By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

DUB held its grand finale in LA and we have all the pics! Check out Topo’s latest widebody Camaro. I’ll be talking to Topo and snapping a ton of pics of this thing at SEMA next week.

Given how much I ask it to do, my trusty little IBM ThinkPad—running Windows XP—is pretty stable.  But obviously, its maddening idiosyncrasies occasionally reduce me to a seething, profanity-spewing toddler who just wants to go kick holes in something. So I found the Matrix Runs on Windows pretty funny. Anyway, here’s the news:

• Talk about irony. Shannon Nicole Adkins’ senior project was a study how dangerous the roads of her rural county were for young drivers. She died Monday after being struck head-on by a drunk driver who crossed the center line. Damn, that’s sad. MSNBC
• Apparently, the recent drop in gas prices is still translating into increased sales of SUVs. And while I know this isn’t the first time I’ve talked about this ridiculous phenomenon, I feel like I have to keep mentioning it. Seriously America, maybe it’s time to start thinking further ahead than lunch? ABC Charlotte
• Looks like the next gen Scion TC is going to be RWD. The car itself will be the product of the long-awaited Toyota/Subaru partnership, and I can’t wait to get a look at one in the flesh. Which company’s do you think will look hotter? My money is on Toyota. CarScoop
• When I walked into the office on this morning, my credentials for the LA Auto Show were sitting on my desk. Now, it’s not clear which member of editorial team is going, but I can tell you that the General won’t be hosting any press conferences. Yikes. Freep

Today I’m headed to LA to check out the set of Fast and Furious (yep, that’s now the fourth installment’s working title). Unfortunately I’m going to be forbidden from saying anything about the visit until the embargo is lifted, but while I’m on set I’ll totally be looking out for the numerous CarDomain member rides that have been cast to appear in the film—like haddytech’s awesome Kia Spectra! Be sure to let me know in the comments if you or your ride will be there as well.

Over the weekend, Rich King Casting hosted a special meet at Universal Studios for a few hundred of the respondents to its FF4 casting call—and pics of some of the insane rides in attendance are now up on LS1GTO.com!  At the event, each car was videotaped and cataloged, and owners will be contacted once their ride is needed for filming. Still, don’t despair if you missed the meet: Rich King is still accepting applications since they’ll need fresh cars throughout the filming, which is scheduled to continue through April.

Did YOU attend the meet-up? Is your ride going to be in the new movie? Let us know!!

Thanks to Michael for the tip, and to ForzaV12 for the pics. See them all after the jump!

I know it’s long been considered cool in the movies to wreck a lot of vintage rides in the 20-30-year-old range. Hollywood studios do it because they can afford to: cars of this age tend to be at the rock-bottom of their collectors’ value, no one yet cares enough about them to complain about it, and big old cars look cool getting destroyed. Remember how the TV show Fear Factor went through hundreds of perfectly good third-gen Camaros for its "car stunts"? In another fifteen years, collectors are going to look back on that footage and cringe. Anyway, back to the current clip: whatever’s going on with this silly "step" fad, I hope it blows over in a hurry. Dance movies are lame enough to begin with, but I don’t want to see a whole lot more mint California sheetmetal (or glass, for that matter) get ruined for the sake of something this stupid.

Harley unveiled its new 2008 CrossBones in LA over the weekend, and I think they hit the nail on the head with this new design. While I’m not crazy about the ape-hangers—I prefer to be able to turn comfortably—I do love the old-school flavor the hidden the swingarm, liberal use of black, and the tiny headlight give the bike. Harley is clearly trying expand its demo from the retiring baby-boomers who’ve snatched up most of its inventory of late, and the CrossBones looks like a great start. What do you think? Will we see more youngsters passing up crotch rockets for American iron? Or is Harley destined to be the Buick of bikes?

Earlier this year at the New York Auto Show, GM debuted these three microcar concepts, and invited the public to vote at its website on which of the baby vehicles was their favorite. Today at the LA Auto Show, GM announced that the poll, which attracted a record-setting 1.8 million respondents, showed the Beat to be the overwhelming winner. As a result, the Beat will go into production, becoming available for the global market in mid-2009. While GM assures that the Beat will be ultra-efficient, it was the only car of the three to run a turbocharged 1.2L—the other two micros were equipped with 1.0L engines. Check out the full story at Motivemag.