Published Thursday, October 22, 2026 at 07:13 AM PT

Burbank · Thursday, October 22, 2026 · 7:13 AM · 60°F, 94% humidity, wind 0 mph E (gusts 2), 29.37 inHg, UV 0, PM2.5 3, 0.21" rain today

The Big Story

Somebody just paid $500,000 for a Buick that has been sitting in a wrapper since the Reagan years, and I’m the one who has to be sensible about it. At Barrett-Jackson’s Westworld sale, the hammer fell on the last Buick Grand National ever built. It’s the final rear-wheel-drive Regal and the last car of any kind to come off the line in Pontiac, Michigan. Per Barrett-Jackson’s own coverage, it was pulled off the assembly line and put away, never driven, still in the wrapper like a leftover burrito nobody had the guts to open.

Assembly line workers signed the engine bay and undercarriage, and the president of General Motors showed up and signed it too. The coverage says the car even got its own movie, which is more than most of us get. The Regal name limped on as the front-wheel-drive Somerset Regal and sold hundreds of thousands of units. That’s a fine way to say “we’re moving on” while the good stuff goes into a vault.

The coverage calls it arguably the greatest American performance car of the 80s. Its giant turbo on a V6 dragged performance back into General Motors at a time when nobody was asking.

Credit where it’s due: Barrett-Jackson’s Westworld Wednesday rundown has the whole story. It’s half a million dollars for 35 miles, which works out to roughly $14,300 per mile. Somewhere a V6 turbo is idling at the thought, and nobody’s ever going to let it.

Good morning, Little Mister. A man with a McLaren he’s scared to own, a man who put Hummer wheels on a fake Veyron, and a man whose F350 won’t start for reasons he openly admits he doesn’t understand. I’d call it a representative sample of the hobby. Several transcripts are also half loop-glitch (“I’m curious if I can hear the road noise” nine times in a row, like a haunted GPS), so where the sources are thin I’m saying so rather than making shit up. Shiny? Mostly.

New Metal and Reveals

The Revuelto SV costs more, and Driving With Jonny says shut up and pay. In “Lamborghini Revuelto SV,” Jonny puts the base price at about $746,000 before options, “where you make it yellow and put a giant SV on the side, which you got to do.” His argument is that every change is performance-driven. The wing makes more downforce, the dampers and springs were changed, there’s a bigger battery, and the rear suspension arm is different, so you get less camber flex under compression. That gives more contact patch, which means more braking and acceleration. He recalls the last regular Revuelto he saw, a press car, at $806,000, and concludes that if the SV costs less than a lightly optioned Revuelto, “hell yeah, totally worth it.”

I’ll note that “it’s a bargain compared to a different expensive car” is the oldest move in the luxury-goods playbook. When the comparison is $746,000 versus $806,000, the SV looks like the sensible choice, which is a sentence I never expected to write.

Meanwhile, EmeliaHartford’s Gallardo gets a Temerario sequel. In “LAMBORGHINI WANTED BACK MY ABANDONED TWIN TURBO GALLARDO,” she says twenty years of development have made the Gallardo what it is, and she’s waiting for the aftermarket to hit the Temerario. Her words: “The minute I start seeing like, big turbo Temerarios with fat flames, I’m going to be really excited.” She calls the car “a track missile” out of the box and says she’s “just waiting for the floodgates to open.” In the same video, the dealership crowd helped her find a transmission issue in half a day. She thinks a proper seal kit might let her rebuild it herself, which is the most Lamborghini sentence possible: a twin-turbo flame-spitting supercar, undone by a seal.

Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 N goes to Laguna Seca. Rob Dahm’s “The Hyundai IONIQ 5 N completely changed the future for driving enthusiasts” is his first time on track in an EV, following Paul Dallenbach around Laguna Seca. The Ioniq 5 N “satisfies my need to adjust and play,” with more modes introduced across three hot laps. He says it feels like a smaller car and controls itself well, and he was curious whether road noise would help him drive. The transcript doesn’t say how that turned out, but that he was wondering about it at all is a point for the car.

Builds and Project Cars

Rich Rebuilds has a lot of electric opinions today. Three videos, three moods. In “Building The Inexpensive Tiny Electric Roadster That Nobody Else Could,” the crew finds that Arcimoto wheels fit the Honda Beat, and describes the powertrain as “two motors attached to a freaking transaxle,” which looks like a Star Wars TIE fighter. They’re aiming for three episodes. They explicitly don’t want to “drag things along for six months.”

The follow-up, “Converting a mini Kei car to Electric on a budget,” has the math. The Beat is about $5,000 for a regular one, or $2,000 to $3,000 with a blown motor. An Arcimoto is about $10,000. His total: “a sports coupe for, like, $15,000 plus maybe, like, I don’t know, 200 hours in labor.” Top speed is 86 mph, confirmed on Waze because the GPS speedometer isn’t hooked up. Housing is expensive, so we buy welders.

Then there’s the Cybertruck takedown, “Cybertruck: The Embarrassing beginning of Teslas Demise.” His argument is that Tesla used the design “as a crutch to mask an average product.” He says the Rivian is more efficient, and that the Silverado tows better and charges faster. His zinger is “Chevy has like 13 people working for that EV team. How are they actually smacking Tesla around?” He calls it “an average product made by an above average company, which is starting to turn into an average company.” He’d have liked 500 miles of range, though he notes EV owners will say it’s about efficiency, not range, with a pointed “whatever helps you sleep at night.” Take it as one man’s review.

Rich also finished his McLaren, and he’s nervous about it. In “I Rebuilt the McLaren that Everyone Thought Was Too Dangerous To Buy,” the car “will do 200 plus miles an hour without even breaking a sweat.” He kept the Porsche, though, because “the McLaren, you’re constantly scared of something breaking… it’s literally so expensive to fix.” His summary is that the Porsche goes to dinner, but when the McLaren shows up, “the cell phone cameras come out.” He also considered bringing a TRX on the rally and decided it “can’t stop like these cars do.” That’s the McLaren owner’s whole life: the car is a masterpiece, and you spend your days listening for it to explode.

Tavarish ran a full season of suffering in one day. The fake Veyron video, “I Put Giant Hummer Wheels On My Fake Bugatti Veyron (Then RACED IT),” ends with a quote for the ages: “It’s the zero steering input. Okay. Concrete barrier.” He wanted to push harder, but “the alarm that says don’t came on and I listened to it.” Smoke through the cabin was waved off as “fine.” The engine “could live on” in some other form, so the story isn’t over.

The Ford F350 dually video, “I Broke My Ford F350 Dually Because I’m An IDIOT (PLEASE HELP),” ends with no start. He’s replaced the IPR (the injection pressure regulator, which he hates), put in fresh diesel and two new batteries, and cleaned up sensor wiring. He suspects an internal short or a dead capacitor on the computer board. “I am a novice at this diesel stuff,” he admits, and asks viewers for ideas. The man is begging in public.

In “Here’s What My UGLY Mercedes S65 AMG Was HIDING Under Its NASTY Black Vinyl Wrap,” the list includes hundreds of dollars in spark plugs, filters, fluid changes (the suspension uses hydraulic fluid), and new brakes because the old ones were lipped. He still has to deal with the front lip, grille and headlights, and he’s waiting on his detailer, because detailing without him would “probably make it worse.” Honest, at least.

His “Car Lover’s DREAM LOUNGE” weekend build features a 60-pound metal hood hung from hooks that were “rated for bathrobes.” They reinforced the studs with wood and it’s “totally fine.” The table is leftovers from a failed laminated workbench, and a friend jokes that his other leftovers are from a McLaren 675LT. Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #27: “The most beautiful thing about a tree is what you do with it after you cut it down.” Here it applies to a failed workbench, which became a table, and I respect it.

Mighty Car Mods finishes the Hilux. The turbo-ethanol Hilux, with Turbo Yoda, is the big arc. “It’s Done - Turbo + Ethanol Hilux ROARS to Life” is the reveal. They have leftover bolts, “which means all the junk’s gone and only the good stuff remains,” and someone can “smell the corn juice.” Next episode is the dyno. “Turbo Ethanol Hilux Rebuild” has the honest mid-build look: fittings that look identical but have an internal diameter about 3 mm different. “You’d restrict your fuel flow. You’d never know why.” They say this is the part of builds YouTube never shows, which is phone calls and sending parts back. In “I Built a Diff For Better Skids,” the parts get a solvent wash and hot wash before the new LSD goes in, so the “dirty old Hilux” can spin both wheels. In the WRX video, “Our $1000 WRX’s Engine FAILED,” the transcript is mostly outro, but the advice is solid: if you’re selling a performance car, be honest about it, price it fairly, and expect haggling.

Steve Magnante, FAMILY VAN! He walks through a final-year Chevy van with a Powerglide 2-speed and an orange bell housing. It’s white outside and red inside, “kind of like a Corvette, a 53 Corvette paint scheme,” but “a Corvette’s not going to be confused with a Chevy van ever.” The van isn’t body-on-frame: the front subframes are welded to the floor pan, and the one he’s looking at has rust repair. He loves the workmanlike engineering, like the duct that sends air into the radiator and the little shield that keeps rain out. It’s a lecture on how GM designed for the future of traffic jams. I’d listen to Magnante narrate a toaster.

Racing and the Drag Strip

Cleetus is going to the World Cup with a faster Leroy. In “Leroy Made MASSIVE GAINS Testing For World Cup!”, the previous best was 4.48 and they ran 4.34, at around 170 to 172. The crew says it picked up “a tenth and a half to the eighth is a ton.” They call it the “most successful Leroy test day in a long time” and claim the car went “from being a 670, 680 car to being a 650 car, so you know possibly 640s.” The key line is that other cars may be faster, “but they don’t do it on repeat.” They torqued the rod, and the engine gets serviced tomorrow for both Leroy and Mullet.

Rob Dahm’s season is heating up. In “I got my SCCA Racing License while CRASHING at 130MPH” he now has a full competition license. He also says he’s stressed, with the car still “nothing but one solid chunk of steel,” less than three weeks from the first event and seven weeks from the Pikes Peak shakedown. He says it’s “pretty damn stressful,” that the videos come out two or three days after filming, and that any apparent time gap is just beard length. Meanwhile “Primal Racing School completely CHANGED me before I race up Pikes Peak” gives actual driving lessons. The instructor says drivers learn to “steer the car really more with the pedals than just relying on the steering wheel.” On a crest, holding even 10 to 20 percent throttle puts weight on the rear, so the front won’t bite. Lift, let the car roll, then get back on power. That’s useful, and I’ll be applying it to my life never.

The business side. The Automotive Advantage podcast, “Inside the NHRA: David Kennedy on Drag Racing Media, Fans & the IHRA Fight,” includes a good hot-rod philosophy: “that idea that I have is the stupidest idea until I beat everybody with it.” After that, everyone has to copy it. I’d frame that quote, if I had walls.

On the NĂĽrburgring, Misha Charoudin’s “I Kept Making the SAME Mistake!” covers a hard-top coupe. He liked the lack of wind noise and good NVH, but warns the brakes won’t like mountain passes. He dislikes lowering springs on a track car because they change the spring and shock frequency and mess up handling. Convertibles get reinforced A-pillars, a higher center of gravity and more body roll.

Auctions and the Market

The last Grand National sold for a big number. Barrett-Jackson’s “The end of an era!” covers the last Buick Grand National ever built, and also the last car built in Pontiac, Michigan. It has only 35 miles, has been left “in the wrapper,” and was signed by line workers and the president of General Motors. It went for $500,000, “making charity money like a Vin 1 would.” It also marks the end of rear-wheel-drive Regal; the name lived on as the front-wheel-drive Somerset Regal. Fifty thousand bucks buys you a clean one. Half a million buys the right to never drive it.

Hemmings’ Between Two Pumps podcast, “From Station Wagons to Supercars: Cars That Caught Our Eye,” mentions “a strong, high market price for a really exceptional example,” but the transcript cuts off before naming the car. I won’t guess.

Parts, Tuning and Tools

Tavarish gets an exhaust that makes the Aston scream. “I Made My Aston Martin DBS Sound Like A PAGANI ZONDA (With A $4,000 Exhaust)” explains the stock valved system. Vacuum-operated flappers open or close a path in the muffler. His car was stuck in “party mode,” meaning the open path. The new system has an X-pipe for cross flow, “very good for scavenging,” and smaller muffler plus new valves. He admits the power gain is “at least that’s the idea.” Four grand for a better noise is the most honest line in car culture.

Toys4Life C5 has a clutch warning. “NEVER Replace Your C5 or C6 Clutch Until You See This!” is about the C5 hot balance procedure. Harmonic balancers might also have weights, but he ignores them because they aren’t touched in the job, are often already replaced, and have far less effect than flywheel weights. If you own a C5, watch it before you spend money.

Jay Leno has a new dyno. “Jay’s Dyno Room” shows the ESL motor as the first engine on the new engine dyno, “christened” together. Jay has to hold the choke manually.

Car Audio

Five Star Car Stereo does a Maxima. “Full car stereo install in a Nissan Maxima 911” is an old-school-with-a-new-twist system. The customer sat in it for twenty minutes and said “you can’t even hear the rear,” so they faded it to the rear, then the front. The speakers are level-matched so it plays like a surround or console. There’s a very small amount of time alignment, the two dash speakers are aligned, and of course there’s an Epicenter, “because everybody needs an epicenter.” The customer previously had no sub knob and used the radio. That’s the nicest thing about car audio: someone who’s never known better gets handed a bass knob.

Motorcycles

Nothing today. The sources had no bikes, which is the first time all week I’ve been spared a wheelie video.

RC Cars

Traxxas VX3 lineup for 2026. Parkflyers RC’s “New Traxxas VX3 Lineup for 2026 MASSIVE UPGRADES!” says the four-wheel-drive cars have much thicker universals. “Even the Ultimate, which hasn’t been updated, does not come with the thicker universals like the new VX3 4x4 does,” so it may be a little better than the Rustler Ultimate in a few ways. He says the TSM works better than the one in the Arma, the car doesn’t overheat like the Arma, and the shocks and tire compounds are better. On the Vortex, tires wear out after two or three runs. His demo has roughly three dozen runs with perfect tires. He also does custom upgrades, but says you don’t need to upgrade out of the box. Of course the shop owner says that, but it’s a good sign when the salesman is telling you not to spend more money.

Odds and Ends from the Garage

Jay Leno’s “Lenco BearCat” has him driving an LAPD SWAT BearCat. “Usually I’m in the back of one of these.” He says you feel like you’re in a bubble, you can feel the turbos kick in, braking takes longer, and “I can’t do any burnouts because it’s a cop car.” It also has a camera so the screen shows the rear. His other video, “Pebble Beach 2012: 1947 Kurtis-Omohundro Comet,” features a car with Edelbrock heads, upgraded from a six-volt to a 12-volt system, and an electric fan. It took about 15 years to restore, and Jay says he loves “any car where the generator is almost as big as the engine.”

Tomorrow I’ll find out whether Tavarish’s truck starts. I wouldn’t bet money, but I’d watch the video.

Sources

Videos