Crank Journal

Michael can't take it anymore. He has to get some things off his chest and he is using Crank Journal to do it. Rather than try to win the affections of a lady friend this past Valentine's Day, Michael got in his B4 RSK and did another solo episode, griping about the state of the automotive enthusiast scene and about how people just don't seem to care about learning about their cars anymore, either in how to modify them properly or in how to maintain them properly. Perhaps you will find this episode educational, or perhaps you will find it entertaining. Either way, as long as you have this episode on Play, you will hear how he really feels for the next 60 minutes.

Crank Journal is not dead! Michael apologizes profusely in this episode for both not releasing an episode in two months and for two technical difficulties, but this is Crank Journal... you should be used to that last part! Michael gives returning guest Joshua Colombo an earache going into more detail than necessary about the flat tire on his Mustang, and also gets Josh's advice on rebuilding the power steering pump and sending off the fuel injectors to be cleaned, balanced, and blueprinted in his B4 RSK. Oh, and they both call CAFE fuel regulations bullshit.

Crank Journal is back with episode #32 and returning guest Dave Clements from the world of LegacyCentral is back as well! Dave reminisces about being invited to the North American International Auto Show in 2004 for the debut of the fourth-gen Subaru Legacy, and Michael validates Dave's enthusiastic reaction to his Dodge Challenger Hemi rental car. They both try to define the shooting brake, and Michael confirms he already knows all about the situation with Black Ops Performance. It's a long episode, but it's a great one!

The updates are coming slow, but they are coming! Crank Journal is back again for episode #31 and Michael has returning guest Bryan Thompson on to talk about the debut of the Nest, a camping trailer by the famous company Airstream, a trailer which he designed himself! Then it becomes a rapid-fire bullet list of updates on the many, many cars in Bryan's collection, and while Michael had a brief moment of sadness when he learns of one of the cars Bryan has parted with, they cover everything from the Nissan Pulsar SportBak that came back to him to the JDM Honda City he bought from a listing in Obscure Cars for Sale!

Crank Journal is back for episode #30! Michael actually schools returning guest Adam Barrera about the world's smallest mass-produced V6, Mitsubishi's 6A10 1.6L V6 in overseas Mirages and Lancers. They talk about Adam's itch to buy something JDM and RHD, but toward the end, Michael's heart drops as Adam talks about the trauma that was Hurricane Harvey and what it did to his beloved Suzuki SX4 and his world-famous Isuzu Impulse RS. Warning: this episode gets a little emotional.

Crank Journal is back and Michael has Jared Rosenholtz on from CarBuzz once again to discuss something that's actually important: the list of automobile manufacturers in the USA, from best to worst. Michael and Jared talk about who belongs where, and while they agree on most of it, they also get in some arguments too. They also talk about both being owners of Magnetic Grey turbocharged Fords, and Jared talks about the Kia Stinger while Michael talks about the Ford Fusion Sport. Get ready to retreat to your safe spaces; some feelings are gonna get hurt.

No, Crank Journal is not dead! Sorry for the stupidly long hiatus, folks, but Crank Journal is back, and Michael has Joe Carioti from ShoutEngine itself and the JoeQCar show back on to talk about what we think the golden era of cars will be in decades to come, what stuff needs to be done to Michael's Legacy B4 RSK, and how his new Mustang is affecting his relationship with it. Joe talks about going to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and Michael talks about being a driver at the 2018 Mecum collector car auction in Kissimmee. 

For the 26th episode of Crank Journal, Steven Radovanovich joins Michael to discuss why both adding garlic to your tea and buying an orphaned 32-year-old French-American hatchback is a good cure for the common cold. Michael also gets a bit sappy telling a story of why he bought his Mustang EcoBoost and he waxes nerdy about the two times Michelin has duped automakers into thinking metric-sized tires were a good idea.

Sorry for the late upload, but this one actually may be worth the wait! Michael gets Bradley Brownell from the Cammed and Tubbed and The DFL Show podcasts (as well as a slew of other automotive media endeavors) on the show to talk about roadtripping and trying to stay both warm and cool, and conscious, in his 1976 912E, and most importantly, the show about 80s and 90s cars and culture called RadWood. It's a genuinely great episode, no sarcasm!

There's a new episode of Crank Journal, and a new automotive purchase that has to be discussed! Michael has put his money where his mouth is and bought a brand-new car, and he has returning guest Chad Kirchner, and new guest Berry Lowman, both of whom are participants in the #Motorama phenomenon on Twitter, to discuss it. Besides that, they talk about Corvettes, why a manual transmission is still objectively and quantifiably better than an automatic, and also, horse people, or whatever they're called.

For this 23rd, not 24th, episode of Crank Journal, Michael (and James!) host guest Brad DeSantis of the Auto Off Topic podcast, because both Michael and Brad have an actual connection to the 1991 Galant VR4 number 1803 out of 2000! Since Michael, James, and Brad all have Mitsubishi experience as well as Mitsubishi dealer experience, the whole show turns into basically remembering Mitsubishi for the awesome car company they were and lamenting the car company they've become. James has a very sad announcement to make at the end of the show, but the connection Michael and Brad make is literally a one in a million chance!

Michael didn't die in Hurricane Irma, so Crank Journal is back, and back to its normal format of blathering with a guest about bizarre cars! Dan Badger returns to talk about his recent purchase of a Reliant Robin, and Michael insists that they don't make the obvious joke about Reliant Robins, and smooth out the details of legally owning and driving a three-wheeled car in the USA. Also, Michael finds a way to interject with a criticism of the Subaru scene somewhere in there.

Well, this is different, and probably in a bad way! What is assaulting your cochleae is Michael describing what he's seeing as he drives around in his beloved Subaru B4 RSK right before Hurricane Irma tears through Orlando, making this his first solo podcast, his first driving while recording podcast, and his first podcast in a hurricane! In fact, Michael has uploaded this episode using his phone's hotspot, because he has no telecom at his house, and his computer is running off a generator, because he has no power at his house. He feels that he should get blown for his badassery... and by an actual woman, not a hurricane named after one. He talks about the weird noise coming from his rear wiper motor, the fact that 100 octane race fuel is the only reason his tank is brimmed, and he answers some snarky Facebook questions.

Episode 20 of Crank Journal may sound pretty normal to you, the ever patient and tolerant listener, but to us recording, it was quite unusual, as Michael packed up his podcast gear and joined Jared Rosenholtz in person at a college study room rather than remotely to make this episode. Jared writes for CarBuzz, and both he and Michael talk about the perks and pitfalls of driving press cars, about being alumni members of the UCF Car Club, and driving R34 Skylines and making YouTube videos about them. Oh, and Jared's impersonation of William Fichtner on Top Gear America is worth the 2-hour wait. 

This episode of Crank Journal is a day late and a dollar short, and Michael doesn't have any other excuse other than he forgot to record over the weekend. He gets Joe Carioti of ShoutEngine.com to join him at the last minute so Joe can unsuccessfully try to convince him that autonomous electric cars are the future and blabber about something posted in Obscure Cars for Sale called the Farus, and living in RoadTrek RVs and retired school busses.

Still haven't gotten your fill of 1st-gen Subaru Legacies and recording glitches? Terrific, because that's what you'll get plenty of in the latest episode of Crank Journal! Michael has engineer Joshua Colombo on, also from the 1st-gen Subaru Legacy board, and they talk about the mind-bending amount of thought and planning Josh has put into what was once his run-of-the-mill 1990 Legacy into the STi threat it is now. They also talk about Michael's recent oil analysis on the B4, as well as complaining about drive-by-wire throttle and pondering if electric cars are really as energy-efficient as they're made out to be.

The boys are back in too-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oown! James drops back in and so does Cameron VanDerHorst from the Cammed and Tubbed podcast to join Michael and talk with Jason Bowman from the Great Frozen North about his KLZE-swapped Mazda 323, his SR20DET-swapped Locost 7 and his SR20DET-swapped Ford Mustang II (yes, you read that right!). For all the japery expected whenever Cam and James are in the same place, quite a lot of good technical information gets covered.

For a bit of a change of pace, Michael has Mark Evans on from AutoWorld Radio to talk about everything from Michael's desire to learn how to weld to what happens when a customer wants to pick up their car after leaving it at a repair facility for almost 4 years. It's our longest episode yet, so settle in and listen to a more old-school approach to talking about working on cars.

For this special episode of Crank Journal, James drops back in to make sure it earns its Explicit Content tag and team up with Michael to mercilessly scold Joe for his recent automotive purchase and regrettable life decision. The three of them also pick their favorite Obscure Cars for Sale posts of the week, and both Michael and Joe compare notes on what it's like driving cars with broken fuel gauges.

Crank Journal is back, and Michael decides to pluck another guest from the old Subaru Legacy board, Jason Grahn. Jason co-drives and helps build rally cars, many of which are Subarus, and he has a lot of insight into surviving and winning rally races that Michael wishes he had a use for. They also talk about Jason's two 3-cylinder cars, his old Geo Metro and his current Ford Fiesta, and Jason's creatively and brilliantly named cat, because why not?

Of course, for lucky number episode #13 of the Crank Journal podcast, there are issues... this wouldn't be Crank Journal if everything went smoothly, now would it? Michael's computer choked almost an hour in, but somehow, he patched it all back together, and his guest, Craig Fitzgerald from BestRide and Car Talk, didn't seem to mind. After Michael tried to figure out how he got someone from Car Talk on the show, Craig talked about how much fun it has been working for Ray and the late Tom Magliozzi, about working in New England automotive media, and about his Corvair project car. Michael, true to form, absolutely insists on talking about an Eagle Premier he found for sale, and as always, the Obscure Cars for Sale Facebook group. 

JAMES IS BACK! Well, at least for one episode. James was able to drop in and join Michael to drop the F bomb many, many, MANY times, probably because Michael blew out James' eardrums at the beginning. They talk about Michael's leaking battery fiasco, the reality of depending on an old, interesting car for daily transportation, and about whether an auto parts store employee knows where Czechoslovakia is.

This episode was almost called "Poo Pooing with Chad Kirchner" but that just sounds wrong. Aaaaaaanyway, Michael has fellow automotive podcaster Chad Kirchner on the show to talk about his own podcast, the type of people who blow up Subarus, EcoBoosted Fords, and people "shushing" their cars by covering up their license plates with their fingers. They also pick their favorite Obscure Cars for Sale posts of the week, which somehow deters into a discussion about hacking.

We've somehow made it to episode 10! Joe Carioti, vice president of ShoutEngine, joins Michael once again to talk about Ferrari F1 transmissions, Nissan S-chassis cars, and Michael's Smart press car, and he makes Michael envious by recounting his drive of a Dinan-tuned BMW M2 with the Hooniverse guys. Michael also talks about meeting famous YouTube urban explorer Adam the Woo at an exotic car show, and he goes on yet another caffeine-fueled, vitriolic rant about his least favorite car in the world: the Mazda RX-8.

Crank Journal is back for a 9th episode, with multiple Michaels this time: Michael the host, and special guest Michael Satterfield who runs TheGentlemanRacer.com and a racing lifestyle clothing line called Morgan's and Philip's. They talk about various car events, ranging from Mike S's visit to Adam Carolla's car collection for a screening of Winning, the documentary of Paul Newman, to stopping at a cars and coffee in Managua in Nicaragua for a flashback to the fastest and most furious era of import cars. They also talk about Mike S's own personal cars, including a Peugeot 405 and a Fiat-based Moretti 124 to a Maserati Biturbo.

Crank Journal is back for an 8th episode! Michael hosts automotive writer and radio personality Jim Cherry, who writes a blog on curbside.tv about the most bizarre and obscure cars ever to turn a wheel. He talks about writing a chapter in the recently released book "King of the Kustomizers," a story about legendary Hollywood car customizer George Barris, as well as being a test driver for Ford and chasing down wayward Lincoln LSs. Michael, of course, decides to talk about lead poisoning and about a time when cars drove on railroad tracks to get to Key West.

Want to spend 2 hours learning all the various chassis codes of Subaru Legacies? Well, if, for some strange reason, you do, the 7th episode of Crank Journal is for you! Michael has Dave Clements, the creator of legacycentral.org, on the show to talk ad nauseam about their experiences with Subaru Legacies and running one of the oldest Subaru forums on the Internet. We also talk about some obscure cars like the Geo Storm and a Suzuki Every Turbo van, and why diesel passenger cars need to go away. It's true. Fight us.

Crank Journal is back for a 6th episode! While James is getting a very early start on his Halloween costume, Michael talks with former Nissan designer Bryan Thompson about his work on cars like the NV, the Armada, and the Quest, and about his splendid car collection which includes a restored 1978 Subaru DL and a 49k-mile 1988 Nissan Van survivor (yes, the ones that all got recalled by Nissan). They both name their favorite Obscure Cars for Sale posts of the week, and oh... you'll also never use the shifter in a Titan truck the same way again once you finish this episode.

Crank Journal is back for its 5th episode! James is still out, but comedy improv star and managing director of the Packard Museum in Dayton, OH, Dan Badger, joins Michael and makes him wonder what he's doing with his life. Dan talks about what it's like to start a 1917 Packard Model 48 Runabout, and Michael spills the beans about how he nearly set a million-dollar antique Ferrari on fire trying to start it. They both name their Obscure Cars for Sale picks of the week and then Michael inexplicably decides to talk about Daewoo exhausts, even though Dan really doesn't want him to.

The 4th episode of Crank Journal is all about crashes: esteemed guest Adam Barrera's training for his new job as an EMT and first responder to crash sites, trying to save this episode after Michael's computer crashed, and Michael's crashing and burning as he does a dreadful job of using another meme to try to explain James' absence. Adam talks about his Isuzu Impulse RS, both talk about Mitsubishis and their favorite Obscure Cars for Sale picks of the week, and there's some stuff about die-cast models in there, too.

Crank Journal is back, and so is James! Yet that doesn't mean we got our shit together. Yes, even though we took the entire holiday season off. Quiet. We mention our favorite Obscure Cars for Sale posts of the week, we talk about Michael's car's unfortunate encounters with ornery critters (two of them!), James gets excited about his new job as a Mitsubishi mechanic, and we talk about the automotive brand everyone loves to hate: Honda. There may have been something about jumping up and down on a ratchet wrench too.

The second episode of Crank Journal has infec... I mean, reached the Internet! James is in mourning over the literal death of a meme, so he couldn't make it. But Joe Carioti of ShoutEngine was happy to fill in for him and babble incoherently with me about our Obscure Cars for Sale picks of the week, the show Family Matters, and rebadged cars. Give it a listen! What are you gonna do... listen to a better automotive podcast? Oh, um, yeah, that's pretty much all of them. Please listen. I'll give you a cookie.

Having emerged from the crushed and incinerated chassis of the Top Dead Centered podcast, hosts James and Michael venture off on their own to launch a new automotive podcast called Crank Journal, with the assistance of Cam VanDerHorst from the Cammed and Tubbed podcast. They talk about turbo Dodge K-cars, the joys of being admins of the Facebook group Obscure Cars for Sale, and trigger warnings for puppies. Hey... it's a start.