Your Automotive Web History: Where do you browse?

[CarMadMike]

Hey t:duck:ers!

 

I was wondering what your automotive browser history is like? (No, this is not a thread for hassan to post his entire browser history, dear lord can you imagine the horrors on there?) Whether it is a website, a blog, a youtube channel, an instagram account, a podcast or whatever, recommend something to the rest of us to follow :nods:

 

Let me start:

The Smoking Tire: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSmokingTire

 

I highly recommend this youtube channel, It's run by Matt Farah who you might recognise from the /DRIVE team, he's a very charismatic guy and seems very knowledgeable about what he talks about, but most of all he likes to mess around in cars. He's very much the American equivalent of Chris Harris I think. He releases numerous ONE TAKE videos throughout the week and he also hosts a weekly podcast released every wednesday. The podcast is something I've only gotten into recently but he has some great guests on, the team from Jalopnik, well known people in the Auto Industry, other youtubers, he's had the Script writer from UK Topgear on recently. Each podcast is well over an hour long and a great way to pass some time on a long journey :nods: Let me know if you also listen or have given it a go after reading this.

 

 

Over to you! Let me know where you recommend we all visit on these vast interwebz :hi5:

[The Compensator]

I love the guys at TST! The one takes show how huge & awesome the car culture is. I listen to their podcasts, too, Myk - enjoyable, informative and for me a good way to git gud engrisch. Loved the recent one with Betim from BBi Motorsport, for example. There was also one with Bill Caswell talking about some German guys who travel around the world and visit F1 races as VIP guests. Guess how.

 

And Farah has a nice collection of cars. Vanquish (manual swap), DeLorean, Fox 'Stang, Vette, and a super clean R32.

 

 

My automotive YT / IG subscription list is too long to write down... Shall I make screenshots? :susp:

[CarMadMike]

I love the guys at TST! The one takes show how huge & awesome the car culture is. I listen to their podcasts, too, Myk - enjoyable, informative and for me a good way to git gud engrisch. Loved the recent one with Betim from BBi Motorsport, for example. There was also one with Bill Caswell talking about some German guys who travel around the world and visit F1 races as VIP guests. Guess how.

 

And Farah has a nice collection of cars. Vanquish (manual swap), DeLorean, Fox 'Stang, Vette, and a super clean R32.

 

 

My automotive YT / IG subscription list is too long to write down... Shall I make screenshots? :susp:

 

After living in/near Monaco last year I really enjoyed that F1 VIP podcast as I could totally understand what they were talking about haha, it was very entertaining. Did you listen to the Richard Porter TG Script writer podcast? It was really entertaining, you can tell his sense of humour was behind a lot of the best TG jokes haha, he's also the guy from SniffPetrol if anyone follows that blog/twitter account. His manual swap Vanquish is amazing, the main problem with that car was its gearbox, it's a beast now. He said on the latest podcast he's just accepted an offer on the R32 but nothing is finalised.

 

Post screenshots if you want :p But if other accounts get mixed up in them it'll be messy :hmmm:

[The Compensator]

After living in/near Monaco last year I really enjoyed that F1 VIP podcast as I could totally understand what they were talking about haha, it was very entertaining. Did you listen to the Richard Porter TG Script writer podcast? It was really entertaining, you can tell his sense of humour was behind a lot of the best TG jokes haha, he's also the guy from SniffPetrol if anyone follows that blog/twitter account. His manual swap Vanquish is amazing, the main problem with that car was its gearbox, it's a beast now. He said on the latest podcast he's just accepted an offer on the R32 but nothing is finalised.

 

Post screenshots if you want :p But if other accounts get mixed up in them it'll be messy :hmmm:

 

Oh, yeah I have. Kinda puts things into perspective, you know what I mean. I am tempted to get his book, but I don't really get to read anything...

 

I listen to podcasts on the train, and I'm taking it tomorrow so I have not listened to the latest one.

He said he really wants the new GT350 R so he might get rid of something, but that's a bit of a shame. Regarding this, here's a pic from his IG. haha

 

I'll see what I can do.

[calster17]

I guess you guy's wont be too surprised by this, but most people find it odd that I don't watch YT car channels and such. Just can't get into the groove of watching something every week/time it's out.

 

I watch stuff if my flatmate has it on but I don't religiously follow any. See 'Roadkill' a few times and love that, seen smoking tyre a few times as well and though it's good. (The guy has a silly high mileage LS400 as well...). I just can't seem to stand any of the 'supercar spotter/vLogs' though...

 

Websites for news? Pistonheads, Autoczar, etc and Autoblog (for keeping up to date on US stuff). Oh, don't forget China car news to see what horrors is happening with the Chinese car industry. :lol:

On a few automotive pages that arnt for news as well, AR Online, Japanese Nostalgic Classic,Sniff Petrol and Speedhunters to name a few.

And also on a few forums, owners clubs for the Lexus and such, as well as some general car ones like Autoshite which is right up my street... (Other people who get excited over things such as a 1983 base model Ford Sierra or a Proton MPi)

 

Must say I'm rather old skool and stick with magazine Evo, Octane, Classic & Sports car, Modern Classic's and such being regulars so of course follow them on the social media side of things.

 

Could list the social media side of things but would be too big a list....everything from established brands to random one man pages.

[The Compensator]

Don't get me started on those young, clickbait-y supercar spotters / vloggers / social media personalities as they sometimes tend to call themselves. I was actually discussing this with a guy from our closed BMW FB group today. Thinking about sharing some (personal) opinions on this matter this week on here because it's making me a bit angry... maybe more than it should.

 

:bsod:

[CarMadMike]

Don't get me started on those young, clickbait-y supercar spotters / vloggers / social media personalities as they sometimes tend to call themselves. I was actually discussing this with a guy from our closed BMW FB group today. Thinking about sharing some (personal) opinions on this matter this week on here because it's making me a bit angry... maybe more than it should.

 

This is actually why I started this thread, because I feel very much the same on this issue and it's winding me up :lol:

 

I await your rant to see if we're getting wound up about the same people for similar reasons :nods:

[calster17]

Good to see I'm not the only one who cant stand them!

 

Will keep opinions off this thread to keep it on-topic, and await your thread on them!

[CarMadMike]

Re-read my post :lol: I made this thread subconsciously with that in mind :p Post your opinions on them in here :nods:

 

Regarding your old school choices, Evo/Octane etc, do you still pick up the physical magazines or just the online versions?

[calster17]

Subconsciously with that in mind, but not as the main idea. :cheeky:

 

With regards to the old School choices, it's still paper copy's for me. I tired getting them on the tablet & phone but never found myself getting into it that way.

[Ryzza5]

I recently hit the subscribe button on Mighty Car Mods, it's enough of a car fix while certain TV shows are not airing.

Also have been watching Season 2 of TopGear UK again. Given how good he was in pod racers I would have expected Darth Vader to be the fastest Master of the Universe around the TG test track.

[TIMELESS]

I recently hit the subscribe button on Mighty Car Mods, it's enough of a car fix while certain TV shows are not airing.

Also have been watching Season 2 of TopGear UK again. Given how good he was in pod racers I would have expected Darth Vader to be the fastest Master of the Universe around the TG test track.

 

Same here actually, they used to annoy me a lot (and still do sometimes), but after seeing some of the supercharged Mini videos I was hooked. I'm dying to see the next episode of WasSaabi vs 2sexy.

 

I shall go away and put together a decent list of what I watch, read, or listen to later. :)

[Ryzza5]

#TeamDentistJet

[The Compensator]

Here are some YouTube channels that I picked. You might or might not know them.

 

AMMO NYC

 

Not many people here are into car detailing. I am and for this reason I love this guy (no homo). I've learned a lot from his videos and podcasts which are on shoutengine.com. Legit guy. He's got a cool 964, too.

 

 

Automann TV

If you want to know how cars sound, check out this channel.

 

 

Best MOTORing

 

Doesn't matter if you don't speak Japanese, those famous track battles are fun to watch IMO. Also foot cams. Foot cams everywhere.

 

 

CAR BROS

Highly satirical and funny. Enough said. :lol:

 

 

Davide Cironi

 

I don't know much about this guy, but he drives cool cars. And I like the Italian language.

 

 

JP Performance

 

Tis a German guy who owns a tuner shop in Dortmund. Also got a TV show I think, so he's pretty well known. Too bad you won't understand much as apart from often funny vids he talks a lot about tech. Currently doing methanol injection on his 1.9 TDI Golf. Watch the vid below, though. :lol:

 

 

Roads Untraveled

 

Mostly high-HP JDM cars from Canada. Pretty cool vids.

 

 

Gear Patrol

 

Seems like these guys have stopped making videos - or at least they upload very unfrequently. They have made some beautiful short films. Fav one is the SLS AMG one, but YouTube has recently deleted all the audio.

 

Behind The Wheel: Aston Martin V12 Vantage - YouTube

 

 

There tons of others that I am subscribed to, but tried to choose the most interesting ones.

 

--- Post Updated ---

 

I forgot one:

 

eGarage

 

 

[Andreas¹]

My automotive browsing history probably consists of Facebook tbh. :hmmm: I get all my news from there from various websites and magazines. The only site I occationally go to "manually" is Top Gear.

[CarMadMike]

Good list Tom :hmmm: Considering I thought i'd subscribed to most automotive youtube channels worth subscribing to, I hadn't subscribed to any of your list prior to now, going to check them out :nods:

[The Compensator]

*infrequently, FFS :mad:

 

--- Post Updated ---

 

DISCLAIMER:

No TL;DR for you.

Not sure what's the point of this post - just want to get this off my pale chest.

I'm on 2 red bulls rn

 

 

Here's what's wrong with the modern world in one video created by Miss Emma Walsh and featuring the new BMW M2.

 

 

Some dude on the M2 forums created a thread about it, named "Hottie driving an M2" or sth like that. I was like, wtf is this again.

 

Even though I HATE these kinda vloggers bloggers tubers, I put my tinfoil hat on and clicked on her video.

 

Here's what you can find in this not-even-a-10-blonde's video:

 

0. HEADLINE WITH CAPITAL LETTERS AND EXCLAMATION MARKS!!

 

1. info about how her day(s) went (doing totally nothing, but that's none of my business)

 

2. the very ubiquitous and popular hyperbole ("the most insane convoy you ever seen")

 

3. segment in which she is in a kid's electric shopping trolley without saying basically nothing

 

4. segment with the main star, the M2, which she "FINALLY GOT TO DRIVE AFTER WAITING FOR DAYS." I have learned from her that it's kinda quiet inside, but quite loud outside;

that "it just wants to go";

that it's awesome;

that she was in sport mode cuz she did not want drift (I don't believe she could perform such things, but maybe she can - sorry Emma)

 

5. then there was some racing drivah teaching here what a crest is and how to take the racing line in the mountains (bruh, you're not at the 'Schleife)

 

6. afterwards, there were some other 2 dudes in the backseat

 

7. finally, the end: GIMME THUMBS UP AND SUBSCRIBE

 

At least her hands on the steering wheel were at 9-3 most of the time, I'll give her that.

 

 

Now, here are the fun? facts.

 

The M2 in the video is a press car that was lent by BMW AG to a guy on the BMW forums. That guy had ordered his M2 months before the actual production & sale start. He was whining like a little B when his dealer told him he cannot get the car BEFORE the sale start as he requested.

 

It turns out he lives in Prague and is Shmee150's manager. How can he be his manager if he is thousands of kilometers away, that I do not get. Not sure if he's Czech; prolly not since his last car had Dutch plates, and his English is way too good for a Czech person. Heh. But, that's none of my business.

 

Anyway, he's eventually managed to obtain the press car directly from BMW AG in München because, and I quote, of his "special position as a manager in the world of social media." Also told us we're gonna see the car on "various platforms" which in the end meant shmee150's friends got to trash it around Monaco.

 

 

holy crap how can a sane person watch those people... 10 - 15 minutes of effing nothing!!! Misinformation, clickbait, bad editing, attention seeking, and awful tuning taste

 

HOW CAN I AFFORD A GALLARDO AT 23?!

 

DRITING THE JAG WITH THIS BIG BOOTY GIRL

 

HOLY HELL I MODDED MY AUDI!!!!

 

 

And who the hell is this European Bieber / male Cyrus? :eek2:

 

 

 

There are so many ways to get automotive content on the Internet as seen in this thread. No, they want to watch some kind of "YouTube personalities" as some of them like to call themselves.

 

 

I've got a "friend" who's a moderator of the BMW forum & an European contributor. He's done a few press events, too. He told me yesterday that it is very hard to get a press car from BMW... and yet they kindly give em away when some uneducated youtubah with an awful posh accent comes in. :oook:

 

[T1M]

Mostly YouTube vloggers these days. Currently, I like to keep up with SeenThroughGlass, MrJWW and SupercarsOfLondon, who I'm sure you've all heard off... they sometimes hang out with Shmee150. They have good content and some very nice cars to show, especially MrJWW who has an F12 and a 911 GT3... and also used to have a gorgeous grey/yellow 458 Speciale.

 

MrJWW:

 

 

SeenThroughGlass:

 

 

Otherwise I usually stick to Facebook and find a lot of car info and stuff off CarThrottle.

[TIMELESS]

Yep, really can't argue with you there Tom. Seb Delaney annoys the crap out of me... alas his videos keep being recommended for me :headbang:

 

And uh... bad time to bring up Shmee and STG probably Tim :p

[CarMadMike]

The car vlogger thing is puzzling to me too, mainly because I feel it's very much a free for all and young naive viewers who worship them aren't aware how much they're being 'exploited' to a sense, the amount of product placement in a lot of the videos is insane. Shmee constantly discusses the name of his car wash, the name of the place that wrapped his cars etc, a lot of the viewers won't realise he's getting a ridiculous discount if not freebies for doing so. Which then leads me onto the issue of 'this car is just as much yours as it is mine!!!!' or 'i'm not happy with some of the comments for x or y reason rah rah rah rah rah', it's an entirely selfish 'industry' and they're benefiting from it and they never really ever get around to discussing just how much their viewers/subscribers/insta followers etc benefit them.

 

Another issue I have with the vloggers is that they really don't know much about what they pretend to be discussing, that person you referred to as Miley, Seb, only ever reads off of a piece of paper or is quite frank about how much he doesn't know. Similar to the SeeingThroughGlass guy Tim just posted above, he's also quite brunt about how little car knowledge he actually has when that's kind of his 'job' to an extent?

 

If you watch the first 10 seconds of that 'Monaco part 2' video you just posted you'll notice them discussing someone who has JUST STARTED A CHANNEL. A few months ago the guy Tim posted, MrJWW was introduced as someone who had JUST STARTED A CHANNEL, they're all people that through some weird link end up back to Shmee or someone haha. Our very own Penfold has been referenced in a fair few of that groups videos interestingly enough :nods: He's a successful photographer primarily though, so that's different.

 

Some of the guys are decent, that SeeingThroughGlass guy can be quite charismatic and is fairly enjoyable to watch, whereas I find the SupercarsOfLondon guy can be a bit obnoxious, when revealing his new GT-S he seemed to overestimate just how much people care about his new car, as if we were all gaining from his new purchase as much as he was, and that we should be emotional about it too...

 

Shmee's channel on the whole is quite interesting to follow, due to his popularity and success he's a bit more refined in what he does and although the self-interest and occasional big-headedness can show, he does talk about what people want to know when they watch a car video and he has access to some decent events worth watching etc.

 

At the end of the day my real frustration comes down to some of the channels having some good content and some of the people being enjoyable to watch, but it's just impossible to filter out the less desirable and more annoying vloggers as they all mix so frequently haha. I suppose if we don't like, we shouldn't watch, but it doesn't stop us having an opinion on them I guess.

 

Vloggers like Salomondrin and Shmee are kind of worth subscribing for as their passion kind of overshadows any personal gain they're getting from the vlogs, they're genuinely interested in what they discuss etc.

[TIMELESS]

I really hope Penfold has gone and bought himself something ridiculous. He's been working pretty hard at this since he was a teen so good for him.

 

And yeah, it just seems exploitative. You're being paid to do videos on cars that people want to see, while knowing nothing about them, talking more about your ever-so-interesting life, and not at all putting out quality content like Chris Harris and many other YouTubers. They seem to lure in the teenagers, the social-media generation. The car part is irrelevant, and if they stopped the whole "car-vlogger" or whatever, and were just a vlogger, I'd have no problem.

 

I'll agree on Shmee, he's fairly annoying and as you say big headed at times, but he does know what he's on about. He has done some very good and detailed walk around & drive videos.

[TDUFREAK500]

I quite enjoy Spencer Berke, he is pretty down to earth and vlogs about everything going on his life, not just the cool cars he gets to work with at O'Gara, he does it purely for the passion of making videos, and he is one of the few vloggers I actually follow. I have been quite enjoying B is for Build, and Speed Academy on YT, there is quite a few other channels I follow that have already been mentioned in here, I don't really go to websites, I just enjoy watching car videos mainly.

[The Compensator]

The car vlogger thing is puzzling to me too, mainly because I feel it's very much a free for all and young naive viewers who worship them aren't aware how much they're being 'exploited' to a sense, the amount of product placement in a lot of the videos is insane. Shmee constantly discusses the name of his car wash, the name of the place that wrapped his cars etc, a lot of the viewers won't realise he's getting a ridiculous discount if not freebies for doing so. Which then leads me onto the issue of 'this car is just as much yours as it is mine!!!!' or 'i'm not happy with some of the comments for x or y reason rah rah rah rah rah', it's an entirely selfish 'industry' and they're benefiting from it and they never really ever get around to discussing just how much their viewers/subscribers/insta followers etc benefit them.

 

Another issue I have with the vloggers is that they really don't know much about what they pretend to be discussing, that person you referred to as Miley, Seb, only ever reads off of a piece of paper or is quite frank about how much he doesn't know. Similar to the SeeingThroughGlass guy Tim just posted above, he's also quite brunt about how little car knowledge he actually has when that's kind of his 'job' to an extent?

 

If you watch the first 10 seconds of that 'Monaco part 2' video you just posted you'll notice them discussing someone who has JUST STARTED A CHANNEL. A few months ago the guy Tim posted, MrJWW was introduced as someone who had JUST STARTED A CHANNEL, they're all people that through some weird link end up back to Shmee or someone haha. Our very own Penfold has been referenced in a fair few of that groups videos interestingly enough :nods: He's a successful photographer primarily though, so that's different.

 

Some of the guys are decent, that SeeingThroughGlass guy can be quite charismatic and is fairly enjoyable to watch, whereas I find the SupercarsOfLondon guy can be a bit obnoxious, when revealing his new GT-S he seemed to overestimate just how much people care about his new car, as if we were all gaining from his new purchase as much as he was, and that we should be emotional about it too...

 

Shmee's channel on the whole is quite interesting to follow, due to his popularity and success he's a bit more refined in what he does and although the self-interest and occasional big-headedness can show, he does talk about what people want to know when they watch a car video and he has access to some decent events worth watching etc.

 

At the end of the day my real frustration comes down to some of the channels having some good content and some of the people being enjoyable to watch, but it's just impossible to filter out the less desirable and more annoying vloggers as they all mix so frequently haha. I suppose if we don't like, we shouldn't watch, but it doesn't stop us having an opinion on them I guess.

 

Vloggers like Salomondrin and Shmee are kind of worth subscribing for as their passion kind of overshadows any personal gain they're getting from the vlogs, they're genuinely interested in what they discuss etc.

 

Basically what I had on mind, but was unable to write down because I struggle with expressing my thoughts on something in a somewhat read-able form, ha.

 

I have not really seen other car tubers other than Salmon and Shmee. I like the Mexican a lot. A bit douchey, but really funny (if you're into genital jokes :oook:) and it is clear that they are not doing it for ad revenues.

 

BTW, seems like there is another young British woman doing this thing. Hell, she's even worse than the first one. What an annoying Instagram ho she is.:fp2:

 

I guess if you post a lot of sponsored duckface selfies, stanced dubs and whatnot, you can just simply upload two vids and not even in a month bring 16k thirsty subscribers to your yard.

 

 

P.S.: I bet that Sam (?) did it just for the bj she gave him in exhange for his help, haha.

[CarMadMike]

 

Sigh.

 

Not only is he rather condescending to the country of romania, 'you just wouldn't believe these cars would be here' = 'why are they in this hellhole lololololol'.

 

He walks around a room with like 30 classic Rolls Royces and Bentleys and Mercedes and spends no time on it, but he stops talking about a classic Mercedes to say how nice the 458 Aperta looks from the rear. He almost skipped a classic Bugatti, he skipped the classic Lancias. And then at the end he's like 'LETS GO BACK TO THE LAFERRARI'.

 

He's been in multiple Laferraris, driven them, they're in so many of his videos. Even if he isn't a fan of the classic stuff, why not just admit that? I don't think very highly of him after watching this video.

[The Compensator]

painful to watch. *unsubscribed*

 

--- Post Updated ---

 

Thought this would be interest for you, even though it contains (also) the German language. The vid is from JP performance who I mentioned on the first page. They were in Miami at one guy's home. Well, home, he lives in a church. Tens of cars downstairs, upstairs his living room with baby dolls. Very interesting lifestyle. :lol: