An Update

6 months ago

I updated the naughty or nice list with a reputable body shop thanks to my buddy Thomas! Check it, it's a pinned post.

Welcome!

8 months ago

Thank you for those that joined this morning. If you can see this, you did well. If you can't... well... you messed up. Text me if you're confused on how to enable notifications.

Naughty list update.

8 months ago

Sorry it's been a while. Made an update to the naughty/nice list. Check pinned post. Happy new years. -Lewis

Thanks Lem!

9 months ago

So thankful for Sean and Lem for being paid supporters. Means the world to us.

Add to Apple Wallet

July 28, 2025

Hello iPhone friends. I've finally activated Apple Wallet cards for this club. If you're on Android... tough...

It's possible I'm becoming a boomer but...

February 6, 2025

It's possible I'm becoming a boomer but I'm tired of enthusiasts saying that you can be an automotive enthusiast without knowing how to drive a manual transmission. To me this makes no sense. Being able to operate a vehicle with a manual transmission is a big part of many iconic cars' personality. Not only that, many iconic vehicles only ever came in a manual transmission. In order words, if you're unable to drive a stick, you're not able to operate some of the world's greatest cars, if presented the opportunity. How can you be into cars if there are literally cars that you physically can not operate? Secondly, many vehicles, even if offered with an automatic option, were designed to be enjoyed as a manual. Cars like the Miata or BRZ/GR86 are "slow" sports cars designed for you to savor every sensation of the vehicle, including the effort that was put into making shifting, extremely enjoyable. Much work was put into perfecting the driving position, the clutch bite point, the pedal placement for heel & toe, the action of the gear lever. All these things were designed with detail and intention to create a meaningful driving experience. To get these cars in an auto would be removing a big part of their identity.

How It Started (Part 2/2)

January 15, 2025

The second part of how it started is equally important. It's because of a series of short films that BMW produced called "BMW Films Presents: The Hire". This was a short film series starring Clive Owen in a sort of Transporter (Jason Statham) like role where he was tasked with delivering people and/or things. He didn't even have a character named. IMDB and Wikipedia just lists his character as "The Driver". Even the producer of the Transporter series has stated that the whole franchise was directly influenced by "The Hire". The Hire was a collection of short films featuring prominent Hollywood directors of the early 2000's such as John Frankenheimer (RIP), Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, John Woo, Joe Carnahan, and Tony Scott (RIP). They didn't skimp on actors either. A-list actors such as Forest Whitaker, Gary Oldman, Don Cheadle, James Brown (RIP), and even Madonna, all made an appearance in various episodes. The impact these films had on the car enthusiast community, the image boost for BMW during this era, can not be overstated. The combination of powerful, deep, story first films, where the car was not the focus like a commercial, but rather a supporting character, this was something that had not been done in automotive marketing. Heck, it's something BMW has not been able to replicate ever since, even with attempts in 2016 and 2023. The best part, a true testament to the popularity of these films: This was all before YouTube. Episodes required downloading from BMW USA's website and watching it on your own computer. I remember my brother downloading these episodes onto his Compaq PDA so that we could watch on the go. I believe they later gave away physical copies on DVD's which is why I have a copy of these films on a good old fashioned DVD for keep sake. As a five, six year old, watching these films was incredible. Seeing cars being portrayed in this cinematic and filmic way, was inspiring. It's no wonder I became so fascinated at such a young age. I've probably watched each episode hundred's of times at this point but linked below is my favorite, my go-to when I try to share with people what this series was all about. It's called "Ticker" and you'll see why if you watch through. It stars Clive Owen with supporting role portrayed by Don Cheadle (Iron Patriot/Colonel Rhodes in MCU) with small cameos from Dennis Haysbert (Allstate commercials, The Unit) and Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, The Unit, We Are Marshall, Reacher). Hope you enjoy.

How It Started (Part 1/2)

January 9, 2025

People often ask me how I got interested in cars. Spoiler alert: It wasn't the Fast & Furious franchise. When I was 7 years old, I could recite to you every model that Toyota made at the time. My love of cars can be traced back to two sources. One: Top Gear, the famous British motoring show produced by the BBC, was a critical part of my car journey. Back in the day, they were airing in the US on Channel 8 (here in Seattle) on the Discovery Channel. This didn't last long but it's how I discovered the show. This was pre-YouTube (more on that in a second). I distinctly remember the episode too. It was the episode where Jeremy Clarkson was reviewing the (then) new Bentley Continental GT. As Top Gear got dropped from Discovery Channel's schedule, I later resorted to watching clips on Google Video. I didn't know at the time that a full Top Gear episode consisted of reviews but also a guest celebrity interview section (Star in a Reasonably Priced Car) as well as buying advice for best deals (discontinued after Season 2-ish I think) and also any challenges as well such the famous cheap car challenges. I found the show informative yet entertaining. Obviously, as the years went by, the show became more about entertainment rather than cars, and that's totally okay. It was a car show that I was able to watch with none-car people because of that reason. There's nothing wrong with that and that's probably a good thing for sharing your passion with people. As Top Gear became more popular, they also pioneered a new way to film car content. They were one of, if not THE first people to take car reviews to the cinematic level. Car reviews were visually stunning and the script/dialogue was engaging through the use of (sometimes) excessive and over the top analogies. This is obviously something that heavily influences the way I create my own automotive content. People were sad as the original trio on Top Gear came to an end after Season 22 when Clarkson had his physical altercation with a member of staff. Hope was revived when Amazon decided to pick up the trio to make The Grand Tour, which was essentially a continuation of Top Gear but without the name. Even though The Grand Tour was never quite the same, it still gave us three more seasons of entertainment along with many specials until finally, at the end of 2024, the trio produced their last ever episode/special together, marking the end of 22 years of doing a show together. It was an emotional ending for all fans, especially one's like myself who remember watching that very first Top Gear episode on cable channel on an old fashioned CRT TV. I hope to continue to create content that impacts car enthusiasts' lives like that. Linked below is that very first car review I ever watched on Top Gear back in 2003

Passing Thought 💭

November 22, 2024

Last night I was discussing with our director on what car to film next. I asked, "Is there a car currently sold that we're interested in?" We couldn't really come up with something that would be worthy of a video. After all, filming and editing something takes a lot of time and effort. The juice must be worth the squeeze. Am I getting to that age? Have I, as a millennial, become a cranky boomer hating on everything modern? Or have most modern cars really become generic transportation devices?

More shoutouts

November 8, 2024

Welcome Doug!

Shoutout

November 8, 2024

Welcome Chris and Kevin!

Throwback Thursday

November 8, 2024

My first throwback post on Fanded. This is our very first video we posted to the channel. I made it totally for fun with a coworker at Tesla and had no idea it would become a regular thing (albeit, with a different coworker from Tesla after the third video). Some fun facts and thoughts about this video: We spent a tiny bit of advertising money on this video because we had some credits from Google Ads and it gained 10k views in less than a week. This was a big deal for a brand new channel back in 2016. The following week, even without any advertising money, the video gained another 10k+ views, completely organically. I knew I had to keep making videos, it would've been a shame not to. This specific BRZ was loaned to me from a friend of mine in college. He had graduated the previous year and I helped him negotiate the deal on this car. Because of that, he always felt indebted to me and said I could borrow it whenever I wanted so I borrowed it for a video. Easter Egg: This is not actually a 2016 BRZ. I lied and put 2016 in the title so that it would hit algorithms. It was actually a 2015 model year car. No one every noticed because: One, the one and only interior shot of the dashboard where you would notice that it still had the 2013-2015 stereo, was completely out of focus and un-useable. And two, no one noticed that the car we filmed did not have a backup camera. 2016 was the first model year with backup camera. That's why I personally have a 2016, because it was the first model year with that feature but also the last one before they facelifted it (which I didn't like). I didn't want my friend's license plate to be revealed so whenever possible, I used old license plates that I had sprayed painted black. In order to be as legal as possible, I swapped out the plates for each take for each side the camera was filming. Basically, if we were filming from the front, I'd put the blacked out/dummy plates on the front bumper but have the real/valid plates in the rear. When it came time to film from the back, I would swap out the plates in the back for the dummy plate and then put the real plates on the front. What's funny is that modern machine learning tools on Final Cut Pro will now allow us to track and blur license plates with ease. It looks way cleaner than what we were doing in 2016 (for driving shots on crowded roads where I was not able to replace the license plates with dummy ones). It was always meant to be that the BRZ would be the first thing I filmed. I first test drove one when I was 17 or something when these came out the summer of 2012 as a 2013 model year. I had been following along the development process. I remember the concept car being debuted, and then the development cars that were spied being tested, and then finally the production versions being unveiled. I always knew I needed to have one (and I finally would, in 2018 when I bought a very low mile 2016 example). I often look back at this video, not just because it started it all, but because for the first time, a project that I worked on, a video that I made, I was genuinely very proud of and not ashamed to show people. The same could not be said about the video projects and music covers that I made for school assignments. I always loved making videos, I just wasn't great at it. I always had a great vision in my head that I didn't have the skills to execute on. I'm thankful that I had an editor to help with the technical side when we started and now I have an editor who has become one of my best friends. Someone that shares my vision for how our videos should look but also with a similar understanding of automobiles. I grew up watching Top Gear and recently watched the final, final episode ever of the trio on The Grand Tour. Clutch Kick has been my way to pay tribute to the trio for inspiring me to combine my love of video making, with my immense love of cars. Hope everyone is doing okay this week. -Lewis

New Video

November 2, 2024

It's finally out!

New Video This Week!

October 29, 2024

I feel like I can relax now...

Teaser For Next Week

October 25, 2024

Do you know what it is?

Fun Fact:

October 10, 2024

Did you know Lexus works with Yamaha to make their F cars' 5.0 liter V8? It's engineered by Yamaha's motorsport division and then sound is tuned by their music division.

Dual Clutch vs Manual

October 10, 2024

Instant coffee is not as good as drip.

Merch idea

October 9, 2024

For our first merch offering, we will sell people little rectangles of piano black plastic since that's the industry standard interior decor nowadays.

10,000 hour rule

October 9, 2024

When you're really familiar with a company's product offering:

First test post.

October 9, 2024

Featuring our channel trailer:

Welcome to our Fanded

October 9, 2024

This is where you can get unfiltered updates about pretty much anything car related. Join now to see!