1930 1931 Ford Model A Hood on 2040-parts.com

One Lap of the Web: Porsche flat-fours, hot rod artists and German car shows

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- You've heard of watching paint dry, but NHTSA has a new hobby: watching Fords rust.

Aston Martin Vanquish Volante (2013) at Frankfurt motor show

New models are coming thick and fast in Aston Martin's centenary year: here’s the drop-top Aston Martin Vanquish Volante. The soft-top flagship is the first convertible Aston with a carbon body, making the stiffest and most powerful drop-top it has ever built. Its 565bhp drivetrain has been taken straight from the Aston Martin Vanquish coupe – the most powerful Aston to date – but the Volante adds 105kg and an extra £6000 for a starting price of £199,995.

Lazzarini Design creates Ferrari-powered Fiat 500

If you saw the Fiat Abarth 659 Tributo Maserati car and thought to yourself, “That's just not enough razzle-dazzle,” then maybe this will strike your speed-seeking fancy. It's a Fiat 500 powered by one of the best engines in the world—the 4.5-liter V8 from the Ferrari Italia. Lazzarini Design came up with the concept, and the company says it's waiting for an investor with $550,000 burning a hole in his or her pocket to give building one a shot.