One Lap of the Web: Jeff Gordon strikes fear in NYC cab rider

-- Nothing in life is more fun than seeing your friends fear for their lives, and for the next five minutes, our good friend Travis Okulski really thought he was locked in a cab with a grizzled ex-con who was going to escape from the police and, as ex-cons are wont to do, murder him in the woods. Hah! What a schmuck. NASCAR champion (and personal childhood hero) Jeff Gordon plays the cab driver, and Okulski plays the suspicious New Jerseyian to a T. There's no telling what we would have done in such a convincing simulation of near-death paranoia, so at the moment the moral of the story is: never call out NASCAR drivers on the Internet or you might end up in a viral video for a soft drink. ("Pepsi MAX: the fear mutilator!") We're going to stop making fun of Martin Truex Jr. in the fear that we might end up in a Tab commercial.

Pepsi
You'll scream in terror when you drink Pepsi MAX!

-- Square-jawed wheelman Chris Harris compares the Porsche 918 to the McLaren P1, which is fitting since he's actually driven (and drifted) both. Choice quote from Harris: "the P1's throttle response is one of the Eureka moments of my motoring life." Some people operate at a higher level than others. Like our own Gavin Green and Greg Kable, who drove the P1 and the 918, respectively.

-- Japan: it's the cutest country! Miata, it's the cutest car! And for a bid starting at $9.99 you can combine the two in a thorough fusion of kawaii by putting this on the back of your MX-5: a sticker from the official MX-5 Owners Club of Japan, "Club Road Star." It's emblazoned with the slogan "What Are They All Doing," something we get asked on a regular basis.

-- Rotimi Solola and Cait Miklasz developed a concept for a Vespa camera, because every company needs functional lifestyle accoutrements. And indeed the Vespamera (what we would call it, if we were in charge of the Vespa Naming Division, which thankfully we're not) looks like the chrome-ringed front end of a PX 150 in hip colors. Looks like it'd be slippery to hold, though. Oh, and there's also the matter of it not existing. If it ever does, you could mount a Vepsa camera on the front of your Vespa in the most stylin' dashcam ever.

-- Jim Yu of Hooniverse never took a psychology course, but he did watch two episodes of Dr. Phil while staying at a Holiday Inn Express. A megalomaniac president like the Ukraine's Yanukovych is easy to diagnose, however, and Yu does so based on the (now possibly former) Ukraine leader's car collection. Thing is, though, not every car belonged to the Yanukovyches -- many were part of a corporate collection and on loan, explains our own Jay Ramey. Still, it's a great look into a collection that is "a serious, deliberate, and respectful endeavor."

By Blake Z. Rong