Warm Leatherette

Everything in the song is in reference to JG Ballard's novel Crash - about a cult of people who share a sexual fetish for automobile accidents.

Basically it's a description of two people making love as they burn to death in a crashed car.

I'd assume the "car crash set" refers to the cult... or to a movie set (several of the characters are involved in the film industry, they get off on watching films of car crashes, and the plot focuses around orchestrating an elaborate car crash with the film star Elizabeth Taylor).

The title/chorus, "warm leatherette" is in reference to a faux-leather material often used on car seats

From the wikipedia entry on leatherette: "A disadvantage of plastic leatherette is that it is not porous and does not allow air to pass through it, thus sweat can accumulate if it is used for clothing, car seat coverings etc. It is also known that people exposed to extreme heat (eg: fire burn victims) may suffer additional serious skin damage by contact with burning or melting leatherette." By conveying images of sweat as well as of burning flesh, the title/chorus evokes both sexuality and death.

The repetitive, mechanical nature of the music, and the singer's deadpan vocals also do a good job of mimicking Ballards cold, detatched style of prose.

Actually that just about covers it then. I did think of Ballard as soon as I read the lyrics.