A lap-time tour built around Nurburgring numbers.
The episode frames Nurburgring lap times as a sports-car scoreboard and leans into the long-running rivalry manufacturers have built around them.

Cars, explained from the garage outward.
CarStuff treats automotive history and maintenance as everyday puzzles, moving from Nürburgring lap times to garage stereo setups with the same patient curiosity. The tone is casual, specific, and lightly funny, built for people who like cars better when the details are allowed to breathe.
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CarStuff is a long-running automotive conversation about how vehicles work, why certain machines become legends, and what everyday owners can learn from the stories around them. It is not limited to new-car talk. That helps. The show can handle a Nürburgring lap-time discussion with enough numbers to satisfy performance fans, then turn around and talk about garage shelves, old speakers, and the small comforts that make a workspace worth spending time in. Its curiosity is wide and practical. Episodes range across sports cars, museum pieces, flood-damaged vehicles, maintenance myths, fuel habits, RVs, and oddball designs such as the Bricklin SV-1 and the Dale. The Petersen Automotive Museum episode shows the show’s taste for strange artifacts: pope-related motorcycles, hoax cars, and a wild V16 T-Bucket built from joined Chevy V8s. The maintenance episodes bring that same curiosity down to daily-driver decisions, including fuel filters, topping off a tank, and the habits that might help a car last longer. The style is conversational rather than compressed. Ideas get repeated, corrected, and nudged along until they make sense. That slower pacing gives room for anecdote, uncertainty, and the kind of practical aside that often turns out to be the useful part. Scott Benjamin anchors some episodes, while other clips show the show’s familiar back-and-forth with Ben and later appearances with Kurt Garen. The result feels less like a lecture and more like standing near people who have spent enough time around cars to make the subject approachable. CarStuff is best for listeners who like machines, but also like the human habits, myths, mistakes, and obsessions that collect around them.
Made for: For curious drivers, weekend tinkerers, automotive history fans, and casual gearheads who want clear explanations without a specialist gatekeeping tone.
What sets it apart: CarStuff covers the whole ecosystem around vehicles: performance benchmarks, repair habits, museum oddities, garage life, and strange automotive lore. Its strength is the patient conversational path from small detail to larger point.
Did Bonnie and Clyde really write to Henry Ford to thank him for his fast, reliable getaway cars? Do you ever wonder what happens at the DirtFish Rally School? What's a tether car? The CarStuff show has explored these and literally hundreds of other fascinating topics to explain how some of the most amazing machines on land, sea and air actually work. So whether you want to know more about hearses or circus trains, salt flat racers or the popemobile, Scott Benjamin has you covered.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
CarStuff makes automotive technology legible through practical mechanics, engineering tradeoffs, racing surfaces, and the unusual machines preserved in museums.
CarStuff approaches machines through the decisions made around them, moving from practical garage improvements and long-term car care to racetrack surfaces, museum curiosities, and performance benchmarks.
One fuel-pump click, and suddenly you care what is lurking below the filler neck.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A lap-time tour built around Nurburgring numbers.
The episode frames Nurburgring lap times as a sports-car scoreboard and leans into the long-running rivalry manufacturers have built around them.
A cheap stereo and smart ceiling storage make the garage more pleasant to use.
The segment frames the garage as a cheap upgrade problem with a practical answer. A Kenwood stereo from a thrift store is said to have cost less than 40 bucks, and the speaker search began with an old dial-in receiver with a silver front before those options got too expensive.
A museum tour of hoax cars, strange engines, and one very memorable V16.
From the pope's Harley Davidson to the museum's Vault, the Dale hoax car, and the Maython V16 T-Bucket, the episode keeps moving through odd corners of automotive history with a loose, tourlike rhythm.
Fueling habits, filter talk, and a practical warning about topping off.
The episode centers on small fueling habits and the ways they may add up over time, with clear attention to stopping when the nozzle clicks and avoiding topping off the tank.

Driverless mobility, argued from the road up.

EV arguments from the performance garage.

Engineering breakthroughs, translated without the lecture.
Shop-floor talk for serious engine people.

Future shock, made practical.

Shop talk from the people on AERA's tech line.
Host Scott Benjamin introduces a new solo format for Car Stuff, discussing the transition from a duo to monologue and previewing future episodes about automotive topics.
Hosts Scott and Ben, joined by producer Matt Frederick, explore how to make a car last 300,000 miles using a list from certified master auto mechanic David Solomon.
Scott Benjamin returns to explain how various vehicles and machines work, starting with a personal update about the show's changes.
This episode of Choosing Sides: F1 introduces Formula One racing to newcomers through hosts Lily Herman and Michael Kosta.
This episode begins with a promo for other podcasts before the hosts introduce the topic of cars and how they work.
The episode spends its time on the Nurburgring and the way a lap time turns into a sports-car calling card.
It starts with tunes in the garage.
The conversation opens with a little joking confusion and a string of nicknames and drug references before settling into the museum talk.
CarStuff hosts Scott Benjamin, Ben Bolin, and Kurt Guerin examine why Atlanta Motor Speedway has kept a roughly 23-year-old racing surface despite repeated repaving discussions.
Scott Benjamin, Ben Bolin, and super producer Kurt Guerin examine U.S.
Scott Benjamin, Ben Bowling and Kurt Guerin open CarStuff's dash cam episode after Kurt's purchase of a 2017 Ford Escape with about 60,000 miles.
Hosts Scott Benjamin, Ben Bolin and Kurt Guerin rank celebrity car collectors in an 'entirely arbitrary fashion', starting with the Sultan of Brunei's disputed 5,000 to 7,000 cars and $2.3 trillion valuation.
The hosts introduce a new producer and discuss commuting habits in Atlanta.