The first vehicle to ever turn a wheel in France was powered by electricity and the mind of engineer Charles Jeantaud, who paired the then-new inventions of plate alkaline batteries and electric motors to build a series of electric cars. On this date in 1898, Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat took his Jeantaud at top speed over a one-kilometer strip during an exhibition arranged by a French magazine, hitting an average speed of 39 mph -- the first land-speed record. The feat earned Chasseloup-Laubat the name "The Electric Count," along with a challenge from a Belgian competitor with which he would swap the land speed record several times over the following months.

So the idea for Fiat's British arm of a mother performing a Lady Sovereign-esque rap about "The Motherhood" sounds better in theory than practice, what with Toyota's lame "Swagger Wagon" already a year old and a beat that would gently rock the block to sleep after a good burping. But in typical Fiat advertising fashion, the startling parts entertain as much as they scandalize, and the lyrics get parenthood right; why else do book club members never forget their bottles of wine? What this has to do with the soon-to-be-Americanized Fiat 500L as a potential family hauler remains a mystery, but Fiat does have a flair for bonding with its shoppers. Warning: this video has words that rhyme with "episiotomy stitches."

Some thank Ronald Reagan for bringing morning to America in the early '80s, but there's not enough gratitude given to the popularity of building your own three-wheel fiberglass car as a hedge against fuel prices. The interwebs tell us the Trimuter kit car was the most popular build ever featured on the cover of Mechanix Illustrated, and as it was available in either gas or electric chassis along with its sharp-nosed body, it's not hard to see why. This body found by Dan around town looks like its builder just left to get that new Bob Seger cassette and never came back; maybe he's willing to sell. If you have some interesting illustrated mechanix, add them to the Motoramic group on Flickr, or send us a message via Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. And if you haven't tried it, download the new Flickr app here.

Of all the world's quality automakers, Infiniti has long qualified as the quirkiest. Launched by Nissan in 1989 to quarter the queue for luxury vehicles, Infiniti's quixotic quest often falls short of its quotas despite quick and quiet quadracycles. Infiniti's new Queequeg announced today that its quenching its quarrying for quid by renaming all its models based on one letter. Any queries which?

Days in advance of the arrival of Volkswagen's black beast, I was picking out a gut-stiffening mix of mountain roads on which to unleash its savagery. And after a weekend of thrashing, I liked the racy 2013 Volkswagen Golf R. The problem? I desperately wanted to love it.

When you're 23 and a rising rap star, the world of supercars greets you warmly. Just ask Young Money rapper Tyga, a.k.a. Michael Ray Nguyen-Stevenson, whose spent sizable amounts of his capital on his garage — including a gold-painted (not vinyl-wrapped) Audi R8 and a $376,000 Lamborghini Aventador, which was last seen this weekend on Tyga's Instagram in a snowy ditch after he crashed it.

By the time Congress passed the first Clean Air Act on this date in 1963, the phrase "killer smog" was already well-known, thanks to towns like Donora, Pa., where a cloud of smog from the nearby zinc plant settled over the town for five days in 1948, killing 20 and sickening 6,000. Major cities like Los Angeles were frequently bathed in a brown cloud, and a year earlier Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" had set off a wave of public outcry over the worsening environment. Within two years, the first federal pollution standards for cars would be tacked onto the act, even as California officials were approving the first pollution control devices for vehicles. Today, on a poor air quality day in Los Angeles the exhaust coming from the tailpipe of several new vehicles will be cleaner than the air they suck in — while China re-learns America's lessons the hard way.

Like a blank canvas, there was something irresistible about the fresh autumn dew covering our Volvo XC60 test car this morning; it begged for creative expression. Luckily, with just a few quick taps of my iPhone's touchscreen, the new Flickr app generated the photo above before my postmodern art had time to evaporate. If you're so inspired, add your own creative automotive masterpieces to the Motoramic group on Flickr, or send us a message via Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. Go on. Dew it.