Stave Off the Winter Blues with These 7 Car Channels and Shows

The Friday after Thanksgiving brought with it one of the biggest snowstorms I’ve seen in Northeast Ohio. Geneva, where I live, is between Cleveland and Erie—right on the early part of the lake-effect snow belt that extends to Buffalo—and it got hit with 31 inches in just a couple days. Nearly four feet fell just 10 miles east. Naturally, after I finished plowing with the tractor and managed to warm my toes a bit, I felt like sitting on the couch and watching cars on a screen instead of working on them in my cold barn.

My colleagues in Michigan, especially those in Traverse City, saw a healthy dose of the white stuff, too, so our conversation on Monday turned to what we watch when we’re holed up by the weather. Here are a few of the shows and channels we think are worth relaxing with alongside a bowl of popcorn and a bunch of logs on the fire.

A heap of racing history

Brian Lohnes’ YouTube channel has some excellent historical coverage that I can’t get enough of. Drag racing, land speed racing (even with tractors, which our Kyle Smith recently shared), NASCAR—you name it—Lohnes’ dulcet tones and ample use of Technicolor footage will lead you through some of racing’s most fascinating stories.—Eddy Eckart

Garbage Time

I like to be entertained but by someone who has a deep-seated knowledge of cars, and Garbage Time pushes all my buttons. The channel is based in Australia, but his taste in oddball and mundane vehicles (which he calls “nuggets”) is unique but universally appealing. Even though he does some dumb/abusive stuff (like put nutella in an engine and pepsi in place of coolant) he always fixes the vehicle and gets it running again. It’s easy to enjoy but never leaves you flat because of misinformation or one-sided presentations. It’s always time for Garbage Time, in my book.—Sajeev Mehta

Learning from a master

The need to learn something even when unwinding on the couch is probably not good for me, but it did lead me to Paul Brodie on YouTube. His claim to fame is bicycle frame building (and teaching others how to build them), but he has taken up creating YouTube videos in his retirement. His passion for vintage motorcycles and finding interesting ways of solving problems that come up while building things like a motorcycle display and workstand (above) often allow me to pick up some little tip or tidbit, and that makes the videos fun. I’ve been keeping up on new content and watching older videos as winter hits home, especially when I would rather sit with coffee than stand at the workbench.—Kyle Smith

Great Races

Over the past year or so NASCAR has done a good job adding retro races to their NASCAR Classics YouTube channel. It’s fun to go back and watch the Intimidator, the Allisons, and other star drivers complete in front of packed grandstands. Or you could just watch Days of Thunder, which is now on Paramount+. —Cameron Neveu

It’s a spy car!

For the discerning aficionados out there who appreciate crass, stupid humor, great voice acting, and cartoons, Archer is both highly watchable and chock full of interesting cars—from Lana’s Aston Martin V8 Vantage to Archer’s El Camino. The background vehicles are always interesting, and who could forget the love Archer shows his birthday-gift Challenger 440-6 in season 3’s “Drift Problem.” It’s a spy car!—Stefan Lombard

Vehicles to the great outdoors

I always fall back on my love of where cars take us. The places in this big, beautiful world that they can enable us to see. One of the best channels going is Expedition Overland, or X Overland for short.

Their cinematography is world-class and the rigorous planning they do before these massive adventures appeals to the sliver of me that still believes I should have tried to be an engineer. (Sorry Grandpa.)

I’ve also had the distinct pleasure of meeting most of the folks on this channel, and am delighted to report that they all might be even cooler in person.—Nathan Petroelje

Senna. . . in some form or other

Started watching Senna on Netflix but have gotten really jarred by the fact that in the early goings, every race happens at the same circuit, which is very evidently not in Norfolk. And the CGI is quite wanting.—Nik Berg

I hear you—I watched the whole thing because I am a big Senna fan, but there’s so much good footage from real life that it’s hard to synthesize a reasonable facsimile. The 2010 documentary is better, but I did enjoy the time that the new series spent on his younger years, and its inclusion of other important people—like fellow karter Terry Fullerton—in his life.—Eddy Eckart