With the weather turning rather cold, rather quickly up around our way, we’re getting ready to kit out our long-term Volkswagen Jetta TDI with a fine new set of snow shoes. We had a good experience with the Bridgestone Blizzaks we used for our Scion xB long-termer, and we thought we’d ask which sort of foul weather tires our readers prefer. Are you planning on a set of snows this year—and if so, which brand do you prefer? Give us your picks, in comments.

Track time, launch control, and a secret way to turn your all-wheel drive Porsche PDK into a rear-wheel drive car (seriously, watch for this juicy tidbit at around the 2:00 minute mark)? The hoons of Garage419 are on the case with Porsche’s newest 911 and a video camera at Miller Motorsports Park, in Salt Lake, Utah…just don’t ask them where the cool bars are.
 
+ YouTube: The New Porsche 911 with PDK - Garage419

No matter how good a driver one is, there is always a time when a certain car will give you a scare; sometimes it’s the type of scare that makes you laugh it off and try all over again (good), while other times might make you want to swear off driving all together (bad). Which car has scared you the very most while you were behind the wheel? What exactly happened? Tell us about your most chilling drive, in comments.

The horrifically stupid Mercedes-Benz driver caught out in this video has us asking a very simple question today; what’s the very worst example of driving you’ve ever seen. In some cases, honest parties may admit to being the perpetrators of the worst driving they’ve witnessed—everyone has their off days, after all. Tell us about the most flagrantly awful helmsmanship you’ve witnessed, in comments.

A West Jordan, Utah woman was responsible for critical injuries to her 10-year-old son (not pictured) recently, after allowing the boy to “car surf” on the running board of her Ford Expedition while driving a circuit around her mobile home park. The child sustained critical injuries after he lost his grip on the side-view mirror and door handle while traveling at approximately five miles per hour. The boy is currently in stable condition at Primary Children’s Medical Center.

The woman’s 8-year-old daughter was also surfing at the time; a practice which the mother reportedly thought wouldn’t lead to any problems. Said West Jordan Police Department’s Sgt. Greg Butler, "Apparently mom thought that was OK, and it's a hard lesson that she's going to learn."

Though clearly not imaginative enough regarding potential risks to her family’s well being, the woman has owned up to the fact that allowing her Ford to be surfed wasn’t a particularly good idea. "I was really stupid in what I did," she said, "We're lucky, we're so lucky right now."

We were unsurprised to learn that police cited the woman with child abuse, though we have to admit that the simultaneous charges of driving with a suspended license, and driving without insurance seemed a bit over the top. Someone should really check in to that.

+ KSL.com

Americans may be getting traffic information increasingly from sources like the internet or personal GPS devices, but there is still something to be said for the personal touch found with your local news broadcast. This flowing traffic reporter is fairly hilarious but we feel duty-bound to warn you that there is a considerable “cringe factor” here as well. Watch with caution.

+ TMBLG

Taking what is shaping up to be a sadly busy hurricane season to heart; the civic-minded Jalopnik crew has compiled a remarkably thorough and surprisingly snark-free agenda for those people who may be faced with evacuation by automobile.

The how-to piece helps guide potential evacuees through steps from assessing potential risk factor, to preparing one’s vehicle and family for a quick departure, to planning both effective and safe routes of passage and return to the homestead. The list may not provide brand new insights to those coastal U.S. residents who’ve seen it all before, but it could prove a valuable resource for those new to the threat posed by hurricanes, and may be able to get some started on the path to a more composed retreat from nature’s potential furry. Give it a read through the link below.

+ Jalopnik: How To Escape A Hurricane By Car

Thousands of drivers relied on General Motors’ OnStar service this past weekend, for getting out of Hurricane Gustav's way. The callers, who were mostly calm, patiently asked the operators for the best path out of New Orleans, Louisiana and other Gulf Coast cities.

OnStar stepped up its staff to around 500 operators and set up emergency plans at the Pontiac, Michigan, Oshawa, Ontario, and Charlotte, North Carolina call centers. Calls concerning the storm were transferred to specially trained OnStar advisors, many of whom had been on duty during Hurricane Katrina.

Unsurprisingly, people were much more prepared for Gustav than Katrina. In fact, the advisors reported that callers were generally leaving well in advance of Hurricane Gustav.

"There's a lot of people that are stranded on the evacuation routes," said Brad Williams, a service manager for OnStar at the command center in Downtown Detroit. "They're more prepared. They know what questions have been asked," he said.

Because the service had expanded from around 3 million to 5 million subscribers since Katrina, the managers expected Sunday's calls to reach 75,000 due to the hurricane –almost double the normal amount. As it turns out, calls reached into the thousands early Saturday, and were pouring in at over 3,000 per hour on Sunday.

+ The Detroit News: Drivers rely on OnStar to evade Hurricane Gustav

What do bikini style swimming trunks, a pair of Levi’s fresh from the dryer, marijuana seeds, and a Mercedes-Benz driver’s seat all have in common? If you answered that all are a good way to keep your Kix budget to a bare minimum, then you’re on the right track.

A new study of indiscriminate origin purports that car seat heaters may have an adverse effect on male fertility, charging that the ass-warmers raise scrotal temperatures to unseemly highs. Sperm production we’re told, occurs most readily at the normal scrotal temperature of 95.9 degrees (just below the average temp for the rest of the man’s body). Heated car seats were found to raise that temperature to an unseasonal average of 99.14 degrees, with a massive 103.46 recorded in one specific case.

There wasn’t enough information available about the legitimacy of the study for us to worry too much about driving frosty yet, but guys looking to jumpstart their family life should consider this fair warning.

+ Channel 4.com: News: Heated seats damage male fertility

Irv Gordon claims a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most miles ever recorded on a single-owner, non-commercial vehicle. He’s racked up 2.7 million miles (and quickly counting) on his 1966 Volvo P1800 and has made quite a study of the American countryside in the process.
 
Drawing on his vast firsthand knowledge and a desire to see people out and enjoying summer vacations on the country’s highways and byways, Gordon has compiled a list of some of his very favorite small town destinations from coast to coast. Being, of course, a die-hard Volvo fanatic, he’s also imbued his list with a certain Swedishness that’s impossible to miss. Read it below.

Long before gasoline rocketed through $4 a gallon many people were dismayed to see a significant percentage of their income disappearing into the tank of their car. Today, a wobbly economic outlook, increases in the cost of most other forms of energy, as well as the cost of life’s staples, have prompted folks to look for every possible way to cut back on spending. “Can I save money by running my car on Regular?” “Will it hurt the engine?” my friends ask. More than one person driving a car the manufacturer has spec’d for Premium has told me “I use Regular and my car runs fine.” Are there consequences of “down grading” your fuel? It is definitely a timely question, so we sent e-mail inquiries off to a half dozen manufacturers asking about their technology and their policy on the matter.

While waiting for their reply let’s review some internal combustion engine characteristics. Fuel does not truly explode in a cylinder, at least it isn’t supposed to. It burns smoothly, albeit very rapidly, across the cylinder. The octane rating is a measure of the propensity a given fuel has to burning, rather than exploding. Gasoline “exploding” in the cylinder is frequently called “detonation” or more colloquially, “knocking” or “pinging”. These explosions, because they happen as the piston is rising during the compression stroke and try to shove the piston back down the bore, can do damage over time. In the case of severely stressed motors, such as in race cars, a few seconds of serious detonation can destroy the engine. Two of the mechanical considerations affecting how smoothly a fuel burns are compression and cylinder head configuration. Two variable considerations of great importance are the temperature in the cylinder and the ignition timing. Every manufacturer designs and builds their engines to operate most efficiently for the application intended with a gasoline of a particular octane rating.

We admit it. With a name like Winding Road, our office is essentially devoid of drag racers. That said, the handful of times we’ve been to the ‘strip, we’ve had a surprisingly good time, even if we weren’t terribly adept at getting the proper jump on the Christmas tree.

While airlines, commercial vehicle fleets, and other large-scale users of fuel have been purchasing in bulk to lock in savings for years, the average American driver hasn’t ever really had that option. A new company called MyGallons is looking to change all that, giving spendthrift motorists a hedge against quickly escalating gas prices.