By Jason Mulroney
From turbocharged school buses to Rolls-Royces powered by Cummins diesels, Westen Champlin has built a digital empire by doing what most people only daydream about: taking wild automotive ideas and turning them into full-blown, tire-shredding reality. What started as a simple desire to make videos with his brother eventually grew into one of the most recognizable content channels in the automotive space.
Champlin and his team began by filming the work they were already doing—buying, selling, fixing and experimenting with vehicles—only to discover that audiences across the country and around the world couldn’t get enough of the chaos, creativity and humor woven into each build.
Named SEMA’s Content Creator of the Year at the 2025 SEMA Show, Champlin remains humbled by the recognition, noting how surreal it feels for a crew operating “in the middle of nowhere” to reach a global audience that values their unfiltered, hands-on approach to automotive entertainment.
Whether he’s dyno-testing outrageous builds, assembling a 200-acre off-road playground or exploring every corner of car culture—from drifting to drag racing to off-roading—Champlin continues to push boundaries while surrounding himself with a team he says makes the impossible possible.
SEMA Magazine: How did your Westen Champlin Channel come to be?
Westen Champlin: My brother told me I was going to be a YouTuber. And then, boom, here it was. No, actually my brother Garrett made YouTube videos for a long time, but then, obviously, he couldn’t make any money at YouTube. There was no way to make a living at it. So, he stopped, but it was his passion. I always wanted to do it, and one day we realized people were making YouTube videos about what we did—every day. When we started our business, we would buy trucks, sell trucks, fix things up—you know, do stuff like that. We ended up making YouTube videos about what we did every day. And then the videos got a little crazier and a little crazier and a little crazier. Next thing you know, we’re driving around Rolls-Royces with compound turbo diesels in them.
Outrageous builds and tire-shredding mayhem comprise Champlin's trademark formula.
SM: What does recognition as SEMA Content Creator of the Year mean to you?
WC: I’m a bad M*** F***. No. I’m joking. It’s kind of wild because it feels like we’re out here in the middle of nowhere making videos, having a good time. And it’s wild to think that people all the way across the country, let alone the world, see this and recognize it as we’re doing something great and awesome when we just think we’re doing something cool. But it’s wild to see other people appreciate it. I think that would be the best way to describe it.
SM: What are your thoughts on content creation marketing in the aftermarket space?
WC: It’s the best marketing you can do. I’m biased, obviously, but the people will buy what they trust, and what they trust is what they see. So, it’s more likely that if they see me use an eBay turbo kit, Valvoline or whatever I might use in a video, they’re like, that worked for him and they can see it with their own eyes. Us doing what we’re doing and it’s working and having a good result, then they’re going to trust it more. This means whenever they walk up to the shelf, there’s a hundred different options of everything you want to buy. Which one are you going to pick? The one you’ve never heard anything about or the one that you’ve seen on the internet actually working and doing what you want?
SM: What advice would you give a younger version of yourself trying to establish a presence or a content business?
WC: Determination. I’ve never ran into anything that if I haven’t messed with it long enough that I’ve eventually made it work. If I keep going long enough, I have made every single thing I’ve ever tried to make work, work, including YouTube, including content creation—everything. I guess the best thing I would say is keep going.
SM: That’s a good one. Your favorite platform is presumably YouTube. What are your thoughts on others?
WC: They all have their place. YouTube is good because it gives people the ability to watch content that’s very much like traditional television. You can sit down and watch a long-form video, but if you’re riding down the road, you’re probably not going to watch a full-length YouTube video. But you can scroll through and see a reel, photo or post—anything like that. They all have their place, and I think everyone’s got their own way of how they want to digest content—whether that be short- or long-form.
Champlin specializes in long-form content on YouTube bolstered by short-form content on other platforms.
SM: How do you partner with brands in the automotive aftermarket?
WC: Most of the time brands approach us, but it goes either way. Maybe we’re working on a special project, and we’ll approach a brand and say, hey, this is what we’re doing, would you like to come on board and help support it? And 90% of the time they’re like, yeah, that’s awesome. We’d love to. This is what we can do to help. And sometimes they’re like, well, no, it’s just not our thing. That’s totally fine too, but I think more than anything, it’s a give and take. Some companies, we approach them and explain what we can do for them. And then other places say, hey, this is what we would like to get out of you. What can you do?
An example is, we have this Rolls-Royce we’re building. It’s one of one; no one else has ever done it in the world. And we’re trying to take and piggyback an airlift system into it that, basically, shouldn’t work. We’re taking parts from a Rolls-Royce, and we’re trying to figure out how to make all those parts from a Rolls-Royce work without the Rolls-Royce Ride Control unit.
And then one of my guys in the shop said an airlift system would be awesome. We reached out to Airlift, told them what we’re doing, this is how we can showcase your product, and this is the kind of promotion that we can give you. Would you be willing to come on board and help us in this project? And they said they’d love to be involved and have seen the project we’re working on and we think it’s cool.
And in that instance, they come on board, sent us an entire Airlift system for that build, which then we built a custom plate in the trunk and did chrome plated lines and all the good stuff. Dual pumps, ride control unit, and it turned out nice because they got a great section in the YouTube video of us unboxing it and showing what it’s capable of when installing it. So, people go from seeing it in a box and then they see it working on the car as well.
SM: Any specific thoughts on best engagement, particularly towards a younger audience?
WC: It’s such a broad question. It’s hard to say because YouTube has good engagement. Obviously, the younger audience leans more towards the short-form content. Short-form is kind of like mashed potatoes. It’s nice, you would eat it, but you still want the steak—you know what I mean? You still want to have a nice juicy rib-eye next to it.
I would say, more than anything, that the younger audience is kind of on every spectrum of social media, whether it be YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, Facebook reels, whatever it is. That is 100% where the younger audience is. You’re not going to see them on forums, Facebook pages or things like that. You’ll see them enjoying content and videos, but you won’t see them in more of a conversational set.
SM: You’re saying it’s good to have Instagram reels, Facebook reels, and other things to get them engaged with your content and then have that juicy steak, which is the YouTube videos, to give them something more…
WC: Yes, exactly. That’s exactly the best way to put it. Reels are like your welcome sign to the hotel. And then once you get inside, there’s the steak and everything else that they might want.
SM: What, if any, areas of the industry do you see trending or blowing up again?
WC: You know, the thing is, I think everything that is popular now will just continue to be popular. I think there’s a few things that are going to kind of get left in the dust and left behind. But LZ swaps are still going to be popular. Engine swaps, suspension packages, wheels and F1.
F1 is a very big one because obviously it’s become very big in the United States when it hasn’t been in the past. So many more young people are watching F1 and paying attention to it.
SM: What do you think the future looks like in social media and, more specifically, the aftermarket industry?
WC: I think the best companies will be led by how well their social-media marketing is, to be honest, because you can market in a traditional sense, but unless you have a product that is so unique that they have to come to you, there’s so many different options that people buy what they see. And if they see you’re selling tires, and if they see your tires more than anything else, are you going to go up and buy the tires you see, or are you going to buy the tires you’ve never heard of? You’re going to buy the tires you see, because you trust [them] more.
Whenever it comes to automotive, everything you buy basically is a pretty big financial decision for someone. Whenever somebody comes along to buy that supercharger, turbo, tires, set of wheels, set of shocks or whatever it is, they’re going to always go with the thing that’s more trusted.
SM: Can you tell us about the new Horsepower Ranch and what you have planned for it?
WC: Oh, it’s going to be epic. So basically, the Horsepower Ranch is a 200-acre off-road park right outside Wichita, Kansas—about 45 minutes away from our shop. It’s going to be the new home for our Horsepower Labs, our entire media team—everything about it. And we’re going to use it not only for making media, making YouTube videos, reels, shorts, everything, but it’s going to be open to the public.
The public can still come out, experience some of the cool things that we have there like the off-road trails and river. It’s going to be a nice recreational area. Plus, we’re also going to build a drift pad and kind of a short circuit around the north side of the property as well. We have a drift pad and drift course, which also can be used for door-to-door racing. Maybe some go-kart stuff. We’re going to put an RV hookup so people can stay. It’s basically just a great horsepower paradise.
The 2026 SEMA Show Horsepower Rodeo activation had a vehicular couch doing burnouts.
SM: What is the most valuable career lesson you’ve learned since you started in this industry?
WC: You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with. I’m not going to say this too much because Kennadie’s [operations manager] sitting right here and she’s going to get a big head, but it started off with me and my brother Garrett. Garrett was good because he was just good at all things social media. Him and every person that I’ve hired and made a part of the team are great at their specific job and what they do. And I think, ultimately, I don’t know if I’m great. A lot of people think I’m good. I don’t think I’m good. I think I have a lot of people around me that make me look good.
SM: What specific areas of car culture are you most drawn to these days?
WC: I have a general fascination for everything. There’s not anything that I think I don’t really care about at all because I literally go from lowriders that are on hydraulics to maybe putting some studded tires on a car and going ice racing. I think more than anything, it’s about how cars are such a fun thing and you can have so much fun with them. And there’s so many different things that people do with cars that you’re constantly exploring and discovering things that you didn’t even know about. I like drag racing. I really like drifting. I’m a big fan of off-roading. I’ve never really been to many NASCAR races or F1 and things like that, but I think I’m starting to get into that too. I think that’s interesting.
SM: Craziest day at work?
WC: I’ve had a bunch. I think the craziest day at work since I’ve been here, at least, is rolling up and there’s a freaking tank outside. You know what’s funny is the tank got there and like, my mind short circuits by the end of the day and I just forget what happens. And my girlfriend asked me, ‘What did you do today?’” I’m like, ‘Oh, nothing really. Well, I drove a battle tank.’ And she’s like, ‘What?!’ Oh yeah, actually, we bought a battle tank. So, I think probably the craziest day was when I rolled up to our shop and they were delivering a battle tank that was 125,000 lbs. And then we did burnouts that afternoon and we shot some videos, and I think we dyno’ed something the next day. So that’s kind of rolling into the next day. But I think every single day is one of the wildest days at work.
Oh, you know another one? The burnout party! We invited about 30 of our best friends to come to our compound and do a little burnout party. And we probably had 50,000-plus people here. And we just did burnouts after burnouts after burnouts; it was a crazy, crazy day. We live-streamed seven hours of us just destroying tires, having a good time.
You know what? I hate to pander, but the SEMA Show. SEMA would have to be [included], because whenever we run the Horsepower Rodeo activation outside West Hall, there was a moment where we had a jet car. We had a semi doing burnouts and drifting. We had trophy trucks jumping over cars that were doing burnouts so ferociously they were on fire. I think that’s got to be number one.
We even did burnouts on a couch. That’s it. Yeah, that’s gotta be number one. And that’s like the most, like, if anyone ever heard, ‘Oh, what’d you do today?’ It’s like, well, there was a semi drifting. And then right after that we had a jet car. And then we jumped some off-road cars over a couple drift cars that were doing burnouts. And then we finished it off by drifting a couch and doing burnouts on a couch.
SM: Most ridiculous thing you’ve built.
WC: Most ridiculous thing I’ve built… The semi cone. We built an indestructible truck which has a 7,000-lb. cone built on the front of it. That’s just a big old battering ram. And it took us three and a half months to build it. We designed it in CAD, had it cut out of high magnesium steel for the tip, then had it freighted in from another state, welded it all together and fitted it to the front of the truck.
Then we rented a World War II air base, which had a 7,000-ft. runway. We lined up 27 cars, three boats for RVs, a bouncy house, a bunch of barrels and a bunch of other stuff. And we ran through everything on that thing at 70 mph. And it just deflected everything—besides the fact that a boat trailer tore off the driver’s side mirror and it came through the door like it was unscathed. And I figured it—we hit $750,000 worth of stuff with that cone in 35 seconds.
SM: Daily driver?
WC: A ’02 Chevy 1500 Crew Cab that rusted out named Raspberry. I don’t know, I just love shit boxes. We have access to some of the coolest cars. I have a demon. I have a TRX. We have cool cars. But there’s just something about a car that you grew up with that you just never forget about. And every time I get into it, I feel like it keeps me humble. I feel like I get in and I’m like, yeah, I remember the good old days.
SM: What projects can we find in your garage?
WC: Currently, there’s a Rolls-Royce with a 5.9L Cummins turbo diesel out of a Dodge Ram. There’s a Camaro ZL1 that I bought cheap that we’re putting a turbo kit on because it was a good deal. I got ones I can’t really talk about—my diesel Mustang’s in there. We’re doing some stuff to it. I’ve got my off-road Hellcat—a ’17 Dodge Hellcat supercharged 6.2L, lifted on 35s or, excuse me, lifted 21 in. on 35-in. tires and straight axles and four-wheel drive. And we’re doing some stuff to the winch on that. And then I’ve also got a Ford Ranger tank that we’re replacing a turbocharger on, which when I say a Ford Ranger tank, I’m not talking about like a fuel tank. It’s like a M4 Sherman battle tank on the bottom and a Ford Ranger on top. And it was built in, like, the late ’80s for Monster Jam, and it did Monster Jam with the original Bigfoot. And then we repowered it with a different engine, like, three years ago. Perfect.
Champlin received his Content Creator of the Year Award from Chris Fix (right), the 2024 awardee.
SM: Dream car?
WC: There’s two, actually, yeah... A ’70 Chevelle SS with red with black racing stripes or a Ford GT, and not the new one with the V6. Not that one. The ’06-like model with the 5.4L supercharged V8. It’s the most beautiful car I’ve ever seen. I want one of those so bad, but they’re like half a million, so I’ll probably never get one.
SM: When you’re not in or around cars, where can we find you? And what will you be doing?
WC: Probably eating. I love food; I’m a foodie. I’m good at fishing. You know, I like doing simple stuff. If we’re not filming, doing stuff like, I might be driving around checking on the cows, as stupid as that sounds. Or maybe I’m thinking about whatever we’re doing next, or just things like that. But most of the time cars and filming takes up 90% of my schedule. Like every waking moment all I think about is cars and videos and how to put cars into videos and videos into cars.
You know, the one I’m really stuck on right now—I want to turn the school bus into a VIP sprinter van. I don’t know why I’ve been stuck on that. I’m just am. This is another one that we built; it’s kind of crazy. We have a turbocharged school bus that I bought off Facebook, and I put a turbo on it that hangs off the fender and put 11 psi of boost to it—makes like 700 hp. And I drove it from Kansas all the way to Kentucky for an event. I beat a Corvette on the way there on a race on a ramp to the interstate and just did a whole bunch of stuff—hauled seven of us all the way to Kentucky and back with a school bus with a turbo hanging off the mirror.
SM: Who is Westen Champlin in 10 to 15 years?
WC: Making movies. I want to make movies. I think I’ll always love cars. Some days I won’t love them as much as I do other days. I think that’s a hobby, but my biggest passion is making really, really cool videos. And I think the evolution of really, really cool video is really, really cool movies. So maybe there’ll be a Westen Champlin-produced movie one day. We’ll see.
