Auction house Bonhams is gearing up for another landmark event, scheduled to take place in just a few days at The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Enthusiasts undeterred by the financial crisis will find all manner of automobile and automobilia at the auction, including several Steve McQueen artifacts, a land-speed record-breaking 1949 Vincent motorbike, and a selection of muscle cars from the collection of action movie star Bruce Willis.

Bruce will be offloading a prized collection of classic American steel, including a pair of Corvette roadsters (an original ‘57 and a ‘67 Stingray), a 1955 Chevy Nomad, a ‘69 Dodge Charger and the piece de resistance, a 1968 Shelby GT500 convertible. The star factor is sure to add to their value, and the latter is expected to fetch upwards of $150,000. For a closer look, head on down to The Petersen, or just click on the images in the gallery below to see what officer John McClane is selling.

Chalk this one firmly in the rumormill category, but Johnathan Bodily over at Street Import Online is reporting that he’s seen what appears to be an electric smart fortwo at Tesla’s facility in San Carlos plugged into a Tesla-branded charging station. What’s more, this particular smart differed from other fortwos in that it lacked a tail pipe. We know that Daimler has been running second-generation smart ed’s (with lithium ion batteries from an unknown source) around various locations for a little while, and that Tesla has stated that it has signed a few deals to supply batteries to other companies for their electric vehicle projects. Putting this final piece of the puzzle together, it appears we have enough circumstantial evidence to conclude that the Silicon Valley company is provided the batteries to Daimler for its new electric smart cars.

Hopefully, this collaboration will bear fruit in the form of both electric smart cars in America and provide Tesla Motors with some of the working capital it needs to continue forward with its Model S electric sedan project. We contacted Tesla for an official response, and as expected got a definitive “no comment.” Next question, is Tesla providing the battery packs for the MINI E? Any camera wielding readers who happen to be in the in the San Carlos, CA area might want to cruise past Tesla’s office and see if they can snap a picture of any cars plugged in outside the front door.

So far, the Force India team has had a consistent season in Formula One. Unfortunately, that means consistently running at the back. But Indian business mogul Vijay Mallya is committed to making a go of it, and the latest deal in the works could give his team the machinery they need to start moving up the field.

The deal is reportedly all but complete between perennial back-marker Force India and front-runners McLaren for the former to buy their cars – lock, stock and barrel – from the latter. It’s a highly tentative deal, however, as Formula One rules are due to be enacted that would ban customer cars. F1 teams are supposed to act as their own constructors, however other teams – such as Red Bull and Toro Rosso, Honda and the defunct Super Aguri – have been using common designs. David Richards’ Prodrive outfit was slated to re-enter the series with customer cars from McLaren, but withdrew their tender at the last minute due to the anticipated ban on customer cars. Force India, which currently builds its own chassis and buys engines from Ferrari, evidently thinks the rules won’t be enforced. If it is allowed to proceed, the Force India team would turn into an effective B-squad for McLaren.

GM and Chrysler spent a combined $4.75 billion on marketing last year which funded thousands of jobs, from the CEOs of ad agencies to the guys pasting up billboards on the Interstate. So how would a merger of the two companies affect the advertising industry?

Advertising Age asked several players in the biz what they thought of the idea of Chrysler and GM hooking up and most few positive things to say. The consensus was that GM already has too many brands to promote, adding three more wouldn’t benefit anyone. The execs said they would expect GM to at least sell off Chrysler, if not Dodge, too, which would trim GM’s ad budget, but also cut the number of marketing firms needed.

At first it would seem Chrysler’s agency, Omnicom Group’s BBDO, would be an instant loser. But auto consultant Gordon Wangers gives the firm some chance of being kept on. Wangers said GM might just see potential in BBDO’s experience and creativity, and throw even more business its way.

The magazine also speculates that GM’s veteran VP of sales, Mark LaNeve, would have a better chance of keeping his job in a merger instead of Chrysler’s VP-chief Marketing Officer Deborah Wahl Meyer.

Don’t think this concerns you? Think again. Consider where your local newspaper or favorite magazine gets most of its funding. Still not concerned? TV shows, televised sporting events, motorsports, and, uh, blogs, are all ad based, with automotive ads being a big source of income. Fewer brands means fewer ads.

Despite numerous positive crash test results and assurances from both manufacturers and safety organizations, we still hear people say they’ll never trade their bank-safe SUV for one of those little tin cans on wheels. This makes some people wonder what it would take to change folks’ minds about automotive safety.

A first-hand account from Nick Chambers, an admitted greenie who blogs for gas2.0.org, slammed his Yaris into a dirt embankment then rolled it three times. He not only lived, but walked away from his crumpled Toyota with little more than a bump and a really sore neck. He also admits that before his little off-road excursion in the Yaris, he wasn’t completely sold on small car safety. But now he says, “Yes. Yes I would trust my family to a small fuel-efficient car, and I’m miraculously alive and mostly uninjured… so no, it’s not a death trap.”