Benjamin Hunting

Benjamin Hunting is an automotive journalist and freelance writer who approaches cars as stories about design, history, and culture as much as machines to be reviewed. His work at MotorTrend leans on deep context, enthusiast nostalgia, and clear rankings instead of routine model news. Across multiple outlets he blends hands-on experience, long-term project-car ownership, and curated lists into coverage that speaks to readers who already care about cars and want their passions reflected back to them.

Street truck revivals and classic dream cars

Hunting’s MotorTrend features show a consistent interest in the emotional appeal of cars that enthusiasts lust after, even when owning them is complicated. In pieces like “5 More Classic Dream Cars You Really Want but Will …,” he explores vehicles that inspire strong desire while candidly acknowledging maintenance headaches and ownership regrets, framing them as aspirational machines with real-world downsides.

He carries the same tone into coverage of personal luxury coupes in “Power and Presence: The 7 Best Personal Luxury Coupes of the 1990s,” where he revisits big, stylish coupes from that era and explains why their combination of power and presence still captivates drivers today. The street truck feature about the Rumble Bee comeback and related revivals fits into this pattern, using a contemporary comeback to revisit a wider niche of factory hot-rod trucks and the subculture that grew up around them.

Across these stories he treats nostalgia carefully, balancing fond memories with clear-eyed assessments of what it takes to live with aging performance vehicles.

Controversial car designers and copycat car designs

Design is a central strand in Hunting’s MotorTrend work, and he routinely digs into how styling decisions age over time. In “5 Controversial Car Designers That History Has Vindicated,” he revisits designers whose work was once criticized and explains, with specific examples, how later generations came to appreciate their vision, tying aesthetic debates to changing tastes and historical hindsight.

“Brothers From Another Mother: Copycat Car Designs That Sometimes Outshined the Originals” takes a different angle, looking at vehicles that borrowed heavily from more famous models and then assessing cases where the so-called copycats arguably surpassed their inspirations. He uses these stories to show how influence, imitation, and originality play out in sheetmetal, giving readers a framework for understanding why certain cars feel familiar yet distinct. The Ford GT40 history feature, which traces how the car “took down Ferrari and left a lasting” legacy, extends this design-and-history lens to motorsport, connecting a race program’s technical and stylistic choices to its enduring mythos.

Together, these articles distinguish his coverage as design literate and historically grounded rather than focused solely on spec sheets.

Cheapest 500-hp cars and fastest Corvettes

Hunting also writes performance-oriented lists that speak directly to enthusiast priorities such as horsepower, speed, and value. In “The 10 Cheapest 500-HP Cars You Can Buy: Sub-Six-Figure Fun,” he surfaces high-horsepower options that remain attainable, defining clear price and power thresholds and then walking through the trade-offs each model demands.

“The 10 Fastest Corvettes MotorTrend Has Ever Tested” narrows the lens to a single nameplate, ranking generations and variants by measured performance and explaining what engineering changes pushed each car up the list.

These pieces are list-driven, but they are anchored in test data and enthusiast concerns, helping readers understand not just which cars are quickest but why they matter within the broader Corvette and performance-car story. Combined with his dream car and street truck work, they show a sub-beat focused on performance metrics translated into real-world appeal, always framed for people who care about driving experience as much as numbers.

Car culture, long road trips, and cross-outlet coverage

Outside MotorTrend, Hunting’s author pages describe a remit that extends beyond individual models to the wider culture around cars. His InsideHook biography states that he writes about cars and car culture, test driving and reviewing notable vehicles, tracking new trends and classic cars drivers should know, and unearthing curious stories throughout automotive history.

That description matches his InsideHook work on “The 12 Best Vehicles We Drove in 2025” and “The 12 Best Cars, Trucks and SUVs We Drove in 2024,” where he selects standout vehicles from a year of testing and explains what made them memorable, blending subjective impressions with broader market context.

In “I Went on an 800-Mile EV Road Trip...Again,” he turns his attention to electric vehicles, using a long-distance journey to examine charging infrastructure, range realities, and how EVs fit into everyday travel. His Capital One profile emphasizes that he has worked as an automotive journalist for nearly two decades, with greasy hands from project cars and contributions to a wide roster of outlets including MotorTrend, Car and Driver, Hagerty, Driving Line, and several mainstream newspapers and online publications. Across these platforms he maintains a consistent voice: an enthusiast who has spent years driving, wrenching on, and thinking about cars, and who now translates that experience into accessible, narrative-driven coverage for readers who share the obsession.

Enthusiast identity, comics, and podcasts

Hunting’s professional bios also underline that his automotive writing sits alongside creative work in comics and podcasting, which reinforces the sense that he is immersed in enthusiast media rather than treating cars as a sideline. MotorTrend’s author page notes that he creates comic books, hosts podcasts, keeps the “shiny side up” at track days, and even jokes about reading oil stains on his garage floor like tea leaves, all of which frame him as someone who lives inside car culture and brings that perspective to his reporting. His Capital One profile adds that he is cohost of the Unnamed Automotive Podcast and cocreator of the Code 45 and Dead Air graphic novels, tying his storytelling and audio work directly to his automotive interests.

Taken together, these roles distinguish him from a generic beat reporter; he writes as a long-time enthusiast who uses multiple formats to tell car stories, whether they focus on historic racing, controversial design, performance rankings, or the practical realities of modern EV road trips.