When a site’s tagline is “Mentally Stimulating Diversions,” you’re never 100% sure what you’re getting yourself into. But Sporcle is a website that we ended up on for hours. Gluttons for punishment, we failed over and over again. Until we realized there were quizzes about cars. The one on car logos? Killed it.

Then we got to this one, and we were banging our heads in frustration. Can you do better than us (33/50)? We dare you. And don’t even think about looking on the interwebs for answers.

Looking to spice up your desktop? The kids over at WebRidesTV have worked up a background creator complete with a wide selection of dream rides, exotic settings and yes, babes. Click over and you can drag and drop the elements you want and skip the ones you don’t. Want your own personal parking garage with a KTM X-Bow, Nissan GT-R and a Porsche 911? No problem! Make your friends jealous and your girlfriend hate you. We blew a good half hour drawing up our perfect background, so beware of dramatic time wasting. [Source: WebRidesTV]

If you own a mobile telephone, you are probably aware of text messaging, or texting. As with many other popular forms of communication, the next best thing to doing it at home is to do it in the car. Now we all know that driving while texting is probably not the smartest idea, but we come up with excuses to do it anyways. But how ‘not smart’ is this idea? According to Car and Driver, you’d be better off taking a couple shots sips of your favorite distilled intoxicant before getting behind the wheel.

Let’s let C and D explain:

Click through for their results.

While their results may make it look like driving drunk is the better of the two options, neither is a good idea. According to C and D, one intoxicated driver had to be told, not once, but two times which lane he was supposed to be in, which, in the real world would have resulted in a nightmarish head-on collision. It’s not exactly rocket science, but texting while driving seems to be much more dangerous than any of us had previously thought.

[Source: Car and Driver]

On June 16^th, Jesse James claimed to have broken the hydrogen-powered speed record on the southern California El Mirage dry lake for an episode of his show Jesse James is a Dead Man, which would have been an awesome feat indeed. However automotive journalist and world speed historian, Louise Ann Noeth, is challenging James’ claim. She states that James did not comply with many of the necessary rules one must follow to break a land speed record.

It would really suck if Jesse did break it, only to have a historian claim some ticky tacky rule violation. This isn’t the NBA Finals we’re talking about here. Whatever happens, let’s hope they don’t settle the spat with a fist fight. We hate seeing grown men cry.

The episode of Jesse James is a Dead Man will premiere sometime in August.

Here’s one that we thought was pretty awesome considering it’s just a random dude who was told to make a viral video featuring his Fiesta. How did he find so many hot chicks at such short notice?

Thems some crazy editing skillz.

[Source: YouTube]

It’s that time again. We’ve got a bunch of new car reviews up, as well as tips on how to prepare for that long summer road trip and how to tow your car. As usual, visit DriverSide’s Spotlight page for all the articles.

Here’s the one with the most hits so far. (We think he might be getting one)

The good folks over at Popular Science have featured our story ‘The Real Costs of Owning a Hybrid‘ on their site. This is the first of many articles you’ll see over there, so keep a look out for more!

What else do we really need to say? Ms. Patrick, if you’re nasty, is featured in this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition weaing a few triangles of cloth, heels and a smile. Oh yes, there’s video too:

Why are you still here? There are more pictures, so go go GO! And don’t blame us when you realize your entire day has been spent on their site. Self-control, my friends, is a virtue.

[Source: Sports Illustrated]

More from DriverSide.com:

Sport Wagons: Practical Performance

Top 5 2008 Convertables

How to Put Yourself on an Automotive Budget

Hi everyone! We have a bunch of new features and car reviews on our main spotlight page. Our Volvo XC60 review is up, so are our 2009 roundups featuring convertibles, green vehicles, trucks and pretty much every other car segment.

Zach’s written a great piece on direct injection engines and, as usual, we have some good articles from our partners as well.

Check it out.

Considering that every other topic of conversation appears to be about the Big Three and whether or not they should have been hung out to dry, we thought you might want to know how bad of an idea letting them fail would have been. Cue a google map created by our friends at Jalopnik. It shows every US manufacturing facility currently in operation by one of the Big Three. If Detroit failed, the middle of our country would crumble as well. Check it out, then let us know if you’ve changed your mind.
View Larger Map

[Source: Jalopnik]

This is the kind of stuff we couldn’t make up if we tried. Mere weeks after Chrysler announced its intention to ditch its high-dollar, high-performance Viper, the car turns out to be the company’s best-selling model. Given the car’s record-holding reputation and legendary performance, there’s no wonder why the car sells as well as it does. The only question is whether or not the talk of Viper’s sale to an organization independent of Chrysler all together was a publicity stunt or the real deal.

What’s more, the company’s priciest model, the Viper SRT10 ACR is completely sold out. That particular model currently holds the unofficial record as the fastest production car around the Nurburgring, likely adding to its appeal for track-day enthusiasts. [Source: MotorAuthority]

We wanted to let you all know that our Editorial Spotlight has received a much needed update. We apologize for the delay – technical difficulties and the like were to blame – but rest assured that you’ll now see plenty of timely updates from us.

Among the new content is our review of Acura’s all new TL, the amazing History of the Electric Car (which began long, long ago), our Top Ten Cheap, Fun Cars and our review of the completely reworked Subaru Impreza WRX. Plus, plenty of other info to keep you satisfied. Head over to the Spotlight page to check it all out, and check back for an update later this week or early next week. Thanks for reading, we’re excited to be back in business!