One of my favourite pastimes is watching other people make progress on their wacky build projects on various YouTube channels. I subscribe to literally hundreds of car channels, and these are a few of my favourites to watch right now, you know, while we’re in between Project Binky episodes. Electric swaps, body swaps, engine swaps, and wholesale ground-up builds are totally my jam, and I could watch them all day. Here are a handful of my favourites on the internet right now.
Tesla-Swapped 1950 Jaguar Mark V
Discerning Jalopnik fans will recognise SuperFastMatt from his few months stint as weekend blogger on this very blog, or maybe you’ll know him from the wild motorcycle-powered Honda S600 he built a few years back (and later turned into a hybrid) which is maybe the coolest car project in history.
As much as I loved Matt’s blogs, his project vehicles are even more incredible. His presenting style is filled with dry humour, which I truly appreciate, and his engineering is of a quality I only wish I possessed. The dude has it all. If you’re into motorcycles, you might also appreciate his Honda CBR 250-powered Grom.
A couple of weeks ago, Matt introduced his new project; A Tesla Model 3-powered Jaguar sedan. It’s an unorthodox build, to be sure, but one that I truly appreciate. He’s only three episodes in, but the engineering is coming along quite swimmingly. Seriously, go watch it!
The Stanceworks Honda K24 Turbo-powered Ferrari 308
You might know Mike Burroughs as the guy who built the angry rusty BMW 5-series with a chopped roof over a decade ago. Rusty Slammington was an icon of the car community in its various forms for years, and I have followed this mad scientist’s projects since. Many car enthusiasts will decry his most recent build as sacrilegious, but that’s part of why I love it.
Burroughs is building a time attack Ferrari 308, which in and of itself is awesome. Time attack hasn’t gotten enough attention lately, and I’m glad it’s coming back into vogue. The interesting thing about this one, however, is that it’s going to be powered by a dry-sump Honda K24 with a big ole turbski hanging off the side. How rad is that?
A Cox GTM Mini Supercar
Starting out as a weird fibreglass mid-engine Mini-based sports car built in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Cox GTM here has lived a very hard life, and was once even on fire. A guy from those weird islands to the north of Europe which once controlled like 40 per cent of the world now resides in rural France in a barn he restored, and he’s always loved these weird little sports cars.
This one was beyond salvaging, so he pretty much ditched the whole chassis, built his own chassis, stuck the body on it, and powered it from an old Honda motor. The series started last summer, and is up to 19 episodes now. It’s a great time, and you should follow along. You might learn something.
BMW E39 M5 Wagon
The go-fast Canadians of Speed Academy are always good for a nice car build show. These guys spend their entire lives building ever more interesting cars. Sometimes it’s a mild build with wheels and suspension and an exhaust, but other times it’s a full-on project like this BMW 5-series wagon receiving a drivetrain swap from an M5 sedan.
I’m enthralled by this project, and the level of detail they are willing to go to to get it done. Lots of effort and two whole arse cars have gone into this project, and when they’re done it’ll be a pretty rad fast wagon.
Electric Volkswagen Bus High Roof
If you’re going to subscribe to a van-lifer, FunForLouis isn’t a bad place to start. The guy is clearly one of those modern-day hippie nomads willing to dive into a project headfirst without really knowing what he’s doing, and I appreciate that about him. You’ll spend half of the videos shaking your head at his lack of safety, but it’s been pretty inspirational to me as a wannabe EV hot rodder. If this dude can do it, anyone can!
Thankfully Louis has a lot of help from an electric guru in the shape of Jehu Garcia — who is also worth following, to be quite honest — and a DIY kit from the folks at EV West.
This is a really interesting build, and would make for a classically cool daily driver with a modern powertrain. I dig it.
Any suggestions?
If you have any suggestions of other YouTube build shows to watch, please drop them below. I’m always looking for more!