We thought we’d seen it all, and given the proliferation of Batmobile wannabees roaming the planet, we thought that we were safe from anything worse than what we’d already laid our eyes on. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Dead wrong.

Straight out of Ann Arbor, Michigan comes this old 1994 Pontiac Grand Am, which was regrettably turned into Bruce Wayne’s own four-wheeled machine of justice. After buying the dilapidated car for $100, the man only known as Gabe decided to do something bombastic with his new purchase. So he did what any self-respecting fan of the Dark Knight would do. He went out and turned it into his very own Batmobile.

It was tedious work, no doubt about it, but in the end, Gabe somehow managed to pull it of. Sort of.

Rest of the story after the jump

Man turns Pontiac Grand Am into the worst Batmobile ever originally appeared on topspeed.com on Saturday, 5 June 2010 04:00 EST.

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Yes, they’re just doing their jobs, but it still wouldn’t hurt erring on the side of understanding, especially when a live report for KTLA is being shot. However, for the LAPD, nobody’s above the law, even reporters and journalists.

Certainly, it’s not something that you see on a daily basis so when a live report for KTLA on the “best road trip cars” gets interrupted by an LAPD officer handing out parking tickets to all the parked cars like they were flyers for a weekend carnival, it’s certainly something worth watching and having a few laughs at. That’s the LAPD, folks! Y’all should know better than to mess with these officers-on-duty.

Video: Reporter gets multiple parking tickets in the middle of live report originally appeared on topspeed.com on Sunday, 30 May 2010 18:00 EST.

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We have no problem with kids having fun once in a while, but not at the expense of engaging in dangerous stunts that could potentially lead to injuries or worse, death. So, when this video of three teens taking a Nissan Pathfinder and using it for impromptu water-skiing fun in a flooded parking lot in Nashville, we weren’t the least bit surprised that the police officers in the area acted quickly in stopping the merry-making.

While there’s really no law prohibiting these kids from taking advantage of the flooded waters for their recreational time, there’s still a place and a time to do that without endangering themselves and the people around them. Some folks thought the reaction of the officers may have been a little premature, but we think it was warranted, so long as they were only reprimanded and released.

Video: Impromptu water-skiing draws the ire of the police originally appeared on topspeed.com on Saturday, 8 May 2010 18:00 EST.

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Car prizes are nothing in the Price Is Right, but for this particular episode, host Drew Carey had something special in store for Rhett, a young college student from Salt Lake City, Utah.

Calling it the most expensive prize they’ve ever given out on the show – it’s valued at $112,000 – Carey gave Rhett every reason to do what college kids do best these days – go crazy and jump up and down on-stage – by giving him a chance to win a Tesla Roadster.

The good news is, Rhett just about passed out on stage when he saw the car, a probable sign that he knew a thing or two about the roadster. As for the bad news, Rhett didn’t go home with the car, but he probably became an instant celebrity in his campus for his on-stage reaction to seeing the Roadster.

The Price Is Not Right: College student misses out on Tesla Roadster at the Price Is Right originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 26 April 2010 09:00 EST.

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Remember that teaser video we had of Tanner Foust performing a drift along the famed strip of Mulholland Drive?

Well, here’s the whole video for you to enjoy.

The whole video was masterfully shot and the edits and cuts to the car’s interior as well as the slow-motion shots of Foust’s Rockstar Scion tC drift car is just plain mind-blowing. Foust manoeuvres his drift car with so much ease you’d actually think he was sipping on some Rockstar inside the car. But in all seriousness, there’s nothing like seeing someone do drift after drift after drift in a pretty intimidating road like Mulholland Drive, especially at that stretch Los Angelinos have come to call ‘The Snake’.

There needs to be some serious driving and drifting skills involved if anybody can even attempt to replicate what Tanner Foust did, which, if you still haven’t seen yet, you should watch right about now.

Video: Tanner Foust drifts along Mulholland Drive’s ‘The Snake’ originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 18 March 2010 06:30 EST.

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Ken Block’s Rally American season got off on a wrong foot after he failed to even make it to the finish line in the season’s inaugural race but if his past performances at the 100 Acre Woods Rally are any indication, you could say that Block will bounce back rather nicely in the next race.

The American rally car is aiming to bag his fifth victory at the event this weekend and this video of him dusting off his new Ford Fiesta Moster World Rally with navigator Alex Gelsmino – he’s a chatty fellow, isn’t he? – at a ranch near 100 Acre Woods shows that he‘s about as ready as ready can be to get down and dirty over muddy gravel this weekend.

Ken Block takes practice run for 100 Acre Woods Rally originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 26 February 2010 02:27 EST.

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Alfa Romeo fans in the US have long been waiting for the day when they’re car brand of choice would make its touted return to the land of milk and honey. Well, according to Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne, the day has come for all of you to rejoice.

According to Marchionne, Alfa Romeo will make its triumphant US return by the end of 2012.

A company spokesperson confirmed Marchionne’s statements during an interview with Automotive News and the latter was even quoted as saying that Alfa Romeo’s return to the US resulted in renewed confidence by the brand with their latest product offering, one in which it believes will be greatly accepted in the US and Canada.

“I’m a lot more confident now that Alfa Romeo will reconstitute a product offering that is acceptable globally, and more in particular in the United States and Canada,” Marchionne was quoted as saying.

“There is a strong likelihood that the brand will be back here within the next 24 months.”

Alfa Romeo has already announced that the new Giulia sedan will be the first model to cross the Atlantic to replace the Alfa Romeo 159 that’s currently being phased out slowly in the company’s international markets. What’s more, Alfa Romeo is also expected to manufacture the Giulia in North America around the same time frame of 2012.

While we’re not counting our chickens until they hatch, which means that we’re going with the age old ‘to see is to believe’ adage, but Marchionne’s announcement is as strong a statement as we’ve had in a while regarding the status of Alfa Romeo’s return to the US. And for that, you can’t blame us for getting a little pumped for that time to finally come.

Fiat boss announces Alfa Romeo’s return to the US by 2012 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 16 February 2010 06:55 EST.

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While the perception in society points to men becoming “tied-down” after they get hitched, we should all be reminded that perception isn’t always reality. It seems a little short-sighted and naive to think that men have become a little too predictable once we become domesticated.

That being said, as far as the new Dodge Super Bowl commercial is concerned, they seem to think that all men, no matter the course of action they take, will, at some point in time, end up on sort of leash in their lives.

But as the ad puts it in the end, men will abide by the rules for as long as they have something – even just one thing – to go crazy about.

And for Dodge, that ‘one thing to go crazy about’ is the new Charger.

On some levels, we cringe at thought of seeing men – husbands, specifically – get stereotyped in the way Dodge did it. But on the other hand, we can all agree that, while some men do indeed fall on that label, the thought of speeding off on a new Dodge Charger is something a lot of us do go crazy about.

Dodge’s Super Bowl Ad highlights Charger as ‘Man’s Last Stand’ originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 8 February 2010 16:00 EST.

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If you have a Tom Tom navigation unit in your vehicle you may not know that the aftermarket direction providers have been keeping an eye on just how fast you’re driving. Apparently, over the past two years the portable GPS based in car navigation system has been collecting data as part of their Speed Profiles program in an attempt to help fleet drivers find the fastest routes from coast to coast in order to boost their efficiency and get them to their destinations even faster.

As part of their findings, their study has shown that American drivers tend to be law abiding citizens on the highway, although we do seem to be pushing the upper limits of those designated speed zones. It makes sense that the less densely populated areas across the country’s midsection show the highest average speeds, with Mississippi leading the pack showing typical speeds of just over 70 MPH followed closely by New Mexico. However the single fastest interstate in the continental U.S. happens to be a stretch of I-15 that runs from Utah into Nevada, showing an average speed of 77.67 MPH. So don’t worry if you were one of those drivers pushing the envelope, Tom Tom isn’t sharing your speeding habits with the fuzz, they are just trying to help all of its clients get to where they want to go a little quicker.

Let us know if you have any Top Speed roads of your own.

Press release after the jump.

Tom Tom shows the the fastest roads in the U.S. originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 27 January 2010 18:00 EST.

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