Hey Detroit, keep an eye out for these wheels, OK?

In what amounts to the ultimate in irony, Dave Bing, the mayor of Detroit, had the wheels and tires from an Executive Protection Unit GMC Yukon Denali stolen. The theft occurred on Wednesday, September 1, while the vehicle was parked in a secure lot at the Shoreline East Condominiums, which the New York Times refers to as a “luxury residence”.

2010 Ducati Monster 1100. Photo: Ducati USA

Have you been jonesing for a new Ducati Monster? Are the pages of your Ducati Superbike brochure stuck together for reasons I don’t even want to contemplate? If you answered yes to either of these questions, I’ve got some good news for you: Ducati is offering special financing or in store credit with the purchase of 2009 or 2010 Monster or Superbike models.

This is a racing simulator by BRD Simulation. It has a fiberglass and carbon fiber composite monocoque chassis. And real tires. It tilts, shakes, and jiggles. It has a force feedback steering wheel and force feedback pedals. It has three big monitors. It is bigger and more expensive than most real cars.

Source: BRD

Every so often a vehicle inspires gearheads to shout from the rooftops, to announce its glory to the broad automotive world. Jim Brennan over at Hooniverse found this spectacular 1965 VW Type II bus at Motormavens.com. Now I, your faithful town cryer, bring it to you. It is absolutely perfect. It was restored to intergalactic concours condition by its owner, Rolando Alvarado. It wears a scrumptious shade of vanilla cream topped with a dollop of lustrous licorice black. It hugs the ground like an angry pillbug. It has just the right amount of blinding chrome. But this bus isn’t all show and no go. Alvarado took it to VW miracle worker Victor Nemjivar of So Cal Performance Lab, who punched its stock 1600cc air-cooled flat four to an incredible 2276cc. Then he added forged ceramic-coated pistons and custom ported and polished heads with turbo chambers. Finally, he topped it off with a Garret T3/T4 turbo. The batshit-crazy mill pumps out 235 horsepower with 12lbs of boost on pump gas. And it’s air cooled. Madness. Glorious madness.

Source: Hooniverse, Motormavens

The Craigslist ad sums it up in one sentence: Ten-wheel-drive 750-gallon Class 4 Tender Forest Service fire truck. It can be yours for just $10,900. Available in gorgeous (really) Sandpoint, Idaho.

Source: Craigslist

Universal Pictures is apparently working on a biography of F1 great Ayrton Senna. The film, titled “Senna”, is due for release late in 2010, although there are no guarantees that it will be released in the U.S. market. In case you’re not current on your F1 history, or in case you don’t follow motorsports, Ayrton Senna da Silva was perhaps the best racing driver of all time. He had an ungodly ability to drive a race car fast in any conditions, and could overcome a car’s weaknesses with superhuman skill. Senna was killed in an accident during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

Congrats, LA - you're next to worst!

I’ve lived in Jacksonville, FL for the past three years, and I’ve got to say that our drivers are among the worst you’ll find on the planet. First, there are only two kinds of drivers here: those that drive 20 miles per hour below the speed limit (and, surprisingly, this isn’t limited to blue-haired old ladies) and those who drive hammer down, all the time. Every single woman driver has a cell phone glued to her ear, and about 60% of the men do, too. Rain in Jacksonville is treated like snow over black ice would be in the northeast; everyone slows to ten miles per hour and won’t corner faster than single digit speeds. If you’re a competent driver, it’s almost enough to turn you into a serial killer.

Fabulous French automaker Citroën recently revealed its new saucy little five door, the DS4. The little hot hauler will make its real-world debut at the Paris Auto Show in a few weeks. Citroën hopes to revive its quirky-chic image with the DS3 and DS4, recalling the iconic and ultra-super-spectacular DS cars of yon. It’s a strange marketing ploy considering the company’s current C6 is more the descendent of the Goddess (DS sounds like déesse, which means “goddess” in French).

DS4 shoppers will have two diesel mills and three gas engines to choose from. The top DS4 will rock a 200-horsepower inline four. All engines will be available with six-speed manual or automatic transmissions.

This is the Buckeye Bullet 2.5, an electric powerhouse that just broke the land-speed record for battery-powered vehicles on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The car was built by a team of engineering students at Ohio University. It’s powered by a 600 kilowatt lithium-ion battery pack and runs a massive electric motor that shredded the car’s gearbox after just one run. The car hit a maximum velocity of 320 miles per hour and logged an average top speed of 307.7mph in two runs. The average speed shatters the previous battery-powered vehicle speed record of 245mph set in 1999 by White Lightning. The Buckeye Bullet 2.5 is sponsored by French electric vehicle manufacturer Venturi Automobiles. Hopefully the company will use what the OU team learned to build some electric road rockets for the streets.

When it comes to racing games, you can never have too much reality. That’s why the cats over at VRX have created the iMotion, one of the most advanced racing game sims ever. The hyper sim comes with a Sparco seat, Clubsport pedals, a force feedback wheel, 5-speaker Bose surround sound system, and three-screen NVIDIA GeForce 3D Surround Vision setup. Oh, and it also has tilt and shake actuators to trow you around when you drift through the corners. The whole shebang is wrought in aluminum and carbon fiber and would be perfectly at home in the Pagani factory. The price for this ultimate driving simulator? A reasonably insane $27,000, which begs the question: “Why not just get a Miata?”