Key dates in Steve Myers’ automotive story — each one backed by the pages and press coverage linked along the way.
Early 2000s — While a student at Iowa State University, Steve runs isudhs.org, a free dynamic-DNS and web-redirection service he operates and funds himself.
June 2002 — Steve registers lonepilot.com, his web and graphic design business, and fordmustang.us, his first automotive website, to share photos from car shows, races, and the growing collection — an archive that today holds more than 12,000 photos and remains online.
August 2002 — Steve buys a 1972 International Harvester school bus and starts Skoolie.net to document the conversion.
December 2003 — Skoolie.net relaunches as a community — forum, photo hosting, and a directory of every bus-conversion page on the web — and grows into the largest school-bus-conversion community in the world. The full story →
2004 — While studying mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, Steve buys his first classic car — a 1969 Austin-Healey Sprite — and restores it with his father. A rescued MG Midget and a pair of Sunbeam Alpines soon follow. The full founding story →
November 13, 2004 — The first post goes up on passthespanner.com — about the newly acquired Sprite — beginning seven years and 300-plus posts of project diaries, a forum, dyno tests, and printable vintage ads: the written predecessor of This Week With Cars.
2006 — Co-creates MiddNation, an early technology podcast distributed through Apple’s iTunes podcast directory — audio and video production experience that later feeds PistonVision and This Week With Cars.
February 2007 — Creates innocentispyder.com, a registry for the rare Innocenti Spyder — only around thirteen examples in the United States — documenting histories, specifications, and surviving cars.
2007 — The collection reaches thirteen cars.
2008 — Invited to show his Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans at the Salisbury Concours d’Elegance in Des Moines. He later joins the board — its youngest member — and creates the concours’ popular exotics class.
The 2000s — Working as a web designer, Steve builds sites for the car clubs and charities he serves — including the Salisbury Concours d’Elegance, the Iowa British Car Club, and Road Rally Charities, sitting on the boards of all three.
February 2009 — First endurance race: a 13-hour 24 Hours of LeMons event at MSR Houston in a $500 Infiniti Q45 — the start of a LeMons and ChumpCar era that runs through 2012. That same month, Steve launches PistonVision, an automotive video show distributed by RSS and iTunes with the LeMons trip as its debut announcement — it never takes off, but it’s a first attempt at what This Week With Cars becomes ten years later.
April 17, 2010 — Steve sets his first certified track record: NASA ST1 at Gateway International Raceway, 1:08.337 — the first of fifteen track and course records at ten circuits he would set through 2018.
October 2010 — The Des Moines Register’s Juice magazine puts Steve on its cover: “My whole life is cars.” The collection stands at more than 40 vehicles.
November 2011 — Steve leaves his web-design career to turn the hobby into a business.
December 12, 2011 — Skunk River Restorations opens its doors at 709 Airport Road in Ames, Iowa.
October 2012 — When John Nikas’ charity Austin-Healey “Grace” breaks down mid-way through a cross-country tour for Drive Away Cancer, the shop becomes home base for the repair as 40 volunteers rally — a story covered by the Des Moines Register.
2014 — The shop converts a 1958 Grumman Olson step van into a battery-powered coffee truck for Ames coffee company Burgie’s — covered by Kyle Munson in the Des Moines Register, KCCI-TV, and the front page of the Ames Tribune.
2014 — The shop hosts the Midwest British Motor Show, the Iowa British Car Club’s all-British gathering of some 130 vehicles, on its grounds — and again on June 6, 2015.
October 2014 — After twelve years at the helm, Steve sells Skoolie.net. The community he built remains the hub of the skoolie movement today, with more than 46,000 members.
December 2014 — Races a Lotus Exige in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, North America’s longest closed-course endurance race, finishing fifth in class.
August 2016 — At Bonneville Speed Week, Steve earns his rookie license and breaks a class land-speed record driving Tom Donney’s two-stroke Saab Sonett II, with GPS measures showing 124 MPH.
February 2017 — Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car tells the Bonneville story in its four-page feature “Super Sonett Transport.”
2018 — The Goodguys Hall of Fame Road Tour makes Skunk River Restorations a featured stop on its Utah-to-Texas run, published in the Goodtimes Gazette the following spring.
April 2019 — The Muscle Car Place podcast interviews Steve on restoration, the business, and racing.
June 8, 2019 — The first This Week With Cars video goes up: an unrestored 1929 Willys-Overland Whippet at a local Cars & Coffee.
2019 — Takes endurance racing to Europe in the British C1 Racing series: Silverstone in April, then the 24H 2CV at Spa-Francorchamps in October.
January 2021 — Launches Nostalgic Mac, a second YouTube channel devoted to vintage Apple computers — opening, naturally, with Apple’s “1984” commercial.
2025 — This Week With Cars becomes a major sponsor of the Austin-Healey Conclave, the largest annual Austin-Healey gathering in North America — renewed for 2026.
2025–2026 — Under the Skunk River Restorations name, Steve releases LastDrive, the garage app for collectors, followed by Fuel Pre-Pay Estimator, TachoSpeed, RaceCarLogBook, and GearRatio — with WireForge in development. The full app lineup →
2026 — The channel passes 100,000 subscribers and 35 million views.
The whole story in one place: About Steve Myers