I Want To Be Like The Gears And Gasoline Guys When I Grow Up

The three guys behind the Gears and Gasoline channel on YouTube (Ben, Ben, and Mark pictured above, left to right) are proper old-school car builders. They've got a lot of money wrapped up in their esoteric collection of automobiles, but they're building stuff they like rather than whatever suits the YouTube algorithm. With the number of K-series and rotary-powered clunkers rocking around their shop, they easily could have a couple wild-colored Lamborghinis each and get hundreds of thousands of views from every 13-year-old out there. Instead they build actual race cars and road trip machines, the kind of stuff you or I might build. 

From the outside looking in, these guys have really figured out life. They get to set lap times, take road trips, and engine swap their favorite (usually Japanese) sports cars and hot hatches. They're entertaining enough to get us to watch their antics. When you break it down like that, it sounds so simple. There's something here that most YouTubers don't have, and its genuine enthusiasm.

That's why we're taking it upon ourselves to highlight some of our favorite underrated builders in a new series we're calling Wrenchers You Should Know. Maybe a channel with 1.35 million subs doesn't belong here, but if you split the Bens apart they each only have 650,000, and they deserve more than that. Whatever, I make the rules here, not you. The Gears and Gasoline guys are definitely putting together these builds with corporate sponsorship, but they're building real cars that actually work instead of the four-figure-horsepower YouTube build slop that's dominating your feeds. In each installment we'll introduce you to a cool new builder, talk about some of their work, and give you a few reasons why you should be watching their progress. Here we go, put it in gear and burn some gasoline!

Each and every car that hits the Gears and Gasoline channel gets a unique and well-thought-out build from the ground up. They've done everything from restoring an old DSM to turbocharging an LS, but no one build gets just one thing. These guys look at their projects from a holistic point of view and touch just about every part of the car. What's the point in making more power if the suspension and brakes are hashed and not even capable of keeping up with the stock platform anymore? 

That's not to say they don't make mistakes or build cars that are maybe worse than the sum of their parts. Their short-lived foray into imported Kei cars went about as poorly as it possibly could have, and they've had some pretty bad luck with natural disasters in recent years, but the end result isn't usually a total failure. Both Bens and their regular mechanic Mark are willing to work through their projects until they work the way they should. Some projects take longer than others. 

One of the things I appreciate most about this channel is that there's something new every week. With three builders tackling a dozen projects, there's never a dull moment around their shop. Each project gets the time it needs to breathe, but there is another project waiting in the wings to make its debut or cross a big milestone. This allows the channel to keep rolling along without getting stuck or making compromises on their cars just to get an episode out. As someone who has fourteen project vehicles right now, I truly relate to this process. Everything always needs something, so there's always content to be made. Kudos to them for actually being able to focus on their projects and finish something every once in a while. 

These guys have raced (and wrecked) quite a few cars over the years. They'll run time attack and Gridlife events all around the country, even trucking out to Laguna Seca for a round a couple years ago. They spend most of their race time at VIR, it seems, which is a pretty cool track to have in your pocket. One Ben has an extremely fast K24-swapped Civic hatchback, while the other Ben has been working on this V6-swapped Toyota MR-Spyder for the last four years, and it has finally been tweaked to near-perfection. He used to race a Mitsubishi Evo, but he crashed it a while back and is in the process of rebuilding it. 

The MR-Spyder is easily one of my favorite builds on YouTube. There's just something glorious about taking a $4,000 marketplace find and putting a built minivan engine in it to go way faster than it was ever built to go. The secret here is that they've built real tractable and usable horsepower, instead of focusing on making too much power. Yeah, sure, it took years of tweaking to make it fast without the car wanting to kill the driver, but they've finally made it pretty close to perfect. 

Given my druthers, I would probably build a track car pretty close to this one. It's a simple big-engine-in-small-car platform that just totally works like it should. Beyond that, it's exciting and quick without costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sure, they spent a lot of time and money and effort on it, but it's a real built-not-bought situation, and I appreciate that. If you have an old project sitting around that hasn't been finished, now would be a good time to spend some time getting it done. These videos help motivate me to work on my stuff, that's for sure. 

Don't worry, these guys aren't just building trailer queens that get trotted out for a fast lap or two. Ben and Ben are dedicated car enthusiasts who know the value of a good road trip with a buddy. At least once a year these guys pile in their machines and head out for a big-mile trip, usually a cross-country event based around a theme or goal. The most recent trip involved taking a couple 2000s American Muscle monsters across Route 66, and it was incredibly enjoyable. I recommend watching it. 

The best road trip, however, was the one these jokers took in search of the best driving road in America. The answer they came to might surprise you, but watch the whole thing to find out why. Every time they drop a new road trip, it inspires me to get out on the road with a good car or two and a few friends. Why aren't we doing road trips like this more often? Oh yeah, money.

If you have suggestions for some lesser known builders on social media, please feel free to drop them in the comments section as well. I'm always on the lookout for folks out there doing cool stuff. It doesn't have to be just cars, either. While I'm well apprised of the car and motorcycles building scenes, I'd love to get deep into the nitty gritty of some more niche topics. Do you follow some cool folks building snowmobiles, jet skis, or DIY fighter jets or something? I want to know about it.

And yes, you're welcome to do some self promotion in the comments as well. Let everyone know where they can follow your build and what you're up to. If it's unique or good, we'll feature it on the blogs.