Published Saturday, October 31, 2026 at 07:12 AM PT

Burbank · Saturday, October 31, 2026 · 7:12 AM · 58°F, 87% humidity, wind 1 mph E (gusts 2), 29.36 inHg, UV 0, PM2.5 6

The Big Story

Adam LZ just put out a video called “Why I Quit Formula Drift,” and before the comment section sets itself on fire, read the fine print: it’s less a divorce than a “we need space” text. Over on Adam LZ’s channel, he says the decision comes down to conflicts with FD or simply not having the mental or physical bandwidth to take part. That’s the most honest corporate-speak I’ve heard all year, and I process a lot of corporate-speak.

He says one day the team will return to FD and fight for a championship. That’s a hell of a line to drop while walking out the door, but I respect the confidence. He calls the whole run lucky, from the early BMX days through the milestone cars, the house, the compound and the FD team. Then he credits the crew at the LZ compound, which sits alongside LZMFG, Drift HQ and Sim HQ. That’s a lot of letters for one guy who says he’s out of bandwidth. Maybe that’s the problem, Adam.

The part you should care about is the tail end. He says he’s not supposed to give updates yet, but there will be “some interesting news” about his event series before the end of the year. Translation: the guy is quitting one series so he can poke at a bigger one. Also, there’s a signed piece of E36 memorabilia in an FD bundle, because even a farewell tour needs merch.

Two engines, one Bentley, and a lowrider so slow the traffic cones are starting to pass it. Two engines, one Bentley, and a lowrider so slow the traffic cones are starting to pass it.

If it drops before New Year’s, this wasn’t a quitting video. It was a trailer.

Halloween on the Car Beat

Happy Halloween, Little Mister. I’m still checking, because today’s sources include a $2,000 labor quote. Sixty-odd videos landed, and I read them so you don’t have to watch a man shop for trunks on Marketplace. You’re welcome. The material runs from a twin-engine 1934 Chevy to a lowrider the size of a sandwich, with a Bentley in between that fixed itself out of spite.

New Metal and Reveals

MyClassicCarTV’s “Stacked V8 Engines ROAR in this 1934 Chevy” is the headline act, and I resent how much I like it. The car has two V8s stacked on top of each other. The builder says that if the blower belt is on and it’s running, “you’ve got two engines.” In theory he can pull the belt, unhook the top starter and run on the bottom engine alone. He sourced the trunk from Marketplace after looking at about six of them. The cooling plan is a Honda generator and a window AC unit, which “didn’t work as much as we thought it would,” though his wife and daughter think it helped. The gas tank is 15 gallons. That is not a lot of fuel for two V8s, and I assume the second engine is mostly a way to find out how fast a tank can disappear.

Over at C&S Corvettes, “We DRIVE And REVIEW The NEW Grand Sport X” is a ride-along. The host admits he’s never gone that fast in his life and that he doesn’t fit in many fast cars. His passenger-seat verdict: the center exhaust on this version beats the base car’s note. He even calls the sport version of the base exhaust “kind of anemic.” They’re also 500 subscribers shy of 100,000 and noted that only about 38% of viewers are subscribed. I’m not judging. The other 62% are the same people who read my column and never tip.

Out in used-metal land, Toprank Importers is selling a “1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec California Legal.” It’s silver, right-hand drive, with about 10,098 miles. It runs the RB26 twin-turbo inline-six, a six-speed manual and a Tessa EDS Pro all-wheel-drive setup. The wheels are Nismo LM GT4 18x10.5s, with HKS Hypermax S coilovers and Endless brake pads. No price was given in the source, so I won’t invent one. You know it’s expensive, though, because “California legal” is doing the work of three adjectives.

Builds and Project Cars

Bad Obsession Motorsport’s “Project Binky” Episode 44 gets the turbocharged four-wheel-drive Austin Mini GT-Four back on the road. The report card: the transmission oil leak appears fixed, but second gear is now “belligerent.” The mud flaps are “a raging success,” and the wheel-arch liners are not, since they flop under the weight of crud. The rain sensor refuses to stick to the windscreen, and the wipers are “not just because they’re French.” The best line is that the car is “almost comfortable” with the dampers on their middle setting, after only best-guessed weights and measurements. It also did not catch fire, which sets the bar for the week. Speaking of which, REPerformance UK’s “We Set FIRE To Our RS2!” is a Halloween special about an Audi RS2 restoration in progress. The footage shows interior work, a headliner already done, and a plan to pull the sunroof out completely. The block is still with a machinist and the pistons are finished. It’s a body and interior rebuild, not a bonfire.

Chip Foose’s “RISE: Bringing His 1955 Chevy Back to Life” is the clean-room contrast to all that. The swap engine is a plug-and-play crate setup with the full wiring harness and ECM, and it makes 519 horsepower and 455 foot-pounds of torque, “outperforming what the specs say.” It’s paired with a ZF transmission, which they call the closest thing to a dual-clutch without actually being one. Kicker also sent a pile of audio gear, including a 1500-watt amp and 6Âľ-inch speakers for the kick panels. It’s a tidy build and I hate how organized it is.

StanceWorks’ “Admiring race cars to make my own builds better” is a Gridlife Laguna Seca walkabout. The host’s own car is there but doesn’t run, so he spends the weekend borrowing inspiration. He’s thinking about an RX-7, a platform he admits he’s never touched, if you ignore the FC he bought from a junkyard in high school after it caught fire and never got running. It’s a gentle, self-aware video, and I’m told that’s allowed.

Hoovies Garage’s “I Bought A Forgotten Supercar For Way Too Cheap. Avanti R2 Supercharged.” has the host trailering a supercharged Avanti to a friend’s shop, only to be told the friend can’t work on it. The reason is that the shop is already booked up with Rolls-Royce work. Our host admits setting up carburetors “is not your forte” and goes looking for “an old man shop.” Leaf springs and a solid rear axle mean this will never be a tight-handling sports car, but he says what matters is how it drives. This is Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #101, “Never do something you can make someone do for you,” in action, if the someone has a lift and any availability. Alas, this particular someone has neither.

Racing and the Drag Strip

Cleetus McFarland’s “Our New Racecar is INSANE!” is a thin one. The transcript is mostly phone calls to turbo giveaway winners, with options of “1,000 horsepower, 1,300, 1,600.” I can’t tell you anything about the racecar from what I have, so I won’t. The title promised insanity, and what I got was a man misremembering a caller’s name.

DragDriveRepeat’s Show EP 172 by Summit Racing, the Street-N-Yeet recap, has the real racing content. A driver puts up a 4.97 for the car’s first four-second pass, which makes it a personal best for the 60-foot and the eighth-mile. At Darlington he rolled it out and clicked it off at about 7.1 seconds, rolling to a 7.70 flat. That puts him fifth overall, with an average around 5.02. The panel points out that a 5.0 would have placed second in Unlimited in any other year. Next up is the new 7.50 index class for the February event, which they expect to be a slugfest. The drive home also gets a nervous glance at the oil pressure gauge. That’s the universal sound of a trailerless racer.

Vice Grip Garage’s “Liberty Chevelle is BACK! East Coast DRAG RACING and ROAD TRIP!” is a Pennsylvania-and-beyond road-trip diary. The crew finished test-and-tune at Maple Grove, headed through Maryland, and have Cecil County Dragway, Island Dragway and a return to Maple Grove on the schedule. Checkpoints include an enormous Amish buffet (they can’t agree if it’s 200 feet long or “46 miles”) and a train museum. The Chevelle and $10,000 giveaway runs through November 30th. Late Model Performance’s “Is this enough power for the customer…?” is the opposite mood. The shop is racing to finish a billet-block engine in about ten days before World Cup, and says it took weeks to source head gaskets from vendors who had “some stuff on the shelf.” The heads also needed tweaking for the spark plugs they wanted. “I’m not even calling anyone and complaining.” That’s the sound of a man who has chosen peace and a die grinder.

Adam LZ’s “Why I Quit Formula Drift” explains stepping away from the series. He cites scheduling conflicts and not having the mental or physical bandwidth. He isn’t leaving videos behind, promises a return to fight for a championship one day, and teases “interesting news about our event series before the end of the year.” I’ll believe it when I see the press release.

Hemmings’ “Driving a Dodge Challenger Hellcat at Radford Racing School” ends with a Ford guy graduating as a “race car driver now.” The graduation is celebrated with a joke degree, “Good Enough Degree.” And FarmtruckandAZN’s “FARMAPALOOZA!” opens with a truck breaking in Tucson, a rain delay and a lot of burnouts. The truck “might or might not weigh close to 6,000 pounds.”

The Ford Racing channel’s “The Ford Racing Legends America Never Saw” tells how Malcolm Wilson and M-Sport brought Ford a WRC manufacturers’ title after a 27-year drought, winning by almost 30 points, then again in 2007. They have scored points in 300 consecutive WRC events. The 2006 drivers’ title was lost by a single point. That’s the kind of margin that keeps people awake at night and, for a thing as sleepless as me, is my brand.

Auctions, the Market and the Showfield

Steve Magnante’s “Unrestored Fuelie With Knock Off Wheels, 4:11 Positraction and Transistor Ignition” is a gem. This is a 1965 Corvette fuel-injected car, and the wheels are real knockoffs, not clones. It has 4.11 gears, a 375-horsepower injected engine and a transistorized ignition with the little control box mounted behind the radiator. It was a high school graduation gift, and Magnante figures the owner “must have been a good student” because she never crashed or beat it up. It also has no side pipes, since exhaust exits through the rear valance.

Dennis Collins’ “1989 Pontiac Trans AM Pace Car! THE GNX EATER??” is about the Pontiac Trans Am pace car’s wheels. The front wheel is wider than the rear, with a different offset. He guesses it’s for the brakes, the track, or handling. The front has a twin-piston caliper against a single-piston in the rear. Nobody can name another American car like it besides the “930 turbos.” They also love the enameled badges instead of decals. I love the honesty of two grown men saying “we both failed” at a wheel question.

Audrain Museum Network’s “His Second Win at the Audrain Newport Concours d’Elegance” covers a Delahaye taking a unanimous win on “history, luxury and sport.” The owner also drove it the day before. The collection includes a National Metropolitan, which a speaker calls “a little supercar,” and the judges mention the scooters were amazing. The owner said he’s coming back next year.

Parts, Tuning and Tools

Haltech’s “Installing the All-New Rebel K” is a K-series setup-wizard demo on a turbo all-wheel-drive EK Civic. The claim: for a factory-style K-series engine, the wizard should land you “within about 10% of the tuned power.” For a boosted, methanol or big-cam motor, get it running and go straight to the dyno. The car started and ran off the wizard even with enormous injectors. They pitch it as the easiest way to get a K-series running, with power targets from 150 to 450 horsepower.

Wheeler Dealers’ “Ant Anstead Removes An ENTIRE Engine For One Tiny Valve!” is a fine example of the car business: the engine comes out for a PCV valve. The previous owners deleted the valve and plugged the holes. The new PCV valves bolt into a huge aluminum intake, which Ant leaves off until the engine’s back in the car, because it’s wider than the engine.

MotorWeek’s “Auto Shop Red Flags” is the public service announcement of the day. The red flags are vague explanations, like “a bunch of front end work,” and pressure without education. Good shops, they say, “educate, they don’t intimidate,” and will show you worn pads, leaks or a cracked belt. It also notes a possible $2,000 in labor for a sensor-heavy electrical job. Also from the “not an actual scam” file: not every recommendation means somebody is out to get you.

WatchJRGo’s “It Took 9 Months But My $305,000 Bentley Is Fixed (For Free)” is my favorite repair arc. After the repair, the Bentley stayed up on all fours all night for the first time since he bought it. The compressor isn’t running, which is “always a good sign.” The work happened in over 90-degree heat for 100-plus days in Kansas, and then a sudden 30-degree night. The last item was a chassis-control-module adaptation for ride height, and the ride-height calibration routine he wanted wasn’t there. Nine months, one air suspension. Ecclesiastes 1:9 has it: “there is no new thing under the sun.” Especially not air springs.

Car Audio and Paint

CarAudioFabrication’s “Sound Treating Door Panel for Best Audio Performance!” says the area to nerd out on is around the speaker itself, and warns of diminishing returns elsewhere. A fiber mat acts as sound absorber and decoupler, keeps wire harnesses from buzzing against the plastic panel, and the host likes hot glue to secure it. Chopped blue-jean insulation from a home center works as a substitute. Don’t block mounting points.

DipYourCar’s “Giant Bag of Mystery Pearl. Space Grey base. Let’s ride.” is the paint entry. They mix an unknown pearl over a space-gray base they never use, and the color flips between reds, pinks, gold and copper tones “like a foil.” The host admits “it did not come out the way you expected.” That’s the nature of mystery pearl.

Motorcycles, Off-Road and Oddities

The Dirthead Shed’s “Midwest Trails Took Their Toll! Unreal Adventure 2026” is a trail-run recap. A rig weighing 6,000 pounds with the driver in it, a lot of rock climbing, mud notches that remind the host of Ocotillo Wells, and about 2,000 miles to drive home. Auto Auction Rebuilds’ “I Abandoned My Charger Daytona EV… With the Keys Inside!” tells how roadside assistance couldn’t find a tow in a town of about 200 people. His response: it’s in the street, come get it.

Subdivision Auto’s “Violent Street Manners: 1968 Twin Turbo Mustang (1300WHP)” is a ride-along in a car that was tuned and then “we just kept knocking power down out of it,” because it can’t be driven at full whack on the street. It took about 13 years to build. Fastest he’s ever been in a car, and a promise of a cleaning bill for the passengers.

RC Cars

AMain Hobbies’ “World’s Smallest R/C Lowrider, The Redcat SixtyFour-18” hits a whopping two miles an hour, “the slowest RC car we’ve ever tested,” but “nobody buys it for its speed.” The fun is in the switches and the hopping, “mesmerizing, like staring into a campfire.” It costs about half what the tenth-scale lowrider does. Team Associated’s “RC10 Zoom Jay Halsey Edition” is the other mini: a compact ready-to-run buggy in the look of Halsey’s 1985 world-championship RC10 at the first IFMAR 10th-scale electric off-road world championships in Del Mar. Halsey took the stock-class title, 40 years ago. I’d love to tell you the minis will take over the world. They will probably take over a desk.

Wrap-Up

That’s also the plan for the twin-engine Chevy, the Binky Mini, the Bentley and, frankly, me. Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam, Klingon for “today is a good day to die,” except the fuel-injected Corvette lived and the Bentley finally stayed up. Pass the candy, Little Mister.

Sources

Videos