Not much represented gaudy performance cars American muscle in the 1990s better than the Pontiac Firebird. This convertible 'Bird is decked out like he just did 120 down Findlay, Ohio's main street. [Cars Photos]

See the rest of our Jalopnik Auto Flag-Elation here and check out our pre-Fourth Jalopnik Automotive Amerigasm here.

"Son, you know how fast you were goin'?" If we saw this red, white and blue P71 Crown Vic in our rear-view mirror, we'd hope to hell it was five under. [ZipperHead's MySpace Page]

See the rest of our Jalopnik Auto Flag-Elation here and check out our pre-Fourth Jalopnik Automotive Amerigasm here.

When the 2009 Corvette ZR1 recorded a world-beating lap time of the Nurburgring, it sure made us proud to be Americans. But, let us not forget the monster 'Vettes that went before it, like this 700+ HP Le Mans racer from 1976 that was good for over 216 MPH down the old Mulsanne straight.
[greenwoodcorvettes]

See the rest of our Jalopnik Auto Flag-Elation here and check out our pre-Fourth Jalopnik Automotive Amerigasm here.

Political statements weren't exactly the goal here, but this crusty-looking Cougar lovingly painted in Old Glory, sitting in the front yard of a semi-abandoned house certainly is a study in contrasts. [SideSalad.net]

See the rest of our Jalopnik Auto Flag-Elation here and check out our pre-Fourth Jalopnik Automotive Amerigasm here.

10. The National Corvette Museum (Bowling Green, Kentucky)
Nothing says America like the Corvette, and no place better preserves the spirit and history of the classic American sports car than the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky, near the production site of the Corvette. Get a look at historic Corvette models, learn about the production history and get your own Corvette specially detailed (if you have one). It's like Mecca, but less crowded. [Corvette Museum]

9. Auburn - Cord - Duesenberg Museum (Auburn, Indiana)
Believe it or not, there was once an automotive operation in the U.S that wasn't based in Detroit. The Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana preserves the unique story of these three companies, all important in their day. The museum also remembers the seven other brands of cars produced in Auburn. The Gallery of Classics shows off cars from the "classics era" that competed to be the cream of the cream. [ACD Museum]

8. Jay Leno's Garage (Secret Location, California)
When Jay Leno does something interesting or noble with cars, like rescuing a Duesenberg, the resulting cars end up in the Big Dog Garage, which houses cars powered by turbines, steam and the engine out of a Patton tank. Though not exactly on the map, we totally think it would be worth it to just show up and beg to be let inside (you could also break a window, but then you might damage a car). We hear the Popular Mechanics boys know where it is, go ask them. [Jay Leno's Garage]

7. The Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village (Dearborn, Michigan)
What would an American automotive pilgrimage be without a trip to the greater Detroit area and The Henry Ford Museum? Though not everything is car-themed, there's an amazing collection of automotive history, including Rosa Parks' bus, the Lincoln in which JFK was assassinated and the relatively untragic Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. If you leave "The" out of the museum's name, they cart you off to the turn-of-the-century jail outside in Greenfield Village, a place of make-believe designed to capture the spirit of the American Industrial Revolution. Also, they have really good pies. [The Henry Ford]

6. Indianapolis Motor Speedway & Museum (Indianapolis, Indiana)
The self-proclaimed "Racing Capital Of The World," the Brickyard has a lot to offer in the way of a journey for racing fans. In addition to the famous track, the accompanying museum includes historic footage, a large trophy collection and timing equipment from the older days. Of course, there's always a collection of dozens of rare vehicles, including the Le Mans-winning Ferrari 250LM and the more American 57' SSI Corvette. If you know who to tip, you may even get a chance to head down into the basement because that's where the real magic is stored. Non-disclosure agreements prevent us from saying anything more. [Indy Motor Speedway]

5. The ArtCar Museum (Houston, Texas)
For those more inclined toward customization and personalization, the ArtCar Museum (a.k.a. The Garage Mahal) contains a large collection of outstanding testaments to our rolling culture. There's also a rotation of cars, sculptures, photos and paintings that chronicle the evolving art of cars. [ArtCar Museum]

4. Petersen Automotive Museum (Los Angeles, California)
Covering over 300,000 square feet and four floors, the history of the automobile is lovingly detailed at the relatively new Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Current exhibits include "The Art of Cars," "Nascar: 60 Years" and the totally meta "From Autocamp to Airstreams: The Early Road to Vactionland." It's like the Library of Alexandria of cars... but without the tragic destruction. Petersen Museum

3. Historic Route 66 (Chicago to Los Angeles)
Though no longer marked as an actual highway, there are plenty of resources to help you make the trip from the Second City to the City of Angels along Route 66, the Mother Road. Whether you do the entire journey or a small historic portion of the road, like Holbrook to Topock, there's plenty to see along the way. If you make it through the Texas panhandle, we recommend the leaning water tower in Groom, Texas, which was built to attract tourists making the journey. [Historic 66]

2. Carhenge (Alliance, Nebraska)
A detailed recreation of Stonehenge made from 38 spray-painted classic American automobiles, Carhenge is an undeniably weird and awesome destination for those with a car-spiritual nature. The stewards of the site have worked with artists to place other car-based sculptures, such as a take on Vivald's "Four Seasons" made with Fords. [Carhenge]

1. Deals Gap (Blount County, Tennessee)
Considered by many to be the best driving in the country, the portion of U.S. Highway 129 in rural Tennessee is a must-visit for those with superior automobiles (or not) and a thirst for spirited transportation. The Tail of the Dragon, in particular, is said to contain more than 300 curves in less than 11 miles. Lacking any serious development, it's mostly uninterrupted driving... with the exception of the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Be safe, be quick but be wary of the flashing lights. [This is what it looks like In An Audi TT]

These are the 10 we could come up with, but feel free to add American automotive pilgrimages of your own.

10 - Corvette Carnage
Let's start off with a classic, this clip of a C4 Corvette streaking through the desert. Television host John Bunnell says the car is speeding down the road at 165 MPH, but we're not so sure the black 'vette was actually going that fast. Either way, it was fast enough for the driver to lose control while changing lanes, as the Corvette smashed into the back of a truck. The car spun out of control into the desert as it shattered to pieces, but somehow the driver came out unhurt. So, negative points to the television producers for the exaggerated speed, but kudos to the driver for smashing a Corvette and living.

9 - Off-Roadin' Ranger
It doesn't get much more American than a couple of guys runnin' from the law in a stolen pickup with a stolen air compressor rollin' around in the bed. Sure, they lose points for only using a little Ford Ranger, but that's outweighed by the kudos we give 'em for taking the truck off-road. The passenger is especially crazy, even jumping out at one point, running besides the truck, jumping in the bed, then climbing back into the cab all while the truck was in motion. And while we're more interested in the automotive chase, the passenger was pretty good at jumping fences too.

8 - Crazed Naked Woman
Sometimes the cops need a little extra help to chase down a fleeing suspect, as was the case here. But even with an off-duty officer driving his personal pickup truck, the evading SUV was proving hard to catch. An enthusiastic civilian joins the chase trying to help out the cops. We give the good Samaritan kudos for not being afraid to dent up his truck, but he ends up just getting in the way when he tries an improvised roadblock. After going through the dirt, on and off the highway, the SUV is finally caught. But if all that wasn't crazy enough, it turns out the driver being chased was a naked woman. We're not sure if that's hot or not.

7 - Backwards Limo
You'd assume a big stretch limo wouldn't be agile enough to evade the police, but this chauffeur was ready to prove otherwise. This stretched STS was pretty impressive, handling turns and blazing down the expressway. But major kudos go to the driver for slamming the limo into reverse gear after the transmission starts erupting smoke. He then leads the boys in blue on an impressive backwards chase, only coming to an end when the turning radius of the limo is miscalculated going around a sharp turn. Still, that's some serious Cadillac style.

6 - Tweaked Trucker
Anyone that's ever seen Steven Spielberg's film Duel has been rightfully intimidated by free-roaming big rigs. But you really get a new sense of respect for the trucks after watching this one plow through traffic at will. Even spike strips proved ineffective, so the cops had to pull out their guns and shoot out the tires the old fashioned way. Well, at least we learn that truck driving and meth don't mix so well.

5 - Raw Pursuit
This chase is an interesting look at raw, unedited footage from a police car's dashboard-mounted camera. There's no sound effects, no voice over, nothing but the original video. But what the video lacks in hype, it makes up for in uncertainty. You're not sure what's going to happen next as the cops haphazardly chase a stolen police car though night streets and around blind corners.

4 - M3 Gets Away
This E30 M3 running from the cops is an awesome chase on its own right, with an allegedly 15 year-old driver out-maneuvering the pursuing police. But what we find additionally interesting is the production of the footage for television. First off, the stats referenced for the BMW seem off, and are probably for a later model E36 M3. But what we really can't get over is that the clip used towards the end when the BMW is "breaking down" is merely footage from earlier on in the chase that's been slowed down. Either this was a creative editing to make up for a lack of footage of it happening, or maybe the kid in the BMW actually got away. Combine this with a liberal use of added action movie sound effects, and you've got a quintessential made-for-cable tv car chase.

3 - SoCal Close Calls
Following the classic formula for a So-Cal police chase, this SUV weaves its way through traffic with multiple close calls, from highways to local roads. We'd have given kudos to the driver for quickly threading the needle between cars, but then he screws it all up with a lame finish by hitting a small tree at low speed and being tracked down on foot. But then, it looks to be a Toyota Highlander that he was driving, so what can you expect?

2 - Taurus Shootout
This wouldn't be American-style law enforcement without a wild west shootout, and that's exactly what we've got here. Kudos to the cops for continuing the pursuit even after having the entire back side of a Ford Taurus shoved onto the hood of a police car, and then being shot at. We're not sure it was necessary to ram the vehicle at full speed afterwards, but it we give bonus points for the gun flying through the air at the end.

1 - PIT-Proof Mustang
This last chase is perhaps one of the most hoontastic displays of driving ever recorded — with the exception of Killdozer, of course — which unfortunately isn't much of a chase since cops could walk after it (Honorable Mention, nonetheless). No, the driver of this Mustang is hit with a PIT maneuver by the cops twice, each time performing a perfectly controlled 360-degree spin. Even when the cops pin him against the wall, the Mustang finds a way to spin off the highway onto the grass and regain control on a side road. But perhaps the best part of the video is listening to the disbelief of the news reporter as voices in the background laugh and cheer for spinning Mustang. Innocent until proven guilty, right?

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Not to mention, American cars are unpretentious, affordable and come with at least 15,000 cupholders per car. You can live in an American car. And not to get all jingoistic, but American cars are also American. Who else can say that? The big three aren't always the brightest three, but there's no substitute for American ingenuity. What makes you proud to buy American cars, assuming that you are proud? And if you're not proud, we guess you can go play soccer and drink tea with milk in it or some crap.

5. Poor Product Planning
Think of a 2009 or 2010 model that you're excited about. Is it a big truck or a bland mid-size sedan? Probably not. But if you want to buy American, that's mostly what you've got to choose from. Not only are the Ford F-150 and Dodge Ram bigger and more powerful than ever, it's increasingly looking like consumers are moving away from them, with the Honda Civic replacing the F-150 as the country's best-selling vehicle last month. Wait, consumers want cars that are not only well-engineered, well-priced and high-quality, but also good-looking, good-driving, practical and fuel-efficient? Who would have thought? Foreign automakers, that's who.

4. Poor Design Choices
On the Ford Flex launch — a good-looking car despite the obvious influence from Mini and Scion — journalists were given a quiz in which they needed to name various silhouettes of de-badged SUVs. It was pretty hard as everything but the Flex in the segment looks like an aggressively styled jellybean. While Ford may have hit the creative design nail smack-dab on the head with the Flex, as a professional auto-writer, I struggle to remember that cars like the Fusion and Taurus exist and only remember the domestic market Focus because it's so laughably bad. It's not that Ford lacks design talent (remember the GT?), it's that they've been seemingly unprepared to use it. The same thing applies to GM and Chrysler. With the exception of awesome halo vehicles like the Dodge Viper and Chevy Corvette, can you think of one model smaller than a full-size sedan that couldn't be confused with a generic rip-off from Zhejiang Province? Can you say the same about Mercedes or Subaru? There's also little design cohesion within brands. Sure, there's badges and grilles, but what the hell connects the Compass to the Jeep brand? Or the Focus to Ford's Gillette-blade design language? I bet you can't answer that. I bet you can with BMW.

3. Getting Retro Wrong
We're incredibly excited about the 2010 Chevy Camaro and the manual-transmission equipped 2009 Dodge Challenger. Why? They adapt each company's history into a vehicle with modern appeal and performance just like the Mustang's been doing since 2005. That sounds like a pretty obvious way to hit a home run, right? So why haven't we been driving those vehicles all decade? Instead we've been saddled with insultingly rose-tinted retros like the HHR. At the same time, the Big Three are ignoring their non-muscle car heritage by letting nameplates like Crown Victoria and Bronco fall by the wayside, replacing them with focus-grouped abominations like Fusion and Escape. If there's one thing American Automakers have, it's heritage, they need to find more ways to leverage that.

2. Health Care and Retirees
It's not all the poor automakers fault. Their inability to make products people want and therefore profits is handicapped by the pensions they owe to hundreds of thousands of old people and the health care needs of both retirees and current employees. Not only does this lead to financial ruin, but it encourages them to move American jobs overseas. This week alone, Chrysler, suffering from slow sales of its minivans, decided to close its St. Louis plant, leaving minivan production in Canada only. Why? Canada's national healthcare system makes each vehicle $1,000 cheaper to produce.

1. U.S. Automakers Are Anti-American, And America Is Too
If we asked you to sum up what America's about with one word, what would that be? Freedom. Yet our automakers believe in giving it to foreigners, not Americans. No, we're not just talking about the condescending nature with which they inform us that we don't really want the well-engineered, high-quality, good-looking, good-driving, practical, economical Euro-spec Ford Focus with a manual transmission, we're talking about allowing foreigners to compete freely in our market. In Japan, they realized that in order to protect their auto industry it made sense to keep outsiders off their soil with expensive import restrictions on vehicle sales. The real problem is, we as consumers are anti-American too. We're happy to buy all these imported cars, but resist legislation designed to protect domestic automakers. I guess you could say the real problem with American cars is Americans.

Editor's Note: In many ways, this is five things American car companies need to do better. If you really think we're anti-American, I'd suggest you take another, more careful look through what we just wrote. If you still think we are a bunch of a flag-burners, feel free to rip Wes us to shreds in the comments below.

Top Five Famous Police Chases:

#5: The French Connection
This one makes the cut for nothing else if not innovation. Hack Man wasn't even chasing a car in the French connection's most famous scene, indeed he was after an elevated train carrying the sniper who tried to gun him down. The brilliant use of hand held second person camera work and bumper cams while driving through thick traffic make this one a brass balls special.

#4: Smokey And the Bandit
How can you not credit a movie at least in-part responsible for the CB Radio renaissance? Of all the flicks on the list, this one is practically a shoo-in, considering it's an entire movie dedicated to evading the fuzz — with five major chase scenes as a result. If you don't want to grow a mustache after watching this movie, you might be a communist.

#3: Blues Brothers
This icon of American college cinema is both brilliant in it's scope and magical in its wanton destruction.

#2: Bullitt
Bullitt is a much-lauded car chase wrapped in a gritty, 60's era cop drama. The epic battle between Mustang and Charger has been committed to memory for a great many car dorks. Hell, it even got us all together for a night out in Highland Park. The only thing holding this one back is the well documented, and well loved, inconsistencies in it's production. Some love it for those post production snafu's while other call it shoddy attention to detail. we just love all that tire squealing goodness topped with a dollop of burning bad guy.

#1: Gone In Sixty Seconds
There's something to be said about a flick which is basically a flimsy plot used to frame the scene for a forty minute police chase. Our hero dons the miter of the original Eleanor, a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1, which is used to evade, confound, embarrass and destroy an entire squad's worth of patrol cars. We've selected our favorite clip of the movie, the dirty, dusty construction chase. Today it would be a brilliant product placement opportunity for Fram air filters. In our opinion, this is both brilliantly executed and fiendishly simple, a hallmark of excellent chase-making.

Five Great Chases That Aren't As Obvious

#5: Beverly Hills Cop
The level of destructive power in a twin-trailer semi truck is hard to imagine until you see this cab-over ploughing through the streets of Detroit circa 1984. Huge props for actually filming on those streets (it was a dangerous place at the time) and even today we recognize some of the old mansions they drive past, though now they're rebuilt and occupied, instead of hollowed out drug dens. (Sorry about the long, foreign dubbed clip, it's amazingly hard piece of hosted film to find)

#4: The Bourne Identity
Take a Mini, some French Police in cars and on motorcycles, shake vigorously with a marked spy, and serve with a rousing soundtrack. The Bourne Identity is a good ride start to finish, but the chase sequence here made everyone's eyes pop when it first flitted cross the silver screen. Tight European streets, death defying dances through traffic and damn impressive driving make this one for the ages.

#3: Short Time
What's more dangerous than a cop with nothing to lose? One that gets rewarded if he dies on the job. Dabney Coleman plays a cop in this little known flick as a cop who thinks he's got a terminal illness, so he goes about attempting to kill himself off on the job, so his family gets a big fat pension and life insurance bonus. The ensuing suicidal police chase is both amusing and brilliantly filmed.

#2: The Seven-Ups
All right, fess up. In every police chase ever committed to film, a little (or even big) piece of you wanted to see the bad guys get away, to see the cop take the fall, and to see justice not served. Nothing quite says car chase like a giant Pontiac flying down the cramped streets of New York and actually getting air at times. Roy Scheider saddles up for a hair raising chase which end in an unexpected bone crushing finale.

#1: Dirty Mary Crazy Larry
This is the quintessential anti-hero police chase. Our robber heroes are chased over hill and dale by an angry back-country cop who can't quite chase down their bright green Dodge Charger, heck, even a helicopter can't stop em. Just as we think it's all over, random chance and poor driving habits snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

10. International Paddy Wagon (Baltimore)
Though America may be the the country that nurtures the individual, we sure like to get arrested in groups. That's where the paddy wagon comes in handy. Part truck, part temporary jail, there have been a lot of them throughout the history of American law enforcement. This 1947 International wagon is a particularly beautiful example and a reminder of International's long commercial history in America. That cop is totally riding the wagon.
[Baltimore Police Vehicle History]

9. Chevy Bel Air Police Car (Texas)
Nothing says U.S. of A. like a Chevy Bel Air. This Chevy had the size and power to meet the duties of a civil servant and the look to scare criminals into pulling over. Topped with a big red cherry, you'd know what to do when you saw one of these bad boys. This particular Texas-badged 1955 Chevy Bel-Air is a prime example of the timeless design [BillWindsor.com]

8. Border Patrol Dune Buggy (Arizona)
Specifically, a Desert Patrol Vehicle (DPV), these are some of the most extreme police vehicles used for active patrolling duty. Typically, a DPV is fitted with a VW engine capable of nearly 200 HP. These vehicles can travel up to 80 mph and generally encounter some of the roughest terrain in the country while enduring severe temperature conditions. These go fast in places that Border Patrol SUV's can't even reach.

7. Ford Fairlane
The forerunner to the Crown Victoria, the Fairlane may look even better than the Chevy Bel, and its low cost meant that it would provide police services for a large part of the country. The Fairlane is particularly noted for its powerful big-block V8, popular with the authorities around the country. In black-and-white it is one of the more iconic police cars ever built. This Wilmington, DE "Bureau of Police" squad car is an exceptional example.
[Flickr: Triborough]

6. Chevy Camaro Z28 B4C
The Chevy Camaro BC4 was one of the fastest police cars ever used in the United States thanks to a simple formula: Take a stock Camaro and add a mix of the strongest parts from the Z28 and other racing packages, as well as the Chevy 350 V8. They were a particular favorite of the California Highway Patrol, which knows a thing or two about pursuits. As great as they are at high-speed chases, they're great for deterrence as well. Who would want to get put in the backseat of that thing? [Photo: Sattler.org]

5. Dodge Coronet 440 (California)
There were many great Mopar police cars throughout the years, but we've got a soft spot for the 1970 Dodge Coronets. Not only do they have the 440 Magnum V8, good for in excess of 400 horsepower, they also feature that killer squinting headlight design that looks mean head-on. Oh, and the one above was featured in the original Gone in 60 Seconds giving it almost as much movie cred as the Dodge Monaco.
[IMCDB]

4. Ford Mustang LX Highway Patrol Edition (Texas)
The original Mustang LX highway patrol car, a favorite of the Texas DPS, haunted our dreams with its sharp facade, red interior and 5.0-liter V8 power. Though the hatchback Mustang would, theoretically, have been useful, the DPS stuck with the notchback 'Stangs. Mustangs were used in the DPS fleet between 1983 and 1993, with the 1986 model, pictured, our personal favorite.
[Photo: Police Mustangs]

3. Dodge Charger Police Edition (Michigan)
As you can probably tell from Mark's glowing review of the Dodge Charger Police Edition, we're big fans. Just look at it. Probably more the successor to the Coronet than anything, especially with the recurrence of the angry headlights, the Hemi-powered Charger is gorgeous, features a stalk-based Autostick, and has great road manners. Numerous police officers lusted after the ride, which is the best kind of accolade. In Michigan State Police blue with a cherry on top, it's even better looking.

2. Dodge Diplomat/Fury Police Car(NYC)
The M-bodied Dodge Diplomat and its twin, the Plymouth Gran Fury, aren't here purely out of nostalgia. Look at them. It's hard to believe they were anything but cop cars. What they lacked in power relative to some of the Dodge fleet vehicles of the 1960's and early 1970's, they more than made up for in durability. You couldn't kill them if you tried. Most models featured the 318 V8, though a few pursuit models included a 360 four-barrel. Imagine any upset renegade cop from an 80's police movie kicking the quarter panel of one of these bad boys.
[LSE]

1. Ford Crown Victoria P71 Interceptor (Everywhere)
P71 Crown Victorias never die, they just become taxis. Due to the disappearance of American-made RWD V8 sedans for nearly a decade, the Ford Crown Victoria became more ubiquitous than any other police car we can think of in any era since the Model T, despite the occasional deadly fire. Powered by a modified version of the Ford 4.6-Liter SOHC V8, they'll practically run forever, thanks in part to the oil-to-coolant heat exchanger. Even with the introduction of the Charger Police Package and the occasional Impala police car, Ford still plans to carry about 80% of the police market. Is there anything that reminds anyone more of the long arm of the law than a P71 Interceptor sitting on the side of the road? We didn't think so.

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Of course, if you don't like any of those choices, you can always write-in your favorite in the comments.