The Car Curious Weekly for May 3, 2026

The Car Curious Weekly is a look at what the automotive podcast world is talking about, who's saying it, and what patterns emerge when you listen to all of them at once.

April 26 - May 02, 2026 · 245 episodes across 160 podcasts.

Chinese automakers are making their supercar ambitions official. BYD unveiled the production-ready Denza Z at the Beijing Auto Show, an over-1,000-horsepower coupe available in three variants with a 0-100 km/h time under two seconds and a starting price equivalent to about $65,000. Meanwhile, Tesla's long-delayed Roadster remains in development limbo, leaving the field open for competitors to establish themselves in the high-performance segment.

Here is the biggest storyline of the week, and where it showed up across the feed.

BYD Unveils Production-Ready Denza Z Supercar While Tesla Roadster Remains Delayed

The production-ready Denza Z debuted at the Beijing Auto Show with over 1,000 horsepower, 0-100 km/h in under two seconds, and a starting price equivalent to about $65,000, across three variants: coupe, soft-top convertible, and a track-focused edition.

BYD's Flash Charging 2.0 system underpinning the Denza Z runs at 1,500 kilowatts, built on the E3 platform that also underpins the Denza Z9 GT wagon.

From Ride the Lightning: Tesla and EV Podcast:

"A Tesla event did get announced, but sadly it wasn't the one I was hoping for. I'm eagerly awaiting that Roadster reveal, as I know a number of you are as well."

Coverage was blunt about the optics: EV News Daily framed the Denza Z as a direct embarrassment for Tesla, noting BYD had now done in production form what Tesla has spent a decade promising.

From EV News Daily - Technology and Business of EVs:

"BYD has done what Tesla has taken ten years of broken promises to do … with their much delayed Roadster. That'll be 27 days after the latest promise, which was to unveil the Tesla Roadster on the 1st of April. No April Fool's there, a date that came and went like all of the previous promises."

Also covered by: TFL Car Chat, The Carmudgeon Show, Autoline Daily, Automotive News Daily Drive, Cars & Money.

Daily coverage: Monday · Tuesday · Thursday

Hidden Gems

Episodes worth checking out that you might have missed:
- 349: The Agent Wave Is Coming (Automotive Diagnostic Podcast) — Deep technical dive into how AI agents are actually reshaping shop operations and diagnostics beyond hype, with real tools like Open Claw and honest discussion of limitations where it matters most.
- Roll Forged Wheels - EP.179 (Right Hand Drive Guys) — Insider look at how a popular builder is launching a custom forged-wheel company with China-based manufacturing but original designs, capturing the blend of car culture, engineering, and business that casual listeners miss.
- Detective Mind Mapping: A Forensic Approach to Automotive Diagnostics [RR 1089] (Remarkable Results Radio Podcast) — Practical forensic methodology for diagnostics using mind mapping and disciplined data collection, plus an honest conversation about why the technician shortage stems from shops that skip training, actionable for both techs and shop owners.

Recommendations

If You Only Listen To One

🏎️ BMW E46 inspires Building an AI-Powered Podcast Platform for Car Junkies, To All The Cars I've Loved Before

Host Doug sits down with Car Curious founder Ryan Williams to trace a personal car history — a yellow 1978 Mazda GLC, a $1,500 Nissan Sentra, and the BMW chassis-code rabbit hole that turned into an AI-powered podcast player for enthusiasts. The conversation about why model-code jargon is the wall most car podcasts run their listeners into is a meta-look at the medium you don't usually get from a guest interview.

More Episodes Worth Hearing

• C.R.E.A.M. #80 - Murcielago Auction Result, Car Toilet Returns and We Made The Papers (C.R.E.A.M. (The TDC Podcast)) — The opening segment about winning a Murcielago at auction is genuinely tense; you can hear the nerves in how they describe the bidding war. The pivot to a patented car toilet is exactly the kind of absurd detour that makes enthusiast podcasts worth finding. Broad appeal even if you don't care about Lamborghinis.
• "Is it Real?" (Bring a Trailer Podcast) — A wide-ranging collector-car conversation that uses a jaw-dropping Lexus LFA result as a jumping-off point for bigger questions about authenticity, Shelby numbers-matching, Cobra replicas, and whether you should ever actually drive a car worth preserving. The hosts move fluidly between high-value auction talk and genuine enthusiast philosophy.
• 174. The Pile Up: Route 66 Turns 100 (Car Krush) — A road-trip episode that traces Route 66 from barely-paved highway to tourist landmark, with real observations about what the decline of the route did to the towns along it. The detail about how guidebooks shape the east-to-west experience is the kind of thing you'll think about on your next long drive.
• 256: LIVE Drive Chinese Utes (All Torque Car Podcast) — A practical, back-to-back comparison of Chinese utes that doesn't hype or dismiss. The BYD Shark gets credit for its polished plug-in hybrid setup, the LDV T60 for comfort and warranty, and the Jac gets called out as a basic workhorse with no pretensions. Useful for anyone watching how quickly Chinese brands are closing the gap on mainstream competitors.
• Episode 446: Monster Trucks, 2026 Toyota BZ (Unnamed Automotive Podcast) — The Toyota bZ review is honest about the car's blandness without being dismissive. The Radio Shack RC truck restoration is a fun piece of nostalgia, and the Monster Jam opening — a parent realizing their kid is forming the same childhood memories they have — is unexpectedly moving.
• DEEP TROUBLE: Riding Loaded in Big Bend – What Went Wrong (Adventure Rider Radio – Motorcycle Podcast) — A father-son trip into Big Bend that turns into a crash and remote recovery story, told with real detail about what went wrong and why. The debrief on load placement and terrain reading is practical, but it's the remote-recovery element that makes this compelling even for non-motorcyclists; anyone who has taken a vehicle somewhere genuinely far from help will recognize the feeling.
• Mailbag Episode: From Quantum Physics to Flat Rate Pay Plans (Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z) — A mailbag episode that shouldn't work — quantum physics, lawnmowers, flat rate pay plans, and a Mount Rushmore of bands — but does, because the host's voice is consistent throughout: practical, direct, and allergic to oversimplified thinking. The flat rate section alone is worth it for anyone curious about how shop pay structures actually function.
• Car Keys with Robin Leach and Jay de Marcken – April 27, 2026 (CAR KEYS) — Robin Leach's enthusiastic review of a loaner Dodge Hornet — a car he had no expectations for — drives a genuinely interesting conversation about why good cars disappear because of bad marketing. The used-sports-car summer buying advice (Miatas, Mustangs, Mercedes SLs) is practical and specific.
• Nostalgia & Build Updates - EP.180 (Right Hand Drive Guys) — A relaxed episode that earns its runtime through specific memories: Option videos, early car meets in Nashville and Maine, a Supra doing donuts in a parking lot in a way nobody could quite explain. The balance between current build updates and genuine nostalgia about what drew them into car culture makes it easy company.

Next Week

With Ford's employee pricing promotion running through July and tariff refund details still unresolved, expect dealers and market analysts to dig into whether the discount is moving real inventory or just reshuffling demand, and whether other automakers feel pressure to follow.

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By the Numbers

Most-Discussed Cars

Trending Terminology

Publishing Pattern

245 episodes. 2972 car mentions. 17876 terms explained. Browse every episode with searchable annotations and plain-language term definitions in the Car Curious app.