What’s the consensus on glow in the dark rims? Are they topping the cultural barometer of all things cool right now, or are they about as acceptable as a poorly-fitted underbody neon kit that will likely land you some bit part in a budget Fast & The Furious spin-off?

I may need to whisper this but I quite like the look of these glow in the dark rims featured on a Honda S2000. Obviously the owner’s choice of ride helps the cause dramatically, but I’m wondering if the process could hit the UK’s car modifying scene.

Coming to a Halfords near you soon?

According to its creators MPK, the night-glow effect is non-toxic and achieved by mixing a high volume of self-luminous micro-particles called litrospheres into paint. Litrospheres then create litrosenergy, which in some cases, can emit light for 12 years without needing electricity or sun exposure.

Have I managed to convince you yet? Go on, imagine these rims on a Basalt Black Porsche Cayman. Tempted now?

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The Gas Station Podcast is back! This week, Alex Goy, Cameraman Phil and myself talk cars with tenuous links to the World Cup plus I have a bit of a rant about the Chevrolet Spark and its brand alliance with men with prominent guitars, facial hair and unapologetically tight trousers.

The Gas Station podcast crew is presented by Jon Quirk, Alex Goy and Cameraman Phil

We also celebrate a guy by the name of Richard Jordan who, after being left by his financé, decided to sell everything (house, car, parents, ok…maybe not parents) to buy a Lamborghini Gallardo and set out across America.

Usually cars like this are reserved for (i) arms dealers celebrating the sale of a dozen fighter jets to the Saudis (ii) bonus-splurging city bankers or (iii) a person whose ability to kick a ball has already been rewarded waaaay beyond whatever that deserves.

So, it’s good to know that normal folk can occasionally experience a big enough quarter-life crisis that, for the pure love of cars, compels them to plough all their life savings into a seriously depreciating asset. Rich, there will always be a sofa for you here…

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Last week’s Audi A1 launch in Berlin highlighted the desire for same-day reporting.

The days when motoring journalists could jet off to write 300 words on a new car nobody had heard of are long gone. International car launches are an extremely privileged entry pass into those early access moments, so if you aren’t launch tweeting, filming, producing reviews and gathering news stories for your followers, what are you doing?

I was genuinely impressed by the Audi A1 supermini. It may not have been as vivid or as memorable as Berlin, but can any object compete with such a cluster of aching trendiness? You may have heard that the Audi A1 shares its basic platform with the SEAT Ibiza, Volkswagen Polo and Skoda Fabia, and yes, this homogeneity has stifled dynamic diversity.

For keen drivers, the Audi A1 will feel like a Polo, only even more grown-up. If you’re one of those people, buy a Renaultsport Clio. But for everybody else, rest assured you’ll be seduced by this car’s cabin and level of refinement -- even amongst VW’s other family members, there is a between-the-lines tone of superiority to everything in here.

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If one man can make Saab design appeal to the devotees again, it’s Jason Castriota.

The American/Italian car designer responsible for the Maserati GranTurismo, and revered for his automotive one-offs that include the Ferrari P4/5 and Bertone Mantide (below) has been hired to head Saab Automobile’s design team and style the next generation of Swedish models.

What an absolute steal, and some cure for the current malaise.

Some of Castriota’s former projects haven’t just been cars, they’ve been art. I appreciate there is no real justification for the existence of haute automation, nor haute couture or even haute horlogerie for that matter, other than the fact they can. But thank god they can.

Castriota brought his one-off Bertone Mantide to the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

And now for car fans, the idea of such design royalty working on mass-market versions of the next generation Saab 9-3 or even Saab 92 (seriously, how amazing would that be?), must be like Adeline André doing a spin-off summer range at Top Shop.

"This is about Saab returning to its roots," says Jason Castriota

“It’s absolutely vital we get this car right,” said the New Yorker. “This is Saab returning to its roots, not having to worry about being part of a much larger machine that they were before in the GM organisation.”

Let’s hope he has enough time and creative rope to do what we know he is capable of. If he gets this right, we might all be queuing out of the showroom.

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Car merchandise is big business. A fridge magnet here, a branded jacket there, it’s all pretty tame, lame and highly lucrative.

But now there are certain items that belie the idea that auto spin-offs are supposed to be aimed at those who can’t actually afford the car. A €200k Bugatti watch for example, or now even a $15k Ford Mustang pool table.

In terms of automotive furnishings, the Mustang pool table has to be up there with Ferris Bueller’s house

Though not strictly an ‘official’ piece of merchandise, this pool table is made from a fibreglass mould based on an original 1965 Ford Mustang.

The finished table is then decorated with some genuine chrome Mustang bumpers, badges and light clusters, and can be specced in any official Mustang colour. It’s very cool, but for that sort of money, I’d like to think you could find a pretty decent working example.

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Brethren, I need your help. As a birthday treat to myself, I’ve decided to get some skull candy designed by the same bloke Takuma Sato, Lewis Hamilton and Dan Wheldon all entrust with their own helmet paintwork.

Suffolk-based Jason Fowler and his company JLF Designs have been working with quiet, fanatical precision on helmet designs since 1991, and now he’s about to create the racing graphics for my very own motorcycle lid.

I tried to keep the brief as clean as possible: colours that match the website, 70s graphics in the style of typical man totem McQueen’s lid and an Isle of Man flag to give the family a big shout out.

Jason has returned with these four stunning designs, but I’d like you lot to help me pick the one I get painted. Cast your vote in the comments box below and at the end of the month, I’ll be kindly asking Jason to paint the design with the most votes. Thanks!

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Time for another Gas Station podcast! Get excited. Now get more excited as Cameraman Phil, Alex Goy and myself take you through all the latest motoring jabber that seems to accumulate in our everyday lives.

In episode eight, we discuss retrosexuals and the Nissan Juke, fake spy photography and the Range Rover LRX plus some Kiwi supercar we’ve already forgotten the name of.

The Gas Station crew can talk for days about anything. Except the merits of the bendy-bus...

It was also my birthday so, inevitably, we adjourned to the pub. Well, a bar actually, where Goy ended up drinking £12 concoctions called ‘Zombie.’ Phil and I haven’t seen him since…

As always, all worthy shout outs are below:

• Auto journalist’s 16-year old son crashes Porsche 911 Turbo
• ‘Swagger Wagon’ Toyota rap – actually funny
• BMW M3 GT2 Art Car by Jeff Koons
• McLaren Automotive on Facebook
• Bloggox – Cameraman Phil
• Bloggox – Alex Goy

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For those of you making the pilgrimage to Le Mans tomorrow, keep an eye out for the Gendarmes! And when you get there, driving license in tact, keep an eye out for the BMW M3 GT2 Art Car competing.

Cars and art haven’t always seen eye to eye -- a John Chamberlain abstract made from crushed and welded cars was collected by dustbin men when left momentarily on the pavement outside a New York gallery -- but there’ll be no such mistakes made with this rolling masterpiece.

Inspired by old racing cars and pictures of explosions, the 17th BMW art car’s vinyl wrap (vinyl is lighter than paint) has been designed by American artist Jeff Koons and I think he has inadvertently created the most iconic war paint since the Gulf-coloured Porsche 917s of the early 70s.

Enjoy the video as you may not see the design in such clarity when it competes this weekend! Rest assured that after the race, win or lose, it’ll be taking residency at the BMW museum in Munich. Road trip, anyone?

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Normally I only spy cool things like this on the M25, crawling at 5mph, in a contraflow, vision blurred by lots of men in yellow coats digging holes.

The BMC 1800 models were affectionately called 'landcrabs' for their ungainly stance

But today, I really had time to fawn over this Wolseley 18/85, parked up in central London. Cruising W1 in a Wolseley must be a bigger Soho identity anchor than a bloke at your 12 O’clock in Gaga heels and jeggings.

This probably wasn’t the target market BMC was going for back in 1967, when they added the Wolseley grille to its well established 1800 range from Austin and Morris, but it genuinely rocks today.

What makes this particular example even cooler is the fact it has a rare automatic transmission. If you scroll through my Flickr gallery, you should be able to make out the dashboard mounted gear change.

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I know it’s taken a while but I have finally joined the messaging bus for the, almost, real-time internet.

For all those 140-character haters out there, journalism is not dying. Journalism is merely changing. True, we don’t go looking for news as readily anymore, the news finds us. But that doesn’t mean it’s a substitute for road work and fact checking.

Check out my Twitter page at Jon_Quirk

I like to think of Twitter as another tool in my growing toolkit. I love the innate liberalism that allows pretty much anybody to ‘follow’ the guy from Coronation Street so he can reveal he just ate a burger. Or in my case, I like to use it to keep updated on industry news, what my friends and colleagues are up to, plus listen and engage to a number of new motoring commentators that wouldn’t otherwise be granted a voice yet.

So my friends, if you want to talk cars, bikes or the Beats, follow me!

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