This time on Roadkill, insane fun
with a total beater, a 700 mile road trip and Roadkill night.
[all cheering]
[theme music playing]
We are near Youngstown, Ohio,
and this is the week that leads up to our Roadkill Nights event
powered by Dodge, which is in Pontiac, Michigan.
That is the deal where we gather cars up,
and we have legal street racing on Woodward.
Yes, and we're going to race ourselves this time,
and I'm so excited about the manner in which we're going to do it.
Oh, man, it's gonna be gruesome.
So here's our plan.
We've bought a truck sight unseen,
and we need to drive it from Youngstown to,
I think, somewhere near Indy to pick up a roll cage.
And we need to pick up a bunch of tools along the way and we have to go...
roughly 700 miles.
Then once we get there,
we're going to run our vehicle down the track and then make it faster.
Yes, and we're doing it the right way, which is really the wrong way.
We're going to to butcher this vehicle with no guilt,
making it lighter every time we cut something off of it,
and then we're going to find out,
can we actually go faster with just a pair of frame rails and a roll cage
-and maybe a seat or two. -Yeah.
We're gonna make it as light as possible.
I've seen the photos.
So we're gonna go check it out right now.
Yeah. You're gonna be fine. Trust me.
[Mike Finnegan chuckles] Look at it.
-[David Freiburger] Oh! -Yeah. Look at how rusty it is.
This is great.
Wow, this is bad.
No one is collecting and or restoring this.
[David] What we're looking at is a 2001 Dodge Ram 1500.
It says V8. I don't know if it's a 5.2 or 5.9.
-We can figure that out. Yeah. - [Mike] As long as it's a V8.
[David] And I understand it has low mileage, runs and drives fine.
But it is bad. Look at the dent across the hood.
You know what makes me super happy?
I will have no guilt about hacking this up.
I have an idea. Every time we cut a piece off to make it lighter,
we sign it, we give it to the crowd.
[David] Oh! Good idea.
Let me pop the hood and find out what engine's in it.
This claims 5.2!
Ah!
They shorted me.
I was hoping it was a 5.9.
Okay. It's a 318 automatic.
Oh, my God, when you open the door, it's worse.
-There is no rocker... -[David] No.
[Mike] ...and part of the floor is gone.
Does it run? Ready?
[engine starts]
-If it even sounds tough. -Might have an exhaust leak.
It has 99,954 miles on it.
So we're going to break the seal and roll that to a hundred thou.
Check engine lights on.
All of this happened in less than a hundred thou?
It's called shenanigans, dude!
Hey, this has been ridden hard and put away wet for way more than that.
Wow, it's perky.
I was gonna say, no tire scratch.
No, there was no tire scratch.
I think I had these seats in the C-10 once.
[David] Oh, the shocks are wasted! [laughing]
[both laugh]
Does it look like we have gages?
Everything works.
It downshifted.
[Mike] All right, so we got a transmission that transmits.
That's good.
Oh, hey, the oil has just changed.
The next oil change is 1,02,000 miles,
and it's got ninety nine thou now.
So don't worry about that. We're good.
[Mike] Actual test now.
Oh, boy, don't break in half.
It handles like it's on rails, as in the guardrail.
[both chuckle]
I feel it's too...plain.
I pre-ordered a whole bunch of decals for it.
Like Dodge, and Roadkill Nights, Roadkill.
[Mike] Do they stick to rock?
Huh, a severe thunderstorm warning by the National Weather Service.
[David] Awesome. Here comes the rain.
[Mike] Surprisingly, the leaks are coming from places you would expect,
like the open window.
You know, not like some of the other vehicles we've driven,
where it would just leak in from the headliners.
I feel pretty good about all this.
Hi, there.
Okay. This is real rain.
Yeah.
[laughing] Oh, I broke the lever off a bit.
[both laugh]
That was funny, tried to parking brake slide it in here,
but I stepped on the pedal and broke it off.
Anyway, we're driving a hard 300 miles today,
just on the 80, just cannonballing.
I got bored.
So we're gonna stop and decorate this thing.
I got a bunch of Roadkill s tickers and Dodge stickers,
Roadkill Nights, and all that stuff.
So, let's go to town. Let's get artistic.
[Mike] Yeah. We don't need to fix it. Let's just improve it.
[David] I'm not fixing it.
You know, here's the thing.
Some fan is going to get a Dodge tailgate with all of this on there.
-Cool. -That added at least 15 horsepower.
Did you know this logo is called a Fratzog?
It's a made up word, means nothing.
They designed that... early '60s, I'm going to say,
and they're bringing it back.
Pretty cool.
We can go "Freiburger-Finnegan" on this side.
"Finnegan-Freiburger" on the other side.
That is a pro.
-All right. -Yep.
Look at us.
-[engine starts] -Ready for violence?
-Yes. -Let's get out of here.
[tires screech]
[both laughing]
[Mike laughs] That was great.
I thought you were going one way
and then you whipped it the other way. Like--
Oh, you have to... give it the flick.
We just got a tornado warning.
"National Weather Service, tornado warning in this area till 4.45.
"Take shelter now!"
Wow, they're not kidding.
[Mike reading] "If you are outdoors in a mobile home or in a vehicle,
move to the closest substantial shelter
and protect yourself from flying debris."
[David] Wow.
I don't see any flying cows yet.
I was about to say exactly the same thing.
[Mike] We're gonna keep rolling.
[David] Not bad.
The weather is cleared and we're moving away from the actual tornado.
Well, I think we survived that one.
It was a little spooky when we got the text that said...
"Imminent danger, extreme risk of death."
Yeah, I've never seen that before.
It's like they watch our show or something like that.
Anyway, the truck just cruises.
If the air conditioning and the cruise control worked,
it'd be everything that we need, and then some.
Anyway, do you want to drive?
Sure!
[engine starts]
[David] This comes off pretty easy.
Ah, it's like a quick release.
Man!
How about this?
Yeah, that comes off easily, too.
You know, this is lighter, if we just go with it.
Let's go.
I'm sure nothing will go wrong in the next three days.
Sort of, broke the seal on that I guess.
Now that I know I'm like, all right,
we don't need this, this doesn't even need to be here.
We're lighter already.
Now it's lighter!
[David] All right, well, that's pretty much our trip for the day.
Tomorrow we head into South Bend, Indiana, home of Studebaker.
And then we move on to Rhodes Race Cars to pick up our roll cage.
But tonight...
we rest.
-How many miles have we gone? -180.
We'll get there. We have time.
-We do. -It's only Wednesday.
-[laughs] -That wasn't bad.
Well, we're leaving the Toledo, Ohio, area,
and our plan for a first stop is in South Bend, Indiana,
where we're gonna see something pretty cool.
Welcome to Indiana.
Ah, the horn works.
[David] We made it!
[David] This is really cool 'cause I've never been here.
But here's the deal.
Studebaker, the car company, started in the 1800s
as horse carriages, and right here in 1926
they built the very first automotive proving ground in the United States.
And then, around 1936 to 1938,
they decided they had to have epic advertising.
And so what they did is they bought 8000-plus trees,
and they planted 'em right here,
and spelled out the word 'Studebaker' over half a mile.
-So right here, it just looks like forest. -Yeah.
But you go up in the sky and you can read 'Studebaker'.
They just wanted people in airplanes and pilots to have an advertisement
for Studebaker,
[Mike] Best marketing campaign ever.
-[David] I'll drive. -[Mike] Yeah.
Where to next?
I think I know where there's an old drag strip around here.
Is it abandoned?
-Those are the best kind. -Yeah.
-Abandoned but not secured. -Right, "Not secured" is key.
Deserted, but no signage, you know.
Come on, Forest! Run! Forrest, Run!
It runs fine.
Yeah, it got better.
-Yeah. -Maybe it just needed that good oxygen air.
[David] Where we are right now is Hobart, Indiana's US 30 drag strip.
Not to be confused with US 30 drag away,
a more popular join that was in York, Pennsylvania.
I know there's a logo on the ground that says,
US 30 and AHRA, American Hot Rod Association.
You mean right here?
-There's an A and H and an R. -Oh, wow, it's super faded.
[Mike] Facing that way.
[David] I've seen way better photos
or photos of it in way better condition.
Here.
There's your, your shield.
Watch this.
A-H-R.
Yeah.
-[Mike] Yeah, it goes way up there. -Yep.
-Oh, that's cool. -Look, we are standing right here...
in the same spot.
[Mike] Wow.
[upbeat music playing]
[Mike] Think we can make it?
-[David] Yes. -Just keep going.
What if there's a river? [laughs]
Look, there are berries hanging from these trees.
-This goes far. -Yeah.
[David] This was the return road to the pits.
[Mike] This is so great.
[David] Don Garlits was here.
Every track in the country.
-[thudding] -Oh!
That was bad.
That, that log went up to the floor.
[thudding]
[both laughing]
[David] There we go. Yeah!
Yes!
That was awesome.
[David] This is the... trees we ran over before. [laughing]
This is one of our better adventures.
That was a bad one. Did you see that one?
[David laughing]
Well, that was some fun at US 30.
The best part about it is we got permission for all of this.
That's actually kind of working.
I don't know how happy it's going to be about it, but it is working.
[both laugh]
I smell rubber.
So now I think we're spending the night in South Bend, Indiana,
and tomorrow morning, first thing we need to go acquire some merchandise.
Stuff some things to make this either safer or faster.
Probably not both of them.
It does not look as destroyed from brush scratches as I thought it would.
Maybe it's the rust distracting me from it, but this doesn't look too bad.
Are you starting to develop more and more affection for our truck as we go?
I... Kind of. It's getting lighter.
I like sawzalling it in half, taking it down the drag strip of Roadkill Nights.
I'd like that with a roll cage.
-Let's go get one. -Okay.
[engine revs]
All right.
It just hosed me with muffler water.
Wow.
[tires screech]
[David] This morning we're on our way to go get a roll cage for the truck.
Not that it's gonna be that fast,
but it's gonna have no body on it when we're done.
All right, Rhodes Race Cars.
I've bought a whole bunch of inter cooler tanks and fuel cells from these guys.
-Me, too. -And now, roll cage.
Watch the paint.
[engine starts]
Now for the rest of the day, we're gonna have to stop and pick up a bunch of stuff
'cause we don't have any tools with which to hack apart this thing of duty.
And I don't have a helmet or safety gear.
So I think our next stop is a shop that might have that stuff.
[Mike] It'll be funny if we get all the way there,
cut the whole truck apart and then the transmission just gives up.
Yeah, that'd be hilarious.
Look at that, old school speed shop.
Wow.
This is going to be neat.
"Since 1967."
I need a helmet.
Hi.
[whispers] This is cool.
Do you have helmets?
[woman] I only have, I think, two half helmets.
Oh, motorcycle helmets.
Well, unfortunately, no helmets.
But this place is really cool.
This is what old school speed shops looked like before mail order.
I'm flipping through this magazine at the speed shop,
and there you go, Ida Zetterstrom.
We're gonna see her at Roadkill Nights.
-That was cool. -Yeah.
All right. I've been trying to get rid of whatever that sticker is on the window.
So we're going to go US 30 dragstrip.
[Mike] Oh! This is gonna be way better, right?
Truck's already faster.
White's pit stop, right there.
[upbeat music playing]
[David] And Michigan.
[Mike] We made it.
We're virtually there.
Oh, yeah.
It's only 250 miles to Detroit.
Well, about 10 percent of the time
you go wide open throttle on this truck,
and it misses.
Let's test it right now.
Right now, it runs great.
Now it was awesome. That's the best it's run in three days.
Probably, which is why we're gonna change it up.
[Mike laughs]
Whoop.
I thought he was gonna hit it.
All right, we're gonna get in the zone.
I think we're gonna go... spark plugs, spark plug wires.
Air filter.
-Yeah, we need that. -How about we just remove it?
Now you're talking.
You can't make power without explosions,
and you can't spark explosions without spark plug wires.
So the deal is, we've got spark plugs and the spark plug wires.
But...
We found out that there's another abandoned drag strip close by
and a little dirt circle track.
And so we need to cannonball there before they close,
because they're going to let us make some passes.
So we'll do this tomorrow.
Ooh.
Duralast U-joints coming in soon.
[upbeat music playing]
There we go.
Now it's running bad.
-Yeah. -Now it's misfiring.
Now it sucks. Ha-ha!
We'll fix that or not later.
And we're on the hunt again for another abandoned drag strip.
[Mike] Oh. This is exciting.
[David reading] Thunderbird Raceway.
I think they may have opened it for us.
I would say someone's been maintaining it.
This looks like someone's just waiting to have a drag race here.
[David] There's a burnout box.
They have a concrete launch pad up here.
It must have had grandstands that they pulled out, right?
This was pretty cool. We just explored a little bit.
This is Thunderbird dragstrip,
right next to Thunderbird Raceway over here, which is a dirt circle.
It probably opened around 1961, closed 2008,
but they are now resurrecting it as an airstrip,
and that's why it looks so good.
You can see the tower's still here.
You can see the burn out box still has some rubber in it.
But you want to go dirt tracking?
-Sure. -Yeah.
Here is this big dirt circle.
They run every Saturday here, so this is an active place,
and they have a really cool '62-ish fire truck, you're up.
-Go ahead and wreck this. -Okay.
No one will notice.
We only have to be at Roadkill Nights urgently, or people will miss us.
Okay, I get three laps.
Let's make 'em good.
[laughing]
Come on, girl. Don't pull over.
Don't pull over.
Oh! This is fun.
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
We're making laps here on this dirt track that's been here since 1958.
Finnegan's in the truck, and I've got to say he's haulin'.
Look at that.
He's on the rev-limiter.
Driving in circles is awesome.
[David] Here's the genius of Mike Finnegan.
This is why he's a TV star, because he can drive vehicles
while cackling like an absolute idiot.
Thereby convincing you that it's the most fun thing in the whole world,
but the fact is he is having the most fun of anybody in the whole world.
-[cackles] -See him?
I can see him cracking up from here.
I can't believe somebody paid me to do that.
[laughs]
All right. We gotta get going before he breaks it.
Maybe he'll let me drive. We'll see.
It's so slow, and it's so fun.
It definitely needs a tune up.
-You're gonna let me? -Yeah.
Oh, you-- You're gonna love this.
It's not even hot. Like, this thing is money.
[chuckling] So it runs really poorly, which means it's not likely
to kill you 'cause it's not that fast.
But, man, is it fun!
Wow, it does not have much power at all.
Ah! That's pretty sideways. [laughing]
[Mike] Oh! The back of the truck's sliding a little bit.
There we go.
It sounds horrible, but, man, is it fun?
Wow, that's my best turn, right there.
Yeah, I could just spin around in circles all day.
[upbeat music playing]
Wow, it is running awful.
I feel like I'm breaking it.
[Mike] Yeah. Should we quit while we're ahead?
Yeah, that's what I'm thinkin'.
-Okay. -It's like I was having fun.
I wanted to have more fun, but it runs awful.
All right. We're heading out.
I think we're gonna crash in Muskegon for the night.
I said 'crash'.
And tomorrow we need to buy parts, buy tools, tune it up,
hope that it doesn't misfire like this,
and cannonball all the way to Pontiac, Michigan, for Roadkill Nights.
-[Mike] Ball joint breaker. Ball joint breaker. -[David laughs]
Ball joint breaker.
That's exactly what that was.
[David] Watch the paint.
All right. This morning we're gonna go ahead and tune this thing up.
Went to Autozone.
When you buy Duralast spark plug wires,
you're not buying spark plug wires,
you are buying eight full cylinders of ignition.
I've been keeping track of where we're going here on the hood.
So far, Youngstown, Ohio, Toledo, Ohio,
South Bend, Indiana,
the Studebaker Trees.
-[Mike] Mmm-hmm. -That was an exciting moment.
And US 30 Drag Strip
and then Thunderbird Dragway and Raceway.
-[Mike] Right. -[David] We are in Muskegon.
And next stop, Roadkill Nights.
But first, we're gonna throw our "Tune up" on this thing
and then we need to go shopping.
I think we still need all the tools to hack this thing apart
And we need one more piece of metal to do the roll cage.
[Mike] Okay, how is she running?
Let's see.
Ooh, this is a hot plug.
Actually, it looks like it's running pretty darn good, David.
[upbeat music playing]
Ah-ha!
Oh, this thing's brand new.
Someone was really taking care of the general maintenance on this baby.
All right, I added performance.
Is it this one?
Okay.
Got it clicked.
-[Mike] Okay. -[David] And the last one.
-[Mike] Think it runs better? -High performance.
Absolutely. Shall we?
[creaking]
[David] I don't see anything. Do you?
Nah. Slam it harder.
[David] That doesn't seem right.
[man speaking]
[David] Oh, maybe that's why.
I just smashed the wee out of that.
All right. It was only a GoPro, you know.
We don't need to shoot the show. We're good.
Fixed.
The past couple days as we've been driving,
at every break, I've just been sort of scribbling all over the truck,
writing little phrases and things.
Because remember, when we get to Roadkill Nights,
we're gonna be cutting this thing up
and I hope to give parts to fans and it just makes it more fun.
And, of course, we'll sign the stuff.
But, now we're headed to Roadkill Nights.
[rock 'n' roll music playing]
[David] Ready for newfound performance.
[tires screeching]
-[tires screech] -[David laughs]
The guy in front of us just did a burnout.
I think he's challenging you.
I mean, I'll give it a shot. Maybe with our newfound, you know, power.
[David laughs] Maybe just don't rocket into the back of his truck.
[tires screeching]
[laughing]
It does do burnouts now. It wouldn't do that yesterday.
-[David] That's right. We got plug wires now. -[Mike laughs]
-Thank you, Duralast. -Duralast power.
[music stops]
[Mike] I like tools.
[crash]
I hate it when guys run shopping carts into the side of your truck.
-[Mike grunts] -[thuds]
[David] It's like Christmas.
-Except we're paying for it. -[Mike] Yeah.
We just spent more money on tools to destroy this truck
than we did on the truck.
But, hey...
[Mike] Woo-hoo!
Next stop, we need some more metal for the roll bar.
And then, [mimics rocket] Pontiac, Michigan,
[Mike] All right.
Oh, got all kinds of traction now.
[David laughs] Yeah, it doesn't do burnouts
with 400 pounds in trunk or more.
We have our roll cage, we have tools.
All we need now is some metal.
[upbeat rock music playing]
This is eight feet.
-[David] Nailed it. -[Mike] Done.
It feels so much slower.
Yeah, it really is.
I'm on the floor.
-But see how much smoother it is? -Uh-huh.
[upbeat music playing]
[Mike] This is it. Woodward Avenue.
Yeah, I would say this makes it official.
[Mike] We made it. Look at all the cars.
[David] That's it.
[engines revving]
[David] So we just pulled into M1 Concourse,
which is the private racetrack property
where we have the main show for Roadkill Nights.
And in past years we've raced on Woodward
right in front of M1 Concourse.
This year, MotorTrend found out
kind of at the very last minute,
that they weren't going to be able to race on Woodward.
And so, we're running on a eighth mile stretch,
which is actually 550 feet here inside M1 Concourse for the first time.
-[tires screeching] -[engine revving]
[David] That's a BAM. This is it. M1 Concourse.
This is where Roadkill Nights happens.
And tomorrow we're gonna have this whole space to rip this thing apart
after we find out how quick it is on the drag strip.
Or how slow it is.
[David] We will find out tomorrow.
[rock music playing]
We had a 700-mile adventure in cheap garbage
and now it's life ends.
-[both laughing] -I think it's just beginning.
It's like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.
We go down the drag strip, find how slow it is
and then hack it to pieces.
That's what's gonna happen.
And when Roadkill Nights opens, this place is gonna be packed
and we're gonna be standing here
signing as many items as we can,
-interacting with viewers, it's gonna be great. -Yes.
-Ready to make your baseline run? -Oh, yeah.
Well, first, I need to pen in our final destination.
[Mike] Yeah, 'cause we made it on the day we planned to be here.
-Which is huge. -[David] There's that too.
-Did it. -Yay, us.
-All right, let's go racing. -Let's go.
[rock music playing]
[David] This is it. The drag strip at Roadkill Nights.
You may notice this is not Woodward Avenue.
For the first time in eight years,
we're running inside M1 Concourse.
The thing that's cool about it actually is the danger.
Look how close the guardrails are.
This is a very narrow track.
It's gonna be really interesting for later on
when they have the fast car shootouts.
And the nitro burnouts with a Top Fuel Dragster and Nitro Funny Car.
But now, Mike Finnegan in a 2001 Dodge Ram.
This is gonna be our baseline run.
He's gonna make a pass, we will get a time.
It's a 550-foot track, so it's a little bit shorter than an eighth mile
and we'll use that to know how much quicker we go
as we start to cut weight off the track.
Please do a burnout.
Here comes the burnout. Let's see if it slides sideways.
[engine revving]
-[tires screeching] -[David] Oh, it's working.
[Mike] Ooh. [laughs]
That was weak, but it did do it.
This is Pooch from VP Racing Fuels, giving him the arm drop.
[engine revving]
And he's off!
Like a herd of turtles,
[Mike] That's 35.
That is 53 miles an hour.
That was faster than I thought it would be.
But not fast enough.
Nine, five, seven, seven. Which means nothing.
I have no scale. I don't know how high is up
because it's a 550-foot track or something thereabouts.
But we'll be able to see how much better it is
as we make it lighter and lighter, which is now.
[rock music playing]
[Brian] I'm Brian Lohnes, he's K.J. Jones.
A great event, a great day here at M1 Concourse.
The 2024 Roadkill Nights.
Magical place you guys have out here in terms of hot rods and cars.
-Whoa, man! -[KJ] Wow!
[David] The next thing we're gonna do is weigh it.
We've got some scales and the corner weights won't be accurate,
-but it'll give us an overall. -Yeah.
Let's find out how fat this pig is before we make it lighter.
[David] I'm not positive that jack goes high enough.
Is there anything to put on top of the jack pad?
That's gonna crush.
It's going up.
-New use for our sponsor's items. -[David laughs]
The Duralast tool box is now a jack spacer.
And our jack is on top of some moving blankets.
-This is extra sketchy. -[Mike] Don't try this at home.
Okay, hold on. You're there on this one.
-Okay. -Let me get the other one.
[David] There. Yes.
That was great.
[Mike] Take a guess.
It's gonna be 4,280.
[Mike] You have owned one of these?
-[David] I still do. -[Mike] 4,496.
[David] 4,496.
For a standard cab half-eaten by rust pick-up.
[David] This is it. The hacking's gonna begin.
[rock music playing]
[whirring]
[upbeat music playing]
Basically, we're gonna take off as much as we can before our deadline.
We have to go run again in about an hour.
So, we'll go as far as we can.
-You got it? -I have it. Yes, sir.
[Mike] Congratulations.
-[rock music continues] -[tires screeching]
-[Mike] Guess how much we've taken off? -[David] 300?
-[Mike] 365. -[David] 365.
We've removed 365 pounds.
[crowd cheering, whistling]
All right, it's trivia time.
First one to name a Roadkill project car.
-[man] Remi HEMI. -He gets it.
[engine revving]
Which vehicle officially ruined Freiburger's spine?
[David] I crushed an L5 disc, I'm still wrecked.
-It was the custom wagon. -Wagon.
-He got it. -[Mike] Oh, there we go.
[David] Yup. Winner, winner. Chicken dinner.
[crowd laughs]
We just gave this guy the whole tailgate.
Who's the Mopar guy?
-[woman] Whoo! -I saw his arm up first.
-Thank you very much. -Yup.
[rock music playing]
[saw whirring]
[tires screeching]
[rock music playing]
Trivia contest.
First person with the right answer gets this.
What season of Roadkill is this episode in?
-[crowd] 13! -Oh! Too many people.
-It was that dude right there, right? -Wow!
-I had no idea y'all would know that. -[crowd laughing]
[Mike] So, we scaled this when it was stock.
Forty-five hundred pounds, right?
Closest guess to the actual weight of the vehicle as it sits right now.
It was 4,500 when it was stock.
[man 1] 3,800.
-[man 2] 3,850. -[Mike] Nope.
-[man 3] 2,970. -No.
Twenty-eight.
-[man 4] 4,355. -[man 5] Four!
[tires screeching]
[David] He gets it.
Nailed it. Without going over even. Nice work.
[crowd laughing]
It is, uh, 4,001 pounds right now as it sits.
[woman] Wow.
-She is heavy. -[man] Thank you.
[David] So here's an update.
The truck was 4,500 pounds but it was bone stock.
We have decimated this thing.
It's all over the lawn and in a lot of people's hands.
It's still 4,000 pounds if you can believe that.
We've only taken five hundred pounds off.
There's not much of a bed, there's not much of a front end.
It's about time we go make our second pass.
And then when we come back, extreme damage.
Doors off, roof off. Maybe a roll bar, I don't know.
The weight is now 3,875.
-Six hundred and twenty five pounds. -Six hundred and twenty five.
Yeah.
All right, we're off to go run this thing for the second time.
[rock music playing]
-[engine revving] -[tires screeching]
[Brian] It is prime time. Real deal Holyfield action here
as around the corner comes four-time,
NHRA Nitro Funny Car world champion, Matt Hagan
and the Dodge Direct Connection Power Brokers.
SRT Hellcat Charger Redeye.
[David] All right, this is one of my favorite parts of Roadkill Nights,
the Nitro Burnouts.
Right here on this pop-up drag strip.
-This is champion, Matt Hagan. -[engine sputtering]
[David] And we're also gonna have a Top Fuel Dragster of Ida Zetterstrom.
[engine sputtering]
[engine revving]
-[rock music playing] -[David] That was awesome.
The next nitro car you're gonna see
is the Top Fuel Dragster driven by Ida Zetterstrom.
She is the the FIA Top Fuel world champion in Europe from 2023.
[engine sputtering]
[revving]
[David] It's Roadkill Nights, powered by Dodge.
You don't see that anywhere else but here.
-[rock music playing] -[engine revving]
All right, I think Finnegan's ready to drive.
[Mike] Hell of a day. Just watched two Top Fuel cars go down this track.
Then a guy in a fire engine did a wheelie the length of the track.
And then there's us.
[laughing]
Hopefully we go quicker than we went this morning.
[KJ] Mike Finnegan of Roadkill about to send it.
That low compression, tiny cam engine sounds so threatening.
It idles like a boat.
[laughing]
All right, this is embarrassing right after the Nitro runs.
Finnegan in that!
[engine revving]
[tires screeching]
[Mike] Wow, that is garbage.
Okay, everybody, I get to go down the drag strip with half a truck.
[engine revving]
Oh! Spun the tires a little bit.
Come on, truck.
Good, good, good.
[Mike] Well, it got into second. Any lift.
Uh, that wasn't much faster
and I couldn't tell if the tires were spinning or not.
All right, let's look at the time. What did he go?
-[man] 9:34. -Nine-thirty-four!
That's better than two-tenths quicker than he was before.
It was nine, five, seven, seven before
-[Brian] That is a solid improvement. -[KJ] Yes it is.
-That's legit. -[Brian] It went from
completely and utterly sad and horrendous
-to only mildly depressing. -[laughing]
We made it faster by dropping 625 pounds.
So the next thing in our arsenal is we should put slicks on it.
We're obviously gonna take off the doors and cut the top off.
We're probably gonna have to put a roll bar in for safety,
And we do have a bottle with a hose on it
that might find its way into the air plenum.
[engine whirring, turns off]
[saw whirring]
[David] Here it comes.
-[cheering] -[Mike and David laughing]
[saw whirring]
Nice work.
-[crowd cheering] -[Mike and David laughing]
[thuds]
[crack]
-[David laughs] -[crowd cheering]
[glass breaking]
[whirring]
[crowd cheering]
Yeah!
[whistling]
[Mike laughs]
Man, people like destruction.
-It's gotta be faster now, right? -Right.
-[laughing] -I mean, look at it.
[David laughs]
-[crowd cheering] -[David] Yeah!
[laughs]
[Mike] I haven't done this in a long time.
We're about to flux core weld with no shielding gas outdoors
with an underpowered machine in the wind.
This is not gonna work.
-[sparking] -[suspenseful music playing]
[tires screeching]
[Mike] Our spark box there, it won't actually melt metal to metal.
So, our plan of cutting the roof off the truck is currently backfiring on us.
'Cause now I have no seatbelts,
nor anything to save my hair if I tip the truck over.
-[engine revving] -[tires screeching]
[Mike] I love car people.
We bought a welder. Our welder sucked.
Somebody with an awesome car said, "I got a welder
and this big old tank of shielding gas."
And I believe we now have a shot of actually welding together a roll bar
that might do something in a crash?
Uh, no.
-[David] Ground? -Nah, turn it all the way up.
Give me all... everything. [laughs]
[David] All everything.
[sparks and crackles]
Nope, I think our generator might suck.
Our rented generator seems to be the problem,
not necessarily our underpowered welder.
Because we got a decent welder now
and still having the same problem of no welding.
Top five sketchiest things I've ever done in my life.
Took the cord apart for the welder
'cause we didn't have the right adaptor
and the homeboy just stuffed the wires in
and covered 'em up in tape.
We're now gonna see if the welder will weld.
[crackles]
[Mike] There we go. Welds great.
The track closes in half an hour from right now
and the rain looks like it's coming in.
So we're basically thrashing to see if we can get this done.
[rock music playing]
[David] I thought the shoulder bar was gonna go right in.
I can't believe that their kit doesn't fit its own kit.
Maybe we grabbed the wrong bar.
[grinding]
[crackling]
Wherever the top of my shoulder is, just mark the bar.
[hammering]
[David] Safe to say we have reached panic time.
It is 7:30 right now so we're begging the track to stay open.
You can see that we've got all hands on deck.
This guy loaned us the welder. He's showing up. Producer Taylor's here.
PA Mason's here and then we've got our showrunner, Dustin Gould.
Man, this has been a thrash.
All these guys jumped in to help.
We finally got it done.
The last thing Mason did is put slicks on it so we won't spin the tires.
We're finally ready to go to the drag strip.
-[rock music playing] -[cheering]
It's 7:45, we're 15 minutes late.
-Let's go. -Okay.
Ready?
-[crowd cheering] -[laughing]
We did it!
-It's so safe. -[engine revving]
[David] Okay.
[rock 'n' roll music playing]
-[David] Oh, look at our flag. -[Mike] Oh, is it flying?
[David] Yes.
[KJ] So, should we prank these guys?
[Brian] I think we should prank these guys and I'm not kidding you.
So, as a joke, when they show up, start booing.
It'll be perfect Roadkill fodder.
When they show up, just start booing.
[David] Looks like drag racing is probably over
and they're just waiting for us.
-[crowd booing] -Oh, I love you too.
-Oh, come on. -[engine revving]
-[Mike] Oh, a lot of thumbs down. -[crowd booing]
Why are we getting booed?
-[crowd booing] -[David laughs]
We made it!
[engine revving]
-[sputtering] -[David laughs]
[Brian] Nice job.
David, Mike, it was a prank.
[KJ laughing] It was a...
[Brian] Show 'em how much you love and you waited here to see 'em do their thing.
[crowd cheering]
[David] Oh, thanks you guys.
Let's run this garbage and go home.
-[crowd cheering] -[David laughing]
[rock music playing]
[engine revving]
[Brian] There's so little weight on the rear end,
it didn't even burn the stickers off the slicks.
[KJ and David laughing]
[David] Here he goes.
[engine revving]
[David] Oh, I'm dragging.
Come on, drag.
Go, go, go, go!
Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo.
[Brian] Finnegan goes 8:86.
-They got the eight second barrier. -[David] Eight, eighty-six.
-[Brian] Out of the way. -[David] Eight, eighty-six.
Epic!
[Mike] I think it was better. Not by much, but I think it was better.
-They've done it. -They did it.
That is a feat of drag racing history
in that astonishing unbelievable finish.
-Dude! 8:86! -Yeah!
-Eight, eighty-six! -[crowd cheering]
[both laughing]
[crowd cheering]
[David] That's a wrap on Roadkill Nights, powered by Dodge 2024.
Epic! We couldn't possibly win more.
Mike and I wanted to interact with more fans than we have in a few years.
-We nailed that. - [Mike] Mmm.
[David] We did a 700-mile road trip.
We did abandoned drag strips, we did a dirt track.
We hacked this thing and we cut a whole bunch of time off.
Super killer week!
We didn't suck this time.
-This is incredible. -We did not suck.
Absolutely incredible.
-Thank you. Thank you. -Bro hug? [laughs]
Good week.