Ask A Millennial! Car Week Edition
PLUS: Our biggest viral video and stories to watch.
Welcome to a special edition of RACE DAY. After this Wednesday’s post I realized there were a few things I’d accidentally left out. Then we had the opportunity to add an Ask A Millennial segment, which you’ll find below. I thought a new post made sense.
You know what that means: BONUS NEWSLETTER.
Oops We Went Viral
WHEN I MET Tommy at a car show a few weeks ago, I knew people would find his car interesting. After all, it’s a Mercedes with a Honda engine swapped inside. Who wouldn’t find that interesting?
But the video I posted on Instagram has since gone crazy, passing 500,000 views (for now) and shooting us up past 1,000 subscribers. Thanks for the love everyone!
It reminded me of the strength of the Honda Mob. Tommy’s car is “K-Swapped,” meaning it has the venerable Honda K-Series four-cylinder engine (of VTEC fame). An early 2000s icon. There are tons of articles exploring the virtues of the K-Series. I got to see a million fascinating K-Swaps at the 2023 HondaMeet here.
So I knew K-Swapping a Mercedes would be gold, and especially a 190E 2.3-16 at that. It wasn’t just sacrilige to K-Swap a Benz; it was doubly so to K-Swap a homologated motorsports legend. Tommy is a true enthusiast who has a great story behind the decision. I hope to speak with him soon to go into more detail. In the meantime, thanks for helping to juice our numbers my friend!
BONUS LINKS:
Did you know Bugatti uses zip-ties on its $4 million Bolide? 🥴
Tickets to Luftgekühlt 10 are now live. They’re not cheap.
GM laid off 1,000 workers. Don’t laugh, Ford — they’re axing projects.
Need a Good Book?
Who’s producing the coolest books in the automotive world right now? We’re biased, but we’d say it’s Carrara Media. Pick up Cult of GT-R or We Deserve This for you and a friend, and place your preorder Waiting for the Sun to Come Down — coming soon!
Ask A Millennial! Christian Smith, 21
After our friend Forest submitted his article on the slow rise of Japanese influence during Monterey Car Week, he suggested reaching out to Christian. The two met while Christian was judging at the Pacific Grove Concours by Classic Motorsports. Turns out he’s got a lot of thoughtful things to say, and we’re pleased we were able to connect. Here is an edited version of our conversation:
The vibes at the show were exceptionally high, especially when it came to the JDM section. Although the JDM section did not have a huge amount of cars it was very captivating, and not just for me — a lot of younger kids around my age were at the JDM section to see the new wave car community blooming.
The car that stood out the most to me was the Nissan Skyline GT-R because the car has class and style like no other. The story behind one particular car made me like it even more. The original owner had been in the Navy and bought the car in Japan while still deployed. He then moved to the States and loved the car so much that he brought it along. I love hearing the crazy backstories that some of these cars had. [Editor’s note: If you like crazy Skyline stories, start with this excerpt from the first chapter of Cult of GT-R.]
The JDM community is encroaching on Car Week and I'm loving it. A whole new generation is being developed and welcomed in with open arms. Although it does feel a bit too quick, that might just be because the car community has been so focused on the oldest, rarest, most original car that they can find. This new wave of car enthusiasts is expressing their favorite cars of their time.
The condition of these cars was all over the place, ranging from modified, original and weathered, or original and pristine. The cars I judged on that day do not convince me that they are “Pebble Beach ready,” but we are comparing a nice event with their stories and history to Pebble Beach, which is the most prestigious event. In my opinion, have an event like Pebble Beach for the best of the best with older cars, and have another where people can have a laugh and enjoy the new history that these cars are creating. That way everybody gets a bit of everything.
And Finally…
Come back next week. We’ll be diving into one of my favorite topics:
SEMA.
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