Doing Donuts with Nolan Sykes and Joe Weber
6/10/20261 hr 19 min
Spike sits down with Nolan and Joe from Donut Media to talk about building one of the biggest car channels on the internet, why Porsche content flops with younger audiences, and whether spending more money actually makes your car faster. Plus, someone drives onto elevated train tracks because their GPS told them to.
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In this episode, the crew breaks down Donut's core philosophy: keep it educational, keep it entertaining, and make sure it's accessible to people who aren't already rich. That last part is why Porsche content historically tanks on their channel. They get into the nuts and bolts of Donut's hit series HiLow (does more expensive actually mean more better?) plus the Low Truck Tacoma build, the Red Bull Soapbox race where a hollow 3D-printed Vin Diesel lost his head mid-run, and a fuel economy experiment in a supercharged Mustang. Nolan also walks back his take on RWB wide-body Porsches once the functional logic behind them clicks. On the controversy side: the latest HiLow season landing on Tubi upset fans, but Nolan explains the business reality of keeping the lights on while promising a YouTube return. And Spike tells the full story of how Jerry Seinfeld's brutally honest Huel live read got the show dropped from their ad roster. They close out with the electric Ferrari Luce debate, the Porsche Macan EV that actually drives like a Porsche, and a clueless driver who ended up on Seattle's elevated light rail tracks because she trusted her GPS.
📧 To advertise with Spike’s Car Radio, contact Neon Tiger Media: contact@neontiger.media 🌐 or visit: https://scrpod.com/sponsor Produced by Skyview Entertainment & Q6 Media https://q6.media
Timestamps: 00:00 - Introducing Nolan and Joe 03:46 - How to get hired at Donut 12:39 - The prestige of Porsche 19:43 - 1984 Nissan 300ZX showcase 28:21 - HiLow modified Toyota Tacoma showcase 33:44 - The HiLow drama 43:29 - How to win a soapbox derby 52:27 - How to get 100MPG in a gas guzzler 59:48 - What it's like to work at Donut 1:06:01 - Why the Ferrari Luce is so controversial 1:12:23 - The worst drivers in the world Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpike Feresten· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Welcome to Spike's Car Radio. Here we are with the collab no one asked for, but it's happening anyways.
Joe Weber· Guest0:10
[laughs] [laughs] We asked for it.
Spike Feresten· Host0:12
They asked for it.
Nolan Sykes· Guest0:13
Yeah.
Spike Feresten· Host0:14
It's the Donut Media- [laughs] ... Spike's Car Radio collaboration. I'm here with Nolan Sykes and Joe Weber. Gentlemen.
Nolan Sykes· Guest0:19
Hello.
Joe Weber· Guest0:20
Hey, thanks for having us.
Spike Feresten· Host0:20
Nice to meet you both.
Nolan Sykes· Guest0:21
Very nice to meet you, man.
Joe Weber· Guest0:22
Yeah.
Spike Feresten· Host0:23
Yeah. So tell, uh, tell me, why, why was it important that we met? What, what's the impetus behind this collaboration?
Joe Weber· Guest0:30
Oh, I don't know. We're just in the same space, and- [laughs] ... we're very close. Uh- Are we?
Spike Feresten· Host0:34
You guys are huge. I mean, Donut Media is a giant thing.
Joe Weber· Guest0:38
Oh, I see it, you, like, your car pod- podcast as, like, the one- Wow ... to aspire to.
Spike Feresten· Host0:43
Wow, this is, this is working out pretty well. [laughs] [laughs] [laughs] Except their, their whole, your whole situation was, uh, uh, sold by Venture Capital at one point, which means it, it has to have been super profitable and super, uh, what?
Nolan Sykes· Guest0:58
Profitable for, uh- [laughs] ... founders. Uh, but yeah, like that- But, but yeah ... that was a long, that was, like, three- Yours- That was 2021.
Spike Feresten· Host1:04
Your- 2021, so five years ago. But you guys are established car- Mm-hmm ... you know, legacy media at this point.
Joe Weber· Guest1:10
[laughs] Yeah.
Nolan Sykes· Guest1:10
[laughs] It's weird to think of us that way, because we did not start out like that at all.
Joe Weber· Guest1:14
No.
Nolan Sykes· Guest1:14
I mean, yeah. Uh, we have a channel called Donut Media. We have a, a podcast on our Donut Podcast channel.
Spike Feresten· Host1:20
Yeah.
Nolan Sykes· Guest1:21
Um, but Donut very much, you know, we thought of ourselves as, like, f- I wouldn't say fighting, but definitely competing