One Lap of the Web: Automotive remakes, an amphibious Toyota FJ40 and a hyper-realistic CGI Stingray

-- Hollywood seems to be utterly out of ideas, which has lead to a slew of remakes and reboots and sequels. Why can't the auto industry get in on the rehashing action? Perhaps hoping to send a signal to carmaker bigwigs Hooniverse asks: what discontinued car could be reintroduced without any styling changes? We said the BMW 507 and the Grand Wagoneer, but everything from the Avanti to the XJ has been put forward. Somebody even suggested the SSR...head to Hooniverse and add your suggestion.

-- The only thing more intimidating than testing a home-made amphibious vehicle for the first time is buying someone else's partially completed amphibious vehicle, trying to complete it and then crossing that first river. Up for the challenge? There's a Toyota FJ40 survival vehicle/homebrew pontoon contraption featured at Bring a Trailer. Apparently it was "built for tsunami scenarios" but it still needs a propeller system to make it mobile in the water. You laugh now, but the day a tsunami scenario crops up you'll eat your words. And drown. Because you don't have a pontoon-equipped FJ40.

-- Features like side mirrors that automatically tilt down to aid parking when you engage reverse gear are great -- when they work as intended. But as Oppositelock poster Juan Barnett notes, those convenient features can become downright infuriating when you can't easily turn them off -- like when you want to drive in reverse without staring at pavement-facing mirrors. So, is it ridiculous to complain about an awkward feature like this, especially on a car as great as Barnett's Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT? Or does the very fact that these trifling matters top our list of automotive annoyances serve to prove how awesome the cars of today truly are?

-- Racing video games are a great way to get kids hooked on car culture, and the more realistic the virtual cars get the easier it is to picture yourself behind the wheel. As accurate as the renderings in the next-gen video games are, though, computer modeler (or CGI artist, if you prefer) Den Brooks takes things to whole 'nother level. See some of the results at Petrolicious, like a vintage Corvette Stingray that somehow manages to look more real than the real thing.

By Graham Kozak