The Age is reporting two more hoon-related incidents, less than a day after a street race gone bad killed an elderly couple in Sydney, Australia. The first arrest involved two Pulsar hatchbacks racing side-by-side. Police allege that the vehicle on the wrong side of the road in Guildford struck a car making a right hand turn, sending both drivers to hospital. That accident comes hot on the heels of another arrest in St. Marys, where police nabbed two more alleged street racers: a 17-year-old Toyota Camry driver (with two 16-year-old passengers) and a 21-year-old disqualified driver helming a Daihatsu Charade. Police have responded to the hoonage with plenty of tough talk, promising increased retribution. "You have to question whether, as in the case of the United States, the solution to this problem is, in part, the compacting of vehicles into a cube dropped on the front lawn of their homes," Mr Moroney told reporters. "Maybe that's the message that they've got to understand."

IBNLive.com is reporting a plot to topple Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit, financed by "millionaire contractor" Ashok Malhotra. Malhotra, who runs a canteen in the Delhi Assembly, stands accused of bribing Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) to oust Dikshit. The Central Bureau of Investigation raided Malhotra's house last week and discovered a fleet of 52 luxury cars with VIP number plates, 15 of which were allegedly slated for MLAs opposing Dikshit. According MLA Brahm Pal, ‘gifting’ luxury cars for political favors from MLAs is no biggie. “Everyone knows about these kind of things. Luxury cars are offered to MLAs, ministers to gain support in order to evict a politician from his post."

The question comes from Zimbabwe's Deputy Information minister, Bright Matonga, who wants to know if critics of President Robert Mugabe want the president to travel in a pick-up truck. Matonga was defending his president's modified Mercedes S-Class limousines to AllAfrica.com. According to the news report, Mugabe rides in an up-armored stretch S that cost $1.4m. The President also decreed that his 30 ministers should attend to their duties in a fleet of S350s, replacing their E230s, which they could buy from the government for ZIM $5m ($19,595). Spinmeister Matonga refused to discuss the details: "This is a security issue and we don't discuss security issues with anybody. If government decides to buy vehicles for the president or cabinet ministers it is justified because we're a very responsible government."

Washington Post columnist Warren Brown doesn't have very much nice to say about the new Jaguar XJR. (Sit over here, Warren.) He reckons the model's lower-priced competition taunts it with an automotive rendition of "Anything you can do, I can do better:" "Where is the prestige in the XJR Supercharged sedan's 400-horsepower V-8 engine in a world where 200-horsepower engines for pitifully ordinary cars are the norm, and where anyone who can spend $30,000 can get a big 5.7-liter, 340-horsepower Dodge Hemi V-8 that would give any Jaguar a run for its money?" After dissing the Jag's sat nav and safety as pedestrian, Warren pronounces a paradigm shift. Apparently luxury car buyers are moving away from "excessive horsepower" towards cars that "show the world they are committed to clean and green living." After a huge metaphorical sigh, the self-pronounced old-fashioned snob writes the ungreen luxury car a fitting, politically correct epitaph: "Those days have disappeared — effectively erased by technology that has empowered the masses, and made irrelevant by a rapidly growing global appetite for oil, a natural resource that is getting more difficult to develop. In that world, the high-end Jaguar has become a dinosaur."  

Right from the start of the bun fight debate over raising Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, TTAC has stressed that one of the central issues is the so-called "Two Fleet" rule. As it currently stands, there are two CAFE mpg standards: one for domestically-produced automobiles and one for imported vehicles. If the Two Fleet rule is eliminated, if CAFE requirements are based on an automaker's entire lineup regardless of its origin, The Big 2.8 will shut down its highly unprofitable U.S. small car production. Needless to say, this has not escaped the attention of The United Auto Workers. The Detroit Free Press reports that the UAW has read Representative Edward Markey's revised CAFE legislation and discovered some hidden language killing the Two Fleet rule. Pleased with this they are not. "The UAW deeply regrets that, in a desperate effort to gain a few votes, Representative Markey apparently decided to abandon his past position on this critically important jobs issue," UAW legislative director Alan Reuther said. "The revised Markey proposal would enable auto manufacturers to offshore all of their small-car production, and would thereby threaten the jobs of thousands of American workers." We're not sure how closing unprofitable American factories would gain any votes for Rep. Markey, but it sure would make some American auto execs happy.  

Physorg.com reports that mischief-makers (or worse) can hack Europe's Radio Data System with relative impunity, sending in-car sat nav systems spurious information. Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco from consultants Inverse Path demonstrated their hack to security professionals meeting in Las Vegas for the annual Black Hat digital self-defense conference. "We can create bad weather, fresh snow, full car parks, accidents… close bridges, roads or tunnels, and the SatNav will pop-up a detour." The Italian hackers also claimed they could trigger pre-programmed alerts: "air raid," "bomb," "bull fight," and "boxing match." While Barisani called his handiwork the "keep your parents from getting home attack," the breach highlights the dangers of the growing field of automotive telemetrics. 

Australia is in the middle of an anti-hooning jihad, confiscating the cars of street racers, donut makers and anyone else who dares hoon on the country's highways and byways. Last night, Perth police confiscated three cars in an hour, in the aptly named (at least for the coppers) Success. 720 ABC Perth reports that a 17-year-old girl and two men were booked for "creating undue and excessive noise. Although the vehicles were only impounded for 48 hours (plus steep fines), the country's law enforcement officials are happy to crush tasty tunermobiles owned by more accelerative hoonatics. The crackdown stems from the lethal consequence of illegal street racing, yet there isn't any scientific data on the overall perils of hooning. According to ABC Queensland, a researcher from Queensland University of Technology aims to redress that deficiency with a study for the school's Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety. Nerida Leal wants to keep it real: "Ill ask whether they think it's been effective, [and] whether they've come into contact with a police officer as part of an anti-hooning operation." 

Any blog post that starts off "With apologies for my carbon footprint" isn't about to describe the virtues of Drive-In movies. The PC mea culpa comes from Ethan Kent, the comely Veep of Project for NYC-based Project for Public Spaces (PPS), a nonprofit organization with a not-so-hidden agenda: "If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places." Kent's just returned from Melbourne, Australia and he likes what he sees. For example, the city is taxing long term parking spaces AU $400 per year (rising to AU $800 next year). Melbourne City Council will receive AU $5 million a year from the AU $19m to AU $38.5m to fund urban and transport improvements. Kent pronounces Melbourne's automotive purge an excellent starting point for his kind of urban planning: "At first glance, one might assume that the successful revitalization of Melbourne's downtown was the result of the city's efforts to drive automobiles out of the central business district. But traffic reduction was only one piece of the puzzle. Melbourne's renaissance was accomplished by focusing on the improvement, democratization and vitality of the city's public spaces."

Digital Signage Today reports that Advance Auto Parts' in-store TV network has gone dark. Advance launched their three channel digital network eight years ago. The smorgasboard of auto-related content– both customer how-to and employee training– expanded to all of the auto parts giant's 3150 locations. Management shut down the system earlier this week as part of a cost-cutting and restructuring campaign led by acting CEO John C. Brouillard (formerly CEO of the H.E. Butt supermarket chain). Digital Signage mourned the passing of one of America's largest and longest running retail media networks by pointing-out that ad-supported in-store digital signage is a "tough nut to crack" that ain't yet cracked.  

As we've pointed out previously, the UK is now the most heavily surveiled country on planet Earth– thanks in part to their huge network of speeding cameras and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems. The Guardian reports that the police are now asking for powers to add to their national DNA database by taking on-the-spot DNA samples from suspects accused of minor offenses, such as littering, speeding or not wearing a seat belt. The UK DNA database is already the world's largest, with 3.4m profiles (roughly 5% of the population). So far, official objections to the scheme are centering on racial profiling. A spokeswoman for the Commission for Racial Equality said: "Statistics paint a frightening picture. Black men are four times more likely than white men to have their DNA profiles stored in the police national DNA database. In the interests of fairness we would like to call for DNA profiles to be limited to those that are convicted only."  

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has revealed the premium-inflating costs of low-speed accidents to 10 luxury cars (plus a Saab 9-3). The IIHS subjected the fleet to crashes from four angles. The IIHS' boffins ran the front and rear tests at six mph, and impacted corners at three mph. And the "winners" are: Mercedes C-Class ($5486 front), Infiniti G35 ($3544 front corner), Infiniti G35 ($4035 rear) and Audi A4 ($1899 rear corner). To reduce insurance payouts costs, the IIHS advised luxury carmakers to lengthen bumper bars to protect critical and costly equipment ($1,046 for one Lexus ES headlight, not counting installation), make the bumpers taller to protect against SUVs, pickups and minivans; and mount bumper bars farther out. Are we looking at a return of the railroad tie bumper bars of the 70's? In their dreams.

Passenger vehicles' passive safety has improved dramatically over the last four decades. Yet millions of children continue to ride to and from school in buses little changed from those used when the Who wrote "Magic Bus." The family of a boy injured in a Kentucky bus crash may finally change that. Lawyers representing Cody Shively, a 12-year old boy who suffered brain and eye injuries in a bus accident, are suing the vehicles' manufacturers (Navistar International Corporation, Navistar International Transportation Corporation, International Truck and Engine Corporation and IC Corporation) and the Grant County School Board. Lawyer Stanley Chesley has a not-so-secret weapon: on-board video of the children during the crash. And he's not afraid to use it. Citing The American School Bus' Council's website's assertion that Yellow buses are inherently safe [since modified], Chesley unleashed the dogs of war: "Anyone who would make such absurd statements should be forced to watch those children flying around that bus during the accident. One moment they were just sitting in their seats, the next they were being thrown back and forth like trees in a hurricane and the bus was crushing like a sardine can."

In the second financial quarter, General Motors made $891m. The General's camp followers have been delighted with the slim not to say two percent profit. Meanwhile, GM North America (GMNA) lost $39m. The General has been almost universally commended for their U.S. division's performance, as it compares with a $3.95b loss in ’06. Supposedly, the move “close to profitability” indicates the rot has stopped, as a prelude to recovery. But lessening losses is not the same as making money, especially when you need money.

By a 3-2 vote, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that Fourth Amendment rights prevent police from searching cars without a warrant– even after the driver has been arrested. The Tuscon Citizen quotes Vice Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch's majority opinion: "In this technological age, when warrants can be obtained within minutes, it is not unreasonable to require that police officers obtain search warrants when they have probable cause to do so to protect a citizen's right to be free from unreasonable governmental searches." Prior to the search in question, defendant Rodney Gant had been arrested for driving with a suspended license. Police found cocaine and drug paraphernalia in Gant's car. The Arizona Attorney General's Office's chief criminal appeals lawyer was not a happy camper: "If you arrest the driver, it's not clear when police can search the car and when they can't. Now there is no bright line." It seems this issue is headed back to the Supreme Court. 

How would you like to invest in a fuel-additive that helps cars get better mileage? If so, don't give your money to Bennie Robert Moore. Moore's phantom "Eco-Energizer" additive business has bilked hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars from unsuspecting investors. DNRonline.com reports that a Virgina court has ordered "Bob" Moore to repay $200k– out of a $450k "investment"– to local businessman David Garber. Moore was also given a ten-year suspended jail sentence. "He is a businessman and he’s starting from scratch," Moore's lawyer Andrew Harding said. "He’ll start a business up again, and when he does he will try to pay [Garber] back." Strangely, both Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Louis Nagy and Harding claimed they knew nothing of any charges against Moore in other jurisdictions. A quick web search reveals that the Georgia Attorney General served Legal Notice by way of Subpoena on EcoEnergizer in January. Not to mention ecosucks.realcheapgas.com, where the site's author leaves no words minced about Mr. Moore's authenticity. "Stay away from Eco If you REALLY feel the need to throw away $500…contact me. Give me your money and I'll be GREATLY APPRECIATIVE of it…but you'll recieve nothing more than my gratitude. That's a HELL of a lot more than EcoEnergizer has ever given anyone!!!"