Jeepin' Bubba from Black Bear Off-Road (and also a contributor w/ S3) talks about their first SEMA build... and what it took to get a vehicle to The SEMA Show. You can also check out the feature & photos of this Jeep at S3 Mag.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the new VW-owned Scout Motors brand. The SUV is the Traveler, and the pickup is the Terra. VW is bringing Scout back as EV-only. The new Scout has no lineage-connection to its past other than name, design, & nostalgia. But off-roaders should appreciate VW’s effort of body-on-frame construction, mechanical front & rear lo…

We talk about the greatness of motorsports, and why there's kinda become a disconnect between motorsports and the masses. Then again - when we consider how overall 'disconnected' most new cars have become... it kinda tracks.

It's kinda turned into an annual tradition, but Ben Battles (Battles Digital) and I talk about this year's Slammedenuff event in Sevierville (Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg) Tennessee. See I wrestle with a love/hate thing with stance... as in I love the people & energy, but hate the way they're willing to castrate their cars for an Instagram follower. An…

Certain vehicle names carry weight. Whether it was performance, prestige, and/or durability… they earned their stripes in automotive history. For example, you’d have to go to some pretty remote corners of the earth to find someone who’s unfamiliar with iconic names like the Corvette, Mustang, Camaro, Jeep, or 911. Today however, the automotive indu…

Rumor has it: Toyota MR2 and CELICA are coming back. So what's that mean exactly? It means that IF the rumors are true, then Toyota is the most enthusiast-based & spirited car-maker... by a landslide. Rumors are, both the MR2 and the Celica will get 2-liter turbocharged engines - no hybrid, no electrification. And manual transmissions WILL be avail…

Just being real honest here: I have a history of fighting for dying causes. Print magazines, 2-door sports coupes, 2-stroke jet skis, 3-pedal sports cars, 80’s metal, etc. It’s because I put my heart into (and defend) what moves me. And that’s neat & all. But it can also leave me in frustration. So… I was on a boat all this past weekend, and boats …

Restriction is dumb… just do better. You wouldn’t go to the North Pole without a jacket right? So why do some of y’all go out & drive with no skills I swear & barely a pulse? And then try to make laws that slow everybody else down?

Maybe you’ve heard the phrase ‘perfectly imperfect’… but that’s been swimming in my head a lot lately. Try this: Try pulling little moments out of your life, and take the time to realize how perfect ‘imperfect’ can actually be. And also… how boring, disconnected, sanitized, & short-sizzling ‘perfection’ can be honestly. Perfection isn’t always all …

Ford CEO, Jim Farley, is saying that Americans need to adopt a more positive mindset for smaller cars. He's saying this with EVs in mind of course... as electric vehicles are more viable in smaller packages. But a lot of car enthusiasts find his statement super-ironic & slightly-irritating, since it was FORD who killed all their small fun cars (min…

If you DON'T like electric vehicles, you should drive the Genesis GV60. Because here’s the thing: I don’t like EVs either. At least I was pretty convinced I didn’t. But the driving experience of the Genesis GV60 is good enough to make me realize, it’s actually not 'the concept' of an electric vehicle that I don’t like. Rather, it’s 'what they’ve co…

Is was another epic Riverside Meet in Chattanooga. Car enthusiasts come from all over the country for this event. The event is very thoughtfully organized, and very well executed. But this year after the event, the COPS made their presence felt. Was it deserved?

We have guest, Nick Caloroso on the podcast. Nick works in the aftermarket industry, volunteers with SEMA, and has a very soulful/astute way of looking at cars. Yet - Nick manages to keep optimistic hopes for the automotive future. So we dive into that & discuss current automotive trends/designs, EVs & their impact, glory cars of yesteryear, and SE…

In episode 103 of the S3 MAGAZINE podcast, we talk about the magic of golden era Hondas. And when we say 'golden era'... we're referring to roughly the late 80s, through the 90s. At that time, Honda packed a ton of punch. They were innovating spirited-driving assets like VTEC! And they were bringing it to the people affordably! It all helped to cre…

Topic of discussion for this podcast: The 2023 SEMA Show. We discuss positives, negatives, previous years, and a little bit of 'the state of the industry'. How significant manufactures have fallen out of the show. How The SEMA Show is growing & trying to adapt post-covid. Sema Fest (which is SEMA's new music festival). As well as SEMA's efforts to …

Ben Battles came on the podcast to discuss...•The state of Georgia cracking down on JDM cars. Specifically, kei cars & trucks. And gov't overreaching to the point of revoking current titles & registrations (IE: stripping tags & titles on already registered vehicles).•Slammedenuff Gatlinburg. One of the most anticipated (stance) events of the year h…

Me & Frankie Corndoggs had lunch last week. Ironically... hotdogs. Well, I had hotdogs & he had a salad. Anyway Frankie got all worked-up about how he missed having a shitbox rowdy hatchback. The kind that was FUN-pegged the second you pulled out of the driveway. They kind that doesn't try to fit in, or care WTF anybody else thinks. Or base its val…

Legacy car manufactures have been in an all-out race to go EV, but have they all been racing for just 10% of the market? Have EVs hit a ceiling? This EV transition isn’t naturally consumer-driven. Instead, it’s largely government-forced. And therein lies the problem. You are forcing/squeezing people to buy something that many of them don’t want… at…

"Efficiency" has consumed the automotive industry. Perhaps "brainwashed" is a better word. And while efficiency an important measurable & should certainly be the driving-force of SOME models... it doesn't have to be the primary regulating factor in ALL models. So while we all want an efficient vehicle... what's it costing us? And why is there littl…

Now that supply chains are getting back to normal, EVs are starting to stack-up at dealership lots. That's not a great look... considering how much they told us demand & orders for these EVs was off-the-charts. Pay attention to 'the narrative' vs 'the reality' here. And get ready for some backpedaling, incentives, (dare I say fuel price manipulatio…

The Nissan Z is a genuinely exciting new sports car, but that doesn’t matter if the car is not accessible. Nissan Z sales are alarmingly low. The Z has been out for a year now, and total US sales in the first quarter of 2023 were just 466. The Z is not supposed to be an ultra-exclusive sports car. It’s supposed to be a fun & viable alternative to t…

I saw a meme that got me a little triggered. I mean, while I can certainly appreciate some of the truth to it... I also think "you can't have it both ways". Fact - your parents and grandparents were not driving around in cars that practically drove themselves - with infotainment screens & bluetooth & navigation & backup cameras & auto-everything wi…

Here’s our 2-cents on the whole Chelsea Denofa vs Stuke drama from Formula D New Jersey. Personally – I LOVE the fact that Chelsea went off. And I DON’T think he owes anyone an apology… if he doesn’t mean it. Now let me be clear: I don’t have a dog in this fight, I wasn’t in the driver’s seat, and I’m not taking sides. But if you’re not up on the s…

Rivian announced the switch to Tesla's NACS charging connectors. So now Rivian, along with Ford & GM, are about to start using Tesla superchargers. I think we can pretty much call the game for Tesla's NACS at this point, as they are truly becoming 'the standard'. Toyota is continuing to push hard for their GR line in 2024. They're bringing a TRUENO…

We discuss the week's automotive news.•Akio Toyoda stays on board•Land Cruiser returns to USA•GM will switch to Tesla's NACS charging connectors•If the future is in fact EV, we need to start thinking SMALLAll of these articles are on our site (s3mag.com), as well as some killer cars features this week. Please check that out! And you can also get th…

Influential ultra-progressive investors of Toyota are now calling to remove Akio Toyoda from the board entirely at Toyota’s June 14 shareholder meeting. Akio stepped down as CEO on April 1st of this year (replaced by Koji Sato from Lexus), but Akio still remained on the board. AKIO TOYODA IS VIRTUALLY THE ONLY AUTOMOTIVE LEADER…With the courage to …

Wooley drives a Genesis EV press car for a week & it changes his opinions/perspectives a little bit?!! Also - we share some data on 'EV battery failures' now that early EVs like the Nissan Leaf & Tesla Model S pass their 10th birthday. We also briefly hit on the righteous new 2024 Toyota Tacoma.... and talk about another questionable engine failure…

The Rimac Nevera (an EV hypercar) breaks 23 dang speed/performance records in a single day. Very impressive... but also uninspiring. As my old-school buddy put it "If you're breaking records, it need to be dangerous." Meanwhile Rimac's damn test driver was eating an ice cream cone. ALSO - Toyota drops more knowledge & foresight to the automotive in…

Pricing for the new Acura Integra Type S ('DE5' ITS) came out at $51,995. And though we're not surprised... that does hurt our feelings a little bit. Plus - the dealership markups are already in full effect...•Download the free S3 MAGAZINE app• ...and stay up-to-date on car culture news.

Yeah yeah - Riverside is 'just another car show', so what's all the fuss about??? Well... we talk about that. The guest is Ben Battles, and you'll be able to see his photos/coverage on s3mag.com tonight (we'll link you here when it drops).

The WRC (World Rally Championship) is set to make a potential return to the US as soon as 2024. This would mark the 1st time the WRC has been involved in the US in 35 years. And Rally USA’s recent demonstration event in Chattanooga was aimed squarely at the WRC to show them – WE WANT THIS!See the full article on S3 Magazine here: https://s3mag.com/…

Mike was ranting to me that "the daily COVID excuses" are wearing real thin on him. And as he said this, I was literally having a similar thought that: All these dealer markups & 'shortages' have just absolutely WRECKED the automotive industry for buyers. Especially enthusiast buyers. Me personally - I'd much rather go buy a used car that's fair & …

We've begun to see a trend in the data: Where our car enthusiast friends who bought Teslas out of curiosity for ownership experience a few years ago... are getting left a little unfulfilled in the long run, once the honeymoon phase is over. •check out our feee app• for Apple & Android. Called: S3 MAGAZINE…

Man do I need a C5 Corvette ! ? That's both a question AND a declaration lol. Problem is, I've already got way too many cars (a normal person would say)... I don't need it. But when it comes to cars, I'm kinda like Sarah McLachlan is with dogs/cats, and I wanna give them ALL homes... in & around my yard lol. Logic has no place here... yet... there …

We did a throwback on S3 (•check out our free app• S3 MAGAZINE), to a feature we ran on cover 12 years ago. It stirred-up a bunch of nostalgia for the car scene circa 2011, so we decided to talk about how we picked those feature/cover cars back in the day... and 'what it takes' to get your car featured in general.…

Motor Trend Group/Discovery shut down the iconic 'Four Wheeler' mag... and Jeepin Bubba wanted to talk/vent about that 'cause it punched him right in the gut. The roles were reversed a lil bit for this podcast... meaning that Mike & I didn't know exactly what we were gonna be talking about. So hell, it quickly flowed into a conversation about 'medi…

2ViewsJan 252023Tesla has aggressively dropped prices since the first of the year. We talk about the ripple effects it will have on the auto industry.•CHECK OUT OUR FREE APP• (S3 MAGAZINE)

THE CORVETTE WAS ALREADY A SPORTS CAR FOR OLD FARTS..(that doesn't stop me from wanting one) So Chevy went & made a Corvette for even older farts with the E-Ray? Reading between the lines, GM gets a lot of old guys who want to spend as much money as possible on a new Corvette. And up until this point, that’s led them straight into a badass, uncomfo…

AS A WHOLE, the auto industry has gotten really generic, numb, dumb, autonomous, disengaging, sanitized, boring, forgettable, gimmicky, etc, etc. If you love to drive, & you love connecting to the moment... it's irritating to say the least. BUT.... glass-half-full... I'll be darn if there's not some really good driver's cars WITH MANUAL TRANSMISSIO…

Mike knows a little bit about financial matters, so I kinda wanted to get his opinion on what the stock market is saying about Carvana & Tesla these days. How did Carvana get in this situation? Has Elon Musk's attention shifted away from Tesla to Twitter? And/or... is Tesla losing their sweet-spot now that the EV market has exploded & every other c…

In mid-September, Ford announced that all Ford dealerships had until Halloween to decide if they wanted to become ‘EV Certified’. The giant stipulation was – it would cost each Ford dealer roughly $500,000 or $1,200,000… depending on if they wanted to be Tier-1 or Tier-2 certified. And a huge part of that cost is to build-out a public charging infr…

GM came up in the news a couple times this week. First - for backtracking on EVs a lil bit. GM has been very ambitious (aka virtue signal-ish) over the past year or so that they're 'all-in' on EVs... even stating that they would be fully EV by 2035. But at an investor day just before Thanksgiving, GM President Mark Reuss said that they have no inte…

Sometime low-key earlier this year, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) stopped Ebay Motors from selling any automotive products that could be deemed as ’emissions defeating’. That includes aftermarket hardware & software: Tuners, race exhausts, standalone ECUs, air/fuel management devices, etc. Ebay had virtually no choice in the matter, it …

IF YOU SLICED-UP THE BATTERY PACK OF JUST ONE HUMMER EV…You’d probably have enough juice to power 5 little blast-to-drive commuter EVs. That would be a lot less strain on the earth… and isn’t that what this is all about? The answer is no. See if the EV movement was still really about being green, we’d be approaching it a lot differently. A lot less…

This podcast didn't have one specific topic. But rather, everyday it seems we hear about more absolutely dumb & ridiculous news coming from the automotive industry... and it's just hard to watch lol. Here are a couple abbreviated stories from this past week. If you want the full articles, just check out our site (s3mag.com) or download our free app…

Mike posted a video of him & his son listening to the race cars at Petit Lemans during night practice (they live close enough to the track to hear the cars). And some commenter said - they won't stop until they take ALL our internal combustion cars & close ALL the racetracks. Something along the lines of, "He will violate all our cars"?? I dunno th…

We brought our good buddy, Ben Battles, to come on the podcast & describe the vibe of Slammedenuff in Gatlinburg TN. Ben has shot (& written) NUMEROUS features for S3 MAG over the years. He's got a really good/informative TikTok channel @thegamblercivic ...so be sure to check that out. If you're in the market, Ben can also source unique/eclectic ve…

Looking at what happened during this bootleg-version of H2Oi in Wildwood, it's glaringly obvious that we have a severe culture problem in this country... and now it's spilling over into car culture. What we saw in Wildwood was not ‘a little disruptive,’ it was totally destructive. There’s a difference.Historically, hot-rodding culture has always be…

Our opinion - Ford nailed it. The S650 Mustang seems to be everything it needs to be. Enough to offset the 'soft side of Ford' that we've been seeing too much of lately with all the EV stuff. It's given the Ford-loyal enthusiasts something to be proud of.One argument - is that Ford already ruined the Mustang by using the name on that sad 4-door ele…

There's no official 'news topic' here. Just a regular conversation. It hit me the other day... what happened to all the golden era-Hondas?! For like 20+ years, those things ran the streets pretty commonly. But they've really vanished over the last few years or so. I guess they finally aged out. And that got me thinking... this current 'bags/fitment…