Roadkill — Season 2

Mar 2013

On this episode of Roadkill, the boys reignite their desire to go Ice Racing in Alaska! If you remember episode 2 of Roadkill, Freiburger and Finnegan hit the road in a '68 Ford Ranchero with a wild goal: to drive 3,600 miles from Los Angeles, California, to Big Lake, Alaska, to go ice racing. Somehow, they instead found themselves in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. You really need to check out Episode 2 to understand the level of fail that has chased these guys. But now, 14 months later, the guys are trying it again. The Ranchero's engine was freshened up and reinstalled just days before the second attempt. The goal: to run the ALCAN Highway on the way to the ice races with the Alaska Sports Car Club outside of Anchorage in Big Lake, Alaska. Will they get it done this time? Watch to find out. For those interested in tech specs, the '68 Ranchero is powered by a 363ci small-block Ford that's based on a big-bore Dart SHP block; the bore and stroke is 4.125x3.400. It has 9.3:1 compression, Dart 195cc heads, and a hydraulic roller cam with 232/244 duration at 0.050, .565/.580 lift, and a 114-degree LSA. The engine made 471 hp at 6,200 rpm and 451 lb-ft at 4,500. The trans is a Gearstar C4. The car's biggest problem is the 2.80:1 gears in the 8-inch rearend. That's too high for a heavily loaded car with a big cam, but they were used to keep rpm down during the trip to Alaska.

Mar 2013

On this episode of Roadkill, the boys reignite their desire to go Ice Racing in Alaska! If you remember episode 2 of Roadkill, Freiburger and Finnegan hit the road in a '68 Ford Ranchero with a wild goal: to drive 3,600 miles from Los Angeles, California, to Big Lake, Alaska, to go ice racing. Somehow, they instead found themselves in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. You really need to check out Episode 2 to understand the level of fail that has chased these guys. But now, 14 months later, the guys are trying it again. The Ranchero's engine was freshened up and reinstalled just days before the second attempt. The goal: to run the ALCAN Highway on the way to the ice races with the Alaska Sports Car Club outside of Anchorage in Big Lake, Alaska. Will they get it done this time? Watch to find out. For those interested in tech specs, the '68 Ranchero is powered by a 363ci small-block Ford that's based on a big-bore Dart SHP block; the bore and stroke is 4.125x3.400. It has 9.3:1 compression, Dart 195cc heads, and a hydraulic roller cam with 232/244 duration at 0.050, .565/.580 lift, and a 114-degree LSA. The engine made 471 hp at 6,200 rpm and 451 lb-ft at 4,500. The trans is a Gearstar C4. The car's biggest problem is the 2.80:1 gears in the 8-inch rearend. That's too high for a heavily loaded car with a big cam, but they were used to keep rpm down during the trip to Alaska.

May 2013

David Freiburger claims that this road trip on this episode of Roadkill is the most stupid thing that he and Mike Finnegan have ever done. Freiburger wanted to do a Jeep trip, so Finnegan bought an old Willys flatfender--one that had been turned into a two-wheel-drive rat rod using some very sketchy fabrication. The guys made it semi-safe, then hit the road to drive to the Desert Bar in Parker, Arizona, where they sold the Jeep to a guy for the price of their bar tab. Watch to see the crazy fun in the scariest vehicle ever on Roadkill.

May 2013

On this episode of Roadkill, it's fun with Leaf Blowers. Experts on the Internet said it would never work. That's never stopped Freiburger and Finnegan, and this time on Roadkill the guys put the theory to the test: can hardware-store leaf blowers supercharge an engine and make power? Step one was buying a '78 Monza Spyder with a 305 V8 and a four-speed stick. Step two was to take it to the shop of HOT ROD Drag Week racer Jeff Lutz to tune it up, swap the engine to a 350, dyno test it with five leaf blowers, and do a whole bunch of needless burnouts. Step three was to drive the Monza to Willmington, Ohio, for the East Coast Timing Association's Ohio Mile event, a standing-mile race where they'd find out if leaf-blower power adds up to more speed in the real world. The outcome? Who really cares? Because on Roadkill, it's always about the adventure. And more burnouts.

Jun 2013

On this episode of Roadkill, a tank squashes a Prius to smithereens! It runs over that junk without even noticing. That's all you really need to know about this episode of Roadkill, but if you jump straight to the tank carnage you'll miss a bunch of cool stuff. Like when Freiburger and Finnegan attempt a shootout between a Toyota Prius hybrid and a '75 AMC Gremlin, trying to prove that the Gremmie is more of a greenie. It was all fun and games until the Prius engine let go on the race track in a ball of flame. Because Roadkill. After that, you've gotta see the guys once again embrace their own Kryptonite: flat-towing. Yup, as it turns out, dragging a dead Prius with a lighter, smaller Gremlin ends real badly. But in the end, the Prius is wafer thin and the Gremlin's still on the road. Still want to jump right to the tank smash? Don't be that guy.

Jul 2013

A Vette-powered stepside truck. Nitrous oxide. Honda Trail 70s. Drag racing, and lots and lots of burnouts. Those are the basic plot points on this episode of Roadkill, as Freiburger and Finnegan have big fun with retro trail motorcycles on their way to revitalizing a long-neglected HOT ROD magazine project vehicle and road-tripping it to the eighth-mile drags. The vehicle is the Muscle Truck, a '74 Chevy shortbed stepside beater powered by an all-aluminum Corvette LS6. It also has a Turbo 400 transmission, a Gear Vendors under/overdrive, a Ford 9-inch with 5.13 gears, and the most wicked sounding exhaust ever. The goal is to get thrown out of the dragstrip for going too fast without a rollbar, then race the minibikes instead. How much nitrous can the Muscle Truck take?

Aug 2013

On this episode of Roadkill, it's Freiburger in the Super Bee versus Finnegan in the '67 Camaro as the guys make the trip from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City and back to go race at the Midnight Drags at Rocky Mountain Raceways in hopes of running the Bee on nitrous for the first time since the Hemi was installed. Which car will work best over 1,500 miles of mayem in three days?

Sept 2013

On this episode of Roadkill, Finnegan builds an 1,100-horsepower big-block and Freiburger brings a Camaro that he's run 261 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Put 'em together and it's a recipe for win, right? If you think so, you're probably not a Roadkill regular. It turns into an entire adventure just getting there, and gets more interesting from there.

Oct 2013

It's always a good idea to buy a car off the Internet sight-unseen, right? That's what a friend-of-a-friend of Roadkill did with the kustom Merc—and maybe he made an even worse decision when he allowed Freiburger and Finnegan to wrench on the thing and deliver it to him. This deal was set up by a Roadkill fan, Jim Norman of Norman Vinyards in Paso Robles, California.

Nov 2013

On this episode of Roadkill, Freiburger and Finnegan attack the low-buck endurance race called 24 Hours of Lemons. Not content do do this ridiculous race in a reasonable car like a little handling-oriented import, the race car of choice is a one-owner '73 Plymouth Fury that Freiburger bought for $200 before setting it on fire a few times and then gutting it into a race car. The truth behind the scenes of this episode is that much of it was shot almost a year ago, and back then the guys didn't want to air it. You'll have to watch to see why. But now, in 2013, the story came full circle in a way that it only can on Roadkill, and so here we finally present the whole story.

Dec 2013

Freiburger and Finnegan think this is the best episode so far! It's the longest, too. This show has it all: a Mad-Max-vibe 1968 Dodge Charger built with motorhome parts, sideways Dukes-style action, lots of low-buck wrenching, hilarious snafus, and cameo appearances by the Macho Grande from episode 8, the '66 Buick Special convertible from a pre-Roadkill episode, the ramp truck from episode 20, and the Fury from episode 22.