Hoonigan Is Going Back To Basics With Project Cars Again

The Hoonigans were once, not that long ago, juggernauts of the YouTube project car scene. I've been watching their projects progress for years, and grew addicted to the relatively inexpensive builds they slapped together and thrashed across the first couple of years on the internet. The slapdash burnout dirtbaggery is what drew me, and countless others, in to their gravitational pull. Some builds were more popular than others, but I watched them intently through the pandemic. 

I started to lose interest when the project cars they were building got more expensive, more exotic, and more tied in as promotions for brands. I have typically shied away from four-digit horsepower builds with unlimited budgets and bigger-is-better attitudes, and it was the massive Halo Warthog build series for Microsoft that turned me off. Ironically, I think Hoonigan builds may have actually contributed quite a lot to this inflationary horsepower battle amongst content creators, but I'm hopeful that they're going back to their roots. 

That's why we're taking it upon ourselves to highlight some of our favorite underrated builders in a series we're calling Wrenchers You Should Know. After a few years of not really knowing what the channel stood for anymore, it seems the corporate overlords are starting to allow some of the original Hoonigan flavor to blend back in. I'm hopeful that we can return to a regular crew of weirdos slapping some DIY junk together and ripping it around, rather than the big corporate-sponsored four-figure-horsepower slop that they started building when Wheel Pros first took over. Here we go, it's kill all tires time!

Between 2011 and 2021 Hoonigan was a mostly independent group of car enthusiasts building weird stuff, making cool videos, and selling lots of merch. The company was purchased by the Wheel Pros group in late 2021 and for the first couple of years, at least, the content output was still interesting, but getting bigger budgets and more unattainable. One of my personal favorite builds from that transition era was the big-block-powered 3rd gen Chevrolet Camaro the crew built for SEMA in 2021. 

It might sound somewhat hypocritical to include a four-figure corporate build in this series, but for the most part the car is something you could build at home with a relatively reasonable budget. This car was built to promote GM Performance Parts then-new naturally-aspirated 632 cubic-inch big block crate motor. Sure, a ZZ632 will set you back an impressive $33,000, but that's probably one of the least expensive ways to get a 1,004 horsepower engine with a factory warranty. Besides, that's only $3,203 per liter of engine displacement. 

After the shake up at Hoonigan in 2023/2024, something in the Camaro's driveline blew up and the car was pushed into a corner and forgotten about for a couple years. Just recently Hoonigan called on a few of its former YouTube personalities, in this case Alex Grimm and Zac Mertens, to revive the car to its former glory and beyond. Zac has his own build channel which we'll probably highlight in a future installment, but it's good to see the king of chop back Hooning. 

After just over three years of practically nothing but This Vs. That videos, Hoonigan is dipping its toes back in the car building channel end of the pool. Here's hoping that the Camaro (and a couple others) are just the beginning of a resurgent Hoonigan. 

In addition to the Camaro revival series kicking off, my Hoonigan-related spirits are also buoyed by the mere fact that the crew has started a brand new project car from scratch. Just two weeks ago Gary King, Jr. kicked off his new 1990 Ford Bronco build. The new series seems like something of a return to form for Hoonigan, as it's a pretty simple build with a cheap and readily-available platform. 

After evaluating what the truck could do in its worn and ragged state, King and Michael Cox get started stripping the truck down for some new off-road oriented suspension to make it far more capable in the dirt than Ford ever intended. This big body-on-frame beast is going to get the full YouTube treatment, so it'll probably get more power and a monster set of wheels and tires. If they can keep this build subdued and DIY-er friendly, it'll be more than enough to get me back into the habit of regularly watching the channel's videos again. 

Like some of the channel's best builds, this seems like the kind of thing a normal guy could build with a normal amount of disposable income (or over-leveraged credit) in under a year's worth of weekends. I hope it continues to go the way of the original build shows that took place at the old shop before the big influx of cash. 

One of the things that made me a Hoonigan fanatic was the wide variety of personalities featured on the channel. Hert is a drift guy who loves rotaries. Zac is a muscle truck guy. Vinny loves European stuff and Ron is a rally head. Scotto is a die-hard Volkswagen kid with eclectic flavor. It all worked out to a crew that, more than anything, just understood their vibe and worked together beautifully. 

The now-dead Hoonigan Project Garage channel saw all manner of crazy builds. There was the rotary-swapped widebody kei truck, Vin's half-million-mile Porsche 911, the diesel-swapped Camaro land speed car, the $200 Miata-based go-kart build, a Volvo built exclusively to rip front-wheel drive burnouts, and a driveable car bed, among dozens of others. It was just a little blip on the radar of Hoonigan history, but the short-lived Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200 flat tracker build that was entered in the X-Games back in 2019 is still my favorite. Keep it simple. 

If you have suggestions for some lesser known builders (or recovering from the fall 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.