Be Differential

Charlie Wiggins was a four-time Gold & Glory Sweepstakes champion who built his own race car, ran a thriving mechanic shop on Indiana Avenue in Indianapolis, and achieved things that should have made him a household name in American motorsports. Instead, his story was nearly lost entirely. In this episode of BeDifferential, former GM Vice President of Global Design Ed Welburn — the man who has spent years championing Char...

NASCAR quietly rebuilt its entire playoff format for 2026 and almost nobody covered it. Then on Saturday night at Daytona, it produced the exact result it was designed to prevent.

Here's the change: the knockout rounds are gone. No more three rounds of three and a winner-take-all Championship 4. It's a ten-race Chase — the first since 2013 — with one points reset and no eliminations. And "win and in" is abolished. The fi...

Christian Valverde grew up with Silverstone as a backdrop — and at 18, he's already closer to that world than most people ever get. In this episode, Christian talks about nearly a decade of competitive karting across four countries, four championship titles, and what it actually felt like to finish school without a clear path but with an unshakeable ambition. Now competing in the 750 Motor Club MX-5 Cup Championship, he break...

GT3 is the most successful form of sports car racing in the world, and most people have never had it explained to them. So this week I'm doing that — and then telling you about the strangest, best idea in racing right now.

GT3 turned 20 this year. To mark it, SRO and Peter Auto launched the GT3 Revival Series: a historic championship for GT3 cars built between 2006 and 2013. Real Balance of Performance, set from period data. 3...

What does it take to build a car event so good that people fly across the world to attend it? Jeff Swoboda, commercial development lead and key figure behind Luftgekühlt, joins BeDifferential to pull back the curtain on one of the most beloved gatherings in automotive culture. We trace the journey from Luft's origins as an air-cooled Porsche happening in Los Angeles to its expansion into Tokyo, Chattanooga, Indianapolis, and beyond...

The last Dutch Grand Prix runs this weekend at Circuit Zandvoort — and almost everyone has the story backwards. Formula 1 didn't drop Zandvoort. Zandvoort dropped Formula 1.

The Dutch GP is privately funded, it sold out five months early, and its director says the business case is still healthy. They chose not to renew anyway. This week I get into why a promoter walks away from a sold-out race, what a permanent circuit is actu...

Ella White didn't come up through the traditional karting ladder — and that might be exactly what makes her one of the most compelling young drivers to watch. In this episode, the Berg Racing Ligier JFC driver talks about what it felt like to go from her first ever formula car experience to signing for a full season with one of America's most respected racing programs. We get into her first test at Sebring, what Alex Berg saw...

On August 22–23, the NTT INDYCAR Series runs the Freedom 250 Grand Prix on the streets of Washington, D.C. — the first INDYCAR race ever held on the National Mall, with free general admission and IROC returning after years dormant.

Back in July, Eva Gregory questioned whether Formula 1's American expansion was built too heavily on spectacle. Now American open-wheel racing is doing something arguably more spectacular, and...

Cristian Garling grew up watching people hustle and survive through the window of his mother's hair salon on Beach Boulevard. By his junior year at Rancho Alamitos High School, he was lost — until an automotive classroom became the first thing that made school matter.

Today he teaches in that same classroom.

Eva Gregory sits down with Cristian, CTE Automotive Instructor and founder of the Under the Hood Project, for a conversat...

Monterey Car Week 2026 runs August 7–16, and every year the same argument shows up online: that it's become less accessible, more corporate, less about the cars.

In this Thursday Pit Stop, Eva opens up about being given a lot of access she didn't pay for, why she's making the accessibility argument anyway, and what she got completely wrong on her first trip to the Monterey Peninsula. Plus the free Carmel event almost nobody o...

Ian Koenig — the man behind KoenigSlides and over a billion views across social media — joins BeDifferential to talk about what it actually takes to chase a dream in motorsport, one sideways mile at a time. We get into his first memory of cars, the moment drifting clicked as more than a hobby, and what separates someone who can slide a car from someone who can truly compete. Ian breaks down his current build, the setup ...

No industry trends. No race previews. No big structural question about the future of car culture. This week it's just Eva Gregory, pulling back the curtain on the career advice she's received over a path that took her from cashier at a karting facility to Director of Operations at Road Atlanta to marketing partnerships at Hagerty — and being completely honest about what helped, what hurt, and what she wishes she'd never liste...

Amanda Cline of Amanda Reviews Cars didn't take the obvious road into automotive journalism — and that's exactly what makes her perspective worth hearing. In this episode, we talk about the moment cars stopped being a hobby and became a career, what it actually takes to review a vehicle beyond the spec sheet, and why "approachable" doesn't mean dumbed down. Amanda shares what it was like going hot laps in the Lamborghini Teme...

Automotive lifestyle events — concours, themed gatherings, destination car meets, immersive marque festivals — are having a moment. And Eva Gregory has a personal relationship with this world that goes back long before it was part of her professional life.

In this week's Thursday Pit Stop, Eva breaks down the full spectrum of automotive lifestyle events, from the white-glove judged concours at Amelia Island and Hilton He...

What does it take to go from the roads of Galway to the gravel stages of the American Rally Association — in a sport where women have historically been the exception, not the rule? In this episode of the BeDifferential Podcast, we sit down with Aoife Raftery: Irish rally driver, DirtFish Women in Motorsport Programme driver, Motorsport Ireland Road Safety Ambassador, inaugural Rosemary Smith Award recipient, and one...

A number of car clubs across the country are in genuine decline. Some are growing despite every headwind. And the real reasons behind both are more complicated — and more honest — than most people are willing to say out loud.

In this week's Thursday Pit Stop, Eva Gregory asks the question that keeps coming up inside the automotive and motorsports world: are car clubs dying? Fresh from attending the Ferrari Club of Americ...

What does it actually take to break into professional motorsports when you don't have the budget, the backing, or the blueprint? In this episode of the BeDifferential Podcast, we sit down with Brad Perez — NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series driver, ARCA Menards Series competitor, high-performance driving instructor, and one of the most compelling stories in racing today.

Brad is a first-generation racer who didn'...

Formula 1's American expansion is one of the most remarkable growth stories in professional sports history — 135% audience growth since 2018, three US races, Cadillac on the grid, and Apple TV now broadcasting to a fanbase that barely existed a decade ago. By every measurable standard, the numbers are extraordinary.

But are the numbers the whole story?

In this week's Thursday Pit Stop, host Eva Gregory pulls back from the race ...

What does it look like to build a career in automotive when there's no obvious door to walk through? This week, we sit down with Nolan Browning, Head of Partnerships at Cars & Bids, for an honest conversation about a career path that started not with a dream job, but with a CarMax business office.

Nolan shares how a passion for cars that had nothing to do with his day job led him to launch a blog — a side project he ran fo...