Taking a Track-Prepped Minivan on a 30,000-Mile Racing Journey Across America

January 7, 2024 / Andy Lilienthal / Leave a comment

Zac Caldwell and his track-prepped minivan—a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan to be exact—will set out in February on an 11-month marathon of grassroots racing with an extremely lofty goal and very important cause. Let me repeat: track-prepped Dodge Caravan.

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The Crankshaft Culture ‘Not Another Holiday Gift Guide’ Gift Guide

December 15, 2023 / Andy Lilienthal / 1 Comment

Holiday gift guides can be great ways for people to find that just-right gift for their special someone. They can also be useless shill pieces aimed at bringing in traffic to their site without anyone actually touching the products—but that’s not the case here! The Crankshaft Culture Holiday Gift Guide features products we’ve actually used…

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Photos from Boxerfest 2023: York, PA

November 10, 2023 / Andy Lilienthal / Leave a comment

Boxerfest is one of the premier Subiefest events. There were hundreds of Subarus and thousands of Subaru enthusiasts in historic York, PA for this show. This year’s event happened in August 2023 and had an excellent layout to showcase both vendors and show cars. Heck, even the parking area at Boxerfest was impressive.

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2023 Big Northwest Subaru Meet is How You Do Subiefest in Oregon

October 8, 2023 / Andy Lilienthal / Leave a comment

After our first Subiefest show of 2023, Big Wicked Meet, we traveled back to Oregon and went to the 2023 Big Northwest Subaru meet. Yes, a Subiefest in our own backyard. We could even drive our own Subaru Crosstrek to it!

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The 2023 Wicked Big Meet Is A Big, Wicked East-Coast Subaru Show

September 1, 2023 / Andy Lilienthal / 2 Comments

The 2023 Wicked Big Meet is one big east-coast Subaru show and part of the Subiefest family of Subaru-centric events. Held June 11, 2023 at Stafford Motor Speedway outside of Hartford, CT, Wicked Big Meet is billed as America’s largest Subaru enthusiast festival. It also kicked off the 2023 Subiefest series. Mercedes and I flew…

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Adding a Light Bar, Lights, and Armor to our 2022 Subaru Crosstrek

April 15, 2023 / Andy Lilienthal / 1 Comment

Our goal with our Crosstrek was to add just a bit more capability to it. We want to hop in it and go pretty much anywhere we want (within reason). So after we added the 15×7 Reika Seeker wheels and 215/75/15 BFGoodrich KO2 tires, we added a light bar, lights, and armor to our 2022 Subaru Crosstrek. You can see how we did this in our Subaru Crosstrek video above.

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We Bought a 2022 Subaru Crosstrek

August 9, 2022 / Andy Lilienthal / 3 Comments

There’s a new ride in the Crankshaft Culture driveway. No, not the Alcan 5000 Outback Wilderness, but close. We actually bought a 2022 Subaru Crosstrek—like, with our own money. It was time to retire our steadfast 2007 Toyota Yaris liftback and add a go-everywhere (at any time) daily driver. We’re totally going to keep it…

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Crankshaft Culture 2022 Q1 Update

April 19, 2022 / Andy Lilienthal / 1 Comment

To say Mercedes and I have been busy so far in 2022 would be a gross understatement. You may have noticed we haven’t made a post since January. Frankly, we’ve been so busy we simply haven’t had time. That being said, the things we’ve been busy with have been automotive-based and awesome.

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Our Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear Build on Pickup Truck + SUV Talk

November 9, 2020 / Andy Lilienthal / 5 Comments

By now you may know we have a 1994 Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear (L400) 4×4 van in our stable. And of course by “stable” I mean our driveway of ’90s JDM 4WD Mitsubishi money pits projects. What you might not know is we’re again partnering with Tim Esterdahl of Pickup Truck + SUV Talk to…

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Our 4D56 Pajero Gets a D4BF Engine Swap

September 12, 2020 / Andy Lilienthal / 13 Comments

A little over a year ago, our 1992 Mitsubishi Pajero XR-II, aka the Ralli Tractor, suffered a cracked block due to a fouled thermostat. Today, it has a new Hyundai heart courtesy of a D4BF engine swap. How does this compare to the original 4D56? Does all this make any sense? If not read on….

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