Hooniverse

Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire stepped off the catamaran and onto our podcast the other day. Our conversation took a meandering course starting with the premise that real luxury is going to mean "handmade." We talked about Matt's Boxster Spyder and Meyers Manx before taking a tack into sailing dinghies on Long Island Sound and the benefits of catamaran tourism. There's a lot of reminiscing from the older fellas, and you might remember the automotive enthusiast web of 2008, too. Come aboard for this shipshape hour!

It's the perfect follow-up to last week's Vault episode with Jonny Lieberman. Ross spent a week with the gas-powered 2026 Dodge Charger R/T Scat Pack, which was a hot topic when they talked last August, too.

In addition to the driving impressions, we talk about the state of the industry amid an absolute storm of fast-moving events. EVs may be dead. Or they may be ready for greatness.

Give it a listen and let us know what we got right and where we struck out. See you in a week!

Like a forgotten board tape from a Grateful Dead show (did Ithaca '77 ever actually happen?) this episode got lost under the seat of the digital Microbus that drives the Hooniverse. Jonny Lieberman joined Ross in August 2025 for a wide-ranging conversation that covered his fledgling Youtube channel Driving With Jonny, the ICE-powered Dodge Charger, wristwatches for all you horologists, and finished up with the Bugatti Mistral and Lamborghini Diablo GT. We'll get Jonny back on soon for a fresh update - drop your thoughts and questions in the comments.

Vaughn Gittin Jr. joins the Hooniverse Podcast to talk about the latest with RTR, and it's a lot. 

We talk about: 

• Restoring his original S13 and 2005 Mustang drift cars
• Factory Mustang RTR and Bronco RTR models straight from Ford
• RTR Spec models and what it takes to build out a specialist manufacturing operation.  

And we finish up with a solid discussion of this year's King of the Hammers experience. 

Check it out, tell your friends! And let us know which RTR Spec vehicle you'd grab. (Spec 5 for me - DR) 

Have you ever spotted a prototype or test mule in the wild?

Ross ran into the Porsche Cayenne EV on a California canyon road. Not literally.

Dan and Ross talk about the encounter that seemed to spook the Porsche drivers, and then move on to the GMC Yukon Denali and finishing with some project Lexus GX and four-wheeling updates.

It all started with a Buick GNX. Dan and Ross catch up in this episode inspired by Hooniverse editorial chatter. And we branch off from there to talk about how nostalgia isn't harmless. While in California, Ross saw a Porsche Cayenne EV test mule up-close while it was in the care of some very shy engineers. Driving impressions include the BMW i7 M70 and Cadillac Lyriq-V.

Dan and Ross chat with Jack and Mark from Savagegeese about their comparison test of the ultra-high performance Corvette ZR1, Mustang GTD, and 911 GT3RS

It was going so well, until that glitch. While the show is cut short, there's still an hour of Ross and Dan talking about project car updates, a couple of things that caught our interest while SEMA news was dropping, and the outlook for EVs. PLUS! we tease the guest for our next episode (their name starts with "S" and rhymes with "savagegeese." That's right, we'll be talking about their three-car test between the hottest Mustang, 911, and Corvette models next time.

On the latest episode of the Hooniverse Podcast, XPEL’s James Melfi and Steve Janisse join to talk PPF and more than you ever thought you wanted to know about window tint films, the technical details and engineering that goes into them, and of course, what the crew is driving and some recent news items. There’s never a shortage of opinions, and you’ll get smart about PPF; talk about a win-win!

Check it out now!

Ross catches up with Patrick Costello, showrunner of the re-booted Ice Road Truckers series