James May's Favorite Dirt Car is a Miata That's Been Modified to the Point Where it's No Longer Comfortable to Sit In

So, this truck has been modified to the point where it's really not comfortable to sit in. It's not just a matter of adding some spoilers and a hood scoop, either - we're talking full-on racing modifications here. The seats have probably been replaced with something much more supportive, but they've likely also been ripped out of any kind of comfort or ergonomic consideration. This is a truck that's designed for speed, not for everyday driving.

As James May himself notes, the focus on performance has meant that some concessions to comfort and practicality were sacrificed in the process. "Pretty standard," he says with a shrug, which suggests that this is just what you'd expect from a racing vehicle like this one. The interior is likely stripped out as much as possible, with minimal amenities or luxuries to weigh down the car.

Despite its unassuming appearance, this truck has clearly been the subject of some serious work and attention over the past couple of months. "A ton of work," James says with a nod, which suggests that this isn't just a casual hobby or weekend project - but something more serious. Whether or not it's worth the effort is anyone's guess.

It turns out that one of the people working on this truck has some experience with lowriders - and found it to be relatively slow compared to their usual ride. However, James seems unimpressed by the comparison: "Pretty responsive," he says, which suggests that he's more interested in the performance capabilities of this truck than its practicality.

As for sitting in the truck itself, James seems willing to give it a try - and is impressed by how well it handles on the road. However, he does mention that there are some issues with balance and responsiveness: "It feels like you've got to really get into it," he says, which suggests that this truck is not going to be easy to drive every day.

For those interested in getting behind the wheel of one of these trucks, James offers a tantalizing glimpse of what's possible - but also warns that there are some practical considerations to keep in mind. With two more rounds of "high-low drag" racing on the horizon, it seems likely that we'll see even more extreme modifications in the coming months.

As for the cars themselves, there's no shortage of excitement and interest. The Miata, with its gold-plated wheels and sleek design, is certainly a head-turner - but so too are the high-tech, cutting-edge drag cars that James has been working on. With skinnies and slicks aplenty, these trucks promise to be some serious performers on the track.

One thing's for sure: with all of this horsepower and performance capability at their disposal, these drivers are in for a wild ride - and it's hard not to get caught up in the excitement of it all. Whether or not we'll see them take the track by storm remains to be seen, but one thing's for certain: with James May's love of absurdly modified cars on full display, this is going to be an event to remember.

The cars themselves are a mixed bag - while they're certainly interesting to look at, some of them seem to be more like glorified toy boxes than actual vehicles. However, as the modifications and upgrades begin to take shape, it's clear that these drivers mean business. With their track days looming on the horizon, the stakes will be high - but with a lineup of cars this impressive, the competition is sure to be fierce.

As James May himself puts it: "It's whoever's car blows up first is the loser," which suggests that there's no room for error or complacency in this world. Will these drivers emerge victorious from their battles on the track? Only time will tell - but one thing's for certain: we'll be watching with bated breath as they take to the racing scene.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwe've built a lot of cars here at donut over the years but which one is the best according to this man well I need to come clean I wore this t-shirt today deliberately standard standard is sort of my thing you modify cars yes I I I return them to standard you might not like them that's all I'm trying to say you might not like them I'll keep an open mind okay thank you and along the way we're going to find out what's going on with our Fleet back here I know you guys have been asking about them we got some new stuff in the back too the very end so let's get into it well I can I can tell you straight away viewers that this one is brok this is in progress so first up we got our Hyo Z's the first project cars on donut this one was built using very cheap parts that one over there is built using very expensive parts we wanted to see if spending more money was worth it you decided that the front bumper wasn't worth it right now we've got a A bash bar in the front for drifting drifting you might also realize or recognize this is not a vq35 no I did recognize that this is a lq9 truck motor from a Chevy 1500 or Cadillac Escalade it's got a lot of torque oh yeah yeah lot of lot of Grunt in this thing this is very very easy to get sliding not so easy to keep sliding I find that a lot but when you say cheap parts do you mean second hand stuff well so yes this engine we got from a salvage yard but you know the things like the the engine mounts the suspension that body kit on that car cost I want to say like $3,000 whereas the one that was on the front here was somewhere around 500 I want to say was less than a thousand everything on here is cheap but works do you like 350 Z's I do okay when they're standard yeah this one's not I'm not a mad fan of drifting if I'm honest it smells terrible Tire smoke is a acquired taste yeah it's not one that I've acquired even after many years what look um there's not a lot of room we did try to maybe but so we just got a little hole in the hood I do want to revisit that I'm going to ask you a very important question okay does that Wing do anything apart from look great no but it looks cool right so this is the same thing but done with Posh bits yes yes so LS3 crate engine I think it makes 450 horsepower this car has been very temperamental over the years we finally have it in a place where it will start up every time nope drive shaft broke that's right we did break that yeah Adam broke that it's weird that you say these things because the standard Nissan is a really really reliable car it's an amazing car you built this one after that one at the same time the exact same time but you clearly learned from that one because in this one the engine is inside the car which she's got that right which is a massive advance and I love your slogan cars are pain cuz that's absolutely true isn't it this car I think embodies that the best when you buy a bunch of expensive Parts in with high car when you start putting other expensive things in combination with already expensive they don't like each other so you made it difficult for yourselves that's true that's fair enough is that a wait a minute who put a Dragon Ball shifter in here here how long's that been there I don't know if you had to pick which one would you take I think I'm going to go cheap compos really it's got a sort of honest Homespun slightly knocked up yeah yes you know I haven't got that much money to spare sort of vibe which I I of quite admire yeah that's kind of the the glory of low team thank you what is that I'm this yeah you want to know about my car huh yeah uh it's a it's a Chrysler Imperial it doesn't quite run right now right do you know what I think would be quite cool with this I'm speaking as an outsider so you can tell me to sld off but I think get that engine working MH really well anything else you need to do to make it run fabulously and reliably but keep it looking like that absolutely the goal cuz that would be just yes I tremendous thank you if you watch donut then you know we love today's sponsor borla let's go with their patented Technologies borla exhaust systems deliver the perfect sound and Cutting Edge performance every system is crafted from highgrade stainless steel designed in California manufactured in Tennessee borla stands behind their americanmade quality with a million mile warrant with a wide range of tips finishes and customization options Bor makes an exhaust system for every kind of vehicle from sports cars and trucks from JDM to Pure American Muscle donut believes cars are for everyone and boret believes badass exhaust are for everyone and trust me they mean everyone so if you want to hear and feel the difference of Boral exhaust makes on your car click the link below you're going to want one of these a this is one of our mx-5s our Miata here this is The Money Pit Miata a track focused build we've got a roll bar it's got super sticky tires great suspension pretty much anything that you could do to this car our buddy Zach job did to this car we ran out of things to do with it pretty much we got to the point where we're making it spit Flames out of the exhaust but this thing's making about 250 horsepower at the wheels it's a very quick car so I had one of these actually years ago it was actually a mark 2 so after they got rid of the popups and it was in many ways the perfect small Roadster I mean it was powerful enough without being intimidating it was beautifully balanced fabulous gear change excellent throttle response all those things you want in a in a fun little car yeah and you you've spoiled it well it does all those things slightly I mean better is subjective but uh it does make it quite faster reliable and it's been Rel I mean I'm actually surprised how I think out of all the cards here it hasn't had too many issues I mean this is one that you could just fire right up and drive out of here this is the one that most people borrow on the weekends so what is the current situation with the money pit Miata it is over boosting a little bit giving it a little bit more spice on the top end it's not terrible and so we've chosen not to fix it yeah right would you ever think about painting what we would call the wings that is kind of the last thing that needs to be done to The Money Pit how about James gin Livery since you know that's why I'm here really James you're in town to promote your gin James Jin available from James gy.com it's a started as a hobby and it's in danger of turning into a viable business and to be honest a responsibility let's move on to our high and low Tacomas hey stop Z same methodology as the Z's with these two trucks here this one is built with cheap parts this one very expensive low Tacoma here very mild build I would say suspension lift has a locking rear differential for better off-roading few KC lights on there and a handmade bumper this truck right here has really become the Workhorse of donut we use it all the time uh for shoots we'll load it up with a bunch of gear in the back you've embraced the accepted abbreviation here cuz I used have a toy was always the Y that's right or you can you can actually take it all the way down to just yo I would love to we're not going to pop the hood because it's bone stock what you mean almost as if Toyota know what they're doing right right weird this almost looks presentable this looks complete it's got shiny paintwork it's been recently waxed and detailed and everything like that what's that uh this was a Kendall he's been sunburned a little bit got a little bit of sunburn kind of an Easter egg so yeah I mean this thing again has a lot of uh very sophisticated off-roading equipment on it it has the locking differential like we mentioned on low truck but this one this is on an air system it's an air pneumatic system and it's front and rear lockers so it's pretty much Unstoppable in a lot of places as long as it has the wheel articulation to go through it it'll do it this is one of the best I think off-roaders I've ever driven yeah have you had the email from Toyota saying hey we'd love to do this to our production cars can you send us the details I'm just going to stand back and have a look at it cuz I'm not really a pickup kind of bloke what I like about that if I may say so is you haven't overdone the wheels the wheels are actually quite modest for a truck with that much lift that's nice cuz you haven't you know gone mad yeah I'm going to say that that's acceptable I think that's quite tidy you need to sort out the badging on this side cuz you haven't done it yeah it needs to be Yoda wow what's that it's basically a golf cart yeah we bought this on Alibaba for $2,000 and then we shipped it to the US which cost another $3 or $4,000 uh yeah I think total it was around $88,000 for something we can't drive on the but then obviously we modified it and it does not work it comes under cute Machinery yes doesn't it a bit like a Japanese k i I like it not a single full weld it's all tack so yeah this is all the this came like this this was not our doing oh that's how it comes yes oh sorry I thought you'd done that no unfortunately this thing doesn't drive anymore because our Buddy Henry was working on it and cut through the wiring harness that's risky yeah is he still with us let's move on to a car that I actually really really really like it's our E36 3 Series drift car it started out as a rally car everybody loves the E36 yeah what is it about the E36 I mean I like them as a standard car uh I would say it's a very uh balanced and forgiving platform uh when we had the original engine in there it didn't have the most power in the world but it was a car that you could get sliding pretty easily but it let you kind of get away with making some mistakes when you're drifting it's just a very well balanced platform yeah they as it used to fit a straight six and with that we actually also put our own version of a straight 6 which is a 2J uh out of a super motor any let's have a look oo you've made use of all the available space that's right yeah I mean you can't really put anything more in here this thing screams it sounds amazing now the power is there too Adam how much were we making so we made 600 horsepower to the wheel wow and you'll notice we also put wide body fenders on here looks like you fitted them with scissors yeah that would be the tire yeah that looks very nice though you done a very nice job on that thank you that's lovely this is missing so you lose points in a concore for that and this it's a really great car it's one of my favorites here all right up next we have the higho wrx's the Orange is High car the blue is low car we took cheap parts put it on this one took expensive parts put on that one and we got two time attack track cars that you can also drive on the street so yes these are street legal I like the color of this I like the color of that as well actually but that's the that's the cheap one yes this is the cheap one for the first time the cheap one looks better highx is running 4 50 horsepower or something along those lines it's got all the expensive Parts it's got a Garrett turbo it's got a good radiator we blew up a couple Motors this is six this is seven right uh and we blew up the 5-speeds in both of them but this one's really good and not broken I like the color scheme I mean it'd be nice if it was all the same when we wrap cars the sun just destroys them and particularly the orange too I don't know what's been going on but it's been really it looked great a month ago and now well you know it's a weird thing but orange paint it would seem Fades quicker than others because Honda had that problem with all their repsold bikes the orange paint goes pale I do like these I mean I like a Scooby-Doo I think they're great but it's weird back home these have a reputation the engines especially for being essentially unburstable and yet you've got through seven I'm just going to say it because they don't want to you got through seven yeah seven it's a lot different here everyone's going for a lot of power it's a long story I mean I can run it down really quick for you I think I'll get the gist of it so this car currently is not running because we have an aftermarket intercooler system on it and it was a little cheaper and I think the flange was warped on the blowoff valve and it blew off at the track so we need to get that replaced so apart from it not working it's great yeah yeah okay get it all right this is our mer band right here it's uh not too spectacular except for the uh the suspension we lowered it and put some uh racing wheels on it did like the kind of Japanese doib Bon Style on this that looks pretty um pretty regular pretty standard yeah yeah it's not it it's cool it's got the standard V8 in it uh we did a little bit of fun things to the exhaust so have you done that we put a valve on the exhaust uh right after the cat so that it just dumps it out the side so when we want to be loud we could be loud and when we don't need to be loud it's quiet as a mouse it's only what Ferrari does yeah yeah yeah that's good good color as well I'm doing a quick tot up of all the cars we've looked at so it's so far one of them is working true the Tacomas working Tacomas oh and the van on to the next one that works well it's a Honda of course it works even with the attention of you guys it still works that's a measuring well we love this car we're trying to take really take care of it so this Civic right here we uh approached with the mindset of just buying some of the most ridiculously overpriced parts available for a Civic and putting them all in one car this car cost us originally $500 I love this car it's do you find with these things that you start off with a you know Noble intentions and a good idea I mean the idea of taking a an essentially very excellent car this Honda as you say perfectly balanced very very well engineered and thought out and then you think I'll tweak it a bit so you usually start with something on the suspension or the wheels yes and then you get a bit sort of consumed by it and then you go a bit too far the point of no return with this car I think was the the itbs right here with that stock manifold that was on the K20 it started up great you never had to worry about warming it up or anything like that and it was just a turnkey take anywhere do anything kind of car now it's just not the same do you think you need someone in your organization whose job is simply to come in and say enough I will say we did stop ourselves from turbocharging this car which I think would have made it even worse you thought of producing like a really definitive book forus called like how to make your car worse by donut yeah I mean we've thought that's a really good idea actually yes I mean I'd read that I that'd be fantastic could have you start with pictures of these as you bought them or as they're supposed to look you know when they came out of the factory it's a good idea James how we f it up I don't know it's good though I mean it's it's very admirable it's very I mean this is unique think you would enjoy driving this one it's a very very good car very easy to drive have you ever thought for a moment I mean I realize you're doing this for your channel and so on which is great but if you take all these cars in here and all the money you've spent on them buying them modding them the cost of all the parts yeah what could you have instead of I mean have you got have you got an Aventador in here or more yeah I think I think so I'm sure you must be I've never thought of it actually like that yeah I mean you probably could have an Aventador we sold all our cars for an Aventador well instead of buying anent Vador James we bought oh wow this guy right here I can see you were on the horns of a dilemma Aventador or this that's right well I have difficulty with this because these were sold in Britain and it's a very very unpopular and very widely mocked car yeah same here I mean mainly because it was seen I don't want you to take this the wrong way but it was seen as a car for British people who wished they were American and lived in LA in the 1950s basically and that's that's a bit sad so great difficulty looking at it and not thinking yeah oh hi Jimmy I'm also a Jimmy James nice to meet you and you so Jimmy I built this Beast Jimmy spearheaded this car a very widely mocked car for sure in American culture but sold incredibly well at the time over here but we wanted to kind of explore the remains of the PT Cruiser community at large join some clubs infiltrate their clubs why they bought so many of them Jimmy kind of decided that we would build it in a more kind of Japanese JDM tuner inspired Direction so hang on just before we move on it's not turbocharged you haven't put a different engine in there's no side pipes or no just a just a bolt on exhaust this is dog slow yes or is it got or has it got nitrous in the back oh oh I've seen the sticker no I've seen the sticker s I'm cheating oh there you go that's luggage wanted to see how much nitrous a stock PT Cruiser engine could take before blowing up and Jimmy oh uh 100 shot one run on 100 shot 100 horsepower boost that's pretty clean 100 horsepower boost I know it's pretty yeah the plastic intake manifold exploded and that's that wait a minute I've seen one of these before our $500 Ford Ranger that we have extensively modified same philosophy as the Civic all the most expensive Parts into one car this is a a desert racer we're going to be taking this out to enata Mexico in a few months here the only stock pieces left really on this whole truck is the grill assembly up front and the cab everything else has been modified on this truck so this is a buggy really isn't it pretty much yeah yeah there's no concession to comfort or or uh trm well this is a full race vehicle at the point you know so it's pretty standard who are your neighbors you've got more you got more inside more cars oh oh look welcome clean tiny things this is another MX5 oh those Wheels w strong yes Jimmy how about you flip a switch all right whoa you do that at the traffic lies and that gets the chicks that basically well has it yeah I'd say so okay Jimmy and Phil here and uh a few other people put a ton of work into this thing over the past couple months it's Unique yeah is did y'all ever have any experience with low riders no we never really I mean I did I did have a going one once it was something enormous I can't American usually are classic American yeah it was it was a yank type thing and it didn't bounce as quickly as that it was relatively slow that's very responsive do you mind if I sit in it and see what it's like to switches which one is which so you've got front yeah back side on the left side the ra okay so I've pulled up at the lights yeah exactly okay and there's someone interesting there alongside so just hi that's front that's back oh I see what you mean it's a little touch isn't it you got to really and then side to side does it just whoa up there you go there you go so I can go front down right on the oh sorry I've overd done it there you go you look good in that thing James yeah man yeah I think it's me I could get used to that what does it actually drive like though I mean actually it drives pretty well you feel the road a lot it's not quite level which is bothering me hang on I like anything with gold wheels yeah it looks pretty cool yeah three marine batteries oh jeez that would drive the car probably where'd you put your luggage maybe like a uh a trunk rack yeah like on an old mg or something we get a goldplated sounds sick actually road trip we've got two last cars for you Jan they're not very spectacular right now but they will be in a couple weeks we got our high low drag Mustangs right here this is High car this is all the expensive Parts be going into this one Justin he's on high team this time around yeah so so far the tires aren't on there but this is running slicks all the way around for drag racing just like the wrx's the Z's Tacomas this is our next round of high low here we're going to be building some drag cars yeah but we just got started as you can see the only mod on here right now is the wheel and tire on the back that's a a street radial drag tire so it's a street legal drag slick basically and you're going to have a race when you're both done yes straight off race between these two cars yes yep m i I'm really really excited so there's the front slick those are nice yeah these are called skinnies that's like the optional ones you get on the on the uh Dodge yeah yeah this is really a competition it's whoever's car blows up first is the loser how long's it going to take couple what like 3 months yeah three months could be Christmas special could be feels like Christmas at least so yeah that does it uh for all of our cars which one's your favorite uh I think the Miata I think it is you know cuz it's it's sort of I mean it's ridiculous but it's it's funny you know I quite like cars with with a sense of humor and I think well the meow has got one anyway and it's definitely got one with that and anything with gold wheels is just acceptable I think all right there you have it James May's favorite dut car is the low rider Miata which honestly great choice I I love that thing as well thank you and uh James one more time with your Jin James gy.com dude thank you very much James that's been really great it was a pleasure to meet you really good all right if you want to see us down these cars click right here we'll see you next time thanks soonwe've built a lot of cars here at donut over the years but which one is the best according to this man well I need to come clean I wore this t-shirt today deliberately standard standard is sort of my thing you modify cars yes I I I return them to standard you might not like them that's all I'm trying to say you might not like them I'll keep an open mind okay thank you and along the way we're going to find out what's going on with our Fleet back here I know you guys have been asking about them we got some new stuff in the back too the very end so let's get into it well I can I can tell you straight away viewers that this one is brok this is in progress so first up we got our Hyo Z's the first project cars on donut this one was built using very cheap parts that one over there is built using very expensive parts we wanted to see if spending more money was worth it you decided that the front bumper wasn't worth it right now we've got a A bash bar in the front for drifting drifting you might also realize or recognize this is not a vq35 no I did recognize that this is a lq9 truck motor from a Chevy 1500 or Cadillac Escalade it's got a lot of torque oh yeah yeah lot of lot of Grunt in this thing this is very very easy to get sliding not so easy to keep sliding I find that a lot but when you say cheap parts do you mean second hand stuff well so yes this engine we got from a salvage yard but you know the things like the the engine mounts the suspension that body kit on that car cost I want to say like $3,000 whereas the one that was on the front here was somewhere around 500 I want to say was less than a thousand everything on here is cheap but works do you like 350 Z's I do okay when they're standard yeah this one's not I'm not a mad fan of drifting if I'm honest it smells terrible Tire smoke is a acquired taste yeah it's not one that I've acquired even after many years what look um there's not a lot of room we did try to maybe but so we just got a little hole in the hood I do want to revisit that I'm going to ask you a very important question okay does that Wing do anything apart from look great no but it looks cool right so this is the same thing but done with Posh bits yes yes so LS3 crate engine I think it makes 450 horsepower this car has been very temperamental over the years we finally have it in a place where it will start up every time nope drive shaft broke that's right we did break that yeah Adam broke that it's weird that you say these things because the standard Nissan is a really really reliable car it's an amazing car you built this one after that one at the same time the exact same time but you clearly learned from that one because in this one the engine is inside the car which she's got that right which is a massive advance and I love your slogan cars are pain cuz that's absolutely true isn't it this car I think embodies that the best when you buy a bunch of expensive Parts in with high car when you start putting other expensive things in combination with already expensive they don't like each other so you made it difficult for yourselves that's true that's fair enough is that a wait a minute who put a Dragon Ball shifter in here here how long's that been there I don't know if you had to pick which one would you take I think I'm going to go cheap compos really it's got a sort of honest Homespun slightly knocked up yeah yes you know I haven't got that much money to spare sort of vibe which I I of quite admire yeah that's kind of the the glory of low team thank you what is that I'm this yeah you want to know about my car huh yeah uh it's a it's a Chrysler Imperial it doesn't quite run right now right do you know what I think would be quite cool with this I'm speaking as an outsider so you can tell me to sld off but I think get that engine working MH really well anything else you need to do to make it run fabulously and reliably but keep it looking like that absolutely the goal cuz that would be just yes I tremendous thank you if you watch donut then you know we love today's sponsor borla let's go with their patented Technologies borla exhaust systems deliver the perfect sound and Cutting Edge performance every system is crafted from highgrade stainless steel designed in California manufactured in Tennessee borla stands behind their americanmade quality with a million mile warrant with a wide range of tips finishes and customization options Bor makes an exhaust system for every kind of vehicle from sports cars and trucks from JDM to Pure American Muscle donut believes cars are for everyone and boret believes badass exhaust are for everyone and trust me they mean everyone so if you want to hear and feel the difference of Boral exhaust makes on your car click the link below you're going to want one of these a this is one of our mx-5s our Miata here this is The Money Pit Miata a track focused build we've got a roll bar it's got super sticky tires great suspension pretty much anything that you could do to this car our buddy Zach job did to this car we ran out of things to do with it pretty much we got to the point where we're making it spit Flames out of the exhaust but this thing's making about 250 horsepower at the wheels it's a very quick car so I had one of these actually years ago it was actually a mark 2 so after they got rid of the popups and it was in many ways the perfect small Roadster I mean it was powerful enough without being intimidating it was beautifully balanced fabulous gear change excellent throttle response all those things you want in a in a fun little car yeah and you you've spoiled it well it does all those things slightly I mean better is subjective but uh it does make it quite faster reliable and it's been Rel I mean I'm actually surprised how I think out of all the cards here it hasn't had too many issues I mean this is one that you could just fire right up and drive out of here this is the one that most people borrow on the weekends so what is the current situation with the money pit Miata it is over boosting a little bit giving it a little bit more spice on the top end it's not terrible and so we've chosen not to fix it yeah right would you ever think about painting what we would call the wings that is kind of the last thing that needs to be done to The Money Pit how about James gin Livery since you know that's why I'm here really James you're in town to promote your gin James Jin available from James gy.com it's a started as a hobby and it's in danger of turning into a viable business and to be honest a responsibility let's move on to our high and low Tacomas hey stop Z same methodology as the Z's with these two trucks here this one is built with cheap parts this one very expensive low Tacoma here very mild build I would say suspension lift has a locking rear differential for better off-roading few KC lights on there and a handmade bumper this truck right here has really become the Workhorse of donut we use it all the time uh for shoots we'll load it up with a bunch of gear in the back you've embraced the accepted abbreviation here cuz I used have a toy was always the Y that's right or you can you can actually take it all the way down to just yo I would love to we're not going to pop the hood because it's bone stock what you mean almost as if Toyota know what they're doing right right weird this almost looks presentable this looks complete it's got shiny paintwork it's been recently waxed and detailed and everything like that what's that uh this was a Kendall he's been sunburned a little bit got a little bit of sunburn kind of an Easter egg so yeah I mean this thing again has a lot of uh very sophisticated off-roading equipment on it it has the locking differential like we mentioned on low truck but this one this is on an air system it's an air pneumatic system and it's front and rear lockers so it's pretty much Unstoppable in a lot of places as long as it has the wheel articulation to go through it it'll do it this is one of the best I think off-roaders I've ever driven yeah have you had the email from Toyota saying hey we'd love to do this to our production cars can you send us the details I'm just going to stand back and have a look at it cuz I'm not really a pickup kind of bloke what I like about that if I may say so is you haven't overdone the wheels the wheels are actually quite modest for a truck with that much lift that's nice cuz you haven't you know gone mad yeah I'm going to say that that's acceptable I think that's quite tidy you need to sort out the badging on this side cuz you haven't done it yeah it needs to be Yoda wow what's that it's basically a golf cart yeah we bought this on Alibaba for $2,000 and then we shipped it to the US which cost another $3 or $4,000 uh yeah I think total it was around $88,000 for something we can't drive on the but then obviously we modified it and it does not work it comes under cute Machinery yes doesn't it a bit like a Japanese k i I like it not a single full weld it's all tack so yeah this is all the this came like this this was not our doing oh that's how it comes yes oh sorry I thought you'd done that no unfortunately this thing doesn't drive anymore because our Buddy Henry was working on it and cut through the wiring harness that's risky yeah is he still with us let's move on to a car that I actually really really really like it's our E36 3 Series drift car it started out as a rally car everybody loves the E36 yeah what is it about the E36 I mean I like them as a standard car uh I would say it's a very uh balanced and forgiving platform uh when we had the original engine in there it didn't have the most power in the world but it was a car that you could get sliding pretty easily but it let you kind of get away with making some mistakes when you're drifting it's just a very well balanced platform yeah they as it used to fit a straight six and with that we actually also put our own version of a straight 6 which is a 2J uh out of a super motor any let's have a look oo you've made use of all the available space that's right yeah I mean you can't really put anything more in here this thing screams it sounds amazing now the power is there too Adam how much were we making so we made 600 horsepower to the wheel wow and you'll notice we also put wide body fenders on here looks like you fitted them with scissors yeah that would be the tire yeah that looks very nice though you done a very nice job on that thank you that's lovely this is missing so you lose points in a concore for that and this it's a really great car it's one of my favorites here all right up next we have the higho wrx's the Orange is High car the blue is low car we took cheap parts put it on this one took expensive parts put on that one and we got two time attack track cars that you can also drive on the street so yes these are street legal I like the color of this I like the color of that as well actually but that's the that's the cheap one yes this is the cheap one for the first time the cheap one looks better highx is running 4 50 horsepower or something along those lines it's got all the expensive Parts it's got a Garrett turbo it's got a good radiator we blew up a couple Motors this is six this is seven right uh and we blew up the 5-speeds in both of them but this one's really good and not broken I like the color scheme I mean it'd be nice if it was all the same when we wrap cars the sun just destroys them and particularly the orange too I don't know what's been going on but it's been really it looked great a month ago and now well you know it's a weird thing but orange paint it would seem Fades quicker than others because Honda had that problem with all their repsold bikes the orange paint goes pale I do like these I mean I like a Scooby-Doo I think they're great but it's weird back home these have a reputation the engines especially for being essentially unburstable and yet you've got through seven I'm just going to say it because they don't want to you got through seven yeah seven it's a lot different here everyone's going for a lot of power it's a long story I mean I can run it down really quick for you I think I'll get the gist of it so this car currently is not running because we have an aftermarket intercooler system on it and it was a little cheaper and I think the flange was warped on the blowoff valve and it blew off at the track so we need to get that replaced so apart from it not working it's great yeah yeah okay get it all right this is our mer band right here it's uh not too spectacular except for the uh the suspension we lowered it and put some uh racing wheels on it did like the kind of Japanese doib Bon Style on this that looks pretty um pretty regular pretty standard yeah yeah it's not it it's cool it's got the standard V8 in it uh we did a little bit of fun things to the exhaust so have you done that we put a valve on the exhaust uh right after the cat so that it just dumps it out the side so when we want to be loud we could be loud and when we don't need to be loud it's quiet as a mouse it's only what Ferrari does yeah yeah yeah that's good good color as well I'm doing a quick tot up of all the cars we've looked at so it's so far one of them is working true the Tacomas working Tacomas oh and the van on to the next one that works well it's a Honda of course it works even with the attention of you guys it still works that's a measuring well we love this car we're trying to take really take care of it so this Civic right here we uh approached with the mindset of just buying some of the most ridiculously overpriced parts available for a Civic and putting them all in one car this car cost us originally $500 I love this car it's do you find with these things that you start off with a you know Noble intentions and a good idea I mean the idea of taking a an essentially very excellent car this Honda as you say perfectly balanced very very well engineered and thought out and then you think I'll tweak it a bit so you usually start with something on the suspension or the wheels yes and then you get a bit sort of consumed by it and then you go a bit too far the point of no return with this car I think was the the itbs right here with that stock manifold that was on the K20 it started up great you never had to worry about warming it up or anything like that and it was just a turnkey take anywhere do anything kind of car now it's just not the same do you think you need someone in your organization whose job is simply to come in and say enough I will say we did stop ourselves from turbocharging this car which I think would have made it even worse you thought of producing like a really definitive book forus called like how to make your car worse by donut yeah I mean we've thought that's a really good idea actually yes I mean I'd read that I that'd be fantastic could have you start with pictures of these as you bought them or as they're supposed to look you know when they came out of the factory it's a good idea James how we f it up I don't know it's good though I mean it's it's very admirable it's very I mean this is unique think you would enjoy driving this one it's a very very good car very easy to drive have you ever thought for a moment I mean I realize you're doing this for your channel and so on which is great but if you take all these cars in here and all the money you've spent on them buying them modding them the cost of all the parts yeah what could you have instead of I mean have you got have you got an Aventador in here or more yeah I think I think so I'm sure you must be I've never thought of it actually like that yeah I mean you probably could have an Aventador we sold all our cars for an Aventador well instead of buying anent Vador James we bought oh wow this guy right here I can see you were on the horns of a dilemma Aventador or this that's right well I have difficulty with this because these were sold in Britain and it's a very very unpopular and very widely mocked car yeah same here I mean mainly because it was seen I don't want you to take this the wrong way but it was seen as a car for British people who wished they were American and lived in LA in the 1950s basically and that's that's a bit sad so great difficulty looking at it and not thinking yeah oh hi Jimmy I'm also a Jimmy James nice to meet you and you so Jimmy I built this Beast Jimmy spearheaded this car a very widely mocked car for sure in American culture but sold incredibly well at the time over here but we wanted to kind of explore the remains of the PT Cruiser community at large join some clubs infiltrate their clubs why they bought so many of them Jimmy kind of decided that we would build it in a more kind of Japanese JDM tuner inspired Direction so hang on just before we move on it's not turbocharged you haven't put a different engine in there's no side pipes or no just a just a bolt on exhaust this is dog slow yes or is it got or has it got nitrous in the back oh oh I've seen the sticker no I've seen the sticker s I'm cheating oh there you go that's luggage wanted to see how much nitrous a stock PT Cruiser engine could take before blowing up and Jimmy oh uh 100 shot one run on 100 shot 100 horsepower boost that's pretty clean 100 horsepower boost I know it's pretty yeah the plastic intake manifold exploded and that's that wait a minute I've seen one of these before our $500 Ford Ranger that we have extensively modified same philosophy as the Civic all the most expensive Parts into one car this is a a desert racer we're going to be taking this out to enata Mexico in a few months here the only stock pieces left really on this whole truck is the grill assembly up front and the cab everything else has been modified on this truck so this is a buggy really isn't it pretty much yeah yeah there's no concession to comfort or or uh trm well this is a full race vehicle at the point you know so it's pretty standard who are your neighbors you've got more you got more inside more cars oh oh look welcome clean tiny things this is another MX5 oh those Wheels w strong yes Jimmy how about you flip a switch all right whoa you do that at the traffic lies and that gets the chicks that basically well has it yeah I'd say so okay Jimmy and Phil here and uh a few other people put a ton of work into this thing over the past couple months it's Unique yeah is did y'all ever have any experience with low riders no we never really I mean I did I did have a going one once it was something enormous I can't American usually are classic American yeah it was it was a yank type thing and it didn't bounce as quickly as that it was relatively slow that's very responsive do you mind if I sit in it and see what it's like to switches which one is which so you've got front yeah back side on the left side the ra okay so I've pulled up at the lights yeah exactly okay and there's someone interesting there alongside so just hi that's front that's back oh I see what you mean it's a little touch isn't it you got to really and then side to side does it just whoa up there you go there you go so I can go front down right on the oh sorry I've overd done it there you go you look good in that thing James yeah man yeah I think it's me I could get used to that what does it actually drive like though I mean actually it drives pretty well you feel the road a lot it's not quite level which is bothering me hang on I like anything with gold wheels yeah it looks pretty cool yeah three marine batteries oh jeez that would drive the car probably where'd you put your luggage maybe like a uh a trunk rack yeah like on an old mg or something we get a goldplated sounds sick actually road trip we've got two last cars for you Jan they're not very spectacular right now but they will be in a couple weeks we got our high low drag Mustangs right here this is High car this is all the expensive Parts be going into this one Justin he's on high team this time around yeah so so far the tires aren't on there but this is running slicks all the way around for drag racing just like the wrx's the Z's Tacomas this is our next round of high low here we're going to be building some drag cars yeah but we just got started as you can see the only mod on here right now is the wheel and tire on the back that's a a street radial drag tire so it's a street legal drag slick basically and you're going to have a race when you're both done yes straight off race between these two cars yes yep m i I'm really really excited so there's the front slick those are nice yeah these are called skinnies that's like the optional ones you get on the on the uh Dodge yeah yeah this is really a competition it's whoever's car blows up first is the loser how long's it going to take couple what like 3 months yeah three months could be Christmas special could be feels like Christmas at least so yeah that does it uh for all of our cars which one's your favorite uh I think the Miata I think it is you know cuz it's it's sort of I mean it's ridiculous but it's it's funny you know I quite like cars with with a sense of humor and I think well the meow has got one anyway and it's definitely got one with that and anything with gold wheels is just acceptable I think all right there you have it James May's favorite dut car is the low rider Miata which honestly great choice I I love that thing as well thank you and uh James one more time with your Jin James gy.com dude thank you very much James that's been really great it was a pleasure to meet you really good all right if you want to see us down these cars click right here we'll see you next time thanks soon