Riding Shotgun is a new series from sludgo featuring interviews with notable members of the BaT community. Last month we published his first interview with Cobrahandler, and this week he has talked to ValiantJim, winner of the 2024 Cognoscenti Award and prominent member of the BaT MOPAR mob. He had a lot to say, only some of it about Valiants!
sludgo can take it from here:
WINNER’S ANNOUNCEMENT:
Happy Monday! We’re back to announce the winner for our Question of the Week, where our victor will accept a $25 credit for a hat or T-shirt from the BaT Gear Store and the acclaim of their peers.
Our question was: Which car features your all-time favorite seat upholstery design?
The 115+ comment thread had a postmodern feel this week, and we can dig it! The iconic Pasha pattern from Porsche received the most mentions of all, and two-time QotW winner @Ben was the first to mention it this week. His second win comes right on the heels of his earlier triumph, so this week we’re handing the prize to the runner-up, @RitchieR!
“Pasha FTW!”
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RitchieR commented on Question of the Week: Which Car Features your All-Time Favorite Seat Upholstery Design?—WINNER’S UPDATE
BaT contributor @kobus took the trip of a lifetime to this year’s Le Mans Classic, and came back with a bunch of new friends and a massive collection of wonderful images to share. He managed to secure a coveted red press vest for the event, and certainly made the most of it! We are happy to live vicariously through his adventures, and we’re sure you will be too. Take it away, kobus!
Circuit de la Sarthe—Le Mans, France, July 4-6, 2025
This Success Story comes to us from BaT member mustangman7, who won this 2007 Chevrolet Suburban 1500 fire rescue truck from testdummypilot in a March 2025 BaT auction:
I would like to tell everyone about my very first BaT interaction and purchase. I saw this Suburban on the site and instantly fell in love. I restore and show off old emergency vehicles, and this truck perfectly fits the bill as my first fire-related vehicle.
BaT Member phoreigncars fittingly traveled by air and by land to bring home the 2010 Saab 9-3 Aero that he won from its original owner—MRichards7—in a May 2025 BaT auction, and he recently wrote in to tell us about his travels:
After winning this 2010 Saab 9-3 Aero a few states away on BaT, I decided a fly-and-drive trip would be the best way to get it home. And since I became a private pilot about a year ago, I knew this would be a great opportunity to demonstrate the practicality of general aviation.
The whole crew is back to discuss their vintage racing experiences at Road America, interpretations of spec between events, the race car parade to Elkhart Lake, Spotted Cow, notable names at Laguna Seca this weekend, Malibu Grand Prix, and watchlist highlights from this very exciting and high-volume time at BaT.
Another blockbuster week has brought over 1,200 cars across our pages, and there are 1,100 auctions live as we write this piece. If you tried to stay on top of that volume of cars, you’d probably wind up unemployed. Fortunately, this is part of the job for us here at BaT, so we’re happy to go through everything and present some of the strangest and most interesting vehicles to you each week. We must always note that the list below is by no means comprehensive; there’s lots more to enjoy on our live auctions page.
The NASCAR Classics YouTube channel has lately become one of our favorite corners on the internet. Besides dozens of hours of full-race replays, there are short-form Classic Clips featuring everything else in between. They recently released some special footage from the vault, and it’s the subject of today’s highlight: a sub-seven-minute video featuring two larger-than-life personalities from opposite ends of the motorsports spectrum—“The King” Richard Petty and Sir Jackie Stewart.
BaT member hannahlynnanderson was enthralled by her new 1960 Lincoln Continental Mark V convertible the moment she laid eyes on it during a March 2025 BaT auction listed by m100man. She won the Mark V and wrote in with an update:
We absolutely love our first BaT purchase, our 1960 Lincoln Continental convertible, which we have dubbed “Big Blue” due to her almost 19-foot length.
WINNER’S ANNOUNCEMENT:
We’re grateful to work with partners who’ve stepped up for the BaT community, and this special edition of Question of the Week is an example of Pennzoil‘s generosity, where our champion will reap the reward of some limited edition Pennzoil swag to accompany his or her $25 credit to spend at the BaT Gear Store!
So now it’s time to announce the winner of our question, which was: What’s your best oil change disaster story?
A number of common themes emerged throughout the 100+ comment thread, including the ‘ol screwdriver through a stuck oil filter trick (and the ensuing mess afterward) as well as a surprising number of tales of mistaken transmission drain bolts for the engine oil drain plug. We loved reading them all, but one comment particularly grabbed our attention. So that means we’re exercising our Editorial Privilege by awarding the prize to BaT member @getyourfreakon and his rather fiery story: