Stories, page 3
Buying guides, build advice and opinion from TUNERS: Japanese icons, modern BMW M, drift, Porsche, trucks, bikes and the people who build them.
Is the Tacoma actually unkillable or just well marketed?
Seven upgrades that beat a lift kit on a first build
Eight EVs worth arguing about, ranked by how they drive
Not a ranking of the quickest. A ranking of the ones that hand the driver something to do once the novelty of instant torque has already worn off.
What does turning up the boost actually break?
A rising gauge needle is not the same thing as an engine making power. Here is what happens between another two psi and a rod exiting the block.
How a pit stop wins a race you were already losing
Undercuts, overcuts and track position, explained through a deliberately simplified pit strategy example.
Ranking the supercars the internet decided to forget
The canon has room for roughly three cars a decade. These six were faster, weirder or further ahead than most of the machines that got the posters.
The K-swap won the argument the B-series started
One engine family built the Honda scene. The other one quietly out-engineered it and filled every salvage yard in the country. Only one of them is still the smart buy.
Drift day etiquette: eight ways to be a better paddock neighbour
Preparation, briefing, shared space and predictable behaviour: the habits that make a drift day work for everyone.
How to read a BMW chassis code and actually mean it
E30, F82, S54, N55. The codes look like noise until you learn the pattern, and then a classifieds listing tells you more in eight characters than in three paragraphs.
7 options that decide what a used Porsche is worth
Two identical-looking 911s can sit twelve grand apart on price. The difference is a sticker in the front trunk that most buyers never bother to read.
You already countersteer. Most riders can't explain how
Push the right bar and the bike goes right. Riders who understand why have a lever to pull in the corner they entered too fast.
Cheap diesel pickups: pick the failure you can afford
Every used diesel is priced around a repair somebody else refused to pay for. Cummins, Powerstroke, Duramax, and the specific bill each one hands you.
What breaks after you fit 35s, in the order it breaks
The tires are half the cost of the tires. Gearing, joints, steering, shafts, and brakes all come due, and they come due in a predictable sequence.
Your first EV track day will humble you in six ways
An EV makes a brilliant first track day car and a frustrating third one. Here is everything that goes wrong between lap three and the lunch break.
Fueling a modified engine, from injectors to E85
Most engines that let go on the dyno were starved rather than overboosted. The failure was designed into the fuel system weeks before the tune.
Le Mans decoded: Hypercars, prototypes and GT3 traffic
Hypercar, LMP2 and LMGT3: the three classes at the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans and how to follow them.
Your sports car is not an investment, so drive it
That 11,000-mile garage queen is not preserved. It is quietly rotting from the inside while its owner congratulates himself on the odometer reading.
Flat-plane vs cross-plane: why a Ferrari V8 screams
Two V8s, same displacement, wildly different noise. The difference is one component, and it explains why a Ferrari revs to nine grand and a muscle car does not.
Kaido racers look wrong on purpose. That is the point.
Takeyari exhausts, buck-tooth lips and camber that looks like a broken control arm. None of it is random, and all of it traces back to real 70s race cars.
In defense of the missile car, dents and all
The ugliest car in the paddock is usually the one improving fastest. Fear is the real limiting factor, and a dented fender is the cheapest cure.
N54: Define the Build Before Chasing 400 HP
Define the measurement, diagnose the starting car and match the hardware, fuel and calibration behind an N54 build.
How the IMS bearing became Porsche's most expensive rumor
It killed fewer engines than the internet believes and cost owners more money than any part that small ever should. It also made the 911 affordable.
Nobody should learn to ride on a 600 supersport
The argument has almost nothing to do with top speed. It's about where the power lives, what a dropped fairing costs, and how riders actually get hurt.
How a truck gets four inches lower without getting worse
Drop spindles, flip kits, C-notches and the shock length nobody buys. The mechanical reason some lowered trucks ride great and most of them ride terribly.
Overlanding became a shopping hobby with a roof tent
The gear got years ahead of the trips. Most kitted rigs drive to a campground with cell service, and the best trips are being run in boring vehicles.
The 'EVs have no soul' argument is half right
The complaint is lazy, endlessly repeated, and about forty percent correct. Which is exactly why it will not die, and why both sides keep missing it.
Finish one car. The other two are why you're broke.
Three projects, none running, each one explained in detail to anyone who asks. It is a pattern, it has a cause, and the fix is deeply unpopular.
What a Nürburgring lap record can—and cannot—tell you
Read the category, configuration and timing standard before comparing Nordschleife lap records.
Buying an S2000 without buying someone's mistake
The cheap ones are cheap for a reason. Ten minutes with a scan tool and a flashlight separates a hundred-thousand-mile keeper from a stranger's grenade.
Everything those moving wings are actually doing at 180mph
Downforce costs drag. Active aero is the engineering refusal to choose between them, and it does considerably more than flap a wing on the straights.