Stories, page 2
Buying guides, build advice and opinion from TUNERS: Japanese icons, modern BMW M, drift, Porsche, trucks, bikes and the people who build them.
Two Wheels, One Obsession
Off the Grid: Overlanding Basics
Suspension 101: Getting Stance Right
Ride height, clearance, alignment and travel: what a considered stance setup needs beyond the photograph.
S65 rod bearings: the panic, the facts, and the fix
Forum threads treat the E9x M3's V8 like a grenade with a timer. The real mechanism is duller, cheaper to manage, and worth understanding before you shop.
Aero That Actually Works
How to think about aerodynamic balance, evidence and the tradeoffs behind a useful aero package.
What a Porsche PPI must cover before you hand over cash
A pre-purchase inspection is the cheapest insurance in car buying, and it is the first thing people skip when they get excited. Do not skip it.
Chain, tires, valves: the jobs that decide how long a bike lasts
Bikes rarely die of old age. They die of a $15 job deferred until it turns into a $900 one, and the chain is where it always starts.
Stop quoting your tow rating and read the payload sticker
Your truck's tow rating was measured on a stripped regular cab with one driver. The yellow sticker in your door jamb is the number that actually ends your weekend.
Selectable, automatic, welded: which locker earns its money
An open diff sends torque to the wheel with no grip. Everything else in your build is downstream of fixing that, and lift kits do not fix it.
One motor, two motors, three: what each layout does
Two EVs with identical power figures can drive nothing alike. Motor count and placement decide more about the car than the horsepower number ever will.
Your engine swap will cost more than the engine
A used motor is the cheapest line on the invoice. Mounts, wiring, cooling and paperwork are what turn a weekend swap into a two-year stall on jack stands.
Eight advances that made motorsport safer
Eight advances in protection and circuit design, and why no single device makes motorsport risk-free.
Chassis balance, explained without the physics lecture
Fifty-fifty weight distribution does not make a car neutral. Here is what actually decides which end of your car gives up first, and how to move it.
What a used Ferrari V8 actually costs to keep on the road
The 360, F430 and 458 are the realistic used Ferraris. Here is where the money truly goes, and why the more expensive one is often the cheaper one to own.
How a car goes from a Japanese auction block to your driveway
A US-focused guide to eligibility, documentation, shipping and the checks that belong before a bid.
How judges actually score angle, line, and style
Most grassroots drivers train the one thing judges care about least. Line, angle, style and proximity, explained by what actually loses points.
The BMW parts that fail like clockwork, and what they cost
Almost every horror story about German ownership is the same seven components in a different order. Learn the list and the horror story stops being yours.
Three Porsche budgets and the smart move at each one
Every Porsche budget has one obvious car and one smarter one. They are rarely the same car, and the gap between them is your running-cost fund.
Why a triple feels different from a four, and a twin from both
Two bikes with identical horsepower can feel like different sports. The reason is firing intervals, and it decides which one you should buy.
What 200,000 miles on a half-ton actually means
High mileage stopped being the deal-breaker years ago. Idle hours, frame rot and one bad engine family will end a truck long before the odometer does.
Solid axle or IFS comes down to how fast you plan to go
Toyota went from beam axles to independent front suspension on purpose. The right answer depends entirely on whether your weekends are ledges or washboard.
NMC or LFP: the battery spec that decides your road trip
Two EVs with the same range badge can behave nothing alike on a long drive. The reason is three letters on a spec sheet almost nobody bothers to read.
Springs, Dampers and the Stance You Can Actually Use
Understand the kit, preserve usable travel and document the setup behind the finished stance.
Downforce, dirty air and what replaced DRS in 2026
Downforce and wake effects, plus the active aero and electrical overtaking system that replaced DRS for F1 in 2026.
Why one rear tire lights up and how the diff fixes it
One spinning wheel, one doing nothing, and a lot of noise. That is your open diff working exactly as designed, and every LSD is an answer to it.
Eight supercar repair bills that cost more than a clean Miata
None of these are freak failures. They are scheduled, documented, entirely predictable events, and every one of them costs more than a sorted NA Miata.
2JZ-GTE: Build the Engine, Not the Myth
Factory specifications, turbo selection and the records behind a considered 2JZ-powered street build.
Buying a Used BMW: Price the Whole Build
Inspect the exact car, read the service history and price the work before committing to your next BMW build.
Every 911 generation ranked by what your money buys
Nine ways to buy a 911, sorted by driving returned per dollar rather than badge value. The winner is the generation everyone spent years mocking.
What your bike's IMU is doing while you're busy riding
Six axes, hundreds of samples a second, and one very fast opinion about whether you meant to do that. Here is where the safety net ends.