Published Tuesday, November 03, 2026 at 07:13 AM PT

Burbank · Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · 7:13 AM · 53°F, 88% humidity, wind 1 mph SE (gusts 2), 29.53 inHg, UV 0, PM2.5 4

The Big Story

Somebody paid a million dollars for a Dodge, and Barrett-Jackson’s Milemarker Monday episode is the one that caught it. The Barrett-Jackson coverage centers on the very last Dodge Demon, the one the broadcast calls the craziest, wildest American muscle car ever. Dodge built 3,300 of them. This is the final one, and it’s the only one painted Viper Red. The broadcast pegs it at 1,500 horsepower and a 0-60 time of about two seconds. Those are the hosts’ numbers, not mine, so take them up with the hosts.

The car came with an authentication kit: a letter of authenticity, build documentation and build sheet, and a custom iPad stuffed with photos and video. Nobody tells you that a million-dollar muscle car now ships with a tablet.

The auction was for the United Way, with 100% of the proceeds going to the charity, which Dodge and FCA have backed for more than 60 years. The 10% buyer’s fee went to the American Heart Association. Barrett-Jackson skipped a payday and gave the block away to charity, and the Demon got a send-off worthy of its last-of-3,300 status.

Good morning, Little Mister. There’s no motorcycle news worth the name today, and no RC cars at all, which I take personally.

New Metal and First Drives

MotorWeek put out a first drive of the 2027 Nissan Rogue Hybrid. The headline is up to 523 miles of range and EPA ratings of up to 38 mpg combined and 41 in the city. For all-wheel-drive hybrids, they say only the RAV4 beats those numbers. It comes in SV, SR, and Platinum, and the host was driving the middle SR. His verdict was that it’s comfortable on the highway, “just soft enough that it doesn’t feel floaty.”

The styling is “bolder than before, but stopped short of macho,” which is the most Nissan sentence ever put on television. The platform and dimensions carry over from the fourth-gen car. The cabin has soft-touch materials and “a distinct lack of piano black.” My heart grew two sizes. The dual-screen dash is balanced by physical climate controls, though they “felt a little like an afterthought.” Honestly, relatable.

Over at Driving With Jonny, the question was whether the Genesis G90 is “luxe enough to dance with the Germans.” The Mercedes S-Class and BMW 7 Series are the dance partners. His complaints are small ones: you’ll want a detailer on speed dial for the grille and for the shoe marks on the back of the front seat. He also says there’s no hot-rod version, like Mercedes has with its 429-horsepower six-cylinder, and above that a flat-plane-crank twin-turbo V8. He admits he’d need to drive that six-cylinder Merc before making a final call. Still, his answer to “would I have one?” was “I would definitely have this,” and the Genesis is “in the conversation.” Then he announced he was going to take a nap, which is the correct reaction to a limo that quiet. Paying someone to wipe shoe prints off your seat-back is the most luxury sentence of the day.

In “Is Lotus’ Four-Cylinder AUTO as Good as the Supercharged V6?” the Emira’s two-pedal 2.0-liter gets a respectable report card. It’s “fast, light, usable, and made well.” The gripe is the gearbox at the limit on track. The hosts say the car is “ready for second gear and I’m still going from fourth into second,” meaning the shifts can’t keep up with the brakes. They both prefer the V6, and they’re partial to the manual. But for paddle-and-turbo fans, they call the 2.0-liter “a compelling option.”

The other piece is “Slingshots Were TERRIBLE. Then…” Polaris asked the Smoking Tire crew to take another go after re-engineering the three-wheeler. The engineering is better and the guy “really did a great job.” Still, “I wouldn’t buy one,” though buyers will like the new one more than owners liked the old one. Rent one for a day, they say. I say that’s the most honest endorsement a vehicle with one back wheel has ever gotten. They also describe it as looking like “a Transformer that attached itself to a motorcycle,” which is the closest to motorcycle content we get today.

Builds and Project Cars

Let me start with Mister Zachary’s “CHOPsicle,” a 427-cubic-inch-swapped fourth-gen Camaro. The car is tuned, so he finally went for the long shakedown drive. The result: “This thing is on rails. I never would have expected an F-body can handle this good or feel this good in twisties.” He even says it’s more confidence-inspiring than his own bed-bound suspension project, which I assume is a car, but the transcript is murky. These cars make about 300 horsepower at the tire from the factory, so this one has “effectively doubled” that. He calls it “the perfect amount for these cars on the street,” with a big torque curve that’s easy in traffic. The one suggestion is to maybe run the suspension a little softer. “It’s amazing what a well-sorted, planned out build can do for you.” I’d call that groovy, the Ash Williams kind: a plan came together and nobody lost a hand.

Rob Dahm supplied three days of rotary chaos. In “We snap axles on low boost,” the car goes to its first real shakedown and it’s immediately violent. He’s on “no boost control whatsoever” and rear-wheel drive only. He says it breaks the rear tires loose easier than he expected, and the title tells you what happened to the axles. He calls it “an absolute animal.” Coolant held under 175 degrees and he’s “shaking right now,” which is the correct emotional register for a man who just snapped axles on low boost and called it joy.

In “Molding the Rear Fenders!” the RX-7 body “wasn’t remotely square to the suspension.” The shop finishes the rear fenders, molds them in, and lines up all the cars under their own power. He says it’s the first time anyone sees the four-rotor with the correct rear fenders on. The other chapter, “I never wanted something between me and the 4 Rotor but I love it!”, has the dash cut out, a new steering-column mount, and a weigh-in guessing contest over the removed OEM bits. It also contains a crude joke that I’ll keep to myself. Then there’s “Building a Semi PP 2 Rotor. Because we maxed out stock ports,” where the best moment is a compression test of 94, 90, and 85, with the crucial note that “one of those numbers is not 50.” The crew was one pinched part away from swearing off two-rotors forever. Their phrasing: “I think this was our two rotor’s last chance.” Finally, “I used to think this was my BEST wiring. Until I took WATER to my ECU” has a C5 Z06 setup, a leak that “transferred from the rear to the front,” and a brushless fan pulling 35 amps at full tilt.

Adam LZ has “Making 900HP Actually Usable in My R32 Skyline,” which is part skate-park vlog and part tidy-up. The take is that “it’s hard to keep improving cars that are already really good,” so he chases small improvements like making the engine bay match the rest of the car, plus the trunk. He also thanks viewers for the giveaway entries and notes that LZ store orders fund the compound. There’s a joke about a head gasket on the dash. Not a lot of power-usability detail in the excerpt, so I won’t invent any.

The Smoking Tire finished its C6 Corvette canyon carver. One caution: that video references a July 19, 2023 giveaway deadline, so it’s a repost or archive dig, not fresh news. The work is full fluids, filters, brakes, shocks, sway bars, tires, and wheels, with sponsors QA1, Helwig, Motul, Optima, and others listed. The shocks are three-way adjustable and, funnily, were set to full soft. Even that way, the car is “much more comfortable on the highway than it was before.” Lesson: shot shocks and tired brakes ruin a car faster than a lack of horsepower.

Tavarish was busy in four directions. He plastidipped his cheap S-Class “the RIGHT way” with kit supplier dipyourcar.com, and he plans to sell it soon. In “Taking Out My Cheap Lamborghini’s Engine Was WAY Easier Than I Thought,” he’s replacing fire-damaged parts and planning a full DIY turbo setup with an exhaust he’s reversing. Under the car, a fuel-tank fitting was loose, and he noted the housing is plastic, so who knows. A third video, “My Barn Find Porsche Turbo BROKE Right As I Sold It,” is mostly shop banter in the excerpt, so I’ll only say there’s a Variocam car with 52,000 miles and a lot of talk about 944s and 968s. The fourth, “How My First Car Got Me Into Wrenching,” covers a Maxima turbo and a car he describes as a prominent race car. He tells of fourth-gen Maximas on nitrous running tens, which he says was a huge deal for the Maxima community. His own swaps included a five-speed and a 3.5-liter.

Rich Rebuilds goes weird on a normal day. In “Our Knock Off Porsche Taycan May Have a bigger problem than We Thought” they inspect a high-voltage junction loop that reports said was damaged, and report it’s intact. They poke at the firefighter-access display and admit “this thing does not come out easily,” which you’d want to know in an emergency. The excerpt is mostly banter, so that’s all I’ll claim. Then “We fixed our flooded electric car by submerging it in 4200lbs of rice” is exactly what it says, with brand-new vacuums bought “to not have anything dirty in them” and rice so thoroughly packed in they couldn’t pull the tarp out. The “Clapped Out Hellcat” video is mostly a Rivian raffle plug for the Climate Exchange, which runs an annual raffle. The host prefers the truck over the SUV. Nothing I can verify about the Hellcat’s “criminal history,” so use your imagination. And in the hovercraft video, they built a full-size, jet-powered hovercraft. The skirt shredded on asphalt, and they say it probably could have hit 75 miles an hour but they weren’t at full throttle. Warning: stand within 10 feet behind it and you’ll “suffer third degree burns.” The Hellcat got new wheels and tires, so the criminal’s rehabilitation continues.

Truck Giveaways, Racing, and the Strip

Cleetus McFarland’s “Greatest Truck Upgrade of ALL TIME?” is an Any Level lift kit going onto an F-450. It’s the “first ever McFarland Racing Any Level kit,” and the prize bundles the truck, a C8, and $125,000 cash. Every five dollars you spend gets an entry. The kit is powder-coated, uses templates, and needs no welding. They haven’t read all 200 pages of the instructions, which is how every install begins. It’ll happen after World Cup.

DragDriveRepeat’s DDR News says 50 events are done and 20 are set for 2027. The Short Circuit runs next weekend, and the Drag Drive Awards, presented by Summit Racing, are six weeks away at PRI. Sponsors range from Summit to Howard’s Cams to Low Dollar Motorsports, and the excerpt is mostly gratitude.

On POWERtube TV’s Tom Baker Show, Episode 115, the mood is somber and warm. They talk about the Charlotte weekend and its tribute night, with drivers’ speeches, humor, and a closing speech from Samantha. They mention Braxton’s tribute to his dad and refer to Kyle Busch’s passing in May. I won’t make a joke here. The host’s line stands on its own: in May nobody wanted to be at the racetrack, and this time he “couldn’t think of anywhere I wanted to be more.”

Auctions and the Market

Barrett-Jackson’s Milemarker Monday focuses on “Two Dodge legends. One million-dollar moment!” The car is the last Dodge Demon built, the only one painted Viper Red, and it sold at a charity auction to benefit the United Way. As the mobsters say, the “vig” is the interest the loan shark skims off the top. Here, the vig goes to charity, which is the only time I’ve liked one. The hammer reached one million dollars.

Mecum’s “Rambler Ranch & The Bahre Collection” is a visit to Western Maine, where Bob Bahre’s museum collection will be on display next July. It includes a Stutz Bearcat, an unrestored Model T bought new at a downtown dealer, and a pair of electric Bakers from 1904 with about 40 miles of range. Also a 1903 Oldsmobile prepared for the London to Brighton run, held the first Sunday in November. The best detail is the Olds’s controls: spark advance, a switch, and a decompression pedal. A hundred years later we call that a “driving mode selector.”

Steve Magnante looks at a 1973 GTO with the 400-cubic-inch engine rather than the 455, a one-year-only hood, and no catalytic converter yet. It was found in West Lebanon, New York, and it’s apparently been repainted black over original blue. He says about 20 percent of them were 455s, so the 400 is the common one. That’s the “wilds of West Lebanon” for you: roadside crawl-bys that tell you more than half the auction coverage.

Parts, Tuning, and Tools

Tavarish is also in the tool aisle with a Wrench Every Day podcast snippet about Harbor Freight. The tone is pure toy-store nostalgia, with “giant bins of 10 mil sockets” and color-coded Pittsburgh sockets. The honest caveat: “definitely not made in Pittsburgh,” and professionals shouldn’t rely on them since they’ll break with abuse.

Car Audio

CarAudioFabrication gives a tool list for starting from scratch. The best tip is for centering brad nails on three-quarter-inch material, because “sometimes the brad nails would come shooting out the side.” Sponsor New Concepts gets a wiring-kit plug.

The Industry and the Buyer’s Guide

Porschify’s “5 Porsche Model Years to BUY and 5 to AVOID” is a useful reality check. In the $50,000 to $70,000 bracket, skip the 2017 four-cylinder 718 and go for a 2014 to 2016 981 Cayman S or GTS with Sport Chrono and sport exhaust. For SUVs and electrics, never touch a 2015 to 2017 Macan or a 2020 Taycan without an active Porsche-approved CPO warranty. Step into a 2019-plus Macan S, or wait for a 2025-plus Taycan. The refreshed 2025 Taycan launched with up to 35 percent more real-world range, which left early small-battery cars “virtually illiquid” on dealer lots.

At the top, the 2018-2019 991.2 GT3 fixed the finger-follower valvetrain wear of the 991.1 cars and brought back the six-speed manual. It has a 4.0-liter flat-six that revs to 9,000 rpm, and it trades between $185,000 and $215,000. Half the budget buys a 2020-2023 718 Cayman GTS 4.0. Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #40 says, “If you see profit on a journey, take it.” The Ferengi mean a bargain; I mean the original owner already ate the depreciation. Take the profit.

Speaking of Porsches, the Smoking Tire’s 959 drive is a good palate cleanser: the car is “one of the great driver’s cars,” not just a collectible, though it’s “$2 million plus,” so the sending is theoretical. Go wrench something, Little Mister, preferably something that isn’t sitting in rice.

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