New Ford Maverick: A Return To Compact Pickups?

June 8, 2021 / Andy Lilienthal / Leave a comment

As you may have heard, the new Ford Maverick compact pickup debuted today. It’s a compact unibody FWD or AWD pickup truck. It comes as a crew-cab only, seats five, gets up to 40 MPG, and isn’t intended to be a Super Duty. Sure the Honda Ridgeline has been out for a long time and…

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Crankshaft Culture Gear Garage: VSSL Java Coffee Grinder

May 26, 2021 / Andy Lilienthal / 1 Comment

We’re coffee geeks. We love good coffee. We’re willing to skimp on some things, but not when it comes to our java. That includes when we’re on the go or while camping. And the first step to good coffee is good beans. The second step is grinding them. There are a variety of portable coffee…

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Ralliart Returns: The Mitsubishi Performance Sub Brand To Be Revived

May 12, 2021 / Andy Lilienthal / Leave a comment

Stop the presses: Japanese automaker, Mitsubishi, is going to be bringing back its Ralliart performance sub brand. The in-house tuner has been dormant for over 10 years. But according to Forbes, it’s coming back. Forbes is calling it a timely return as well. Yes, Ralliart returns.

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We Are United By Horsepower

April 26, 2021 / Andy Lilienthal / 3 Comments

These days it can seem like we’re all so separated. There’s a pandemic that has kept many of us apart for more than a year. There have been deep political rifts that have divided people. And in the automotive spheres, social media allows people to split up into their own camps on just about everything….

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Mitsubishi In Moab: We take our Pajero to Easter Jeep Safari

April 7, 2021 / Andy Lilienthal / 2 Comments

We typically go to Easter Jeep Safari for the annual gathering of off-road enthusiasts, primarily Jeeps—duh. I’ve been to the event for work many times. We even drove our Jeep Cherokee out there one year. We barely made it, but that’s another blog post. This year, we took our 1992 JDM Mitsubishi Pajero, aka the…

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Dangerously Slow New Cars?

March 24, 2021 / Andy Lilienthal / 2 Comments

I was recently reading a post on a Facebook group about the Subaru Crosstrek. We all know this lifted Impreza isn’t going to set any land-speed records. They’re not going to light up the drag strips on Saturday nights, right? They’re designed to let people go down rutted gravel roads or just as easily hop…

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2020 Alcan 5000 Rally Memories: The Sourtoe Cocktail

February 18, 2021 / Andy Lilienthal / Leave a comment

It’s been nearly a year since we participated in the mother-of-all-winter rallies, the 2020 Alcan 5000. We’ve been reflecting on some of our favorite moments and are putting together some fun memories. One of these was our night in Dawson City, YT Canada and the infamous Sourtoe Cocktail.

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Lifted Toyota Yaris

January 30, 2021 / Andy Lilienthal / Leave a comment

After seeing a host of lifted cars at the 2014 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, I proclaimed on Subcompact Culture that lifting would be the new lowering. In other words, we’d see more cars getting the off-road/rally treatment rather than the slammed-in-the-weeds look. Well, it’s 2021, and we’re seeing just that. In fact, this lifted…

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Our Delica Gets a Long-Range Fuel Tank

November 30, 2020 / Andy Lilienthal / 4 Comments

Our 1994 Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear, aka the TBD Tractor, just got a new long-range fuel tank. This Long Range Automotive tank brought in by Long Range America ups our fuel capacity and extends our Delica’s range significantly. In fact, here’s a video all about it.

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How To Find Parts For Your JDM Truck, Van, SUV, or Car

November 20, 2020 / Andy Lilienthal / 5 Comments

We get asked a lot of questions about our fleet of JDM (Japenese Domestic Market) vehicles. But the one that gets asked the most is how to find parts. Sometimes it can be a daunting task to find that hard-to-get piece for your JDM vehicle, but there are ways to find parts for your Delica,…

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