Local YouTuber gives KSL Cars an exclusive garage tour

From the outside, you probably wouldn’t guess that Stefan Lewis’ garage doubles as a home auto shop. After all, the rest of the two-car garages in his townhome community are mostly home to, well, two cars.

But not only does he have three incredible cars filtering through that garage, there’s also a full lift in there for his current project and whatever comes next. “I feel like I have properly rung out every little bit you could get out of a small, two-car townhome garage,” he admits. The lift, a Bendpak MaxJax, can be easily moved when Mrs. Lewis wants to park her car out of the snow or if his young assistants need some room to play. 

Because the lift is far from the only help Stefan has in his garage. His 6-year-old daughter, June, is his top worker bee. She’s almost as handy as your average mechanic and about 10 times as enthusiastic.

The semi-viral kindergartner (more on that later) may not be able to drive anytime soon, but that hasn’t stopped her from picking a favorite among her dad’s collection. For her, and for Stefan, that’s a no-brainer. The RX7 takes the cake. 

A right-hand driver in a left-hand world

You’d be forgiven for doing a double take when you see Stefan sitting cozily behind the wheel on the right side of his 1995 Mazda RX7. Especially if he’s next to you in traffic. Because it’s not often that the driver next to you is actually, you know, next to you.

Stefan didn’t have any experience with right-hand drive vehicles before importing this car from Japan. In fact, he learned on the fly during his 1,000-mile drive back from the importer in Washington. That might sound scary to some, but Stefan had a blast.

Importing from Japan? Worth it for a car like this.

“It’s been the funnest experience,” he said of learning how to drive the sporty import. “There are a lot of little nuances to driving a right-hand drive car in a left-hand drive country,” he says. “But it’s like one of my favorite experiences ever.”

For Stefan, the adjustment has been worth it. “This car’s really special to me,” he said. “Growing up in high school, I had an RX8, but this was always like the big car that everybody wanted.” Stefan and his friends always had their eyes on Japanese domestic market sportscars, or JDM Legends, as they’re known to some. These “Fast and the Furious cars” had been out of reach until a few years ago. “I feel super fortunate to be in a spot where I could own this car.”

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The story is great, but the details are what define this unique ride, whether that be the “paper thin” carbon-fiber hood, the “engineering marvel” of a rotary engine that “sounds like a weed eater” or the T37 wheels that are Stefan’s (and “everyone in car culture’s”) favorite wheels.

It’s a car lover’s car. And the fact that these incredible details might slip under the average driver’s nose may be the reason why the RX7 is only “pretty close” to being the car Stefan gets the most thumbs up in. His off-road-ready Porsche, after all, is a little less subtle.

An off-road rarity

Thumbs ups aren’t the only reactions Stefan gets to his 2008 Porsche Cayenne S. “When you have a Porsche that looks like this, it turns a few heads.” And when he takes it down to the desert, those head turns come with a few raised eyebrows and skeptical head shakes. 

“It’s hilarious to see the kinds of looks that this gets, especially when you’re out on the trails in Moab,” Stefan said. “People with built Jeeps, they look at this like ‘Ha ha, you’re gonna take that on the trail?’ And then you do, and everybody gets a good laugh out of it.”

Stefan's Porsche Cayenne S is his daily driver, but it can hold its own on the trail.

If you’re like those jaw-dropped Jeepers, you probably didn’t think Porches were built for off-roading. In general, they aren’t, but some of the circumstances surrounding this model year make it a highly capable force on the trail. “With this being Porsche’s first entrance into the off-road SUV market, they really went hard and feature-heavy on this for off-roading.” 

Features like the full-time all-wheel drive, center locking differential and low-range gearing don’t appear on the next generation of the Cayenne S, which was given a sportier, more street-friendly feel. Stefan said that these features, combined with the comparative depreciation of the Cayenne S, have made the SUV a top pick for those looking to build out an off-roading setup.

Stefan’s build is no exception, and with armor on the front and camping storage in the back (plus a rooftop tent), it’s equipped for gnarly desert terrain and family camping trips alike.

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An unexpected addition

As for the third car in Stefan’s arsenal — it’s a work in progress. His 2008 BMW M3 may not have been ready for the track when we visited, but the mid-build car provided a rare opportunity to see Stefan’s garage in shop mode. But why was he working on a track build in the first place?

Stefan's newest build is almost ready for the track.

“I drove straight into a wall at Utah Motorsports Campus at like 70 miles per hour. Head on.” The crash was caused by a failure in a suspension component in Stefan’s treasured Corvette. He escaped the encounter, albeit with some broken vertebrae and a few months of recovery time ahead of him. The Corvette was not so lucky, as you can see in the footage of the incident.

A car enthusiast's worst nightmare.

This BMW M3 is its successor, much to the chagrin of Mrs. Lewis. “My wife was hoping that I’d be done, but here I am. I bought another car.” At least Stefan didn’t go out and buy another fully equipped Corvette. The discounted BMW had also suffered a crash but had far less damage and, as the Mrs. was happy to hear, even more safety features than the Corvette. 

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The M3 is equipped with a full roll cage, a fire suppression system, kill switches and plenty of other safety features built for track driving. Stefan also picked up a racing simulator to keep his skills sharp during recovery, so the next time he hits the track, he won’t be shopping for a new ride afterwards.

Meanwhile, he’s got the world’s cutest mechanic to help him get the M3 ready for the road and beyond.

A family affair

For someone with 200,000+ YouTube and TikTok followers and nearly 150,000 Instagram followers, Stefan’s personal favorite social media moment might surprise you. He said his top moment has been sharing videos of his daughter June helping out with his cars, not because of the millions of views they have but because of the comments he gets.

Stefan's most trusted mechanic gets paid in toys and snacks.

“It’s cool to see people get so excited about a little kid working on cars,” he said. “As far as the car scene that I’m in, there aren’t a lot of people that have kids. So seeing the response and the comments filled with people like ‘I can’t wait to have kids one day,’ or ‘I can’t wait to do this with my daughter,’ and people just sharing their own stories. It has been by far the coolest experience I’ve ever had on social media.” 

The family element of car life is big for Stefan. After all, his older brother is the one who got him into cars. “I was always just the little brother, wanting to do whatever he did.” 

Now Stefan is passing that same love along to his daughter, who has taken to it just as much as Stefan did in his day. She’s worked on nearly every car he’s had, including all three in his current collection. 

“She loves just learning, and she’s so enthusiastic about it.” So don’t be surprised if you see us back to check on June’s garage someday. Chances are it’ll be even bigger, and if Stefan’s videos are any prediction, it might include an RX7. 

Know someone with a cool car collection or unique story? Message us at cars@ksl.com and it might get featured in an upcoming video!