Pierre Chabrier and Sylvain Levy, settling scores

It was a very popular automotive channel on YouTube. But since their separation, the two founders have waged a public war of rare violence, which experienced a bloody episode this weekend. A quick glance at the comments allows you to understand the extent of the damage.

“In an engine, the crankshaft is a device which allows the transformation of the rectilinear movement of the piston into a continuous rotational movement. And vice versa.” So much for the mechanical definition.

Since 2017, Vilebrequin was also, and for many, a French YouTube channel dedicated to automobiles, in which Pierre Chabrier and Sylvain Levy were able to do enough popularization (and bullshit) to bring together millions of enthusiasts. Their first real success? Go over a speed bump at more than 130km/h, behind the wheel of a common Peugeot 205.

After seven years of happiness, screeching tires and crumpled metal sheets, the duo announces their separation in December 2023. A clap of thunder among aficionados, who rightly mourn one of the least gratuitously stupid successful channels of the French-speaking YouTube. Pierre and Sylvain, in a long joint video, explain this divorce by too much. Still on good terms, they explained that they wanted to apply the brakes before Vilebrequin ended up in the ravine.

At the time, a surge of panic among subscribers generated nearly 25,000 comments in a few hours. That said, we can understand the two friends. Far from the “I film myself in my room” format, each video sometimes required several weeks of work and a significant number of cars to find.

Without forgetting that, behind the joke, the pair didn’t just talk nonsense and offered rather substantial didactic content. Especially since, carried away by success, Pierre and Sylvain found themselves acting smart on television, notably on the show “Top Gear” on RMC.

The start of the war

In August 2024, when the Internet had just finished mourning, Pierre Charnier brought out the heavy artillery (and his camera) to vomit for 40 minutes, without filter, on his ex-best friend. Basically, he accuses Sylvain Levy of having “completely stripped” him and claims to have “suffered” the “brutal” separation.

War was declared, but above all… public. At its heart, money and ego, of course, but also the ownership of a fun, hand-crafted car, described as the “most powerful and fastest Fiat Multipla in the world with a purpose minimum of 1,000 HP. We are not going to go into details, but know that the divorce between the two content creators is playing out in court, but also on the keyboards of their respective fans. Because for five months, it’s been a matter of choosing sides.

The answer that changes everything

If Sylvain was upset for a long time, this weekend the tide changed. In question, a long response which displays the ambition to dismantle all of Pierre’s arguments one by one. If the first video had reached 4 million views in five months, that of Sylvain Levy exceeded 8 million in… a few hours. An explosion, called “Pierre Chabrier lied to you (and happy new year)”, which feeds the drama with kalach.

While Pierre was content to describe, without proof, the harmful personality of his ex-acolyte, Sylvain produced screenshots, documents and explanatory videos. And, the least we can say is that it convinced a lot of people: 60,000 comments in two days and a dramatic turn of events. After taking Pierre’s side, the latter became the laughing stock of social networks.

If we (obviously) do not know everything that is hidden behind this war of egos which will undoubtedly gain momentum in the coming weeks, Internet users have made it their favorite soap opera. A dallas of modern times which, between the insults and illegal harassment, has brought out a certain creativity in the comments. Objective: to say that Pierre took a beating in the funniest way possible.

To keep you waiting until the next episode, here is a small anthology of the best reactions from Internet users: