Shows about cars are all the rage these days. Consider the many flavors of TopGear, which has branched out into a U.S.-based show and a China-based show among others, and the relative success (or lack of complete failure) of Adam Carolla’s The Car Show.

Producing shows for television is expensive, even at the cable-channel level, so the next logical step for bang-for-the-buck value is YouTube. The phenomenally successful website is well aware of this, and it’s launching a channel specifically for gear heads called Drive.

The first video, an episode of Shakedown starring Leo Parente, is now up on Drive and is posted above. Parente takes us to the 2011 24 Hours of Nürburgring, which to our untrained eye appears to be equal parts LeMans, Woodstock and Burning Man, only with more beer and less psychedelics.

Parente’s enthusiasm for the event and the track is contagious, although we suspect he slammed one too many Red Bulls in attempting to stay awake for the race. We’d probably do the same if we were in his shoes, since we’d be hard-pressed to miss a minute of the Nürburgring experience.

Future videos will star The Car Show’s Matt Farah, who’s also host of The Smoking Tire, as well as Mike Spinelli of Jalopnik, and JF Musial. We’ll admit to liking the first video well enough, and you can’t beat the cost of a free subscription, so we’ll be back for round two.