While there’s a lot of us here who can say that, due to frugality or convenience, we’re no stranger to using automotive seats for furniture, Formula One driver Takuma Sato has kicked it up a notch by offering this signature F1 gaming seat for about $600 US. Looks like they’re not available in the US at this point, but Sato better hurry it up if he wants to cash in—the contraption just happens to be the exact value of the economic-stimulus rebate that we’ll all be getting in May! Meh, I think I’d rather spend mine on my cars. Via BornRich.

In third-world countries, folks have been wearing sandals cut out of old tires for as long as there’s been tires. But here’s a novel concept: why not craft attractive handbags out of old truck inner tubes, smack on a designer-level price tag, and call it good? English Retreads has been in the business for a few years, and their products are admittedly pretty cool—since they’re made from recycled product, each one’s different, and in many cases you can see factory markings and even the ghost of the tire’s former tread imprinted on the tube rubber. But here’s what’s really cute: every item in their line of lady-bags and man-purses has an automotive-themed name: you can get a Beetle, a Bentley, or accessories like the Fan Belt and the Sidecar. My major sticking point is the pricing—I like stuff that’s cheap or free, it seems a little crazy to shell out such big bucks for items that you could probably make yourself with a rivet gun and a few junkyard scraps. Verdict: cute, but spendy.

Maybe I’m getting a little tired of all the furniture and appliances made from car sections that’ve been making the rounds lately, but this liquor cabinet made from the ass-end of a wood-paneled van is just too cute to pass over. Wouldn’t it look great in your rec room? Not for me, because even at the "Sale Price" of $2850, it’s more than I’d shell out for a whole car. Go below the jump to see it displaying the goods!

Via BornRich

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Since I type like a gorilla, using this product would probably just make me feel developmentally disabled, but ace keyboard jockeys gunning for bragging rights might find it amusing. This speedometer plugs into a USB port and displays—via a sexy analog gauge—your typing speed in words per minute, and it’ll also track the total amount of words typed on a given day. While there are probably plenty of legitimate uses for this, I see it being used more for inter-office competition than anything else. via Gizmodo

Here’s the perfect addition to any NASCAR-obsessed kitchen: the ever-popular Crock Pot, now in your choice of drivers. Whip up some pork-n-beans for the critters with the help of Kasey Kahne, or let Jeff Gordon keep your casserole warm for you. Heat settings include Start Your Engines, Pace Lap, Wide Open, and In The Fence. Dinner is guaranteed to taste like it’s been cooked with the exhaust of an 800 hp motor. Get yours!

Yep, it’s a fake Indy car. A street-legal, two-seater, V6-powered "replica" with an automatic trans—and it’s got about as much in common with an Indy car as a Ford Tempo does. You can bid on it if you like, but don’t expect to hit the reserve price anytime soon: the seller clearly thinks this ride is a lot cooler than the market does, and he’s not letting it go for even the astronomical sum it’s already been bid up to. If you’ve always kind of wished that Power Wheels made imitation cars for grownups as well as kids, this might be for you. Knock yourself out!

Now when you say your car’s a real whale, you can actually mean it. Underneath this preposterous parade-float exterior is what used to be a stick-shift, V6 1980 El Camino. Now it’s a rolling sculpture nearly as cool as the Muffler Hut, with a working waterspout in its forehead and a helium-balloon inflator in its nose. The seller says it’s a popular educational for Sunday schools teaching the Jonah vs. Whale story. I can only imagine…

Thanks to Jason for the tip.

This can’t bode well. In an effort to slow chronic speeders, Canada is testing a device which would override driver input if they attempt to go more than five MPH over the posted limit. It’s being described as similar to the breathalyzer-equipped ignition lock systems fitted to the vehicles of habitual drunks, but since it effects the operation of the car once it’s in motion, the comparison doesn’t seem accurate. The scariest thing? Our neighbors to the North have already raised the idea of making it standard for new vehicles. Talk about a slippery slope! Sure, roads might be safer if no one was allowed to speed. And airplanes might be safer if everyone was cavity-searched, then hogtied for the flight. And kids might get hurt less if the playgrounds were flat and made of Nerf. And the populace might be healthier if no one was allowed to smoke or drink or eat cheeseburgers. But that wouldn’t make life very much fun, would it? Anyone who thinks government should have this level of control over its citizens should be tossed into a gulag. Canada.com via Winding Road. 

New commuter cars have become so quiet that you can’t even tell if they’re running or not unless you have the sound of a real engine piped in through your stereo system. That’s what manufacturers of In.Pro.’s "Virtual-Motor system" apparently want us to believe. I’m not kidding. Check it out at CarScoop.