This time on Roadkill, it is a smoking project-car showdown.
You gotta say "smoking," huh?
Yeah, I had to.
[Mike] You're okay now.
[David] It smells like burnt dog.
-But aside from that... -It'll buff out.
[David] Yeah, probably will.
[engine sputter, starts]
[accelerating]
[opening theme music playing]
Look at us out here playing with all of our junk.
Yeah, we're gonna have a whole bunch of Roadkill cars in this episode.
The goal, finally make our Mazdarati 2.0
run in the tens in the quarter-mile,
and when that fails,
we at least have some other cars to shoot it out against,
and see if it's better than anything that we've cobbled over the years.
This can't fail.
I mean, we're gonna put a bet on it.
Yeah, that's our priority.
It's gotta help, right?
This is our 1974 Mazda RPU rear-engine pickup.
But would a factory add a rotary engine in the front?
-We built it in two episodes last season. - [Mike] Mmm-hmm.
[David] And we put an engine in the bed,
a callback to our original Mazdarati
that had an Oldsmobile engine in the bed.
This one has-- What's the designation on this engine?
-I believe it's an LS4. -[David] LS4.
[Mike] Yeah, it would have come in an Impala, front-wheel-drive car.
-[David] Yeah. -[Mike] Now we have a rear-wheel-drive shaft.
[David] So it's a 5.3 liter LS
on a transaxle in the bed.
-The goal was what? -Ten seconds, or do wheelies.
[David] So ten seconds in the quarter-mile
has eluded us embarrassingly.
The last time we took this to the track,
it blew apart a radiator hose,
and puked the whole length of Famoso Dragstrip.
[Mike] Yeah, that was not the A-to-B pass I was looking for.
-[David] Nah. -[Mike chuckles]
So what we're gonna do this time is,
try and make it go tens,
and if it doesn't, we're gonna see
if, at least, it can beat one of the other Roadkill cars.
The thing is, as you may surmise,
none of the Roadkill cars actually run and drive right now.
[Mike] Yeah. I feel like we're gonna wrench on everything
and have success with everything!
[David] So stuff has changed.
Balto Performance re-dynoed it for us.
It's running on E85.
And remember, we had that problem
with the Fly-by-Wire throttle body,
where it wouldn't drive on the dragstrip?
-I'd floor it and it would just die? - [Mike] Yes.
-[David] Now it has a cable. -[Mike] And they put an alternator on it,
so we have voltages.
That, too. Go for it.
-You don't... You don't wanna drive at all? -No.
-[Mike] Oh. -[David] There's racing harnesses
in the driver's side,
and nothing on the passenger side.
I just screwed that up.
[Mike] Yeah, but on the bright side,
your side has fewer holes than my side.
Season 13, you've seen all you need to see. I'm done here.
It's, uh, crusty, but probably functional
with enough effort on your part. Here you go.
That'd be a lot of effort.
-Perfect. [chuckles] -[chuckling] You're in flip-flops,
but at least you've got a helmet.
[engine starts]
-Ah, it's spunky. -[David] All right!
Maybe we'll run tens.
What are the odds we get impounded right now?
[David] Well, it's only happened once in 13 years.
-We can go for two. -I like a challenge.
[David] All right, sir.
You know, we only have a three-gallon fuel cell.
[David] Oh, you're right.
-I didn't fill it! -[David] Me neither.
Well, we have at least two gears. That's good news.
[David] Do the brakes work?
Yeah, they're actually surprisingly good.
-[David] We must not have done them. -That's fair.
[David] Yeah, we're gonna run out of gas fast.
Yeah, and where do you get E85 in Gardena?
Well, this feels pretty successful.
I think you'll be quite happy taking this down the dragstrip again.
[David] I'll be watching!
[both chuckle]
-Success. -[David] I lived.
This Mazdarati runs and it's not stolen, which is good.
However... that's probably not gonna get us to Bakersfield.
That's three gallons of E85,
and you burn about twice as much E85
as you do gasoline with the same amount of power.
Yeah, that makes us down the track one time.
So, yeah, we just need, you know, to put a bed on it,
so it looks stately,
and a bigger gas tank.
How much bed floor do you think we're going to save here?
Virtually none, which means
someone's gonna mail a pipe bomb to us
when they see that we cut up a perfectly good Mazda RPU.
-It'll be just like when we cut up the C4 Corvette. -It will.
Yeah. We're gonna hack the bedsides off of the bed
that was originally on this truck,
which is the super rare one because they've got the flared sides on it.
The regular Mazda didn't have that.
Yeah, they're not gonna be happy with us.
But we need a bedside.
Yeah, we're gonna ruin it.
This is why we made them go find us another bed
the last time we were doing this That's... the reason...
-Oh. -...this is the trailer...
-The other bed -[David] Right.
-It doesn't have the flares. -It doesn't.
Should we just cut that one up?
That's the original reason why we got the other bed is,
'cause you didn't want to cut this one. So we got the other one.
-[sighs] Thank God. -[David] But then this morning you said you were going
to cut this one, so we took all the parts out
of this one and stacked it in the other one.
So now you want to take all the parts out of that one,
stack 'em in this one, and use the other one?
-I didn't know we still had the other one. -Ah. [all chuckling] I see.
Now that I know that information, I'm like,
"Yeah. Why are we cutting this one up?"
-I didn't know the other bed was still in play, man. -[laughing]
[Mike] I thought I had no options.
I thought I had to cut this bed.
Uh, I think we just decided we're gonna go and get the other bed.
-Yes! -[David laughing]
I have no problems cutting this one up.
Nope!
Now I'm ready to hack.
[laughs] Ha!
-[laughing] -I could have used some warning on that.
Oh. Sorry. I thought you were out of the way.
Let's install it.
-It looks way better. -[Mike] Yeah.
You're cutting this part, bro.
[chuckles]
[David] We cut the floor out of our bed and test-fit it,
and it's amazing how easy this is actually going to be.
But, unfortunately, because our new tires and wheels on our transaxle
stick out so much further
than the stock track width,
I am gonna have to cut out this
in order to fit the wheel and tire.
Instead of doing a straight radius,
I attempted to follow the factory shape of it.
And I will mimic it with the death wheel.
This could go really badly.
And the reason that Finnegan's not doing it, I think we all know.
We saw his work on the muscle truck
so many seasons ago.
Wow.
That is bad.
Yeah, he's just gonna make a flange,
and Dzus it right back on.
-It'll be mint. -[laughing]
[David] Now we find out if my wheel-opening cut worked.
[Mike] This looks good, Freiburger.
[David] It's a little close.
[Mike] It's close...
like, if you take it off any sweet jumps, it's definitely hitting.
Okay. Back of the bed is bolted in. Thank you, Freiburger.
Front of the bed is, kind of, half-ass installed.
I just welded some tubing from the roll bar to the bedsides, up top.
There's nothing in the bottom right now,
so what I'm gonna do is roll the truck forward, put it on the lift.
Put it up in the air, work from the bottom
and triangulate something to keep,
not just the bedsides from flapping as we drive down the road,
but also from falling down,
'cause that's probably an issue.
[David] Mike went the extra mile, welding it all on up here.
It's actually stout.
The question is, are the tires going to hit?
I'm gonna say yes.
I didn't cut them big enough. Let's see.
Ooh, maybe not.
[grunts]
-[David] It's fine. -All right.
Right now we're eyeballing what to do about putting a fuel cell up front.
And what's interesting is it's only gonna be a transfer tank.
-Yeah? -Yeah.
This here, with a little click-clack,
pumping into what would have been
-a rollover vent of that... -Mmm-hmm
...with a switch in between that every so often we should shut off...
-[David] Right. -...'cause that's gonna overflow.
-Yeah. -And there's no return back here because...
you know, budget. Less hose.
Very much safety.
[chuckles softly] I'll drive it. It's fine.
It's fine. I got insurance.
We're so dead.
[both laughing]
Don't ever do this. Ever.
Not even for a TV show.
It's not a radiator.
It's a bomb.
You ready?
-It's not going anywhere. -[David chuckles]
Extra safety measure.
-Let me just throw these right there. -Throw them on.
[both laughing]
Done!
We have our hack job fuel system all put together.
I'm gonna test it now.
We know that these little electric pumps don't like to lift.
Really, they want to be gravity fed.
We don't have that situation.
So I'm gonna turn on the switch,
and hopefully, we will see E85 gurgle
in this baby right there.
[softly] But probably not.
-I like your optimism. -Flip the switch.
It's like, the first time in my life, I want something to suck more, not less.
Only the first?
Whoa! Look at that.
[Mike] Oh, that truly sucks.
Handled!
We are moving on to the next car, which is...
the amazing automotive artifact known as...
the General Mayhem, my '68 Dodge Charger.
This thing has been around
since the very earliest days of Roadkill.
And I actually traded it for a set of cylinder heads in 2008.
It was a complete rolling hulk.
I think it's the episode that took us the longest to shoot.
I think six months, in and out, doing occasional weekends,
putting it together with a Motorhome 440,
putting on a bunch of swap meet parts
and turning it into the greatest on-and-off-road,
rally-crossing, auto-crossing,
burning-out, drag-racing,
fun car ever, in my opinion.
This thing is a blast.
The carburetor that was on this for our trip
when we went from Wyoming down to the closing of Bandimere,
near Denver, Colorado.
-This carburetor just kept flooding. - [engine sputtering]
[David] That means I've got to change the oil because it's still full of gasoline.
It probably polished the cylinder walls like mirrors,
and it's gonna burn oil.
-Oh, it makes the pistons move faster. -[David] Right. There's that,
-and with friction reduction. -[Mike] Yeah.
But I just wanna change the carburetor.
I don't even wanna mess with it.
I think it's got a porosity problem
or something that I'm not going to troubleshoot.
I'm just gonna replace it.
See, that's a really good Holley HP.
We need to change the oil,
which is weird with the Accusump.
And when this was being transported here,
someone punched a hole in the gas tank.
So we'll be fixing that, too.
[Mike] Out with the old, in with the new.
Right now, we've got the car up in the air.
We're going to change the oil and the filter.
[David] Is there any oil in that?
No way.
We just removed the oil filter,
and there was no oil in it.
The car got driven to where it's parked right now.
Mike's about to pull the drain plug,
and see what that says.
Well, it's almost out, and that's not a lot of oil.
I'm gonna guess that was three quarts.
Oh, and a bunch of it got pumped into the Accusump, I'm sure.
I don't like the Accusump.
It raises too many questions.
It's wrong.
-Oh, that's an EFI tank. -Yep.
Oh-oh.
Yes, it is the Roadkill car that never fails to fail.
It is the Rotsun, our 1971 Datsun 240Z,
that used to be loaded with a 4.3L Chevy V-6 with a turbo on it,
but now, it has a Small-Block Ford. It's a 302.
Oh, that's when we did that great scene,
mimicking a movie, Office Space,
thrashing on the old V-6 because we hated it.
And we threw the 302 in. It still has the same turbo
that we got from our buddy, Kj Jones.
It's some diesel leftover that he had.
And this thing hasn't run in years, honestly,
and we know that we've got a fuel delivery problem.
We know we got to do something with the starter.
It overheated twice really badly.
-Oh, it overheated really badly... -[Mike] Both times.
[David] We drove it to Las Vegas, and it puked everywhere.
Then we raced it at Laguna Seca.
We were standing there doing the wrap up talk as we do,
and in the background it goes...
[mimics engine spluttering]
[Mike] Whoa!
Okay, we're gonna have to clean that up.
[laughing]
[Mike] Wow!
And I don't think we've touched it since.
-No. -No. So what do we do first?
I think the starter is junk, so starter...
-then fuel system? -Okay.
All right. I removed the starter that was in the car.
And we're gonna go with the Duralast Gold.
You know, Duralast, which is a sponsor of Roadkill,
would like to remind you that if you are a professional,
you can actually have your own sales rep
or you can go to AutoZonePro.com,
and you can order stuff and it'll be here in, like, 30 minutes.
The thing is, we're not professionals,
so we just shop like regular people and get this stuff.
Maybe if you're better than us,
you could step up to the AutoZonePro account.
Welcome to the "tea and crumpets
smothered in Jack Daniel's" portion of the show.
-Good callback. -Yeah.
-Yeah, right? -Episode 7
is where we first built this thing.
It's a 1974 Jaguar XJ12
with 383 Small-Block Chevy
with a Weiand 6-71 supercharger on it.
I know that we can smoke tires with this car.
It has been on a lot of episodes.
We have annihilated some treads with this thing.
There's more rubber on the quarter panel
than there is on the tire right now.
We need to, like, peel that off,
and rub it back in, I think.
It also needs a new ignition box
because I stole the box off of it
when we were working on Stubby Bob last time.
[Mike] I'm just waiting for the verbal kick in the nuts.
Because he cut through the ground wire on Stubby Bob,
and it didn't actually need a box.
-But I took it off this one anyway. -Yeah.
-[David laughing] -We also need a battery.
[David] Yeah, we do.
Remember when this was overheating so badly
that we had to drive through car washes in order to cool it down?
Nothing has changed.
This thing has overheated, brutally,
at least, two times since then.
Okay.
[engine sputtering]
I think we need another starter.
It was cranking good earlier.
[Mike] No, no, no.
-That starter's junk. -[engine sputtering]
How many voltages?
Twelve and a half.
[engine sputtering]
All right, that's lunch, everybody! Good job.
Whoo! What a day!
-It's like maracas. -[engine continues sputtering]
I think he's finally lost his mind.
[David] We're waiting for a starter on the drag wire,
so I'm gonna continue to install our new tank
that just arrived for the General Mayhem.
[grunts] There.
That's in. I just have to hook up the hoses and I'm done.
We just finished up installing the new fuel tank.
All right, David, do your worst.
[engine whirring]
Does it have fuel yet?
You now have fuel, sir.
-[engine sputtering, roaring] -[Mike] Hey!
Look at that!
[engine stops]
-You wanna suck that down? It's on fire. -Oh.
[engine starts, stops]
Where's the timing set at?
[engine roaring]
Oh, it's fine. It's fine. Everything's fine.
-Yay! -[Mike] One down.
Two, if you count the Mazdarati.
[David] We're onto the Rotsun.
The carburetor is all locked up solid.
The accelerator pumps don't move at all.
So I'm just gonna take it off and rebuild it.
I'm working on the carburetor over there, which is trash.
Finnegan just figured out the entire fuel system in the car.
I didn't realize it was this far,
but we just dropped the whole fuel cell out of it.
What's up?
Uh... well, it doesn't have a return port.
It's full of bad fuel, and we have another fuel cell.
So... I'm just thinking we just eliminate
whatever is going wrong there
-and put the new fuel cell in... -Okay.
...with ratchet straps probably.
[David] Finnegan's been working on fabricating this new fuel cell
that's gonna go up in here.
Burning!
Mike is wiring the fuel pump,
and I'm putting the boost-ification to the engine.
Never forget we're doing all of this to a car
we haven't driven in probably, five or six years
just to find out, will it overheat
-right here in the shop. -[David] Yeah.
We think we blew the head gaskets
-the last time we drove it right. -[David] Right.
[chuckling] We're really good at this after 13 years.
-Let's keep going. [chuckles] -[David] Okay.
I was just laying some dots on this,
so that the silicone hose has something to grab,
so that it doesn't pop off.
[straining] Okay.
[Mike] We're about ready to see if this thing is gonna run
for the first time in forever.
Why is this so scary?
Just to flip the switch?
[flips switch]
[engine sputtering]
[revving]
-Hey. -Just like that!
And it's not smoking!
We got oil pressure.
[engine roaring]
[sputtering]
Oh!
[engine stops]
Okay, first of all,
it sprayed water all over me when I did that.
-Oh. -And second of all,
look at the water coming up out of the cracks
in the carburetor head.
It sprayed water everywhere.
-It's all out here. -[Mike] Are you saying head gaskets?
-Yeah. [chuckles softly] -[chuckling] I really wanted this to work.
Oh! Come on, Rotsun.
Let's run it more and verify.
[engine whirring]
That is very hot water!
-Damn. -[engine sputtering]
[engine revving]
[David] It's not stopping!
But on the bright side, the fuel pressure is perfect.
[both laughing]
[Mike] Why couldn't it be oil? I'd be fine with oil.
Oh, there's plenty of oil coming out of the carburetor head.
Ugh! Never forget,
that's a Ford Power Stroke Diesel turbo from Kj Jones
that we've never rebuilt.
Oh! You know what that means?
-It's Kj's fault? -[David] Yes!
-How did you know? -[both laughing]
Like that!
I'm gonna say this has a blown head gasket,
which explains why it overheats to the moon.
-[exhales] Next car? [chuckling] -Yeah.
[snickering]
It never fails to fail.
-[chuckling] -The Rotsun.
[softly] Junk.
It's my job to fix the starter on the Draguar.
The little gear in the starter was stuck in the ring gear.
So what I'm gonna do is grab this shim right here,
which goes between the starter and the engine block,
so that that small gear moves away from the ring gear.
Starter, take two...
Please work.
-[engine starts] -Yes.
Look at it go.
All right, I just have to put the exhaust back together.
And theoretically, the Draguar is done.
However, I will point out, it hasn't run yet.
You'll probably see me rebuilding both carburetors later today.
Well, arguably, one of the most reliable vehicles
in the Roadkill fleet happens to be a '68 Dodge Charger
powered by a Toyota Inline-6 motor,
uh, except when we pulled it in the shop yesterday
to start working on it,
the pulley fell off the balancer.
And that's because it wasn't welded or bolted together.
From the factory, it's bonded with rubber,
which is not that uncommon.
You see this on a lot of vehicles,
but, uh, after, I don't know, decades of abuse,
on the rev limiter by other people, not me,
this thing just decided to leave the chat.
And so, we bought a fluid dampener,
which this one, the pulley for the serpentine belt bolts on,
which is nice. You'll like that.
I threw some anti-seize on the snout of the crank.
In theory, I shouldn't even have to hone this.
This should just go right on there.
It's working!
I'd say that's good.
Torqued!
Go again. Go again.
Argh. There!
It's time! I think it'll run.
[engine starts]
[David] That was anticlimactic.
Does it have oil pressure?
Sure.
It's actually gonna drive out of the shop!
[engine revving]
Now we're gonna put this thing down and see if it'll run.
We just had good luck with the Death Metal,
but it's got that Toyota reliability going on.
This is a lovely shade of poop.
[engine spluttering]
Gotta get gas up to the carburetors.
[engine spluttering]
-Okay. -[Mike] Here we go.
-It's gonna die. -[engine spluttering]
[engine starts]
Runs on brake fluid.
Oh, there's still no gas
-in the bowls. -[Mike] Oh.
[engine spluttering]
Ooh, gasoline just hit.
Oh, yeah, it's squirting now.
All right, this junk is gonna run.
[engine starts]
All right, I've got some fixing to do.
There's gas pouring down this side of the blower,
and for some reason, it wants to idle at 3,000 RPM.
Seems like a vacuum leak.
I don't see one at a glance.
I'm gonna take off the scoop, which is no fun.
Here's the end of day story on the Draguar.
We messed with this thing for a long time,
a needlessly long time.
We did fix about half a dozen vacuum leaks.
We did improve the linkage.
We did improve the needles and seats that were stuck.
We cannot solve a vacuum leak
that's here at the back of the supercharger
with a casket that is unobtanium, and we don't want to take
the whole thing apart to do it again.
And so it idles at about 1,500 RPM.
We're gonna live with it.
I'm gonna put the scoop on,
which is probably gonna take me 20 minutes,
and then this will be another runner.
Off the list.
Four days, seven cars, some of them even worked.
-Not well, but they do work. -Not one of 'em is right.
-Not even one. -No.
It's a little disappointing, I got to admit.
-We worked really hard, though. -I know.
This was supposed to be Roadkill's greatest hits.
Instead of washing machines.
-And, uh, it's Roadkill's greatest hits, kind of. -[sighs]
-Yeah, we've been road-killed. -Mm-hmm.
For sure.
And I can't decide if it's self-inflicted or not.
So, I'm just gonna ignore everything that happened the last four days,
get in the Mazdarati tomorrow, and just head north.
[David] We are driving to a racetrack tomorrow with the Mazdarati.
We will find out if it runs 10s in the quarter mile.
And when it doesn't,
we'll have all of these other
awesomely functioning vehicles to shoot it out against.
-It's gonna be great. -Whoo!
-[David] Ready? -[Mike] Sure.
[engine starts]
EFI fires right up.
-Right? -[engine spluttering]
Surge is a little.
Wow, that motor moves around a lot.
Do you see that?
No, I'm not looking back there at all, bro.
[laughs] Oh, only forward.
[engine stops]
[laughs]
Did you turn on the surge tank?
[laughs]
[engine starts]
[Mike] Oh. Oh.
Okay, I smell E85 now.
[David] Yeah.
We've never road tripped this anywhere.
-No. -No.
[Mike] It's going good so far.
[David] The turbo's cooking.
The smoke pouring off the turbo.
Yeah, I don't think we're overheating.
-It's down to 187. -Okay, cool.
We might be good.
[David] One mile down, and we're the champions of the world.
We've got some smoking out of, ironically enough,
our heat shield.
But aside from that, it's pretty good.
Ah, dude, that was a complete success.
We didn't run out of gas.
We're not on fire.
Let's just get on the highway.
-Yeah. -Yeah, 120 miles. We got this.
[David] We just filled up with E85
-and we're ready to rip. -[engine starts]
[Mike] Freeway coming.
The true test.
Will it tow a trailer on the highway?
-It seems all right. -Yeah.
I think we got our first tire rub.
Here's another one.
-Yep. -[Mike] Oh, yeah.
Engage highway mode.
[David] Whoa, it drives okay.
[Mike] Yeah, it's nice.
[David] The turbo's smoking a lot.
My head doesn't bend that far,
so therefore, there's no problem.
[David] Honestly, this thing drives like a dream.
The brakes are pretty sketch,
but aside from that, cruises down the road.
[Mike] This is our finest feat of engineering
in a long time.
[David] Yeah, I would say in a long time.
Like, it works.
-It pretty works. -It's just going.
And it got 11.4 miles to the gallon,
which on E85...
-With the trailer. -With us.
It's not bad.
It's practically a hybrid.
Drivers change.
The bumps feel a little sketchy.
And our trailer's wagging badly.
'Cause it's got no tongue weight.
Now the temperature's going up.
210.
215.
Uh-oh.
-Hey, Dave. -Yep?
All right, it's puking. We gotta pull it over.
What if we lost a hose?
[David] Looks like it.
Guess which one blew apart?
[Mike] The one we forgot to put a bead on?
The exact same one that came apart at the drag strip.
[Mike] There's no bead.
And I don't have the tool to make one,
but I'm gonna try to flare this a little bit.
We can make it. It's gonna be fine.
[whirring]
[Mike speaking]
[horn honking]
Wow.
Oh, and it's toast.
Uh, this isn't good.
Yeah, that's not the record I was hoping to set today.
You know, I was...
I wanted that 10-second record, not the 300-degree record.
[David] Oh, look at the water coming out of this.
-See? -[Mike] Oh.
-There's water in our motor. -[David] Uh-huh.
In places that it's not supposed to be.
Yep.
That would explain why it overheated.
Oh, yeah, there's the milkshake.
[David] Yep, we're done.
Yeah, I guess we'll see you guys in Bakersfield.
Well, we had it towed to the hotel.
We're gonna put some water in it.
It's cooled off.
[David] We're gonna fire it up now
and see if I can see bubbles in the coolant,
or if the coolant drops its level.
Oh, lots of bubbles.
-[Mike] Yeah, so that's what I was looking at before. -[engine squeaking]
-Yeah. -You hear a... hear a squeak we didn't used to have?
Yes.
It's making weird noises it's never made before.
You can hear, like, a whirring and a chirping in it.
But even though it's bubbling in the radiator,
it's not smoking out the vent, like it did before.
If you rev it, doesn't go away?
[engine revving]
No.
Well, we played with this thing a little bit tonight,
working with that combustion analysis sauce.
We put a ton of water in it because it was empty,
we've got noises that we don't like,
but we don't see anything that's really a smoking gun.
So, I think what we're gonna do
is wake up in the morning, and drive this thing
the next 25 miles to the track,
and find out what happens.
-It either works or it doesn't, man. -[David] Right.
Either way, we still have six other cars.
Six? [laughs]
-Six other-- -[David] This many?
That finger doesn't want... Six other cars.
You know what else comes in sixes?
-Oh, beer? -[David] That's right.
Yes.
Today is the Mazdarati's last chance.
We think it's broken, we're not sure.
Our solution is going to be,
simply try and drive it to the track,
whether the engine's broken or not.
Let's see how far we get.
[engine starts]
[engine squeaking]
[Mike] Our squeak is back.
[David whistles]
I am monitoring the monitor,
trying to see when it's gonna overheat.
[Mike] I smell something. How hot is it now?
146.
So far, so good.
Seems happy.
[engine revving]
Still not overheating.
[engine revving]
That cooled it down from 190 to 185.
I guess it's okay. That's good news.
We're gonna make it.
We don't get it. This thing runs better than ever.
We literally can't figure it out.
We're going through our mind
about what could have gone wrong, and at this point,
we don't care 'cause we're at Famoso Dragstrip
with all of our other Roadkill cars!
I just think the universe wants the Mazdarati to run 10s, you know?
Probably. It feels peppy.
But first, I think we're gonna do shootouts
of all of the other cars that we have here.
'Cause we have Finnegan C10,
we have the General Mayhem, we have the Draguar,
we have the Death Metal, we have the Vette Kart,
-we have the Muscle Truck. -[Mike] Yeah.
I'm so excited about this.
[David] Here's our play, we gotta find out
if any of these vehicles is, in fact, better
than the Mazdarati.
It's a ridiculous premise.
It's really only here so that Mike and I
can have a blast with this racetrack that we've figured out.
[Mike] Yes! I'm so excited about this!
What we're gonna do is connect the drag strip
to an autocross.
So, we go down the track, we get our ET,
just like a regular quarter mile.
A quarter mile after the finish line,
we both have to dive
for a right-hand exit off of the drag strip.
It's about this wide.
[David] And so we've got a gentleman's agreement
that will probably fall apart,
you know, in 38 seconds,
where whoever is ahead at that point
has the right of way,
and the next guy is gonna fall back
and not crash into him.
But after we go through that hole in the wall,
we go into a big section of back and forth
and then into a really tight coned off autocross
that has a big donut at the end.
Then you've got slaloms going down,
slaloms coming back.
And then a pretty high-speed chase back into the stop box.
So, that's the overall scheme.
We're gonna race pairs of cars.
At the end of each race,
we'll see what winner that we've got.
At the end of three pairs, we will pick one winner,
and that one winner will race the Mazdarati.
But the other thing we have to pick is who's gonna be in what lane?
Because the whole dive for the turnout at the top of the drag is sketch.
I don't know what I want, but I'll... I'll Rochambeau.
-The winner of the Rochambeau, picks, okay? -Picks, right.
-Ah! -[David] Smash.
-I thought you were gonna go paper. -All right.
-Damn it! -I think I am gonna take
the left-hand lane, actually.
-Oh? -Yeah.
All right, didn't see that coming.
[David] I'm in the Draguar. He's in the Vette Kart.
All right, Draguar, do me right.
[engine starts]
[David] Here we go for our first pair.
Me in the Draguar, and Mike is in the Vette Kart.
Here he comes.
[Mike] I virtually have to leave from an idle
'cause this car will not hook.
Tire spin.
[engines revving]
[David] I'm sensing this is way faster than the Vette Kart.
[Mike] Oh, the car's hopping everywhere.
[David] I've stayed on top of the gas well beyond the finish line,
so I'm smoking the brakes right now.
Ah!
[Mike] David is in the lead.
I'm gonna brake late and try to get right on his butt.
[David] Yes, I smoked the brakes.
And he gets ahead of me.
[Mike] Where's he going? Where's he going?
He missed the turn!
[David] Ah!
[Mike] I don't know what happened, but David just missed the turn.
[David] Now it's actually a race,
since I smoked the brakes there.
This could be sketch.
-[Mike] I just gotta not spin out. -[tires screech]
[David] Oh, the brakes are toast!
[tires screech]
[David] Oh, we're right next to each other.
[Mike] Come on, baby, don't spin out.
[David groans]
Now, it's a challenge through the slalom.
This is tight.
The Vette Kart has gotta beat me at this, right?
[Mike] Come on, car.
[David] Oh, the steering is so slow!
[laughs]
[Mike] Oh, oh! Come on, baby. Come on.
[engine accelerating]
[tires screech]
[Mike] Ah, I think I won!
[laughs]
-Nice park job, Freiburger! -[David laughs]
-[Mike] Whoo! -[David] Okay, that was fun.
I totally would have beaten him
if I had not have smoked the brakes on that turnout.
[engine accelerating]
[tires screech]
[Mike] Victory donuts. Whoo-hoo!
That was amazing!
If I had not have smoked the brakes at the drag strip,
I would have been so far ahead of you.
-[Mike] Oh, you had me cooked. -[David groans]
[Mike] This thing is a handful.
Yeah, that has slow steering.
It's overheating.
[groans] That was a riot. [laughs]
[Mike] Hey, we get to do it again.
[David] All right, moving on to Death Metal versus General Mayhem.
All right, you get to pick.
[Mike] All right, I'll go outside.
[David] Okay. Left lane for Finnegan
in the 2JZ Toyota-powered Charger.
And the actual Charger will be in the right-hand side.
[Mike] You better win.
You'll never live it down if you lose
to a Japanese motor in a Dodge.
[David] This, I'm really looking forward to.
[engine roaring]
[David] Little Charger on Charger action here.
Now, I'm gonna be in the right-hand lane this time.
I have to remember not to smoke my brakes like I did last time.
[engine accelerating]
[Mike] I don't know what's gonna happen
during the holeshot,
and I don't know what's gonna happen at high speeds.
Here comes the real deal.
[David] We'll see how that goes.
[engine revving]
[engines roaring]
[David] All right, I am way ahead of him.
He's catching up on me now.
[tires screech]
[David] Nope, I wasn't willing to hit the wall.
[Mike] Oh, he blew it! He blew it again!
[engine accelerating]
[David] I failed the same way I did last time.
[engine accelerating]
[Mike] Go, car, go!
[tires screeching]
[engine accelerating]
[tires screeching]
[David] Aah! Traction!
He's gonna get me.
He's gonna get me bad.
[Mike] Come on, car!
Come on, car!
[tires screeching]
[engine accelerating]
[tires screeching]
[Mike exclaims]
[David groans]
That's two wins I handed him by blowing past the exit.
[engine accelerating]
[Mike] Whoo!
Nice work, Death Metal.
-Whoo! -[David] Wow!
That was lousy.
[Mike] That was so fun.
And I don't mean just, you know, the winning part.
Feels good to be me right now.
Whoo!
God, that's gotta hurt,
Toyota motor smoking the old 440.
-Yep. -Man!
So, we're still gonna go to the next couple of trucks.
His C10 versus my original Muscle Truck.
[Mike] You have this one.
[David] My strategy is not working.
[Mike] Don't blow the turn 'cause this truck
has the steering radius of a bus, and it bounces.
There's no sway bar.
It also has no traction and the wheel hops,
so you should absolutely win.
You're setting me up.
[laughing] Yeah, dude, you should win.
I'm not trying to put pressure on you.
I'm just saying, that thing works.
[David] One thing I know for sure, this is gonna sound great.
[engine starts]
[David] Now, if there's anything I've learned here
is that I am losing these races
because I smoke the brakes and then blow the turn.
So, I'm not gonna do that this time.
-[Mike] Let's go have some fun. -[engine revving]
[Mike] All right, you know, somehow figure out
how to holeshot this thing without any wheel hopping.
[engines accelerating]
[Mike groans]
We're on fire.
We are on fire.
I think the driveshaft broke the fuel cell.
Holy crap.
[David] Oh, man, is he smoking down there?
Oh, dude, his truck's on fire.
[horn honking]
[Mike] Oh, no, it's in the cab.
There goes my baby.
-[David] You okay? -[Mike] Yeah.
Yeah, I felt the driveshaft break.
And then I think it went through the bottom of the gas tank.
[David] Wow!
-[Mike] Thanks, fellas. -[man] Yep.
So, what had happened was Dave gave me the shaft.
This became my fault?
[Mike] Yeah, yeah, somehow. You were ahead of me,
I had to pass you.
I clicked it in the next gear, and then all hell broke loose.
And then this...
Well, this played ping-pong under my truck,
cut a fuel line,
and before I could stop the truck,
the whole thing was on fire.
Poof!
-This guy was here immediately... -[David] On it.
[Mike] ...and they put it out. Man, I cannot believe they saved that truck.
I thought for sure, the C10's dust.
[David] Well, if that's the worst thing that has happened to us
in the 13 years of doing this show, it's a win.
[Mike] So, here's the thing, I'm gonna go buy a lottery ticket
'cause I feel like I've escaped mayhem
multiple times today.
Well, you literally escaped mayhem earlier
when you beat me. [laughs]
Oh, I wasn't even thinking about that.
Yay! [grunts]
We just busted our butts for four days,
brought six vehicles back to life
that hadn't run in years, which I'm excited about,
and not all of them performed.
But, you know, whatever, I don't care.
They're alive, they're well, we can fix this thing.
Uh, however, I... I think we're gonna pump the brakes
on racing anything today
'cause I just don't wanna be behind the wheel
after getting crispy in my truck.
So, uh, that's how we're gonna end it.
Well, I say it's a huge eye-opener because I think we are famous
for sort of scabbing stuff together.
And this wasn't even a result of that.
-No. -But it does make you realize
what can actually happen and the risks
involved in this thing.
-[Mike] Yeah. -[David] So, not to bring a somber note to it,
but honestly, it makes me realize
why on my real race cars,
I spend so much effort on safety,
and probably should a little bit more on the Roadkill cars,
but look what we've got now.
The Rotsun,
you know what you want to do to it next.
-[Mike] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. -[David] Right?
Even though it failed, it didn't fail to fail.
We know what we want to do with it next.
-[Mike] Yes. -[David] Man, the Vette Kart,
we know what that thing needs.
We love the Vette Kart.
[Mike] Oh, the Vette Kart rules.
[David] General Mayhem, I'm dying to get an alignment on that thing
because I'm gonna love that car once that's done.
-It hasn't been out for a while. -[Mike] Absolutely.
[David] I found out something wrong with the Muscle Truck
that I didn't know was wrong with it
when I stood on the brakes at 110 miles an hour,
when you were, like, burning down.
And so that's something to fix.
I don't know. I feel energized
to get a lot of the cars
-in better shape than they ever have been. -[Mike] Yeah.
I've got another list, and it's just not on cardboard yet.
And when it is, maybe you'll see that
on a future episode of Roadkill.