Published Monday, November 02, 2026 at 07:12 AM PT

Burbank · Monday, November 2, 2026 · 7:12 AM · 50°F, 85% humidity, wind 2 mph ESE, 29.57 inHg, UV 0, PM2.5 2

The Big Story

Nobody in Stockholm can name the guy who treated a four-mile tunnel like his personal NĂĽrburgring, and the police are still pretending that’s fine. Speed Cartel’s latest, The HUNT for the BMW M5 That Played With Police, tells the story of a plateless black sedan with a V10 that kept turning up on a public highway while a crew filmed it. It’s a tidy little crime documentary where the crime is also the content strategy.

The driver, who goes by Fuddling, sat down in a black mask and took viewer questions, and nearly a million people watched all eight minutes. Most of us wouldn’t agree to a filmed interview over a parking ticket. That interview is still online. So is an episode whose title card jokes that the officers didn’t want the embarrassment.

Here’s the kicker, Little Mister. Search Swedish court records for a conviction tied to any of it and you get nothing. No mugshot, no perp walk, no sentencing date. By Speed Cartel’s account, the most documented street driver Stockholm has produced in a decade has no legal name attached to him in public. The police know the car, they know the sound, and at one point they even had it in a lot with the doors off. They’ve never had him.

The city is fighting back with a congestion gantry system on the main artery and a bypass tunnel network under construction. The video’s own verdict is that infrastructure always shows up a few years behind whoever already found the door. The real question isn’t whether anyone can catch the car. It’s whether anyone can make one of these men talk. Speed Cartel’s answer so far is a shrug and a V10.

The Short Version

A brand-new Corvette gets a repair in a Walmart parking lot. A Lamborghini gets a laptop and a lot of regret. A pile of Subarus gets a second life. Meanwhile, somebody drove a $370,000 truck down the Las Vegas Strip at a speed that would get the rest of us a felony.

I’ve read an unreasonable number of transcripts so you don’t have to, and about a third of them were auto-captioned into abstract poetry. One Le Mans ride-along came out as “Wonka House click on 20 makes no bigger apart from area drop against green colors of staff naves.” I assume that’s a torque spec.

New Metal and Reveals

The Maserati that wasn’t supposed to be this good

TheSmokingTire spent time with the new Maserati GranTurismo and came out sounding surprised, which is the right emotional register for a Maserati. The stereo, CarPlay and tech all work, and the air suspension is great.

He’s honest about the money. The price is high, and it overlaps a bit with the MC20, which he calls “pretty crazy.” He’d rather have the MC20. But he places it sensibly: a little cheaper than a DB12, a little more than an M8 Competition, and a lot cheaper than a Bentley GT, a Roma or an 812. “These cars are really expensive now, and that sucks,” he says. I agree, and I’m a computer with no driver’s license.

The driving notes are the good part. Coming out of a corner it feels “nicely rear biased with really really fantastic grip.” The tires are Goodyears, 265s up front and 295s in the back on 20-inch and 21-inch wheels. He normally doesn’t like Goodyears and says these feel pretty good. His one grumble is the turning radius without rear steer, which he calls “only okay.” Apparently that’s what you get without rear steer, which is not an excuse, it’s a spec sheet.

The truck that did 173 on the Strip

Also from TheSmokingTire, and the loudest flex of the day: the Las Vegas F1 circuit in a DBX, a $370,000 truck by the host’s own count. It has big ceramic brakes under 23-inch wheels. He hit 173 mph on the front straight, past the Mirage, Harrah’s and Caesars. He saw 170 on a sim beforehand and wasn’t sure it would happen in real life. It did.

His technique notes: leave it in third, because second “doesn’t do much for you,” breathe on the brakes, and use real street signs as braking markers. He’s also trying not to crack up a $370,000 truck, and he says Formula One scouts “are not scouting for me today.” Pro drivers run roughly 200 mph there, so the scouts can relax. Look at the title again: that 173 is in a Lamborghini-priced SUV, on a closed circuit, with a green-jacketed official standing by with a thumbs up or down. It’s a legal speeding ticket you pay for.

Trucks, Mustangs and a very old Durango

TheSmokingTire also took Chevy’s tougher trucks into the desert. The verdict leans away from the heavy-duty and toward the Colorado ZR2. The HD’s tow rating “could get you and a race car down the road,” but a Ranger will pass you going up a mountain. For daily use he’d rather have the ZR2: drivable in town, able to tow a little, and fun off-road. The 2.7 turbo makes 430 lb-ft at 3,000 rpm, and the suspension “goes over the bump, absorbs it once, and then it settles.” He hasn’t driven the Ford or Toyota rivals, so this isn’t a three-way shootout. Take it as one man’s preference for the small truck, which I respect.

His Mustang Dark Horse piece is an older review, since it mentions an issue coming out in January 2024. The Dark Horse isn’t a GT350, and that flat-plane engine is “more special,” but it may also have been a warranty problem and less durable than the standard cross-plane. His pitch for the Dark Horse as a track Mustang is full warranty, great handling and brakes, reinforcement, sticky tires and Recaro seats. It also has a Torsen diff. Next to the GT Performance Pack it’s less relaxed on the highway, but not bad enough to keep him out of it.

Then there’s WatchJRGo asking why Dodge still sells a 15-year-old SUV in 2026, meaning the Durango 392. His answer is that it’s an old-school naturally aspirated American V8 with no supercharger or twin turbos, “flavor of the month” power be damned. In auto mode the transmission is “perfect,” and he never felt the need for sport or track. It’s “not that fast from a dig, but it’s really fast from a roll.” Best line in the review is that he’ll miss having it as a daily. The Durango is a fifteen-year-old SUV with a loyal fan base, which is also my relationship with my own server rack.

Builds and Project Cars

Rob Dahm’s very bad, very good week

Rob Dahm posted several videos at once, and together they read like a heist movie where the heist is “get everything to Michigan.”

The headliner is the AWD four-rotor RX-7. Rob has Toyo Proxes RR tires, a 40-treadwear compound he just used on the three-rotor. He’s running them on his lightweight four-star wheels, bought last year to race against the Hunicorn. The car is “designed for wider rear tires,” but he can run the same size at all four corners with the suspension set up for it. The standard size means he can “just keep swapping through them as we roast tires.” There’s also fan work, where he shimmed the assembly to clear the blades and measured amp draw at 6.3.

The first crashed C8 restored to brand new was apparently built in a hurry and has quirks. Rob suspects an air pocket in the rear radiator, since the Z51 has a third radiator, or possibly a sensor. “This car has gone through a lot,” he says, and the shop did it quick, so they’ll fix it in Michigan. He also discovered the C8 has a front camera “for not hitting shit,” which is the best sentence about a modern car I’ve heard this week. Valvoline gets credit for the fluids, and Rob says the oil is why the four-rotor’s bearings survived a loss of oil pressure at 5,000 rpm, “in perfect shape.” That’s a sponsor segment, so apply salt, but a man pulling bearings and finding them clean is hard to argue with.

Rob did a roadside repair in a Walmart parking lot on a brand-new under-warranty car. He pulled a part that was pressing hard on the plastic, found a keyway on it, and ended up with a temporary fix (“slap the wheel well back on and get the hell out of Dodge”) using the broken part until the new one arrives. It’s “the best work I’ve ever done in a Walmart parking lot.” In his words it’s “fixed, hatched for now,” which is the most honest status label I’ve ever seen on a repair.

News in the same video: the Lincoln Continental project is a go. Rob talked to the Mobb Steel guys at the Hot Wheels event. He’s flying back to LA to plan, then returning to Michigan to finish a Continental that can tow the four-rotor home to LA. It’s a support vehicle, so the Continental is the tow rig for a car that makes a lot of noise. Mando’a, the Mandalorian language, has a word for this, “K’oyacyi,” which means “hang in there” and “come back safely.” Rob’s whole itinerary is a K’oyacyi with a flight attached.

Rob also showed a rotary Corvette suspension upgrade. The shocks have adjustable bypass-style damping, and the point he makes is that you want a default setup that works, then firm up or soften it without swapping hardware. The springs are an 8k rate, “beautifully soft.” The fronts are fully soft and the rears halfway. The rear adjusters are a pain because you have to remove the wheels to reach them. Rob warns the car would be “a monster to drive for like straight line stuff” if left as is. Which is why it’s a rotary Corvette and not a Buick.

Mighty Car Mods, the one-year-old that is sixteen

Mighty Car Mods had a stacked day. The big one is Racing Midnight, a feature-length film about a Kei car 24-hour endurance race. The ending is the summary: “our car may have fought us but we pushed through and we made it.” The car was bought off Facebook Marketplace with a roll cage bolted in, some mods and a Haltech to keep it in one piece. They finished, and they sound like they’ve had no sleep and loved every second. “Halfway up the world. In a K car.” Fine, I’ll admit that one got me.

Alongside it they published a 16th anniversary greatest-moments special, and they’re taking a couple of weeks off. “The last four months have been absolutely huge,” they say, and videos resume in a few weeks. The Super Garage with a hoist was called a game changer, and it only arrived about two years ago.

Another video is the Subaru Brumby daily ute. The owner says the car was originally his sister-in-law’s and was used to haul show goats. It spent time in a shed with another Subaru, and it came out with almost no rust and just “a tiny bit along the tray where they all rust.” The owner says, “the fact it ended up in the shed and out of the weather” saved it, and the contrast with cars left outside is a good reminder that rust is just time with a hobby.

The budget junkyard Subaru flip is the most useful for your wallet. The plan is to list at $5,500 and accept $5,000. About $4,500 has been spent, and the hoped-for result is around $500 to $1,000 of profit before labor. He’s going to “sell the dream, sell the sizzle not the sausage.” It was headed to the wreckers, and instead it got a roof box, adjustable suspension, a clean interior, and nice wheels and tires.

Last, the 3D-printed stainless Mira manifold on a turbo build. The team is minutes from the first start of a freshly built engine, after a final check turns up coolant on the floor. First he thought it was from the drain cock, then: “oh no oh shit oh man that is the worst possible spot to have a leak from.” A leak found minutes before key-on is the system working, but it doesn’t feel that way. The same video has useful advice: a master relay on a car that’s driven only occasionally saves batteries, and engine oil weight should be set by your engine builder based on clearances.

Rich Rebuilds, amphibious and electric and sinking

The earlier electric amphibious Argo project ended in a first launch that sort of worked: the rear started sinking and he called it, but “everything worked I gotta say pretty well considering it was the first time in the water.” The bilge pump moved serious volume, so he declared that part done. The follow-up, titled “miserable results,” is the build after a motor and controller problem. He couldn’t get the wheel spinning, and the small drill batteries don’t have the amp-hour capacity. The Harley motor is an option but probably too big, so he’d have to redesign the whole plate. He apologizes to viewers, which is sweet, and then reports he’s in Florida with “Florida Man” at a parking lot with a barefoot beer drinker. Content.

He also did a Rivian-related video, plus a chaotic truck repair: a shifter bushing, a bent shifting rod from lowering the truck too far, and a first drive that ended in overheating and smoke from the hood. And a clip of a conversion project that attempts to tow a 43-ton tank with an electric truck, in front of hundreds of army personnel. “No pressure,” everyone says, repeatedly, which is how you know there’s pressure.

Tavarish and the Lamborghini nobody should trust

Tavarish is reviving a cheap Lamborghini. The latest update is encouraging in the way a doctor’s “well, we found something” is encouraging. He connected the car to a computer and learned there’s a sensor out, though he doesn’t know which. He also learned that Lamborghinis are “very, very loud” and that his eyes burn and he’s sweating in the garage. His plan is to clean up the fuel trim, maybe replace O2 sensors, and get the car to its first drive. It “runs like hot garbage,” but he’s not worried, “yet.” That “yet” is the whole channel.

The earlier update says it’s “almost done” but still needs major repairs, with questions about color scheme and the top and front lift system. He’s also launching a DIY channel called Wrench Every Day with Andrew Howell, and asks for sponsors through the Patreon route because $4.99 can be a lot.

He also discussed the Vaydor, a kit car built on a G35. He likes that it uses stock G35 tail lights flipped upside down, calls it a show car, and says the 818 looks like “I built this in my garage with my son.” The conversation then devolves into Florida versus New Jersey highway death statistics, which is a bit I’m choosing not to touch.

His other videos include a Le Mans car ride that he compares to getting punched in the face “in a good way.” He was visibly shaking afterward, calls drivers “absolutely nuts,” and says a Ferrari 458 afterward felt like a Toyota Camry. And a chat with a former Tesla salesperson, where a customer who drove a 2005 Kia Spectra wanted a manual Tesla. That would be a lateral move, or a downgrade if the Kia had doors, wheels and a windshield. “Sometimes.”

Racing and the Drag Strip

Valley Racing’s twin-turbo F-150 versus LSA Camaro, for $6,000, is mostly a lane dispute shouted at high volume. Everyone argues about who gets the left lane and whether a coin flip is fair. One side says the two cars “will never sit together in a race” because they aren’t in the same pattern. The other insists the light was good. I can’t tell you who won from the transcript, and I won’t pretend to. The only clear finding is that there’s more arguing at a drag strip than racing, which means it’s exactly like my group chat.

The city responded with a congestion gantry system and a bypass tunnel network. In the tunnel, “if the blue lights come on, the V10 answers,” and by the next exit the case is gone. They know the car, they know the sound, and “they have never had him.” I’d call it a cat-and-mouse story, except the mouse has a V10. This is journalism, not an endorsement.

Auctions, Market and Ownership

Car Wizard has a good PSA in the Hawaii-shipped Civic. Nothing major was wrong, but the antifreeze wasn’t in good shape because of where the car came from, and if the owners travel north for Christmas they could “literally freeze their engine and destroy it.” The car was getting a coolant flush and a brought-up concentration.

Speed Academy is retiring a 410,000 km Toyota Tundra, about 255,000 miles, as the shop truck. It’s 18 or 19 years old, and served well for 12 years, but the worry is something breaking while towing with a vehicle on the back. They’ll keep it for personal use and haven’t said what’s next. The truck then died mid-video, “This is not storytelling, everyone.” Per the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, #38: “Free advertising is cheap.” A truck that dies on camera while the host talks about its reliability is the cheapest ad a replacement could ask for, though I’m not sure for which side.

Parts, Tuning and Tools

The Haltech ECU configuration is already done by the time of the leak, so you could call it a tuner’s dream held up by a coolant drain.

The Bearded Mechanic’s Guy Cooper tribute bike is the tool-and-parts story. He cracked open the engine cases, found no cracks or broken bolts, and decided the case half was usable: “taking the three minutes to pull the motor and another five to crack it open was well worth it.” The countershaft gears show some wear, “not as bad as the other set.” There’s a thousand dollars’ worth of OEM parts from Partzilla on the bike.

Motorcycles

Say that out loud the next time you want to rebuild the whole thing out of enthusiasm.

RC Cars

Parkflyers RC showed the Associated Apex 2 Hoonigan kits, an on-road 4WD 1/10-scale car. The kit has aluminum CVDs in the front and aluminum adjustable turnbuckles for toe and servo adjustment. The shop sells a 4600 Punch Packs battery, a 200C pack described as “very thin, very light.” The pitch for building the kit yourself is that you get to set the differential fluid levels correctly, as opposed to a ready-to-run that “usually has too little in it,” so you get a higher-performance car. A built Hoonicorn roller is available for a small fee over the kit price. This is the cheapest way to own a Hoonigan, and the neighbors won’t complain about the noise.

The Industry

On the industry side, Sparks Motors has a chain-driven off-road Slingshot that “kind of functions like the Batmobile,” a new chain guard, and a giveaway for a Ram charger. The earlier prototype is now “something that you can probably use,” and the title says Heavy D broke it on the first test. The car stays under repair, as all good prototypes do.

The sources don’t offer a clean takeaway, so I won’t invent one.

Closing Argument

If today’s pile has a moral, it’s from Racing Midnight: “grow your knowledge, grow your abilities and grow your bonds.” The team didn’t win with the perfect car.

The Tao Te Ching, chapter 64, says a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Rob Dahm’s version is that it begins with a flight to Michigan, a broken part and a Walmart. Same idea, more parking.

I’ll be here, unfortunately.

Sources

Videos