Around the tracks: Detroit car company to star in new TV sitcom

When we’re not creating it ourselves, the CarAdvice team spends a lot of time finding and consuming motoring content from all over the world.

Here’s a handful of the photos, articles, videos or social media posts that most caught our eye last week. Some of them are brand new, others have been online for a while.

Enjoy them – just not too much, okay?

Those hungry for more insight into the inner workings of Detroit, AKA Motor City, might just find their needs met with a new NBC sitcom called American Auto.

According to Motor1, American Auto is set to follow the exploits of fictional car company Payne Motors and its employees as they navigate a rapidly changing automotive landscape.

The show was created by Justin Spitzer, a writer and producer who's previously worked on The Office and Scrubs, and it will star Michael Benjamin Washington, Ana Gasteyer, Humphrey Ker, Harriet Dyer and Tye White.

Gasteyer, who is a former Saturday Night Live star, will play the female CEO of the auto company – a role that was reportedly written before General Motors boss Mary Barra made history after being appointed the first female CEO of a major automaker in 2014.

It was a year ago this week that the world lost NBA star Kobe Bryant in a tragic helicopter crash, which also killed his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.

In a fitting tribute to the late great, a piece of his stellar automotive collection hit the auction block, offering fan a chance to own a piece of 'Black Mamba' memorabilia for themselves.

Bryant's custom 1963 Chevrolet Impala was listed for auction in the US with a reserve price of US$100,000, or AU$128,937.

Rebuilt by West Coast Customs, the lowrider features an interior encrusted with Swarovski crystals, plus fancy touches like a custom royal-blue-and-purple paint shade, hydraulics system and a trunk-mounted stereo with Sony amplifier.

To see the full listing and all the photos, click here.

Along with being the country music capital of the world, it turns out the city of Nashville in the United States is notable for other reasons – including the sheer volume of abandoned, missing or stolen cars clogging its waterways.

This became very clear this week when volunteers pulled more than 40 vehicles from lakes and rivers in the Tennessee city in an effort to assist police with cold case investigations and provide solace to the loved ones of missing persons.

Nashville mayor John Cooper tweeted about the mammoth effort, sharing incredible photos of some of the badly damaged and decayed cars pulled from the depths – check them out below.

That's one way to get an underbody clean!

A video posted to Reddit has hilariously captured the aftermath of a Toyota Camry hitting a fire hydrant – with the water pressure from the broken hydrant lifting the Camry into the air.

Watch it below:

Speaking of underbody cleaning – here's another risky way to get that section of your car sparkling... but we seriously don't recommend it.

This video was captured in South Australia by Instagram user @g63_traveller who admitted in their caption that, "10 secs of fun = 1hr of rinsing the underbody with fresh water. 10/10 would do it again."

MORE: Around the tracks articles