If You Become A Member, The Little Automatic Video Player Goes Away

I’ve had two separate people tell me today that they’d become a member of the site if the little video player that appears went away. Well, you drive a hard bargain, but you have a deal! (Actually, after listening to you, dear readers, we removed almost all display advertising for members months ago, but these two don’t need to know that!).

I wrote about this in June, but I suppose not everyone sees everything through our huge wall of ads (kidding! We think we have a fairly tasteful ad situation, relatively speaking). We’ll have a post later that talks about all the things you get with membership (fun, exclusive emails; exclusive posts that tell you more about the lives of the authors, and also the weird stuff we all talk about in Slack as we work hard to run the site; extended Discord access; the password that I’m told gets you into Jacques Nasser’s secret speakeasy underneath the Joe Lewis statue; a little member badge attached to your account; great merch for higher tiers; et cetera). But I suppose it’s worth reiterating what goes away: Display ads and the pop-up video player (which becomes an in-post, non-autoplaying video).

Being reliant on Google is a liability for any publication these days, so membership means more to us now than ever, which is why it’s so important that you all feel you’re getting great value out of it. It’s more fun building a community of incredible people like yourselves, and it’s a more stable source of revenue that rewards us for writing the stuff you want to read.

Also, we’re basically incapable of being consistent or clever enough to write a bunch of SEO-optimized posts about picking the perfect valve stem caps or wiper blades (this is the kind of stuff that many competitors have had to write to bring in revenue). Instead, we want to write about which characters from The Simpsons have names that overlap with automobiles. It’s who we are.

[Ed Note: Simpsons writer/producer Josh Weinstein even read Torch’s post!

This is a delightful article! Who knew there actually was a Burns auto-buggy very similar to the one he drives!

(Also, btw, Nelson IS named after Madman Muntz, the famous LA car dealer) https://t.co/RZfmIysPFb pic.twitter.com/tlYF3u34CM

— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) November 21, 2025

How cool is that?! -DT]

Our video player serves an important purpose, which is why it’s there. But removing it for members is a no-brainer, not just because it makes sense numbers-wise, but because it feels right. Anyone who reads this site regularly and contributes their hard-earned Deutschmarks to our automotive dipshittery should get reprieve from ads. It’s a no-brainer.

While we’re welcoming into our membership community a good percentage of those who basically read every story, it’s not everyone. That’s totally fine; not all readers can or want to pay for a publication, and though the free-internet model isn’t sustainable anymore, the internet started off free, and that has inertia. Still, if half the people who regularly read us became members (or if everyone who is in the upper 1% of folks who reads everything does) we’d basically not have to sweat Google at all, meaning we’d be able to purely, solely write wacky stories that you want.

I want to reiterate of course that, if you’re not able to be a member (by clicking here), we of course still appreciate you reading the site; the internet is so vast, and for you to spend your time here is a true honor. If you’re already a member: Thank You! Exciting new things are coming soon.

That’s a lot of words. Here’s a sweet Lamborghini Miura P400 S going up for sale next year from Broad Arrow Auctions:

I love how, similar to their radios, Lamborghini could never quite decide on a fog light/blinker configuration for the Miura. This might just be a localization thing, but I’m not sure I’ve seen exactly this layout.