Square Eyes – Five Online Car Shows You NEED to Watch

Television is great, but it is limited. You can’t make content for TV on a whim or because you think a few people might like it. There are focus groups, there is market research, there is a need to be succinct when you might not want to be, and there is a need to dumb things down when you may personally think it may be a tad insulting to do so. Take a look at the monster that is Wheeler Dealers. It’s a great show, and many of us enjoy it, but we’re sure that like us, you find bits of it to be a bit… egg-sucky. This isn’t because the producers think we’re daft. It’s because TV has to be a broad church that focuses on inclusion, not exclusion. Car TV shows have to lean into entertainment as much as they do information. Online, however, that’s not the case.

Online, you can do what you want, within reason. And people the world over have jumped at the chance to produce content that other enthusiasts can enjoy as enthusiasts. And that’s what we want, right? We want car content that we can enjoy, but that embraces what we know. Shows that cater to our passions. And today, thanks to everyone having cutting-edge cameras in their phones, and access to brilliant editing software, most of the stuff out there is produced to a really good quality. You can, quite happily, stream this stuff to your TV and binge on it for hours. Online is the new TV, trust us.

With that in mind, we have rounded up five of our favourite YouTube channels, through which you will be able to satiate your every motoring desire. From restorations to barn finds to drives, there is something for everyone. So, pop into the kitchen, make yourself some popcorn and then settle in for some quality viewing.

1) Roadkill

Roadkill is the embodiment of what we’re talking about here. It was just a simple idea when it started; car content for the sake of car content. No fake jeopardy, no deadlines, no ‘if we don’t sell it for xxx we’ll lose the shop’ nonsense. It was just two guys from Hot Rod Magazine that wanted to make car content that would speak to real world enthusiasts, that’s what they have done. Now in its tenth season, Roadkill has become a juggernaut of content. From junk yard rescues to road trips to project car shoot outs, it has it all. And it’s all real. Fixing cars in the snow, at the side of the road? Yes. Dealing with the trials presented by driving a long forgotten car thousands of miles? Indeed. Laughs along the way? So, so many. You can find early episodes on YouTube, where as the later stuff is on Amazon via the Motortrend app.

2) M539 Restorations

Sreten, the young man behind M539 (that’s for BMW M5 E39 in case you were wondering) is a glowing example of how good car content can be. It’s all self-shot and edited, it’s all done by Sreten on his own, but he does it with thought and care and the result is a now brimming back catalogue of content. It is of course all based around BMWs, as the name would suggest. It’s great content though. Informative, full of the kind of progress that will motivate you to work on your own car and it’s also rather amusing, too (Sreten does an excellent line of amusing squeals when things go wrong). This channel has now become Sereten’s full-time job, and it’s not hard to see why? He’s a proper car guy, and he makes content to educate, to entertain and to motivate.

3) Project Binky

You really, really should be aware of Project Binky. If not, what rock have you been living under? Rich and Nic, the ever-whirring brains behind the channel, set about a quick build; throw the running gear from a Celica GT4 into a classic Mini. It was not, is still not a quick project, as it’s still ongoing. But we’re glad it is. The workmanship on display here, the engineering and their ability to overcome the seemingly impossible makes for addictive viewing. They have not built a car, they have built a tour de force of engineering and of design. It has four-wheel drive, it has air-conditioning, it has an unhealthy amount of power thanks to the ‘safety turbo’ and it has the best paint job seen this side of, well, anything really. It’s a brilliant channel, and we promise you that you’ll fall in love with it.

4) AMMO NYC

You would never get a TV commissioned on the basis of it being about nothing more than cleaning cars, but that’s exactly what there is no shortage of online. There is a thirst for online content that not only satisfies our need to see something transformed, but that also teaches us how to do it ourselves. At the top of the detailing game has to be Larry, who owns and operates AMMO NYC, a detailing studio based out of New York. His videos are varied, and all the better for it. You might watch a multi-million pound supercar get a freshen up, or it might be a barn find Datsun Z with a mere 800 miles on clock. He’s even done detailing videos on scrap cars, so as to better show us just how powerful a good detailing session can be. And Larry never gatekeeps. He spills his knowledge forward in the hopes that we may perfect the skill ourselves. Impressive stuff.

5) Vice Grip Garage

Man alive, we love Derek of Vice Grip Garage. On paper, the videos shouldn’t work. In fact, they could almost be dismissed as being tedious. Just one man, in a field, for an hour, trying to get an old Cadillac running? Dull, right? Except it’s not. The cars are the backdrop to Derek, here. He’s incredibly funny to watch; a man so laden with catchphrases he could make Mr. Chips look illiterate. He’s out there, in the (literal) field with nothing but a can of easy start and a set of spanners, and more often than not, he gets these old wrecks going and then drives them home. Some cars make the one appearance. Others, like Betty White, the Cadillac, get many videos in which more work and improvement is carried out. It’s real, proper, dirt under your nails fun and the online world is all the better for it. This is one of the best channels out there, as his 950k subscribers would no doubt attest. 

And don’t forget, of course… 

6) Car & Classic 

It would be remiss of us to not put our own channel in here, so do please have a look and feel free to smash that ‘subscribe’ button, as per online parlance. We’ve been quiet on there, what with the pandemic and whatnot. But we have lots of stuff planned, so it’s one to keep eye on. Until we do get some new content on there, there is still plenty to watch. From barn finds, farms finds, car review and feature pieces. And there is a lot, lot more to come. We promise!