One Lap of the Web: A 1,000 hp hearse, behind the Jean Claude Van Damme Volvo shoot and a secret Argentinian racetrack

-- We've said it before, and we'll say it again: There's something a little bit different about "professional car" people. Not bad, mind you, just different -- it takes a special sort of person to rock a vintage ambulance or hearse. But a blown Caprice corpsewagon kicking out 1,000 hp? You have to be the perfect combination of crazy and ingenious to make this happen. The rockin' airbrushed cowl-induction hood is icing on the cake.

-- The really magical thing about Jean Claud Van Damme's insane Volvo truck splits stunt is that even when you discover what went on behind the scenes, it remains mind-blowing. At the Wall Street Journal, we find out that there were a few concessions to safety on the shoot -- Volvo didn't want to be responsible for killing the world's favorite Belgian -- but other than that, what you see is what you get. No insight into the Enya sound track, though.

-- Goodyear sees your light-up electric paint and raises you...illuminated tires! These slightly silly illuminated balloon tires emerged in 1961, but were only an experiment -- making a safe, reliable and road-legal version poses more than a few challenges. Still, with modern technology...We see hellaflush Civics creeping around strip mall parking lots some day, lit up topside with LumilLor paints, glowing tires just barely visible under the lips of grossly over-sized fenders. Come to think of it, we're not sure that's a future we want.

-- Via the Hemmings Blog, here's something that's almost too good to be true: A beautiful, 3.9-mile track tucked away in the mountains of Argentina that has scarcely seen any racing. It's called the Potrero de los Funes Circuit, and recent visitor to the track described it thus: "It's like someone shrunk the Nurburgring around Lake Como." Find out why this paradisaical track held just one race in 22 years at The Smoking Tire.

By Graham Kozak