The Autopian Is Live! And We Want Your Feedback

Welcome to The Autopian, the ultimate car-culture website run by two of your favorite former Jalopnik authors/dipshits, David Tracy and Jason Torchinsky! It’s been a long road for these two and their awesome business partner Beau Boeckmann, and there’s still a ton of work ahead. We’re all excited to see what you think of our new site, so welcome to launch day!

What you’ll see on our site (ours as in ours and YOURS) today is a lot of experimentation, with some classics mixed in. One of our main goals with The Autopian Powered by OPTIMA Batteries (That’s right, we got a launch sponsor!) is to bring true expertise directly to readers, so with this in mind, here’s a look at our rundown of Launch Day stories:

• I Led The Design Of The Tesla Model S’s And Ford GT’s Suspension. Now I’m Answering Engineering Questions For The Autopian. Where Did I Go Wrong?

  • Huibert Mees is a highly-accomplished automotive engineer, having led the design of the 2005-2006 Ford GT’s  rear suspension, and also having headed up the design of the Tesla Model S’s rear suspension. He’s also worked at Apple, Lucid, and Mahindra. He’s a brilliant dynamics engineer who, thanks to a beautiful thing called “retirement” has time to answer questions that you, dear Autopians, have about automotive engineering.

• I’m A Real Car Designer And I’ll Draw Your Ridiculous Ideas

  • Adrian Clarke is a real car designer who worked for a major automaker, and who has volunteered to not only sketch your car ideas, but also walk you through the process that designers go through as they style automobiles. So if you’ve ever wanted to interact with an actual designer, this is your chance.

• An Earthquake Ripped A Car’s Face Off Just Before A Big Design Review. Here’s The Story Of How Designers Rallied Through Chaos

  • This story is from a different car designer — one who we’re going to call Huell Howitzer. He’s an incredible artist, as you can tell by his awesome illustrations in the article, but he’s also an above-average writer. And that’s impressive for someone who’s spent most of his life drawing. This story about he and his design team rallying to fix a ridiculous earthquake-induced design-buck failure is worth your time.

• Why I Bought A Dilapidated Kangaroo-Hunting Ute Sight Unseen In The Middle Of Nowhere, Australia

  • One of the things I was known for at Jalopnik was my propensity to get into some really dumb automotive situations. This happened because of a blend between my inability to resist buying cool cars and my unwillingness to pay much money for said cars. In other words, I’m a cheap bastard with absolutely no self-control. Recently I’ve been spiraling down this strange path involving purchasing cars thousands of miles away from home. There was the diesel manual Chrysler minivan in Germany and there was the horribly rotted-out Willys FC-170 in Washington State. After the former led to that weird Koenigsegg bathing incident in 2020 and the latter led to trenchfoot in 2021, many wondered how I was going to one-up myself or if I’d survive. I don’t know the answer to the latter question, but to the former: Yes. I didn’t do it on purpose, but I think I may have somehow one-upped myself, because I bought a three-wheeled pile-of-trash Kangaroo hunting ute in the middle of Nowhere, Australia.

• Saab Put Reverse Lights At The Front Of Their Cars And It’s Actually Brilliant

  • Jason Torchinsky is the uncontested king of lighting knowledge within the automotive media space. The guy has written more articles about taillights than, really anyone ever should. I’ve previously tried getting him to stop, but he won’t, and I have to say: I’m glad he’s so stubborn. Because this article here is fantastic. Who knew that Saab actually offered reverse lights at the front of the car! That’s completely absurd, and the world needed to know about it. Never stop flying your weird taillight flag, Torch!

• How I Got My Navy Callsign By Shitting Myself In An F/A-18 Fighter Jet. Twice.

  • If you don’t have a total aversion to toilet humor, you need to set aside 10 minutes to read one of the most hilarious stories I’ve ever read. It’s about my friend Bobby, an F/A-18 Navy fighter pilot, shitting himself in his flight suit while flying a jet about the Arabian Gulf. Jason even drew a nice diagram of the aftermath:
    

    

• A Deep-Dive Into How China Started Building Bizarre Jeep Cherokee XJ Lookalikes

  • Tycho de Feijter is an amazing writer. Not only is he thorough in his copy, but he’s also a genuine expert on Chinese cars, having founded multiple Chinese car-focused websites. The Chinese car market is massive, and it’s leading the way in electromobility, so naturally The Autopian is keen to keep a close eye on what’s going on in the home of Geely, Great Wall Motors, BYD, SAIC, and — most importantly — Changli. This story about the dozens of vehicles that Chinese car manufacturers styled to look like Jeep Cherokee XJs is just amazing. There was a Cherokee van!

• Murder By Flashing Amber Light: A Mack Hardigraw Car Mystery

  • Jason Torchinsky is a nutjob, but a brilliant one. An artist and comedian who just happened to find himself in the car journalism industry, Jason sometimes has a deep urge to write fiction. In his defense, too much car media is nonfiction, and that does get a bit boring. So, as he did at the other car website where he once worked, Torch is penning a murder-mystery series — this time it’s called Mack Hardigraw, and it involves taillight gangs. It is truly absurd.

• Here’s Why Some Honda Navigation Systems Are Permanently Stuck in 2002

  • Thomas Hundal is an amazing kid. Well, technically he’s in his lower 20s, but since I’m now 30 YEARS OLD, I get to call him kid. Also, when I talk with him, all I can think about is this video below of him — at age 13 — talking about the Chevy Volt. This particular article is about weird car glitches — odometers that stop for weird reasons, incorrect calendars, strange check engine light issues related to vehicle mileage; it’s a fun story about bad software — and software is something that Thomas loves to geek out about. Jason and I see not just genuine passion in Thomas, but also solid writing and a good understanding of how cars work, so we’re pumped to continue working with him here at The Autopian.

• Alternate History Hot Rod Dilemma, Stellantis Edition: Humber Snipe or Opel Kapitän?

  • Murilee Martin is a legend. A junkyard-touring man whose love for cars knows no bounds, he played a big role in getting Jalopnik off the ground, and building that site’s irreverent voice. This story in which he asks which weird European engine swap you’d prefer is him in a nutshell — knowledgeable, fun, and a bit bizarre.

• I Work At The World’s Quirkiest Car Museum, And I’m Going To Spill All The Secrets Here

  • The Lane Motor Museum is a mind-blowing place for any car person. The collection features some of the quirkiest vehicles ever built, and it’s run by true car nuts. We’re honored to have one of them as a regular contributor, telling us about the inner workings of one of the coolest car museums on earth.

Please comment on as many articles as possible; interact with the authors! We’d love your feedback on the site — not just on the Launch Day content and what you’d like to see more of going forward, but also on the user experience. (I myself plan to write more technical stories; I’ve been spending so much time building this site that I’ve been slacking. But fear not, the nerdery is coming. And luckily, I’ve got reinforcements like Huibert).

We’ve seen some bugs here and there (ex: If your login is giving you grief, try using your username instead of email to sign in) — issues with formatting and some problems with user profiles. We’re working to get those mended as quickly as possible, but as you see more, please don’t hesitate to let us know. We’re here to build the best car community on the internet, and that’s going to be an iterative process. We’re going to make changes to our site — we have plans to create a community forum, to vastly expand upon the capabilities of our commenting system (neither Jason nor I am content with where it currently sits), and to optimize the site’s usability.

Also an iterative process is hiring; we’re looking for full-time staffers. We’re especially keen on finding “dual threat” applicants — people who have a background in something other than writing. For me it was engineering, for Torch it was comedy/art. The two of us have found that our previous jobs have done more to help us become good journalists than our actual writing training has. That’s because journalism is all about perspective — seeing things in a particular way and asking the right questions. So if you or anyone you know loves cars, has an interesting background, and enjoys writing, let us know.

Please send feedback — technical and otherwise — to tips@autopian.com.

If you’d like to support us, you can buy some shirts from our store. Here’s a peek at the product: