Roadkill — Season 6

Mar 2017

This episode of Roadkill powered by Dodge features a special guest cohost, JP Magazine Editor Rick Péwé, who has been doing barn-find rescues and road trips with David Freiburger since before there was a Roadkill. Freiburger and Péwé are at it again here, revisiting a 1946 Willys flatfender Jeep they first pulled from the fields of Utah back in 2001. The engine blew up a few miles into that trip 16 years ago, so the Jeep was left untouched in Freiburger’s garage for at least a dozen years—until now. After uncovering the Willys from piles of long-forgotten speed parts and boxes, the guys give the engine a super-cheap rebuild, fix up the brakes, and hit the road. Will the Roadkill curse strike even with Péwé at the wheel? We think you know the answer, but don’t worry—nothing will stop the team from big action with a small Jeep. Roadkill is back to normal with cohost Mike Finnegan next time. Though, come to think of it, this Jeep boondoggle is pretty normal for Roadkill, too.

Apr 2017

The 24 Hours of LeMons people have a new rally series, and Roadkill powered by Dodge and sponsored by Optima Batteries, Jegs, Lincoln Tech, EBC Brakes, Pioneer, CRC Auto, and Cooper Tires, is down! Instead of the normal LeMons endurance races for dirt-cheap cars, the LeMons Rally is a road rally -- a time/distance challenge with ridiculous sights and contests along the way. In this episode, Roadkill signs up for the LeMons Retreat From Moscow event, an 1,800-mile trip from Moscow, Pennsylvania, to Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. The guys fly into town, buy a 1978 Lincoln Continental that’s been shortened from a four-door to a two-door (and formerly driven by an Elvis impersonator), and hit the snowy roads—with the expected Roadkill breakdowns, waffle wars, and off-road thrashing along the way.

May 2017

Roadkill is powered by Dodge, but on this episode, the world’s most revered rust bucket gets powered by a used Ford 5.0L Mustang V-8 with a Power Stroke diesel turbo! Our old 1971 Datsun 240Z earned its fame with a junkyard turbo on a Chevy 4.3L, but that V-6 finally failed us for the last time and we kicked it to the curb because the crankshaft broke in two during the 24 Hours of LeMons race on Episode 42. We heard Ford 5.0L V-8 blocks break in half at 500 hp, and what better vehicle to test that theory than the Rotsun? We scored a beat-up Fox-body Mustang for $1,500 and threw the engine and trans into the Rotsun, along with the ol’ used turbo that was made for a Ford Power Stroke diesel truck. But the big question is: Will the Rotsun finally fail to fail? Find out on this episode of Roadkill.

Jun 2017

In this episode of Roadkill powered by Dodge, it’s a legit shootout of the performance potential of two hot project cars: the legendary Rotsun 1971 Datsun 240Z that was stuffed with a Ford 5.0L and a Power Stroke turbodiesel on Episode 64, and the 1969 Chevy Impala that’s loaded with the 489ci, supercharged big-block Chevy that used to be in Hot Rod magazine’s Crusher Camaro. Mike Finnegan sides with the Rotsun and David Freiburger bonds with the Impala as each guy heads separately to the chassis dyno to discover power numbers that remain a secret to the other host. Next, there’s a 500-mile road trip to Tucson Dragway for a heads-up showdown. Will the Impala run as quickly as it looks? Will the Rotsun fail to fail for two episodes in a row? You’ll have to find out by watching the bloodthirsty power showdown in this episode of Roadkill.

Jun 2017

An abandoned Mach 1 is a dream find! In this episode of Roadkill powered by Dodge, David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan head to Colorado Auto & Parts in Englewood, Colorado, and visit the Corns family—builders of the crazy radial-Cessna-powered 1939 Plymouth truck you’ve seen all over the Internet and in Roadkill magazine. Colorado Auto is a giant you-pull-it yard with heritage back to 1959—with a good stash of vintage cars that have been there for decades. One of them was a 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 that had been melting into the ground since 1980. But 37 years of neglect are not daunting to Roadkill, so the guys figure out how to get it running and driving. First, they’ve got to deal with 37 years of raccoon poop, which is just part of bringing the Disgustang into the Roadkill fleet of project cars.

Aug 2017

On this episode of Roadkill powered by Dodge, we do the Tire Rack One Lap of America race the Roadkill way: buying a 1969 Pontiac Firebird that hasn't run in 17 years, changing every mechanical bit of it in three days, and then hitting the road for action! We do all this while assembling one of Mike Finnegan's dream cars—a first-gen Firebird—to conjure up bygone days of blasting around in his high-school buddy's car. Tony Angelo from HOT ROD Garage joins us for long days of wrenching and longer miles of driving on the Roadkill quest to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Sept 2017

The Tire Rack One Lap of America 2017 was a race involving 19 events at 8 tracks over a 3,500-mile road trip. Can you imagine Roadkill surviving that unscathed? No! If you saw our last episode you know that Mike Finnegan's 1969 Pontiac, which we built in three days, blew up an engine early in the race. Along with guest hosts Tony Angelo of Hot Rod Garage and Elana Scherr from Roadkill.com, Finnegan and Freiburger dive in to fix the Pontiac engine and hit the road to redemption! Roadkill is powered by Dodge, and it's easy to see why when Tony caps it all off with merciless drifting in the Challenger SRT Hellcat that Elana and Freiburger were using to stomp the One Lap tracks.

Oct 2017

One of the cheapest ways to go racing is to buy someone else’s abandoned project car, and that’s exactly what happens on this episode of Roadkill powered by Dodge. But do the guys get what they paid for? This time, “the guys” are Roadkill regular Mike Finnegan and guest cohost Tony Angelo (normally the host of HOT ROD Garage on the Motor Trend OnDemand). Roadkill’s David Freiburger will be back on the next episode, but he may be happy to have been absent for this misadventure with a 1977 Chevy El Camino that was a gutted, old, eighth-mile drag racing bracket car. What could go wrong with a simple 350ci Chevy engine and TH350 automatic transmission? Plenty, at least when Roadkill shows up with a mother-bottle of nitrous oxide! Roadkill is supported by Jegs, Optima Batteries, CRC Auto, Lincoln Tech, EBC Brakes, and now ESAB Welding & Cutting!

Nov 2017

On this episode of Roadkill powered by Dodge, it’s the return of two popular, Mopar Hemi-powered Roadkill project cars: Mike Finnegan’s “Blasphemi” 1955 Chevy Gasser and David Freiburger’s “Rumble Bee” 1970 Dodge Super Bee. This time the guys are headed to the annual Roadkill Nights event powered by Dodge, in Pontiac, Michigan, with legal street drag racing on Woodward Avenue. Having lost to Gas Monkey Garage in 2015 and then handing a win to Mike Musto in 2016, the Roadkill crew knew that the surefire way to win in 2017 was to race one Roadkill car against another… but of course it’s never that easy. Follow along with a slew of victories and defeats in cars that are very important to the hosts. Blasphemi is Finnegan’s favorite car ever and its supercharged, 535ci Hemi takes a real beating in the episode. Freiburger’s Super Bee has been with him for 35 years, yet in this case he’s compelled to blast it with nitrous through its 484ci Hemi for the first time. Need a history lesson? Blasphemi has been in Roadkill Episodes 8, 29, 30, and 47. The Rumble Bee was in Roadkill 19 and 25.

Dec 2017

What's the best way to build a great off-road car? Buy a used desert racer! That's exactly what happens in this episode of Roadkill powered by Dodge. With an urge to go rallycross racing, David Freiburger makes a sight-unseen purchase of a 1973 AMC Hornet that raced Baja in the '80s and finished the NORRA 1000 a couple of times before being parked circa 2012. When Mike Finnegan showed up, the guys found out the 360 AMC engine ran almost too good and, despite a thorough thrashing in the desert, the Hornet failed to fail! But is it able to outrun a Dodge minivan at a real rallycross event? You'll have to watch this episode of Roadkill to find out.

Jan 2018

One of the most epic Roadkills of all time is Episode 52, where we took a 1950 Ford dump truck, put a blown big-block Chevy and a Gearstar 4L80E trans behind the cab, powered it through a V-drive, and did a monster wheelstand that nearly killed Mike Finnegan. But does that stop him from trying again? No! On this episode of Roadkill powered by Dodge, Finnegan teams up with guest host Tony Angelo to revamp the truck we call Stubby Bob. With a new front axle and some added safety equipment, the guys hit the highway (yes, on the road with open zoomie headers!) to drive to the nostalgia drags at Eagle Field to try for wheelie distance. But then the Roadkill curse punches them in the face multiple times until they finally emerge victorious and lay down some scenes that will forever secure Stubby Bob as the most heroic dump truck of all time.

Feb 2018

One of the most popular Roadkill shows of 2017 was Episode 66, where David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan pulled a 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 out of Colorado Auto & Parts, a junkyard where the iconic muscle car had been sitting unused since 1980. Getting it running and driving for some big action was fun, but there was one thing lacking: the road trip. It’s time to fix that! The Mustang now known as the Disgustang sat ignored for many more months until the start of this episode where the guys planned to head north from California to the DirtFish Rally School nearly 1,300 miles away. This is Roadkill, so you can guess how far they made it before catastrophic failure—but you also know that Roadkill is virtually unstoppable, so eventually the trip becomes an epic drive with visits to gearhead destinations, including junkyards and an abandoned dragstrip. See it all in this episode of Roadkill powered by Dodge.