Originally Posted by fuerein
I heard this a while back and may not remember it quite right but... Supposedly if your car is hit by lightning the rubber tires will help prevent you from being injured, but you must also avoid moving, the car acts a capacitor, storing charge for a while, and if you move wrong (especially if you touch something connected to ground), the charge stored on the car will travel through you. Okay, I'm not a lightning expect and I heard that several years ago, so make of that what you will.
The action of a car being hit by lighning is called a Faraday cage... and it is not so much the rubber tires as it is the mostly solid metal "cage" surrounding you coupled with the high frequency effects of lightning and the low resistance of the metal cage around you.
See this link:
http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_...le_strike.html