At least one major manufacturer has hewed a slightly different path by offering its cars as the actual canvas for the work of important contemporary artists. That manufacturer, BMW, has commissioned seventeen such extraordinary cars over the last 35 years, the latest of which was unveiled by pop artist Jeff Koons at a presentation earlier today at the Centre Pompidou, an interdisciplinary Parisian museum and cultural center focused on modern and contemporary artistic expression.

Legendary racecar driver Sir Sterling Moss was once again associated with a major collector car auction sale last weekend during Bonham’s 11th annual Aston Martin Works Service sale. This time, Moss’s name surfaced in connection to his role in the racing lineage of a rare 1950 Aston Martin DB2 team car that was prepared specifically for competition in the second postwar 24 Hours of Le Mans.

If your car-buying tastes and budget have burgeoned to the point where a standard Ferrari is no longer an adequate expression of your automotive passion, then you may want to consider commissioning an authentic, factory-sanctioned, one-off custom job, care of Ferrari’s Special Projects division. Of course, showroom visits and test drives are not an option for such an extravagant order, but the next best thing would be a trip to this year’s Concorso Italiano, the annual August celebration of Italian cars, fashion, and food that is held at the Laguna Seca Golf Ranch in Monterey, California, just down the road from the almost-concurrent Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

When America’s most haute superhero reappeared across movie screens last Friday, his travel wasn’t confined to the armored flying suit that earned him the title of Iron Man. As it turns out, sometimes Robert Downey Jr.’s fictitious Tony Stark prefers to drive, and with his collection of automobiles, who could blame him?

The preened feathers of the inscrutable collector car community were perceptibly ruffled yesterday when Pulitzer Prize winning automotive writer and Wall Street Journal columnist Dan Neil reported on the private sale of one of the most desirable collector cars of all time, a Bugatti Atlantic. Over the past few weeks, Santa Monica-based auction house Gooding & Company carefully endeavored to engineer a sale that would publicly offer little in the way of concrete details, tiptoeing a typically sensitive tightrope of client confidentiality.

Peter Mullin’s collection is flush with the most opulent and exquisitely designed coachbuilt cars of prewar France. Delahayes, Bugattis and Talbot-Lagos with bodies by Figoni et Falaschi, Chapron and Van Vooren now grace the main floor of the Mullin Automotive Museum.

The faithful were assembled in the historic Italian edifice; 500 tastemakers, trendsetters and recognized luminaries of the automotive gentry, gathered in the Ducal Palace, an ornate 17th century baroque court that has served as the officer training center of the Italian Military Academy since 1862, and lives on as one of Modena’s spiritual hearts. But strangely enough, none of the distinguished guests stood a chance of acquiring the main attraction that had drawn their presence on the night of April 14. Like most of us, all they could do was admire the spectacular, red aluminum-skinned Prancing Horse that emerged proudly bearing three timeless initials…GTO.

To the untrained eye, the event that took place at Beverly Hills’ Greystone Mansion on Sunday, April 11, could have easily been mistaken for a cocktail party thrown during Hollywood’s Golden Age. The lavish setting of the palatial estate provided guests with complimentary fine dining, flowing open bars, and birds-eye views of the Los Angeles skyline. Rita Hayworth’s Cadillac and Fred Astaire’s Rolls-Royce were parked in the mansion’s motor court, while a host of other scintillating prewar and vintage cars could be found in the guest parking lot on the grounds’ north side.

Just one month ago, Tesla used the platform of the Geneva International Motor Show to debut a one-off version of its $128,000 Roadster Sport, the hotly debated two-seat exotic sports car that can accelerate from zero to 60 in 3.7 seconds and can be re-charged from an outlet in your own garage.