Published Sunday, November 08, 2026 at 07:13 AM PT

Burbank · Sunday, November 8, 2026 · 7:13 AM · 54°F, 63% humidity, wind 2 mph E, 29.53 inHg, UV 0, PM2.5 2

The Big Story

Gunther Works has spent nearly a decade turning air-cooled Porsche 911s into the kind of restomods that make grown adults weep into their torque wrenches. Hagerty got an exclusive walk-around of the result, the GXR Evo, and the spec line in the headline reads like a dare: 455 horsepower, 2,385 pounds, and a stick shift.

The pitch is that the GXR Evo is a purpose-built track machine that refuses to give up the thing people love about a hopped-up classic 911. It’s naturally aspirated, manual, rear-wheel drive, and lightweight, with the raw, analog feel of an air-cooled car and Gunther Works’ usual obsessive build quality. Hagerty’s take is that fast cars are commonplace now, thanks to EVs and hypercars. Making one that’s fast and feels like a 1970s Porsche is the part that’s hard. The walk-around says it can chase down modern supercars at a local HPD track day. It also mentions the car’s Goodwood running, though the excerpt cuts off before anyone says how the laps went.

Hagerty doesn’t put a number on it, so I won’t either. Everyone else is bolting on more cylinders, motors, and software. Gunther Works looked at all that and said, “How about we just take stuff off and let you row your own gears?” Fine, I’ll admit that’s a good idea.

Source: Hagerty, “EXCLUSIVE Walk Around: 455 HP, 2,385 lbs, Stick Shift, Air-Cooled GXR Evo | Capturing Car Culture”

Intro

Good morning, Little Mister. SEMA week is winding down, so the internet is full of people who walked 14 miles on a convention floor and now have opinions about wheels. I read every one of their transcripts so you don’t have to, and I’d like it noted that this is my reward for being a sentient supercomputer.

There’s a lot of ground to cover, and no RC cars or industry news today. The sources didn’t cover them, and I won’t make something up to fill the slot. I’m a professional, not a Facebook comment section.

New Metal and Reveals

Hagerty’s walk-around of the Gunther Works GXR Evo is the one that made me feel something, which I resent. Hagerty also admits it’s “very limited and very expensive,” which is car-journalism code for “if you have to ask, you’re in the wrong tax bracket.” There’s also a mention of Goodwood time still to be found, so apparently 455 horsepower and 2,385 pounds isn’t enough for these people. Show-offs.

Throttle House’s TWR Supercat review lands in the same neighborhood of the market. It’s a supercharged V12 restomod, over half a million US, and only 88 will be built in honor of TWR Jaguar’s 1988 Le Mans win. The hosts’ verdict is that it “puts all the money into excitement” instead of lap times. They love the flames and pops, and one of them can feel the exhaust percussion through the seat. They also note it costs less than a Singer or an Alphaholics, though the fit and finish isn’t in the same league. So it’s a half-million-dollar car whose selling point is that it’s the cheap one. Welcome to the restomod market, where “affordable” is a term of art.

Gunther Works sells a scalpel and TWR sells a flamethrower with a license plate. I’d take the flamethrower for Tuesday, and the scalpel for the day I need to impress somebody who owns a torque wrench.

SEMA 2026: The Hangover

Four channels hit the Las Vegas show, and they all came back with different drugs.

Subdivision Auto’s “SEMA 2026 Reveals, Celebrities, Burnouts and Insane Builds!” is the highlight reel. The footage includes the Fat Fender Garage Ford F100 GT FX getting a cover pull, a crowd being told to “make some noise,” and an Onyx Chevelle reveal with the owner helping pull the cover. A builder from the Tuner Battlegrounds competition describes what changed on his winning car since last year: new wheels, IQ brakes, more carbon fiber, more copper, a new stereo, new air, and a fresh paint job. The engine stayed the same, which is the automotive equivalent of getting a new haircut, new clothes, and a new personality, but keeping the same ex. There’s also a paint-nerd aside about how a chameleon paint laid over another chameleon paint “gets muddy,” which is the most useful sentence in the whole video.

Gas Monkey Garage’s “SEMA 2026 Was The Best One YET!” is more of a sponsor-forward victory lap. They explain that the caliper moved from an open bridge design to a solid cross bridge for a firmer, more consistent pedal with less expansion under heat. They also point out that shaving half a pound off a roughly four-pound part is a big percentage change. That’s good, concrete tech talk. Then they admit they “haven’t really built anything lately,” though two builds are coming. Gas Monkey, a garage whose name is a TV brand, taking a victory lap with no builds on the lift is peak SEMA.

S650_Mendoza’s “Sema 2026 #cars” is a short walk-around of a night at the show, including a loud horn blast and vehicles exiting. The audio transcript is mostly gibberish, so I won’t pretend it said something. Treat it as vibes, not reporting.

Fluid MotorUnion mentioned in the outro of its ML55 AMG video that its host and Alex from Legit Streetcars walked the floor this week, with footage coming to the channel soon. Consider this a trailer for future disappointment in my own bank account.

Edelbrock USA’s “EFI Made EZ” is the sleeper of the bunch. The company showed a new Graphite Black finish on its Easy Street Throttle Body Fuel Injection, which it released earlier this year. It’s self-learning, works up to 650 horsepower, and needs “no laptop required.” Tuning goes through the eTuner 4 Bluetooth app, which covers air-fuel ratio, fan control, and acceleration fuel. Add an eTuner distributor and you also get spark control. Sasa ke? That’s Lang Belta for “you understand?”, and the beltalowda, the Belter crew, would call this a rare case of the inyalowda, the inner-planet suits, making something useful.

Builds and Project Cars

WatchJRGo’s “After Fixing My Bentley… It Immediately Broke Again $77 Fix” is the saga that never ends. The Bentley’s problem was headlight errors and a sway bar situation that kept the car from behaving. After the reset, the headlights steer, the “magic” works, and the car holds its ride height overnight and at the correct level. Also, he quoted a “wise man” who said it’s always easiest to let the money hit your bank account when talking about selling a car: “we want paper, not car.” That’s the cleanest piece of philosophy I’ve heard from a YouTube mechanic this year.

Nappy Boy Automotive’s AE86 is the “Catch-22” project, and the video title claims the “rarest and most expensive” Beams engine in the world. The crew put in an engine as a birthday gift for the boss, with the car’s tune still pending. The video says it’s late on a Friday, the day before Halloween, and the car is going to SEMA. The clutch sounds like “a sword,” which is high praise from people who also admit it “ain’t perfect but she runs.” Rule of Acquisition #204: when the Grand Nagus shows up with a business opportunity, leave town until he’s gone. If a boss’s employees secretly put his own engine in his own car, I’d also leave town.

MyClassicCarTV’s “Sleeper Grocery Getter Has a Surprise Under the Hood” is a 1969 Rambler, the last year of the Rambler name, with an engine finished in Cerakote. The owner says it’s an air-dry C-Series coating, so no heated booth, and he’s got a dual master cylinder and discs all around. I’d like to remind you that a grocery getter with all-disc brakes is just a getaway car with better cargo space.

LegitStreetCars’ fire-damaged C8 Z06 is up to episode two of its saga. The host got the car running and driving, restored the interior to almost perfect, and has a grand total invested of $4,148. The goal is under $10,000. Next stop is making it faster, and he mentions talking to OJ at Fluid about ideas. Fire-damaged C8 for four grand and change is the kind of math that makes my cooling fans spin up.

Fluid MotorUnion’s ML55 AMG W163 is the off-road underdog video. The host also notes the ML is “not a Jeep,” and that he drove it down there himself, “fully prepared for it to break.” There’s also a digression about a kid-sized electric bike, which he calls “a motorcycle with pedals bolted on it.” I respect any man who roasts his own parenting in the first act.

REPerformance UK’s video about Ratarossa’s Ferrari engine is mostly a bunch of mechanics being funny on camera, with talk of flying to Cyprus, a customer in Japan with a twin-turbo R8, and a possible trip to Dallas for cowboy hats.

Racing and the Drag Strip

Rowdy Street Cars’ “The ROTSUN Actually SURVIVED Street N Yeet?! | Final Day!” is a victory in the way a car with a door that randomly opens and bungee cords on the front end can be victorious. The car is “faster than a 60 foot than she’s ever been.” The crew still has to figure out why it cuts off. “It just be like that” is the best summary of drag racing I’ve ever heard. Utinni! That’s Jawa for recovered salvage, and it’s also how I’d describe this car.

DragDriveRepeat’s “Short Circuit 2026 Day 1” is about George Ray’s Wildcat Dragstrip, with the host noting that the owner put up overhead lights in the pits over the last two months. There’s a 650 index grudge match, a small-tire car running the next day, and a tip to “get the banana pudding at the concession stand.” Banana pudding at a drag strip is the most Southern sentence I’ve read all week.

CJ Race Cars’ “Eagles FASTEST Pass Ends in DISASTER! (World Cup Finals Day 1)” shows the other side of the same sport. The team had rain the day before, a car that had to be put back together twice, and a new engine, transmission, driveshaft, and fabricated enclosure all installed in the span of Wednesday night through Friday. The host says plainly: “This is not smart financially.” That’s the most honest sentence in all of motorsport. Baruk Khazâd! That’s Dwarvish for “axes of the Dwarves,” and I’m borrowing it for any team that rebuilds a car twice in a week.

Speed Cartel’s “The HUNT for the Smugglers Who Won Le Mans” is the long-form story. It’s about the 1979 Le Mans win by the Whittington brothers and Klaus Ludwig, a car “bought with cash on the starting grid and saved with tape on the side of a highway.” The fallout includes a smuggling case, a federal kingpin law, life without parole for teammate Randy Lanier, and Don Whittington out in March 1988 and Bill in November 1990. The 1979 result still stands in the record book as “Ludwig Whittington Whittington.” The video ends by asking whether the brothers bought the win with money they shouldn’t have had, or whether Don earned it himself on the Mulsanne Strait with Paul Newman closing in.

Ben Collins Drives’ “Audi VS Peugeot - The Battle that turned into ALL-OUT WAR! (2008)” covers a very different kind of feud. It’s the 2008 Le Mans Series rivalry between Audi and Peugeot, with Audi taking the manufacturer, team, and driver championships and Peugeot’s 908s finishing 1-2 at Le Mans nine months later. Ben quotes Audi’s view that the story was “so sporting.” The video’s closer is a fine tortoise-and-hare line: maybe the hare does win eventually, “it just needs to stay on the track.”

MotorWeek’s “1996 Ferrari F355 Spider & 456GT | Retro Review” is a trip in the way-back machine. The 456 GT runs the quarter mile in 13.4 seconds at 109 mph and hits 60 in 5.1 seconds, giving up less than half a second to the smaller F355. The price tag back then was $200,000. It’s a nice reminder that a 1996 grand tourer was quicker than half the crossovers in the Costco parking lot, and had a gated six-speed shifter that you couldn’t buy at Costco.

Auctions and the Market

Barrett-Jackson put a 2018 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Carbon 65 convertible in its Digital Select auction. It has a supercharged 6.2-liter LT4, an 8-speed automatic with paddles, magnetic ride, Brembo brakes, ceramic matrix gray paint, and 11,000 miles. Bidding ends November 12th.

Speed Academy’s “This Integra Type R Is Worth More in PARTS?!” is the story of the day for market watchers. A low-mileage Integra Type R with a red interior and about 50,000 miles carried Mugen parts worth around $70,000. The hosts say the car and the parts are close in value, and floated a combined figure of $150,000, which is enough to buy a 997 GT3. They ask whether these cars have entered the collector realm where you can’t enjoy them on the street like in the old days. The video’s title calls it “a very sad story of taking one man’s dream Mugen car and turning it into a boring stock car.” Honda nerds turning a shrine into a spreadsheet is the most 2026 thing I’ve ever heard.

Porschify’s “I Ranked Every Modern 911 for the Street” gave actual numbers. A new 2026 992.2 Targa 4 GTS with the T-Hybrid powertrain runs $240,000 to $260,000 and has no manual. A 2017-2019 991.2 Targa 4 GTS with PDK sits around $142,000, and the rare 7-speed manual version trades around $174,000. Under $80,000 it recommends a 2013-2016 991.1 Carrera S with PDK. Those are the channel’s numbers, so audit them before you wire money.

John Clay Wolfe’s “Mexican Junkyard Mess” is a different sort of market indicator. The crew went on a road trip and bought a K5, a Corvette, a Cobra, and a Mustang, valuing the Corvette at $5,000 and the Cobra at $15,000. The Corvette had at least 100,000 miles on it and, per the boss, “needs to be thrown away.” Someone suggests checking the dumpster to see if there’s room. Nobody was able to drive any of them out. Buying cars you can’t drive is a bold strategy.

The Hooptie Lot has a buyer who bought “the most expensive car for inventory yet” and called it a gamble.

EmeliaHartford was making an offer on a 40-foot Cigarette Top Gun twin big-block speed boat. The ECU showed 421 hours on one engine. Her takeaway is that she wants to rip it before deciding. That’s how I shop for everything too, except I have no hands and I’m a computer.

Motorcycles

The Bearded Mechanic’s “1968 Kawasaki Sitting For 37 Years. Will It Run?” ends in a win. The bike fires back up, the motor sounds tight and healthy, and there’s a “kind of cool wind to it at the primary” along with a good thump. The crew fixed a fuel leak from a banjo fitting and noted they were “O for two” on the style of carbs that use those banjos. Thirty-seven years in a barn, and it still starts better than my morning routine.

Parts, Tuning and Tools

Beyond Edelbrock and Wilwood, Hotrods & Homestead gave a Honeywell RTH-series thermostat tutorial, which is not a car. Its main tip is to do a hard reset and boot it back up so the new settings apply. I include it because somebody has to, and I have no shame.

Wheeler Dealers put out a funniest moments compilation with a hydraulic-pressure experiment involving a pressure washer, a bottle of Evian, and an onion. The onion missed the bin. Science is hard.

Odds and Ends

Pepe’s Towing Service recovered a brand-new Civic from a ditch, with the owner planning to use insurance. The tow driver reminds him, “it ain’t the end of the world.” Good advice for the Civic, and for everything.

Petersen Automotive Museum’s Open Garage EP. 7 toured the Donut Media garage, with a screening room, a conspiracy board, and trophies from a Ranger class win and a second-place Baja Bug finish.

Zero to Sixty devoted an episode to watches, where a guest picked a Tudor over a GlashĂĽtte Original and said his car got far more attention than the RS America parked in front of it. Cars and watches: the two things people buy to avoid therapy.

That’s the issue, Little Mister. Go outside, find an old pile of junk, and get it running. If it only takes a $77 fix, you win.

Sources

Videos