According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, speed isn't a big killer on U.S. highways. The biggest cause of accidents: not paying attention. So, keeping speed limits low while letting people talk on the phone while driving seems to be working, right, people? I'm not advocating higher speed limits (it's more important to conserve gas than anything), and we have to keep kids in car seats and wear our seat belts, but when it's so obviously clear that distractions hurt people, something should be done about it.

Uh, oh - Commissioner Gordon is going to hear about this! Actor Aaron Eckhart, who played Harvey Dent in the movie, was apparently driving the car around London to promote the DVD release. Then, (I suspect) he managed to get wasted and forgot where he parked his car, so he took a cab home until it was bright enough for him to wander London, thinking to himself, "wait - is that my Batmobile down there? No, keep going..." Sadly, the metermaids got to the car before him.More pics here (scroll down on the right column), and all via Fark.

Out in the middle of a Rhode Island forest is the fabled musclecard graveyard, a horrible and cursed land where old hot rods went to rust in piece. It's actually several broad acres (which means it almost entirely covers the state of Rhode Island) of an unregistered and unpermitted dump, so the state has said, clean it up or face the consequences. The current owner is now trying to get rid of it all, so bring a trailer if you need a half-rusted Mach 1 body.

Pirelli, maker of fine automotive tires, has thrown their entry in to a dying breed: the naughty auto-parts calendar:

The style is very 1980s - this calendar makes me want to do some coke and turn the Duran Duran way up. [via]

A dog, so worried that his owner would embarass himself at open mike night, ran over the patio furniture and rammed a coffee shop. The dog got was so emotional that he even ripped the mirror off the windshield in protest. Word is, the dog's permit said he was supposed to have a licensed driver in the passenger seat, so the dog may have to start his driver's license training all over again. Poor puppy.

The first Ford Thunderbird ever made is going to be up for sale next January. The 53 year old car will be sold without reserve, which, you know, means you can probably get it for like $10 if you jump in during the last couple seconds of the auction - I got a kick-ass vintage t-shirt on eBay that way.

Gotta love boothbabes: so many bloggers are too geeky and just droll over the bored, annoyed videogame babes, but we all know the truly naughty girls are at the automobile tradeshows. CarZi has a bunch of photos of their favorite busty/slutty/hot booth babes from the 2008 SEMA show:

Turns out, the eBay seller who put the hunk of junk up for bid eventually discovered that the best offer was almost a quarter of a million dollars, because the car was one of only six drag-race-worthy 1963 Pontiac LeMans Tempest's ever made. He almost screwed it up, though: somebody offered him $160,000 to end the auction and sell it outside of eBay, but that's against eBay policies so the seller declined the generous offer. Turns out, it paid off in spades.

Ford is putting its efforts where it's really needed: revamping the Mustang logo. Somebody told Ford that the old running horse was too much of a pansy to be connected to such a fast car. So, they've done to it what they've done to the Mustang itself: Crisper angles! Sharp lines! Black Chrome options for the GT! The longer I stare at it, the more I kinda like it, but the sacrilege is eating away at my soul.

Every cloud has a silver lining. New studies show that heated car seats can significantly reduce men's sperm counts. Unintended consequence: douches who spend more on a car to get heated car seats reproduce less. Society wins!

Popular Mechanics has a spectacular view of the new 2009 Corvette ZR1 -- while I'm more a Ford man, this upscale 'Vette looks and sounds like it has more in common with a Lamborghini than a off-the-showroom-floor Mustang.

Talk about dedication (and freakin' deep pockets): Joseph Macko, a retired auto worker living in Flint, has been driving a brand-spanking-new Cadillac every year since 1955. I'd like to know what car his wife drives. She, unsurprisingly, doesn't get as excited when her husband drops several grand every year on a new car.

Police ruin all the fun. A couple guys had added an engine, suspension, and (they were thinking ahead) brakes to an average office chair. While the kids said they hadn't tested it much, neighbors reported it cruising around area streets, which generally makes police rather testy, so they took the toy away. The article ends, "Police did not say what top speed the chair could reach," but you just know the police have the exact max speed figured out...they couldn't impound it without trying it out themselves, you know.

A Wisconsin guy has pushed his Chevy to its limits. He's driven the Silverado over a million miles, and now he wants $30,000 for it. Now that's some balls, Mr. Million Mile Chevy, especially when you paid a third of that ten years ago for the truck. I predict, quite obviously, that the truck ain't gonna sell on eBay, and it ain't gonna sell if he parks it at the curb with soaped on the window, but he's got newspaper clippings for his scrapbook, and that's what matters while the truck rusts to pieces in the guy's backyard.

A Smart mini has won the European Cannonball Run, with an average speed of 100km/h. Their trick? Since their fuel-efficient engine didn't need the drivers to put gas on as often, they'd overtake and pass the faster cars. The faster cars had to run at higher speeds in order to keep up a fast average...which used more fuel and meant more stopping. The Smart car's next stop: the 2009 Gumball Rally. Is there anything environmentalists can't win at?

Unable to own a genuinely rare car, a group of Ford Mustang buyers are suing the carmaker for not artifically limiting the production of a limited edition Mustang. In 2007, only 100 were to ever be produced -- but Ford made 100 more in 2008. Wait...aren't car collectors the ones who can tell the difference between two years' of cars, even if the bodies were the same, by serial numbers and engine stamps? I vote to take these so-called "car collectors" Greasemonkey Identification Cards away. A 'Franklin Mint' version of a car isn't really a collectible car.

Back in the seventies, you could get a conversion van tricked out with all kinds of accessories -- including a hot pair of natural tits pressed against the back window. Those dealerships think of everything! See a big version and another view at this Flickr slideshow: