Off-Road Viper, Stolen RX-7 Race Car, Abandoned Corvette Z06: The Best Automotive Videos on YouTube This Week

The New Nissan Z is fairly track-capable right out of the box. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t use a few improvements. Motive Video’s Andrew Hawkins says the factory dampers on the Z are “terrible” and looked to give the car a little better performance, while also lowering the suspension. He takes viewers through the installation of the new streetable coilover suspension to the Z, working with Australian based aftermarket suspension company Shockworks.

You’ve seen it everywhere. From the backs of motorhomes to the rear hatches of family crossovers, “Peeing Calvin” has been around for years. But just where the hell did this thing come from? Phil Edwards details the surprisingly fascinating history of the sticker/meme including its origins Florida football rivalry origins, and how Calvin’s creator really feels about the meme. [Spoiler alert: He’s certainly not thrilled.]

Who would abandon a Corvette Z06? ScrapLife Garage shares the story of how he purchased a C5 Corvette Z06 that the former owner had left behind in a storage unit for over three years. The YouTuber gets it up and running, and eventually ends up modding it.

Did you know that the Denver, Colorado metro area is second in the nation for car thefts? Defined Autoworks found out the hard way. The YouTuber was headed home and trailering his race car, just having been featured on a TV show in Las Vegas, when the trailer got a flat. No repair places were open, so the family was forced to stay in Denver overnight. The truck and trailer were stolen in a matter of hours. Luckily the truck, trailer, and RX-7 were recovered. Not before a harrowing few hours of touch-and-go searching, however.

I’ll remember the Infiniti FX for ushering in the era of the crossover that was decent to drive. This thing shared a platform with the Nissan 350z/Infiniti G35. So it should have been great, right? Not everyone was fond of it. YouTube channel JayEmm on Cars talks about how the FX was doomed from the start.

You’d think a trove of beautifully-maintained and rare Mercedes AMGs from the late 1980s and 1990s would be in Germany. Turns out, something like that does exist, and is thousands of miles away in Tokyo. Dino DC visited Tokyo’s Kanpachi Dori, a road lined with tuner shops of all shapes and sizes. Among those is a tuner shop called J-Auto that specializes in maintaining old AMG models.

Hagerty details the history of BMW’s forgotten supercar, the M1. From its concept car-based design to its straight engine lifted directly from a race car, it all makes you wonder why BMW never really bothered with making something like it again.

Flying around the world to buy one of the most iconic sports cars of all time has to be surreal. Larry Chen did just that as he made his way to Japan to buy one of over 600 Bayside Blue R34 GT-Rs from 1999.

A first gen Viper is already a crazy vehicle to drive (if you don’t know what you’re doing). Turning one into an off-road dune buggy like Desert Runner is even more wild. And fantastic. SuperfastMatt details his latest project as he takes a first gen Viper and turns it into what he calls a “Rally Viper.”

Taking something with a high center of gravity and hooning it on a track or through mountain canyons sounds like dangerous, glorious fun. And it’s fun that’s growing. The Smoking Tire gets into the growing trend of Dajiban: Japanese sportbike racers are throwing sports cars parts on old Dodge Ram Vans and going racing.