One Lap of the Web: Motel kitsch, Bentley dragsters and rusting Porsches

-- The roach motel lives on in these postcards from Petrolicious. The Googie signs and modernist architecture jump from the Howard Johnsons and Travelodges of the 1950s, when buildings were built in color. For a precious few decades in the tapestry of American interstate travel, before they became the refuge of schlocky horror movies, the motor hotel was the true King of the Road. That, and the Continental.

-- It was inevitable, really: sooner or later, some enterprising freakshow of a car enthusiast was going to graft the sophisticated refinement of an Aston Martin Cygnet onto the nose of a lowly Scion iQ, like an automotive chimera. The Cygnet, for those of you who care, was never sold in America because it'd be laughed out of the nearest SLS Hotel if some tuhao parked it next to a DBS. In England, the Cygnet sold to suckers for the equivalent of $50,000. For a certain Robert Kleinman, the price of such elegant lugg-jury came to just over $10,000. For "Perogi," the Scion badges are retained for maximum troll status.

-- A cool evolution of Formula One history, as envisioned by a Brazilian child's play set, and zooming from Fangio to Jim Clark to Lauda to United Colors of Benneton to Alonso to -- well, obviously -- Senna. This was made for the introduction to the Brazilian Grand Prix five months ago, and the making-of video by creator Marcio Bukowski features a soundtrack by (who else?) Rush.

-- Proof that you can drag-race anything: Fancy turning your Bentley Continental GT into a Street Eliminator? Not only does the AWD system hook up well, but the twin-turbo, uh, Chevrolet engine sounds gnarly as hell. So far, it's run an 8.98 quarter-mile. Webster Race Engineering of England built this along with an MG XPower drag racer, which means that there's surely a little more Toby Keith in the Olde Country than they'd like to admit.

-- Jeff Zwart, Porsche racer extraordinaire, drives a 1953 Porsche 356 in the snow over the aghast titters of PCA members across the country; their super-sonic hearing can hear the Pre-A car (that's the super valuable one, then) actively rusting in the Colorado Rockies.

By Blake Z. Rong