* Came across three different discussions about hot rodding outside American borders this week. First, a H.A.M.B. thread on traditional hot rodding in France; second, another H.A.M.B. thread about the custom/lowrider lifestyle in Japan; and finally, an Autoculture post about lowriding in Brazil. Of course, it’s not necessarily news that this is going on in other parts of the world; just interesting to see the three different takes on the overall theme.

* As for sticking cars on poles, I had always assumed that was a total Americana kind of thing until I perused the Things Stuck on Top of Poles pool on Flickr and found some cars on poles in Europe and Australia, such as the fire truck above shot by Flickr user OZinOH.

* The fellas at Blog dos Carros Antigos dipped into the LIFE photo archives recently and came up with this great set of photos from the late 1940s or early 1950s documenting life and travel on U.S. Route 30.

* According to Gunnar Heinrich, Maserati’s gone into the Cash for Clunkers business. Remember: Soylent green is people.

* Finally, an excellent moment of auto zen, courtesy Automobiliac.