Quicksilver Anode 826134q on 2040-parts.com

One Lap of the Web: Car creatures of the Hollywood Hills

-- Jay Leno, presumably back from filming McQueen's Jaguar XKSS, now places his chin atop the front seat of a 1925 Doble E-20, which, being steam-powered, fulfills Leno's interpretation of alt-fuel. Abner Doble built his first steam car while he was still in high school, and by 1915 the Doble Detroit had set new standards of reliability, convenience, noiselessness, and speed -- in 1925, Howard Hughes drove Leno's Model E to 132 mph. -- Los Angeles, car culture capital of the world, has its fair share of hipsters, eccentrics, airheads and Chrysler LeBarons.

GM disbands unit that creates high-performance vehicles

General Motors, focusing on mainstream products in a battle to survive, has scrapped a unit that produced high-performance vehicles. GM on Wednesday disbanded High Performance Vehicle Operations, which is based at the company's suburban Detroit technical center, and redeployed its engineers, spokesman Vince Muniga said. "All high-performance projects are on indefinite hold," Muniga said.

Lifeboat resuces two swamped cars

A LIFEBOAT CREW rescued two cars which were swamped by the sea within 90 minutes of each other as the highest tides of the year caught drivers out. At least one of the vehicles which were wrecked by the submerging North Sea had been used to try to pull a boat out of the water, the RNLI said. A crew from Redcar, near Middlesbrough, responded to the first call-out at 3.20pm on Wednesday after coastguards received a number of 999 calls saying two people were on the roof of a vehicle on the town's beach as the waters came in.