcycle A Bad Deal Free
Where: PepBoys
Regular Price: $1,999.99
Black Friday Price: $1,499.00
Savings: $500.01
Why It's A Bad Deal: Even with a $500 discount you're still buying a cheap-for-a-reason Chinese bike that's going to require riding lessons, a license and possibly being abandoned two weeks later on the side of the road.

Bad Deal #3

What: Get Less Than 3% Off Of A BMW M3
Where: BMW Dealerships
Regular Price: $54,850
Black Friday Price: $53,350
Why It's A Bad Deal: BMW knows it has a great product in the M3 sports sedan and it's throwing its smallest cash back offer on them. For less than 3% off most buyers won't notice it.

Bad Deal #4

What: Get A "Free" Upgrade To An AWD Charger You Didn't Want
Where: Dodge Dealerships
Regular Price: $30,540
Black Friday Price: $25,700
Why It's A Bad Deal: Dodge has a slate of attractive incentives for those wanting to buy a new car from them, but the "free" upgrade to an AWD Charger is selling you an unpopular AWD upgrade instead of more cash off the car you actually wanted.

Bad Deal #5

What: Subaru Donates $250 To Charity For You
Where: Subaru Dealers
Regular Price: Regular Price
Black Friday Price: Still The Regular Price On Many Models
Why It's A Bad Deal: We think Subaru's "Share The Love " event is great for the five charities that get $250 when you buy their car, but it's not a great deal for consumers. Blame it on Subaru building cars people want.

We limited ourselves to current production vehicles and to pedals that come stock on those cars. Thankfully, there's still quite a bit of variety. You'll note that the more exotic cars come with floor hinged pedals. That's a more classic look that takes a little bit of engineering and ergonomic gumption to get right. Top hinged pedals are more common as it's easier to get them to adjust and break away in a front end impact. Mounting them from the bottom is now a form of showing off, providing car buyers with a clear example of high-spec mechanical components and sexy engineering. Both designs can now apply equal force to the pushrod they're attached to.

Car: Renault Twingo Renaultsport 133 Cup

Pedal Arrangement: Bog standard top hingers with aluminum covers that mimic Playstation Buttons.

Why They're Cool: Playstation buttons! A little tacky, but still not something you see everyday.

What They Say About The Car: The Twingo Cup is fun, like video games. Young people these days like video games, right?

Car: Lotus Elise

Pedal Arrangement: top hingers that are incredibly small and close together. Built from wedged aluminum to save weight.

Why They're Cool: They're just so damn functional and spartan. You can barely drive with a pair of slim sneakers on, racing shoes are strongly recommended.

What They Say About the Car: I might have a poofy name, but I was built to do one thing and one thing only: go around corners.

Car: Ariel Atom

Pedal Arrangement: Tilton racing top hinged.

Why They're Cool: Not only are these high-spec racing pedals made for actual race cars, you can see them from the outside thanks to the Atom's tubular frame.

What They Say About The Car: I mean business.

Car: Spyker C8 Spyder

Pedal Arrangement: Aluminum floor hinged crazy things.

Why They're Cool: They're completely over the top, just like the rest of the car.

What They Say About The Car: If my pedals are this freaking crazy, just imagine how quickly I'm going to spin the first time you drive me.

Car: Lexus LFA

Pedal Arrangement: Two forged aluminum floor-hinged sex toys.

Why They're Cool: like the rest of the car, they're massively over-engineered, yet completely sober. There's no extra design flourishes here, just a component it took some Japanese engineer a decade to refine. The samurai sword of car pedals.

What They Say About The Car: I may only have two pedals, but I was made that way on purpose because anything that wasn't an ideal solution was engineered out of me over a 10-year long gestation.

A special note to girls that like to take videos of themselves pumping pedals: please stop obscuring our view of sexy-looking pedals with your high heels and your bare legs.

Being scared of cars isn't unhealthy. Rather, it's a sign of respect for what four wheels, thousands of pounds of mass and gobs of power can do to yourself and others when forced to an immediate, screeching and metal-crunching stop. It's a good feeling. It makes you feel alive. Click "next" to see the cars that get our hearts racing.

Car: TVR Cerbera Speed 12

Why We're Afraid Of It: Starting with the obvious: it's a TVR. The specs almost match up with the Veyron except, you know, it's much lighter. And why is it so much lighter? No complex crumple zones, safety equipment, or electronic nannies to weight you down. But hey, you didn't buy one thinking you were going to live that long anyways.

Who Is Most Afraid Of It: Cubensis

Car: Dodge Viper SRT10

Why We're Afraid Of It: It'll burn you one way or another. It'll either leave a "Viper tatoo" of charred flesh along your calf as you exit or, if not given the proper respect, out the narrow front windshield. All power and no visibility make this a toy only for the well insured.

Who Is Most Afraid Of It: Us

Car: Caterham R500

Why We're Afraid Of It: If the Caparo T1 is like driving an F1 car, the Caterham R500 is like driving a motor and not much else. It does 0-to-60 MPH in... NOW. At a hair over 1,100 pounds it's got a power-to-weight ratio of 520 HP-per-ton. Windscreen and heart pills optional.

Who Is Most Afraid Of It: Arcsine

Car: Any Cobra Replica

Why We're Afraid Of It: Oversteer is a helluva drug. Shops like Factory Five have continued to pour more power into Cobra replicas and, in the name o fidelity to Shelby, not much else. It's basically the best way imaginable to piss your pants.

Who Is Most Afraid Of It: VeeArrrSix

Car: Porsche 930

Why We're Afraid Of It: Though it's the best sort of being scared, the original Porsche 911 Turbo was one of the earliest production vehicles to feature turbocharging. With around 400 HP coming out of an engine hanging out the back, the physics of the 930 are questionable and become that much more frightening when you throw in überturbolag. Stay on the throttle and it'll, almost magically, get you around the corner. Lift and you're toast.

Who Is Most Afraid Of It: Jeb_Hoge

Car: Wienermobile

Why We're Afraid Of It: We enjoy driving the occasional commercial truck, but when you remove the box and throw on an awkward and top-heavy dog-in-bun costume things change a bit. Based on a GMC platform, the latest big Wienermobile is powered by a 300 HP, which is completely manageable. What scares us the most about this particular vehicle is everyone else on the road swerving into us while trying to take video with their cell phone. We hear it's worse than a Bugatti.

Who Is Most Afraid Of It: PDQ2

Car: LS-Powered Cars That Aren't LS Cars

Why We're Afraid Of It: Whether LS1 or LS9 not all cars were intended for large, powerful V8 engines. And while throwing out a flat-head six in an old truck and dropping in an LSwhatever feels right, a Corvette-powered Chevy Aveo or Corvair is a proposition only for those without a history of heart problems.

Who Is Most Afraid Of It: Dmartino

Car: Dodge Caliber SRT4

Why We're Afraid Of It: Sure, 285 Horsepower isn't that much, until you consider it's been put in a vehicle barely designed to handle 100 HP. Buy hey, FWD cars with lots of power isn't necessarily bad, it's why God created differentials... except this doesn't have one. It has a "braking" diff that just hard-brakes one of the wheels on you. It's as comforting as it sounds.

Who Is Most Afraid Of It: Us one winter in Chicago.

Car: Caparo T1

Why We're Afraid Of It: It's considered the F1 car for the street. We'll reiterate: it's the F1 car for the street. Lots of power, not much weight, limited protection, and it nearly killed Jeremy Clarkson. Where do we sign up?

Who Is Most Afraid Of It: Motor_Yakuza

Car: Chrysler Sebring

Why We're Afraid Of It: The Chrysler Sebring Convertible doesn't have half the power most of the cars on this list have, but it feels like it's made of tin, drives like its tires are coated with astroturf, and is so loud with the top down that you're sure death is but a pothole away.

Who Is Most Afraid Of It: Lprice

In J.G. Ballard's 1974 novel Concrete Island, a wealthy man becomes stranded (his Jaguar breaks down, natch) in a fenced-off section of highway overpass. He fills his days much as you'd expect –- he retreats into himself, meets people that don't exist, and generally turns into a raving nutbag.

Was the highway to blame for that guy's freak-out? Given that he was driving an old Jag, probably not. (Crusty Brit iron has been known to rot brains.) But if we were set to go crazy, these ten locations are where we would want it to happen. Nothin' says lost-mind lovin' like the elegant work of the civil engineer.

Photo Credit: Ken Ohyama / Flickr

Hakozaki Interchange, Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway

As cities go, Tokyo is a big one. Thanks to densely packed buildings and a labyrinthine road system, it can seem impossibly complex at ground level. The Hakozaki junction is just one of the town's many Say What? feats of engineering. And yes, it looks like a giant freaking octopus. (Come to think of it, so does I-5.)

Photo Credit: Ken Ohyama / Flickr

Nanpu Bridge, Shanghai

Much like Tokyo, Shanghai is home to some of the world's weirdest architecture. It also plays host to more circular on-ramps than you can shake a stick at. The Nanpu Bridge, completed in 1991, is barely more than a quarter-mile long, but it sports one of the coolest ramps this side of a shark-jumpin' Fonzie. No, you're not seeing things — that's three decks.

Photo Credit: Qiao Da Ye / Flickr

Interstate H-3, O‘ahu

H-3 starts near Pearl Harbor and ends near Marine Corps Base Hawaii, effectively bisecting the southern half of O‘ahu. Planning for the road began in 1960, but construction didn't begin until the late 1980s. When it was completed in 1997, it was derided for being one of the most expensive interstates ever built. ($80 million dollars per mile, for reference.) We don't care. It's gorgeous.

Photo Credit: Seth Ladd / Flickr

Volkswagen Automated Garage, Wolfsburg, Germany

It's twenty stories tall, it houses more cars than you can shake a stick at, and it's smarter than most college students. Volkswagen's automated garage is used during new-car deliveries at the firm's Wolfsburg Autostadt, or "City of Cars." (Think of it as half Disney World, half industrial fantasy.) The garage is 80% smaller than a standard one of similar capacity, but we can't bring ourselves to get excited about numbers — we just want to get in a car and ride the dang thing*.

*Before you ask, no, they don't let you do this. Yet.

Hokko Junction, Hanshin Expressway, Osaka

Yet another piece of Asian beauty masquerading as an ordinary interchange. The Hanshin surrounds the Japanese cities of Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto; if the name sounds familiar, that's probably because an enormous chunk of the allegedly earthquake-proof freeway fell over during the 1995 Kobe 'quake. Thankfully, the Hokko was spared — the drain pipes alone qualify as art.

Photo Credit: Ken Ohyama / Flickr

Plano-Dallas Tollway/President George Bush Turnpike, Texas

It's just elegant, isn't it? There isn't much more to say. (Bumper stickers we wish existed: "Everything is Elegant in Texas;" "Matt Hardigree is an Elegant Man;" "Our Highways Make Your Highways Look Like Sissified Lady Parts.")

Photo Credit: Austrini / Flickr

En-Suite Sky Garages, 200 11th Avenue, New York City

Admit it: You've always wanted a condo in the city where you can park within feet of your couch. Car elevator? Got it. Killer view? Got it. Oil stains tracked into the living room of your umpteenth-floor crib? Of course! (Wait, that kind of sucks.) As far as we know, this isn't the first building of its type, but we're pretty sure it's the first one in the United States, and it's definitely the only one in the greatest city in the world. Booyah.

[200eleventh.com]

Bhumibol Bridge, Bangkok

Thailand is part of Asia, and if you haven't noticed, Asia seems to have a thing for funky, modern roadways. The Bhumibol Bridge in Bangkok is a perfect example — it connects southern Bangkok with the Samut Prakan province, crossing the same river twice. Its two spans are held up by two diamond-shaped pylons, and they meet in the middle at a curving, delicate on-ramp.

Photo Credit: Harald Hopfes / Flickr

Ramp, Chonqinq, China

Most of the time, the simplest approach is the best choice. This double-decker ramp is relatively new, but it arcs through a parklike green space so gracefully that it looks older than dirt. (In case you were wondering, those taxis are waiting to get gas. China looks like a fun place.)

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Fukushima Gate Tower, Hanshin Expressway, Osaka

The Fukushima Gate Tower in Osaka has a highway running through it. Yes: a highway. The building is sixteen stories tall, and it was there before the freeway that passes through its belly. The highway doesn't make contact with the building; it's held up by external supports. (This is apparently how Japanese engineers settle civil arguments: Don't want to move your building? Eat me. I've got a road to build.)

This is for those of you who think that modern machinery is dull, that there isn't anything out there worth pawning a kidney for. We're talking series-production stuff here; microscopic manufacturers need not apply. Hang onto your valuables and leave all sharp objects at the door. These engines is nuts.

Mercedes-Benz AMG 6.2-liter V-8 (C63 only)

What: 6.2-liter, DOHC, 32-valve V-8. Aluminum block, aluminum heads. 451 hp @ 6800 rpm; 443 lb-ft @ 5000 rpm.

Why: Because it crackles and snorts at idle. Because it will actually pop and spit on overrun if you toe in a little bit of throttle. Because it sounds like a cross between the pits at Englishtown and a DTM car that wants to break your face. Stuttgart sticks this engine in almost everything it builds, but it's somehow louder, angrier, and coarser in the C63 than it is anywhere else. A diabolical V-8 built by crack-smoking German engineers with a fetish for good hamburgers and the music of Glenn Danzig.

Thing You Will Do The First Time You Floor It: Wonder how much more awesome Talladega would be with a touch of balls-out blitzkrieg.

Photo Credit: The Car Spy / Flickr

Cadillac 6.2-liter "LSA" V-8 (CTS-V)

What: 6.2-liter, 16-valve V-8. Iron block, aluminum heads. 556 hp @ 6100 rpm; 551 lb-ft @ 3800 rpm.

Why: It's big, it's has pushrods and a supercharger, and it's in a Cadillac. (A Cadillac, people.) It pulls until Christmas and doesn't seem to care that it's hauling around four doors and a dairy farm's worth of leather. As a factory-backed, 100,000-mile-durable proposition, the LSA is nuts. Between a CTS's front fenders, it's undiluted madness.

(Those things on the left? Those are the blower rotors. They're art. When was the last time anything in a Cadillac's engine bay qualified as art?)

Thing You Will Do The First Time You Floor It: Throw away any and all doubt you have about the talent of Detroit's engineers. Look up the word "whompy" in the dictionary. Giggle.

Porsche 3.8-liter H-6 (911 GT3 only)

What: 3.8-liter, DOHC, 24-valve flat six. Aluminum crankcase, cylinder jugs, and heads. 435 hp @ 7600 rpm; 317 lb-ft at 6250 rpm.

Why: The movie Le Mans, that's why. Or maybe the titanium connecting rods, the seven oil pumps, and the fact that it sounds exactly like a 2.7-liter Carrera RS sounds in your head. (Hint: It's hollow and made almost entirely of love.) This is the heritage freak-out, the motorsport-focused mill that revs to the moon and produces all of its power at the north end of the tach. Words don't do it justice, except to say that there is no earthly reason why a modern engine should sound this wonderful, be this single-minded, and be available to ordinary men.

See that jumbled mass of plumbing over there? We used that snoozy picture for a reason: Like most modern Porsche powerplants, the GT3's six looks like little more than a horny water heater. Never judge a book by its cover.

Thing You Will Do The First Time You Floor It: Instantly conclude that your entire life has been a complete waste of time. (Did you design this thing? I don't think so. Go twiddle your thumbs, Bunkenheimer.) Deutschland über your mother.

Ferrari 4.3-liter V-8 (F430 Scuderia/Scuderia Spider 16M)

What: 4.3-liter, DOHC, 32-valve V-8. Aluminum block and heads. 503 hp @ 8500 rpm; 347 @ 5250 rpm.

Why: It's a Ferrari V-8. More specifically, it's an F430's flat-crank V-8 with higher compression and higher output. It's busy, it's nervous, and in Scuderia/16M tune — especially in the roofless 16M, where the yowl is loud enough to liquefy your eyeballs — it wants to crack your skull open and dry-hump your gray matter.

Remember that noise from Animal Planet, the one that cheetahs make when they're about to leap into a pack of running gazelles? Speed that up, bump up the pitch, and play it through a speaker the size of the Chrysler Building. Nothing built by human hands should sound this unhinged.

Thing You Will Do The First Time You Floor It: Get pregnant. Even — wait, no, especially — if you're not a woman. (You're essentially driving undiluted sex. What did you expect?)

Anything They Put In The Ariel Atom

What: Depending on where and when you bought it, anything from a Honda K20A four-cylinder to a 3.0-liter, 500-hp V-8.

Why: The engine's main air intake is literally five inches behind your ear. When you stab the throttle in an Atom, your brain gets sucked down that duct and spit into next Tuesday. If you're wearing a helmet, you'll probably be OK; if not, you'll wake up naked and carless in the Falklands wondering why your tongue hurts. (Lesson? Whatever you do, don't screw with the Brits.)

Thing You Will Do The First Time You Floor It: Go deaf. Whirring, whistling, sucking, screaming, agony-of-Armageddon deaf. Loud doesn't even begin to describe it.

RUNNER-UP: Lexus 4.8-liter V-10 (LFA)

What: 4.8-liter, DOHC, 40-valve V-10. Aluminum block and heads. 553 hp @ 8700 rpm; 354 lb-ft @ 6800 rpm.

Why: Lexus is trying to reinvent itself, and nothing screams reinvent like a supercar with a weight-obsessed design team and a set of hydraulic shift paddles. This from the company that gave the world the Camry Hybrid. Anything that goes under the LFA's hood is crazy on principle, much less a V-10.

Thing You Will Do The First Time You Floor It: We're not quite sure, largely because Wes is the only one who's driven it. He communicates in a language all his own. (Much like the Burger King chicken fry, Siler is a mystery to modern science. Also, he wears tight pants. You can't trust anybody in tight pants.)

Mercedes-Benz have been racing cars for over a century now, but since 1955, they have been doing it in disguise: as AMG, as Sauber, as McLaren.

This is set to chance in 2010: Brawn GP will become Mercedes-Benz’s factory team as Mercedes Grand Prix.

The new team, headed by Ross Brawn, will have quite a history to match. The most famous Mercedes-Benz racing cars are the Silver Arrows, named for their unpainted aluminum bodies: two groups of cars which competed in the 30s and the 50s and won most of the races they were entered in.

Here they are.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W25
Year: 1934–1936
Engine: 3.3-liter straight-8
Power: 354 HP
Claim to fame: The first Silver Arrow

The rise of Mercedes-Benz’s grand prix team paralleled the Nazis’ ascent to power in Germany. After Adolf Hitler became Germany’s chancellor, he was approached by a Daimler-Benz executive and they agreed to a deal where the German state would sponsor the Mercedes-Benz racing team, which was then in deep financial trouble. There is dispute about the precise amount of sponsorship, with various sources pegging it between 10% and 40% of expenses.

The W25 was created for the 750-kilo formula: cars could weigh no more than 1650 pounds. It is not precisely clear how they lost their German racing white to became silver, but the most widely quoted story is that team manager Alfred Neubauer and driver Manfred von Brauchitsch devised the scheme to strip the car of its paint to squeeze it below weight regulations.

In any case, after early teething problems were overcome, it was a very successful car, winning many races in 1934 and taking the 1935 European Grand Prix Championship for Rudolf Caracciola. In its last year, it was eclipsed by Auto Union’s Type C, driven by Bernd Rosemeyer.

Like every Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrow which would follow, the W25 had a supercharged engine which emitted a characteristic whistle under acceleration. If you’re interested, Jenson Button drove it at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, where I captured the whistling on video.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W125
Year: 1937
Engine: 5.6-liter straight-8
Power: 646 HP (← not a typo)
Claim to fame: Most powerful Grand Prix for decades

The W125 was supposed to be a stopgap for the 1937 season, before new rules for 1938 would come into effect, but what a stopgap it’s turned out to be! Developed by young engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut, who could drive it on the Nürburgring at race speeds, it rectified the W25’s handling problems and received an engine which would not be matched for power until Can-Am cars became truly mad, a good three decades later.

Rudolf Caracciola used the W125 to retake his European Grand Prix Championship title from Bernd Rosemeyer. As displacement rules changed for 1938, the car was retired after its single successful season.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W125 Streamliner
Year: 1937
Engine: 5.6-liter straight-8
Power: 646 HP
Claim to fame: Won fastest ever Grand Prix race

This was a version of the W125 entered for the ludicrous AVUS race, held on two straight stretches of Autobahn with banked corners to connect them. The cars reached speeds of 240 MPH on the straights. Hermann Lang, who won the race in the car pictured, described the sensation as more akin to airplane acrobatics than auto racing.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W125 Rekordwagen
Year: 1938
Engine: 5.5-liter V12
Power: 736 HP
Claim to fame: Holds land speed record on public road

Mercedes-Benz also used the W125 to run speed records attempts on Germany’s newly built Autobahns. On a January morning in 1938, Rudolf Caracciola drove this W125 at 268 MPH on a measured mile between Frankfurt and Darmstadt. To this day, it remains the highest speed ever achieved on a public road. Caracciola would describe the experience of running under overpasses at such speeds as trying very hard to stick a piece of thread through an eye of a needle.

This image is also testament to the troubled relationship Mercedes-Benz has with its past, where great racing success happened to coincide with Nazi power. Look close and you’ll see a swastika airbrushed into moderate oblivion on the driver’s headrest.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W154
Year: 1938–1939
Engine: 3-liter V12
Power: 425 HP
Claim to fame: Beat Auto Union

For 1938, Mercedes-Benz designed a brand-new car, in keeping with the new regulations, which limited displacement to three liters. The resulting W154 was a low-slung technological marvel, running on a mixture of methyl alcohol, nitrobenzene, acetone and sulfuric ether, a gallon of which would propel it for a mere 2.8 miles. Auto Union’s rival Type D was no match for it, and Rudolf Caracciola used the car to take his third and last European grand prix crown.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W165
Year: 1939
Engine: 1.5-liter V8
Power: 254 HP
Claim to fame: Took revenge on sneaky Italians

In the 1920s and 1930s, Tripoli—the Libyan capital, then part of an Italian colony—was host to a glamorous grand prix with high prices. By colonial tradition, it was an Italian home race. Following Hermann Lang’s back-to-back wins in 1937 and 1938 for Mercedes-Benz, the Italians suddenly changed the rules to allow only 1.5-liter cars for the 1939 years—cars which Alfa Romeo and Maserati, as opposed to Mercedes-Benz, happened to possess.

With only 8 months to go, Mercedes-Benz had their work cut out for them. A skunk works was formed, which took the 3-liter W154 and downsized it for Tripoli, finishing the car just in time. Hermann Lang didn’t waste the opportunity and rounded out his hat trick of Tripoli titles to the Italians’ great irritation.

Four months later, Europe was at war and motor racing came to a halt.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: W196 Type Monza
Year: 1954
Engine: 2.5-liter straight-8
Power: 257 HP
Claim to fame: Returned Mercedes-Benz to Grand Prix racing in high style

Barely a decade after World War Two, the Mercedes-Benz team was back in action. Team manager Alfred Neubauer and engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut returned to lead a new team, luring Maserati’s world champion Juan Manuel Fangio to drive their new car, the W196. The team debuted at the 1954 French Grand Prix, where they proceeded to take a 1–2 win.

The streamlined body was good for high-speed tracks like Rheims and Monza but unsuitable for most other circuits. After two races, Mercedes-Benz dropped the streamliner and introduced an open wheel version of the W196 which was used for the rest of their time in Formula One.

Photo Credit: Louis Klemantaski

Name: W196
Year: 1954–1955
Engine: 2.5-liter straight-8
Power: 257–290 HP
Claim to fame: Won back-to-back Formula One World Championships

The W196 was one of the most successful cars ever constructed for Formula One. It debuted and exited with a victory and won a total of 9 races between the 1954 French Grand Prix and the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. During that period, it was only beaten three times.

Of those nine wins, eight went to Juan Manuel Fangio and one to Stirling Moss.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: 300SLR
Year: 1955
Engine: 3-liter straight-8
Power: 310 HP
Claim to fame: Won World Sportscar Championship

You probably know this car already! The 300SLR was a two-seater version of the W196, with the engine enlarged to three liters. In 1955, Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson drove it to an incredible victory at the Mille Miglia, averaging 100 MPH over one thousand miles of Italian public road, a record which still stands.

The 300SLR also won the RAC Tourist Trophy and the Targa Florio, which was enough to beat Ferrari for the 1955 World Sportscar Championship title.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: 300SLR, Le Mans version
Year: 1955
Engine: 3-liter straight-8
Power: 310 HP
Claim to fame: Killed 85 people, caused Mercedes-Benz to withdraw from motorsports

On June 11, 1955, it went all wrong for Mercedes-Benz. Running a customized high speed version of the 300SLR in Le Mans against the Jaguar D-Types, Pierre Levegh’s 300SLR catapulted into the air and slammed headfirst into a wall of spectators, killing scores. The car was made of a highly flammable magnesium alloy called Elektron, which did not help things. The burned-out husk you see on the picture is what remained of Levegh’s car.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

Name: 300SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé
Year: 1955
Engine: 3-liter straight-8
Power: 310 HP
Claim to fame: Fastest road car of the 1950s

Had Mercedes-Benz not retired at the end of the 1955 season, this is the car they would have raced at Le Mans. A coupé version of the 300SLR race car, it was instead used by Rudolf Uhlenhaut as his daily driver. The car could run at 170 MPH on the public road, which Uhlenhaut, a driver of almost Formula One quality, exploited to the last drop.

As the 300SLR itself was based on the W196 Formula One car, a way to imagine its devastating speed would be to install a canopy on Jenson Button’s championship-winning BGP–001 and use it as a daily driver.

New Formula One cars are usually introduced in January, so expect the next Silver Arrow to crop up sometime in January 2010. We’ll be here to tell you all about it.

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz

The initial reports from the scene raised some eyebrows when the driver reportedly said the crash was the fault of a "low-flying pelican." The video seems to indicate otherwise. Or does it? JCwhitless thinks he's found it:

On behalf of fairness, the film clearly shows the bird being killed.

Please refrain from throwing the guy under the bus as the Pelican has already been thrown under the Bugatti.

Although the pelican's a compelling argument, especially with the frame-by-frame screen grab, but Christopher Schull disagrees:

The only thing clearly established is JCWhitless has a vivid imagination and is willing to present it as factual. It is laughable to say a pelican can "clearly" be seen anywhere near the front of that car at any point in the video. It just didn't happen. I truly hope JCWhitless is never called on as a witness for anything that matters.

I live right down the road from that spot and I went there this morning. The object in the first square of the picture he posted is trash on the side of the road, looks like one piece due to the point of view which is a few hundred feet before the second image. In reality it is two pieces one right behind the other from that angle.

The objects in the second square is the same two pieces of trash but viewed further down the road nearly next to them. You can see the seperation and the way they are laying that from the other view they could appear as one.

There was no bird. I video taped the scene and the two pieces of trash are obvious, no dead bird to be found and as flat and open as the road is (no shoulder drop off at all even) it is ridiculous to believe anything other than the guy gently steered the car right into the water. I will post the video of the scene on YouTube if needed.

Coming back from Galveston on I-45 this section of feeder is only around a half mile long, the only way on it is to exit after crossing Highway 3. Then you have to either get back on the freeway very quickly or you will be forced to U-turn under I-45 and head back the other way. There is absolutely nothing on the feeder and there is no reason to get on it if you are heading back from Galveston. The spot where the Veyron ran into the water is beyond the point that you have to get back on the freeway, leaving only the choice of U-turning to go the other way, so so much also for the BS story about heading back from Galveston eh?

This crash is a publicity money making scam along the lines of Balloon Boy and this guy should be promptly arrested for fraud....

Reader NitrousOxide sees either a pelican or a blackhawk helicopter in this screen-capture from the grainy video.

B3ND3R avails himself of every possibility with the following breakdown:

OK, for the record I never meant to imply that I definitively thought it was a scam, just that my BS meter is pegged and people need to open themselves up to the possibility.

Note:

A. This is 1 of 15 Veyrons in the entire US. The odds of anyone, let alone a car enthusiast, even spotting a Veyron are about 1 in 7.3 million provided that all 15 Veyrons were on the road on this day (and I'm betting most were not).

B. Veyrons are horrendously expensive to maintain. First scheduled maintenance - $22,322. Tires must be replaced every 2,500 miles at a cost of $10,347 per set. The entire set of wheels must be replaced every third tire change (7,500 miles). Extended warranty? Sure, that will be $103,062 for 2 years.

C. Restoring exotics pays well, but does it pay well enough to purchase a $1M+ car. I happen to personally know a concourse restorer of vintage Ferraris, and his income would be categorized as upper middle class. Previous poster stated the driver lives in a $147K home, but driver claims to own the Veyron.

D. The engine was left running for 15 minutes underwater.

E. Both the pulling of the car out of the water and the accident were very conveniently filmed.

So, for those who buy the whole story, you can safely commit to the fact that:

1. There is no possibility that this guy was in over his head and wanted an insurance payout.

2.There is no possibility that he didn't have the whole thing filmed so that he could prove he wasn't driving recklessly.

3. There is no possibility he didn't want the car totally destroyed (engine and all) and thus risk getting stuck with the car when it was repaired.

4. There is no possibility that this wasn't embarked on as a publicity stunt by one of the very few people in the country who specialize in restoring wrecked exotics.

OK. I don't know the guy or the situation other than what has been disclosed, so just maybe this is one set of amazing coincidences.

And if this is just one set of big coincidences, then both the driver of the Veyron and the kids filming it need to go out and buy a few thousand dollars worth of lottery tickets.

Whatever the case, there's a pot of gold in there somewhere for someone as many of you pointed out, and Rogue180 captured, there's a rainbow at the end of this story.

It was little more than half-a-century ago the armies of Rome, Berlin and Tokyo were defeated by Detroit's "Arsenal of Democracy" equipped by American carmakers. Yet to hear it lately from conservatives and leaders in the Republican Party, American automakers are what's wrong with this country, should be boycotted, and go bankrupt.

Senator John McCain told reporters that we should have never bailed out Chrysler and GM and let them go under.

"No, I don't think we ever should have bailed out Chrysler and General Motors," McCain told The Detroit News. "We should have let them go into bankruptcy, emerge and become viable corporations again."

This, of course, while he was out drumming up support for his 2010 Senate run while serving as the grand marshal of a NASCAR event where the very good ol' boys he was drumming up support from were watching Chrysler and GM products race. And, as The Detroit News points out, we did let them go into bankruptcy. We're still waiting to find out whether they'll emerge as stronger companies.

Confusingly, McCain seems to be channeling John Kerry in being for the bailout before he was against it. Now, of course, he's going so far as to refer to it as "Socialism."

And just this weekend RNC Chairman Michael Steele responded to the news of GM going further in debt by pointing out this statement:

"Today's release of General Motors' financial results is further proof that President Obama's economic experiments are wrong for America."

Of course, GM lost $4.2 billion in the third-quarter last year so this is actually an improvement, of sorts. And GM also announced they'd be repaying loans ahead of schedule.

So who do the Republicans like? At last year's Detroit Auto Show we had a conversation with Senator Bob Corker, the Republican who lead the charge against the bailout, and he talked about the Volkswagens he loves. Not a surprise given VW is joining Nissan in building a huge plant in his state.

In fact, there have been a number of foreign car companies moving better-than-minimum-wage assembly plants into states represented by Republican senators, including BMW in South Carolina, Toyota in Texas, Nissan/VW in Tennessee, and Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai in Alabama. Of course, we can't blame the Chrysler-Fiat "Global Strategic Alliance" alliance on the Republican party.

So when the far right goes to Boycott GM they're doing so for the benefit of companies like Volkswagen and Toyota, who have both surpassed GM as the world's largest automaker in the last year.

Ironically, this is the same Republican party upset about the Chinese purchase of Hummer. As Republican Representative Duncan Hunter told the Wall Street Journal: "Any money that is going to China or to Chinese companies is contributing in some way to China's military buildup."

So supporting American car companies is socialism and supporting every other country's investments in production capacity is capitalism and therefore good for America.

But hey, the Germans, Japanese, Chinese and Italians are our friends so who says we need any domestic car production or car companies? Of course, we're probably just paranoid. Maybe the real reason the Republicans hate GM and Chrysler is just that they really like Ford.

Photo Credit: DiggerHistory

The argument isn't a new one, but that doesn't make it any less relevant. We live in one of the richest, most tech-friendly nations on the planet, our president speaks in complete sentences, and yet, we've been struggling with the transport question for decades. No matter how well-intentioned, high-speed ground travel always fizzles at the starting gate.

Naturally, Jalopnik enjoys endorsing things that haul ass, but to put it bluntly, fast trains rip our skulls open. Below, the pros. If you can think of a con — and initial setup cost doesn't count — then take to the comments.

Benefits for Society and the Environment:

• High-speed trains draw their power from grid electricity. Take issue with the carbon emissions from that much juice? Reducing carbon output from a stationary powerplant is about a thousand times simpler than doing the same with a mobile — i.e., wheeled - one.

• Net energy efficiency per passenger mile is superior to that of automobiles and jets. Period. If that weren't enough, compared with asphalt, the enviromental damage from railway infrastructure is almost nonexistent.

• Don't want to die? Rail safety figures are infinitely superior to those of passenger cars and, as far as we know, still outpacing those of passenger aircraft.

• Community-friendly infrastructure: rail stations are both less intrusive and produce less noise than airports.

Benefits for the Average Joe:

• More comfortable than air travel.
• Way the hell faster than a car.
• Costs per seat-mile traveled are lower than with aircraft, which usually leads to lower fares.
• Quieter than a jet, and the boarding/deboarding process is substantially faster.
• Door-to-door times on short hauls (300-500 miles) are superior to those of a jet.
• Train stations can be placed in city centers, rather than distanced from them. (Hello, major airports.)

Benefits for the Car Guy:

• Gets people off our roads, leaving them more wide open to, you know, us!

Those are the hard points, and while they make sense on paper, they admittedly don't stir any emotion. You have to ride a fast train — France's Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV), for example — to understand.

Frankly, the only word for the experience is civilized. Because the weight and size restrictions of an aircraft almost don't exist, trains like the TGV can have big comfy seats, giant windows, huge overhead bins, and in-car luggage racks, not to mention perks like lounges — things that are relatively impossible on a low-fare passenger aircraft. When the train pulls into the station, twelve doors open, and everyone is off within five minutes. The servicing follows, but there are no umbilical hoses, fuel trucks, or dudes in yellow vests waving flashlight batons. For the most part, the servicing process consists of one guy wheeling a cart out to restock the food in the lounge car. Because there are twelve doors and no jetway bottleneck, reboarding takes about ten minutes.

The train pulls out of the station and crawls through a switchyard with the same bumps and clanks as an Amtrak hoopty, but as soon as it exits and drops onto its main line, the ride turns Magic. You feel the same gentle shove of acceleration that you get on any other train, but with one difference: It doesn't stop until the trackside poles, the ones just outside your window, are ripping by in streaks. It's quiet. It's roomy. And then — just like that — you're bumping up against 200 mph.

So far, anyone who's boarded a 737 should be drooling with envy. The negatives are obvious: It's not as fast as flying, and it's not as much fun as driving a car. But try this in your Vista Cruiser: At a few miles per hour short of a Bugatti Veyron's top speed, Pierre T. Frenchy can get up, walk to the lounge, buy a beer, and suck it down while standing up and looking out the window.

Makes the airborne cattle car look kind of dull, doesn't it?

Edit: Because so many people have pointed this out in the comments, it probably needs to be said: Yes, HSR is highly impractical for a large nation like the United States. Yes, believing that it will happen in the forseeable future is foolish. And yes, there are a million other things that the money would be better spent on, not the least of which is proper light rail in a great many urban areas. This post was intended to be a pie-in-the-sky love song and conversation starter, not an answer unto itself.

Photo Credit: Getty Images, Nguyen Dai / Flickr

Feature: Cruise Control
Rank #10
Why People Want It: The phrase "Set it and forget it" made Ron Popeil a rich man. We don't particularly like paying attention to things that don't need constant modulation, it's boring. Thus cruise control. It used to require Rube Goldberg-like gadgetry to keep speed constant without having your foot on the pedal, but now it's as simple as a piece of software controlling the electronic throttle. Not standard yet (but getting there) are systems to prevent you from plowing into the back of a Reatta at freeway speeds because some boob decided to slam on his brakes while you were texting on your cell phone.

Feature: 4WD
Rank: #9
Why People Want It:You need four wheel drive to conquer the cliffs of cul-de-sac every morning while commuting from your remote village of Pulte. It's absolutely essential when considering the refuse-strewn terrain and deep water you'll face during sudden thunderstorms. By God, what if you go tailgating at your alma mater and have to park on the grass! There'd be no rescue for you if you had no four wheel drive.

Feature: Seat Heater (s)
Rank:#8
Why People Want It: If you've ever lived in a state that does winter with gusto, say, Michigan, you realize the utility of seat heaters. They're practically life saving devices in February. Since American's bottoms are ever expanding and a large heat sink, an unheated backside could probably result in flash hypothermia. Seat heaters: Saving American lives during short trips to the Taco Bell drive through at 2 AM in February.

Feature: Tow Hitch
Rank: #7
Why People want it: Tow hitches are like bicycles. Some people use them a lot, every day in fact, other just like to have one for recreational stuff, but most just like to have them because. You never know when you'll need a tow hitch. Those are the people with rusty tow hitches that've never seen the inside of a receiver.

Feature: Automatic transmission
Rank: #6
Why People Want It: People want automatic transmissions because they're the only way to enable knee driving, which frees up both hands for more important tasks, like putting on eyeliner, checking out the morning newspaper, chatting with a cell-phone in one hand and a coffee in the other. Also, they don't like manual transmissions because they hate sunshine and rainbows and freedom and the American way. Plus hills. They hate hills.

Feature:DVD Video System
Rank: #5
Why People Want It: Have kids? Hate them? DVD players all around. Who wants the arduous task of actually speaking with your progeny? Nobody, that's who. Having conversations about the trip, the world around, answering questions and providing a general education for your kids is the job of the public schools. Put the latest Pixar flick on and enjoy pretending you never even had them.

Feature: Third Row Seat
Rank: #4
Why People Want It: You know all those other friends you have? The ones you don't really want to ride with you when hitting the town because they talk too loud on their cell phone or possess the innate ability to make every conversation about how the '85 Bears were the greatest football team ever? Those friends are the reason 3rd row seats were invented. Put them in the wayback and A) you can't hear them from the drivers seat and B) it's so cramped back there they'll never want to hitch a ride with you again. We're surprised it's only at #4.

Feature:Sunroof
Rank: #3
Why People Want It:Everybody loves letting the sun shine in, and since we as a nation now spend virtually all our time in the office, at the mall, or in front of the TV when not in the car, a hole in the roof is absolutely critical for the body's production of Vitamin D. You can quite easily pick out people without sunroofs, as they'll be suffering the effects of Vitamin D deficiency, namely cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment in older adults, severe asthma in children and cancer.

Feature: Navigation System
Rank: #2
Why People Want It: Driving is hard. Knowing where you're going and using a map is even harder. Being aware of your cardinal directions and prior preparation for a trip are old ways of thinking. Pre-internets ways. Nowadays you simply take twenty minutes to awkwardly key in your destination address, then dive across four lanes of freeway traffic to hit the exit when the voice prompt tells you to awkwardly turn as you're passing it. It's a great feature.

Feature: Leather Seats
Rank: #1
Why People Want It: Since the dawn of the automobile, leather upholstery has been a luxury feature. That's not to say it's the correct metric for luxury. After all, you can get leather seats in a Kia Rondo. Still, it's one of those features which makes every car seem a little nicer, despite the at-times atrocious plasticky vinyl feel to the material.

Driving in the rain is like jaywalking — it's not the safest thing in the world, but millions of people do it without incident, and most folks don't give it too much thought. Live where it rains a lot? Planning on driving somewhere other than a sun-baked desert? It never hurts to remember the basics.

Take care of your car and its tires. Every vehicle talks to the road through four small patches of rubber. It doesn't matter if you're driving a Ferrari, an all-wheel-drive Audi, or an asthmatic garbage truck — if the tires aren't happy, the car isn't happy. Handling, braking, and acceleration are all directly tied to how well your rubber grips the road. On top of that, what seems like a minor irritation (a bit of squealing, a slight wandering at speed) on dry pavement can often be downright homicidal in the wet. Neglect your tires, and you neglect the one part of your car most responsible for your safety.

Thankfully, keeping track of this stuff is limited to two simple tasks: checking your tire pressure and checking the depth of your tires' tread. If you understand how to use a ruler and can afford a two-dollar tire-pressure gauge (try almost any gas station), then you can do either yourself. (If not, don't worry; any mechanic can help.) The recommended tire pressures (yes, pressures — front and rear are usually different) for your vehicle can be found inside your owner's manual; tread depth can be checked by measuring from the bottom of the tire's tread to the top of its shortest tread block.

While you're at it, make sure your windshield wipers are still soft and pliable (squeegees don't work if they can't follow the contours of the glass) and check to that your defroster is still working. When it comes to your comfort level in inclement weather, proper visibility makes all the difference.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Slow down. Speed is a wonderful thing, and in most cases, we're all for it. But when you're in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the beltway and can't see more than a few cars in front of you, you need all the reaction time you can get. It may sound obvious, but the slower you go, the easier it is to stop or swerve in order to avoid an accident.

Because wet pavement is slicker than dry pavement, cars lose grip whenever it rains. Reduced grip means increased acceleration and braking distances, not to mention slower cornering speeds. Every mile per hour that you chop off — and every foot of following distance that you add — gives you one more moment of reaction time should the unexpected occur. And in bad weather, you should always be looking for the unexpected.

Photo Credit: Salty Grease/Flickr

If you lose control, don't do anything sudden. When your car begins to slide, it's best to remember one thing: It will eventually stop. (If you're lucky, that moment will come before you end up in a tree.) In the interim, you need to do everything you can to preserve your tires' hold on the pavement. Gently ease off the accelerator and refrain from slamming on the brakes. If the car is sliding in a corner, steer into the slide and keep your eyes pointed where you want to go. If you're hydroplaning, resist the urge to yank on the wheel or throw the car into another lane. Above all, remember this: When your tires are struggling to hold onto the road, the slightest provocation can upset them. Keep them happy. No surprises.

Photo Credit: Timothy J/Flickr

If you can avoid it, never drive into a flooded area. This may sound obvious, but a surprising number of people lose their cars — and often their lives — every year by driving into or across waterlogged pavement. Currents can run remarkably strong on a flooded road, and what looks like a foot-deep stream can often suck you and your car off to a watery grave. Think of it like an ocean's rip tide — you wouldn't drive your Civic into Waimea Bay, would you?

That said, it's occasionally unavoidable. If it's a matter of life or death and you absolutely have to get across, there are a few steps you can take to better your odds. First, go as slow as you possibly can without dawdling; higher speeds increase the chances that your tires will lift off the pavement, that the car will float instead of roll, and that you'll lose the ability to steer. (If you look out the door and notice that your wheels are producing waves—i.e., a wake—then you're probably going too fast.) Second, if possible, cross the water's flow at an angle in order to narrow your profile. And finally, remember this: If it looks a little too deep, then it's probably a lot too deep.

If you should happen to get stuck or be swept away, don't leave your vehicle. If the water is strong enough to levitate two tons of steel off the road, it's definitely strong enough to swallow you whole. Roll the windows up, get out the cell phone, and pray that the car comes to a stop.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Calm down. This piece of advice might not apply to everyone, but it's still worth keeping in mind. The human body's fight-or-flight process is pretty remarkable, but when you're busy behind the wheel, the last thing you need is an elevated heart rate and twitchy reactions. Breathe deep. Look as far ahead as possible. Try not to get excited or nervous. The more control you have over your body, the more control you have over your car.

Bonus Tip: If you can, stay at home. It may sound impractical, but it's often the best way to avoid trouble. If flood warnings are issued and you can't see the end of your street, then let discretion be the better part of not getting helicoptered off the roof of your sunken Datsun. You may know what you're doing — and chances are, if you're reading this site, you do — but that doesn't mean everyone else does. And while it's true that the majority of accidents are avoidable, there's no sense in unnecessarily putting yourself in harm's way.

We've known for a while the Boss was coming, and that the Raptor XT would get the first implementation of the giant engine. But other than data and a few photos from Ford, the 6.2-liter version of the motor has stayed in Ford's possession.

Well, that's what we thought. It turns out Houston-based tuning shop Fastlane has had six of what they believe to be prototype versions secretly sitting inside their nondescript and hard-to-find shop in a commercial strip around the corner from a Chinese buffet for almost five months. The details of how they got there are purposefully vague, but shop owner/founder Nick Field has been sitting on this big engine for far too long to not want to share.

When Ford needs to dispose of their experimental parts some of it gets crushed and some of it gets sent out to salvage. When it goes out the door someone gets tipped off. It's that unnamed middle man who originally bought these engines (and tons of other bits and pieces) and put them up for purchase as part of a massive Ford garage sale. When Field saw the list of what was for sale, he was able to guess it was important and bought all six of them for a price so low you wouldn't believe if we printed it.

That's right. Six of them. The one we photographed is sitting in the middle of Fastlane's office on an engine stand, as if it were just another of the many other motors floating around the shop. You wouldn't even know it was a Ford as the engineers were at least smart enough to grind off most of the identifying numbers and all but one small logo, though they left a few of the sensors intact. Although Ford may not be marketing this engine as a revival of the Boss engine, trust us when we tell you, it's the Boss engine.

This is most likely an early version as it features a cast-aluminum intake manifold the designers used to make volume adjustments before they switched to the plastic version found on later prototypes and now the final production iteration.

None of Fastlane's motors are running yet, but to Field and the Fastlane crew there's a belief this is an engine with promise for the tuner set. And they should know, as they're the company behind the fastest CTS-V and the fastest 2010 Camaro in the world. The stats from Ford on the engine are as follows: 9.8:1 compression ratio, two plugs per cylinder, cast iron block with aluminum heads, cross-drilled mains, and 411 HP/434 lb-ft of torque in XT trim with a 500 HP version apparently coming.

An engine dyno is going to be scheduled as soon as Fastlane gets the Boss actually running (Ford of course didn't ship it out with the ECU). But what are they really going to do with six big experimental engines? In addition to getting quite the head start in terms of aftermarket development, one is being kept on display, two of them are planned for the company's racing Mustang, one belongs to customer/shop mascot Mark Ponter, one is being prepped for a restomod '67 Mustang, and the other one has an undecided fate.

Whether this new "Boss" motor is destined only for trucks or if it becomes Ford's answer to the HEMI and Vortec engine in passenger cars is still unclear. All Nick Field knows is "We're getting one in a Mustang."

In honor of the American Medical Association changing its policy on medical marijuana Tuesday, we bring you this list of five pot-friendly car flicks—and one bonus flick to sober up to. Were you the type of person to partake (and don't worry, we know you're not), this is what you would watch.

La Carrera Panamericana With Music by Pink Floyd

Year Debuted: 1992, VHS/DVD only
Director: Ian McArthur
Length: 65 minutes

Why Get Baked? Two decades ago, David Gilmour and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd ran La Carrera in a Jaguar C-Type replica while a friend filmed the competition. They then came home, set the whole thing to music, and packaged it for sale. The footage is often cheesy, the sound mix isn't always that great, and you have to be able to tolerate (or preferably enjoy) Pink Floyd, but under the right circumstances, it's the ultimate car-freak chill film. The 65-minute video works best when set on an endless loop in the garage while you're...er...fixing stuff. Yeah—that's all you do out there. Fix stuff.

C'était un Rendezvous

Year Debuted: 1976
Director: Claude Lelouch
Length: 9 minutes

Why Get Baked? Because it's short, romantic, and set to the yowl of a Ferrari 275 GTB. Because it's gloriously detailed—See the pigeons? See the fleeing pedestrians? See the mother on the sidewalk yanking her kid out out of the way?—and rewards repeat viewing. Because it's so multi-layered, it may as well be a cake. And because it's French. And the French always crack your mind open.

The Blues Brothers

Year Debuted: 1980
Director: John Landis
Length: 133 minutes

Why Get Baked? One word: Stax. The car chases are fantastic, the jokes are timeless, and the look on Dan Aykroyd's face—ever solemn, ever grave—is worth the price of admission. But the music is what keeps you coming back. Aykroyd and Belushi's sidemen were little more than the house band from legendary Memphis soul shop Stax Records, and every note they play drips with the hard-earned funk of an all-night tracking session. Few things drop you into a groove like watching a Dodge Monaco take over the world. Fewer still can claim to have an eight-track full of Sam and Dave.

Ronin

Year Debuted: 1998
Director: John Frankenheimer
Length: 122 minutes

Why Get Baked? It's probably safe to say this is the only movie that combines the ear-melting howl of an E34 BMW M5 with the iron-jawed mugging of a middle-aged Robert Deniro. John Frankenheimer—the same man responsible for the epic Grand Prix—directed this one, and it's home to three of the best chase scenes ever filmed. The near-psychotic attention to detail (e.g., the M5 in question is a European-spec car and actually sounds like one) will likely freak you out, but even if you don't know how to spell your own name, the caper plot is easy to keep up with.

Corvette Summer

Year Debuted: 1978
Director: Matthew Robbins
Length: 105 minutes

Why Get Baked? Ingredients: One stolen Corvette. One post-Star-Wars Mark Hamill, deep in the throes of "Hey! I can be more than Luke!" typecasting paranoia. One road trip to get said 'Vette back. And a director who loves his four-wheeled cast so much that the main character comes across as little more than a background prop. Yes, it's cheesy. Yes, it's kitschy. And yes, you might fall asleep. But hell, this thing only makes sense when you're high.

Sober-up Special: Fifty Years of Formula 1 On Board

Year Debuted: 2004, DVD only
Length: 60 minutes
Director: N/A

Why Get Baked? In a word, don't. This is for when you really, really need to sober up. At $34.95 for an hour-long DVD, it's by no means cheap, but it's also more effective than mainlining an oil drum full of Red Bull. Play the clips chronologically, and you'll get a gentle wake-up call that transitions into a full-on, goes-to-eleven smackdown. Stirling Moss testing at Goodwood? Relaxing. Patrick Depallier doing an entire lap of Long Beach sideways? Attention-getting. Ayrton Senna going absolutely batshit during qualifying at Suzuka? Welcome to the world of the coherent. Now put some Visine in your eyes and try not to empty the fridge.

Our criteria for building this list were fairly simple: In order to make the cut, a car had to be relatively sensible, inexpensive, and easy to find anywhere in the country. It also had to be enjoyable to drive every day, have a solid parts supply, and be just a little bit...odd.

You know, odd in that Jalopnik way. The cars here may not be that special to most, but to put it bluntly, they're better — or maybe just weirder — than a used Camry. Rejected? Often. Forgotten? Never.

(Note: Year ranges listed are suggested purchase ranges, not model lifespan. Think you can do better than what we found? Prove it—let us know in the comments.)

What: Volkswagen Beetle

When: 1967–1980

Why: Ubiquitous and unusual all at once. Air-cooled and has swing axles, both of which became novelties long ago. Was once the most common car on the planet. Will run—or at least run badly—until the Sun cools. Holds four people and can choogle down a highway at relatively modern speeds. Has reached old age with surprising grace. Reminds you that once, in the world of cars, there was such a thing as Different.

How Jalopnik Is It? Anywhere from 150-ish points to a blue bajillion, depending on age, horsepower, type of fuel delivery, and level of funk.

Can't Find One? Try This Instead: Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. Not quite as practical as the Beetle, but way more common in the rust belt. (Go figure.)

Photo credit: David Prior/Flickr

What: Peugeot 505

When: 1980–1992

Why: It's French, which means that it has seats like your living-room sofa and an interior designed to make you forget that driving is work. Surprisingly durable. Remarkably attractive. Handles well. Comes as either a sedan or a handsome wagon. Reminds you that the French need to start selling cars here again. Downside: fashionable with hipsters.

How Jalopnik Is It? 65 to 200 points, depending on choice of engine and the number of dead mimes you have in the trunk.

Can't Find One? Try This Instead: Er...let's see...a cheap, relatively modern French car that still exists stateside in any quantity? We'll get back to you on that.

Photo Credit: Joside Lusarreta/Flickr

What: Mercedes-Benz W108 (S-class forerunner)

When: 1968–1972

Why: It's last of the old-school, Hitler-staff-car Benzes. Six-cylinder versions can usually be found for less than the cost of a decent lunch. Likely to be more dignified than you are. Will carry four people and their luggage from here to Zimbabwe without complaint. Downside: Doesn't take well to neglect. Often refuses to move without "Ride of the Valkyries" playing on the radio.

How Jalopnik Is It? Even the lamest 108 is a 50-point car. Quadruple the point count if the vehicle in question has ever been used in a putsch.

Can't Find One? Try This Instead: Mercedes-Benz W114/115, essentially the W108's younger brother. Smaller and less luxurious but just as indomitable.

What: Chrysler Newport

When: 1971

Why: Associate editor Ben Wojdyla recommends it. In his words, "you look like a low-level mob enforcer in one, although I'm pretty sure the car won't start unless you're wearing a brown polyester suit and white patent leather shoes." 'Nuff said.

How Jalopnik Is It? 150 points for a four-door, 125 for a two-door. Double points if the previous owner once stored Jimmy Hoffa in the glovebox.

Can't Find One? Try This Instead: Really, just pick anything from the movie Goodfellas. You'll be fine.

What: Volvo 262C Bertone

When: 1978–1981

Why: It's a Volvo 240 coupe that's been made to look more odd. The 240 is a fantastic, if slow, vehicle, essentially a standard Detroit sled as interpreted by the Swedish. (For the uninitiated, this means a Dana stick axle, great brakes, and a heater that just won't quit.) The 262C was the same thing plus Italian sheet metal. Neat, if you like that sort of thing.

How Jalopnik Is It? Our math gives us 93, but that can't be right. It's a Swedish version of an American car that was built by Italians, fer chrissakes. Let's just double it: 186.

Can't Find One? Try This Instead: A regular Volvo 240. Good ones basically grow on trees, and if you're stepping out of anything modern, they can feel amazingly old and quirky. (This is a good thing.)

What: Pontiac Tempest

When: 1961–1963

Why: As our friend Graverobber once put it, "two words: rope drive." A rear-mounted transaxle, a flexible driveshaft, and near-50:50 weight distribution. Designed by John DeLorean. Has pretty much always been dirt cheap. The Tempest is likely cooler than you are.

How Jalopnik Is It? 105 points at least, more if you get lucky. If your rope drive has ever been removed from the car and used to hang someone, add 50 points.

Can't Find One? Try This Instead: 1960–1962 Plymouth Valiant. Something of an ugly duckling, but appealing in its own right.

What: Alfa Romeo Spider

When: 1970–1990

Why: Generally speaking, making a reliable daily driver out of a decades-old Alfa is neither easy nor inexpensive, but we're romantics. Post-Duetto (i.e., Kamm-tail) Spiders are the unloved rejects of the Alfa family—they're far too primitive and fragile for most people, even as cheap convertibles, and most Alfa freaks prefer the fixed-roof cars. (It's a surprisingly easy trap to fall into—yours truly has lusted for a Giulia Super since the first Bush administration.) What this means is that they're everywhere, cheaper than free, and all but disposable. Thankfully, they're also damn entertaining.

How Jalopnik Is It? Even the world's lamest Spider is a 150-point car. Thank you, Italy.

Can't Find One? Try This Instead: Alfa Romeo Milano. Yes. (What were we supposed to suggest? A Lancia?)

Photo Credit: PeoplemapsJulie/Flickr

What: BMW 2002

When: 1972–1976

Why: BMW claims that this is the original sport sedan—it's not, though that's a discussion for another time—but mostly, we just think it's fun. (And for that matter, small, practical, fuel-efficient, durable, cheap, and a good basis for a canyon-carving hot rod.) It's like an Alfa GTV where everything works. Rusts a lot, but impact-bumper beaters (post-'74) are cheaper than you think.

How Jalopnik Is It? 125 points at minimum. Add five points if it's orange (Inka) or yellow (Golf).

Can't Find One? Try This Instead: Volkswagen Golf (Mark I). Same basic idea, but front-wheel drive and cheaper parts.

Photo Credit: Tree Dork/Flickr

What: Mercedes-Benz R107 (SL)

When: 1971–1989

Why: Because it's known far and wide as the "Panzer" (as in "tank") SL. More common than dirt and carved from a single, spectacular chunk of Teutonic arrogance. Vehicular cockroach; will likely survive Armageddon with its standard hardtop intact. Reminds you that the Germans once built everything out of cast iron and willpower.

How Jalopnik Is It? At least 105 points.

Can't Find One? Try This Instead: You can't find one of these? Really? Try Craigslist, or simply step outside, close your eyes, and start walking. You'll bump into one. Promise.

What: MG MGB

When: 1968–1980

Why: This is a tough one. By modern standards, the MGB is a slow, depressing little car. It handles like a used-up Jeep and seems to have been built from Fisher-Price plastic and medieval machine tools. It rusts—badly—and all the affordable ones are equipped with ugly, government-mandated rubber bumpers. Still, the 'B succeeds in spite of itself. It's charmingly, irrepressibly British in a way that few things are, and it can often be pretty entertaining to drive. I'm ashamed to admit this, but I kind of want one. Don't you?

How Jalopnik Is It? 140 at minimum. Thank you, Jolly Old.

Can't Find One? Try This Instead: Late (1970–1981) Triumph Spitfire. Nowhere near as common or as well-built as a 'B, but still not a bad choice. There are other Triumphs worth having, but these are the most attainable. (God help you if you buy a Stag.)

Photo Credit: Arkadyevna/Flickr

Honorable Mention: Chevrolet El Camino

When: 1959-1960, 1964-1987

Why: If you have to ask, you don't need to know.

How Jalopnik Is It? Ditto.

Can't Find One? Try This Instead: We're supposed to say "Ford Ranchero" here, right? Boo. Just buy a Camino.

The first glance is barely cursory. Engine blocks, after all, are fairly common elements of a certain school of interior design. This one is standing on its end behind a plate of glass on a residential street in downtown Budapest. It’s rather tall, so definitely not a Chevy small block, most likely some sort of straight six from a truck.

Except it’s not. So I double back. And realize a few things in rapid sequence:

1. The block is almost waist-high and I’m 6'2"
2. The block has eight cylinder bores in a W pattern
3. Make that sixteen: there’s another bank of cylinder bores at a 90° angle
4. Is that really a Bugatti logo stamped in the metal?

So I rock back and forth on the sidewalk, trying in vain to bridge the vast chasm between what I see and what I know. Empirically speaking, the object cannot be anything other than a Bugatti Veyron engine: no other car has ever been manufactured with a W16 and engine blocks generally don’t carry the stamped initials of Ettore Bugatti in their metal.

On the other hand, we’re talking about a ludicrously expensive car with perhaps 200 examples in existence. What are the chances of running into the dismembered engine of one in a shop window in Budapest?

I might as well enter the store to find out. The space behind the plate of glass is the headquarters of Geppetto, a Hungarian design studio founded by the Elek brothers in 1996. A man descends the well-designed staircase.

“Is that what I think it is?” I ask, cutting a glance at the engine block.
“It indeed is,” comes the answer.

Wordless shuffling commences. We then strike up a conversation. The guy turns out to be Peter Kucsera, one of the designers employed by Geppetto and creator of the Seeyou Project, a rather beautiful horizontal gravestone made of concrete.

But how does one end up with a Veyron engine?

“We were approached by Bugatti to make something out of their engines which didn’t pass QA,” Peter explains. “So they shipped us a W16 and we came up with some interior design ideas and sent them our proposals. The ball is in their court at the moment.”

We are standing in the middle of Geppetto’s generous studio space, flanking an inconspicuous metal crate which looks like a downsized shipping container. With a mischievous flick, Peter removes an Ikea carpet from the crate’s top. Under a glass cover, the crate is filled with the rest of the engine’s parts. Headers, camshafts, cylinder heads, a single piston, a lone turbo and the giant crankshaft which handles the 1001 HP the engine makes. The surreality of it all never quite fades away.

“The block would make a perfect family crypt for people who prefer cremation,” Peter says, revealing a continued fascination with unusual burial, “although with a big family, the 16 holes would fill up fast.”

I suggest using only one cylinder bore per generation, reserving it for the most deserving member of that generation, thereby stretching the block’s life into the centuries. The block could then remain put, its great heft planting it into the very earth, while the city surrounding it would evolve, the Geppetto office fading away to become a butcher shop, only for that to turn into yet another place of business.

It would certainly make for a killer time lapse video.

“We’ve yet to find the best use for it. For the moment, we’ve decided to install it in the shop window to serve as a conversation piece,” Peter says, adding that it does attract a strange assortment of passersby.

I wave goodbye and return to the November gloom. Should you visit Budapest these days, you’ll find the block at this address. It really is quite a sight.