Roadkill discussion

Gimp (Forum Supporter) said:

 

RK was great when it was Finnegan and Freiburger, but has really gone down hill.  The show pretty much completely lost me when Freiburger and Dulchich went to the SCCA Solo Nationals and acted like a bunch of shiny happy people and helped delay the event that day.  Feiburger would have kicked anyone who acted like that out of one of his events, so I don't know why he thought it was okay to ack like a dick.

None of this is new, as Finn and Furby did the exact same thing to the Goodguys autocross with the Rotsun in S3 E26,  with Finn smart mouthing the official while Furby leaked fuel all over the track from a known leaky fuel cap.

Then Finn blew the oil line off the turbo, having to get waved off.  But not before oiling down half the track.

And that's not even half the stuff they pulled during that episode.

Every series has it's great and iffy episodes, but I really love the basic lineup of roadkill, HRG, RKG, Dirt Every Day and Engine Masters.

For my wife, that's Regular Roadkill, Garage roadkill (both of them), dirty roadkill and clean roadkill

There has never been a better thing to watch on a screen.

I especially like when it takes way too long, things break, or they screw up (like galling stainless on stainless at SEMA and not even knowing that they did it).

aircooled said:

Isn't that that nice original Caddy that they couldn't bring themselves to defile?

They are defiling that Caddy as we speak.

Appleseed said:

aircooled said:

Isn't that that nice original Caddy that they couldn't bring themselves to defile?

They are defiling that Caddy as we speak.

Also, it wasn't that they couldn't bring themselves to defile it. They just ditched it for that episode because it was so reliable that it wasn't making for that interesting of a video. After they got it running, they just hopped in it, hit the road at 80mph and were cranking off the miles.

stuart in mn said:
Like  you say it's his car, but that doesn't mean I approve.  There are plenty other Cadillacs out there that would have been better subjects (and I suspect getting that car to go 200mph in the mile will prove to be futile anyway.)

Indeed, there are plenty of stock Cadillacs out there, and plenty of restoration projects. Which means you can spend your money to "save" one or to work on a rusty heap. I assume this example was for sale on the open market before Finnegan bought it, and none of the internet "y u rune klassic?" crowd stepped up with their own money to buy it.

Rust repair sucks, he made the right move starting with a clean base for his build. I don't really get it, no one would be complaining if he was putting a drag chassis under a Camaro or Mustang or whatever.

newrider3 said:

stuart in mn said:
Like  you say it's his car, but that doesn't mean I approve.  There are plenty other Cadillacs out there that would have been better subjects (and I suspect getting that car to go 200mph in the mile will prove to be futile anyway.)

Indeed, there are plenty of stock Cadillacs out there, and plenty of restoration projects. Which means you can spend your money to "save" one or to work on a rusty heap. I assume this example was for sale on the open market before Finnegan bought it, and none of the internet "y u rune klassic?" crowd stepped up with their own money to buy it.

Rust repair sucks, he made the right move starting with a clean base for his build. I don't really get it, no one would be complaining if he was putting a drag chassis under a Camaro or Mustang or whatever.

Thank you. Couldn't have said it better myself.

The caddy doesn't add up. LSR cars run skinny wheels and tires, not steam rollers. What is he actually doing with it?

Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:

The caddy doesn't add up. LSR cars run skinny wheels and tires, not steam rollers. What is he actually doing with it?

He's going to run it at Drag Week or Rocky Mountain Race Week, one of those, so that's why it needs the room for the slicks. Also, it's going to be doing short-course LSR, like standing mile stuff, and they sometimes do run huge slicks because they are accelerating harder. Look at Eric Yost's 1982 Firebird that went 241mph at Maxton or the Geezer Express 1987 Firebird

In reply to NickD :

Okay that makes sense. I just remember Freiburger's 200 mph LSR Camaro that ran skinny little tires it's whole career.

Cheerfully stolen from the book of faces fan page...

Ranger50 said:

Cheerfully stolen from the book of faces fan page...

Yeah, that looks gnarly. He tried to get some beadlock wheels that looked like the OEM wheels but the company that he had make them FUBAR'ed them in every possible way.

Ranger50 said:

Cheerfully stolen from the book of faces fan page...

Mmmph 

ddavidv said:

I think Kung Flu had something to do with it.

But, I've heard a lot of grumbling all around the car-o-sphere about Roadkill's dip towards mediocrity. I'm getting way more entertainment and honest laughs from Junkyard Digs and Vice Grip Garage. RK should be Freiberger and Finnegan because they play so well off each other. Not that the other guys aren't good guys but there is a Top Gear kind of magic between F&F.

Vice Grip is one of my favorites.  I love the Minnesota sense of humor.  They really are different up there.  

In reply to A 401 CJ :

I don't know

GhiaMonster said:

In reply to dxman92 :

Stacey David has been doing stuff with Gearz again. I'm not sure if it's all old episodes making it to YouTube or new content but the algorithms have been finding it for me 

The episodes get teasers posted when they are airing on TV as new episodes, then they later get batch uploaded in full to YouTube.  There for awhile there were no new full episodes on YT because of his own paywall through his site, I don't know if they just gave up on that or decided to go ahead and put them on YouTube too.

Watching the MotorTrend Holiday Hooptie Challenge special right now, seems totally worth the watch. 

Does anyone recognize the location they shot at? Obviously an old mine and mine town somewhere in CA, just curious about the name and history since I'm a sucker for historical mines and mining relics.

They've done previous events (Subaru Challenge, for one) at George Air Force Base, and the buildings look similar to the housing seen at that and other military housing projects I have seen over the years.   No idea if there is a mine near there, however.

Looks like they may have used the Eagle Mountain Mine site that was used for the earlier competition with Bubblicious, the Rampage and the Off Road Challenger.

In reply to Ranger50 :

For them doing two episodes at a shop to build the chassis I think they spent more time showing them airing up a tire than building the chassis. 

This is a great bunch of shows, I guess it is just hard to keep it fresh.  I do like when the shows bomb, or are boring, because you know they aren't scripted.  Sadly, or happily, I could watch the wreck rescue and roadtrip episodes all day.  I love watching Freiburger and Dulcich on engine masters---you don't realize the depth of knowledge they have until you sit through a couple of episodes.  Finnegan also has a great crowd in GA.  They have the easy teasing and banter that is just natural.

If you watch a couple of Garage Squad episodes, you can see that they are all decent, caring and smart people.  They try to throw in a bit of false drama, but never over the top.  Comparing that show to any of the roadkill types, you can see that serious planning goes on behind the scenes for Garage Squad.

I just finished the holiday episode, I thought it was great.  Also nice to  see them throw in other people from other shows.  Good job all around.

I agree with the sentiment that RK has gone down hill, I think it is a combination of having Finnegan move away, COVID, and probably some "made for TV drama" as well. I also think the episode with Finnegan and Tony Angelo doing HRDW was a great episode and wish they would stick to a similar format. I also enjoy the episodes where they find a car, fix it on the road and drag it home (or don't make it home). I am not really a fan of when they cobble stuff together (like the 2nd episode with the Econoline or that weird SUV thing they built in the junkyard) or when they do things to make it harder on themselves (like swapping engines in a state park when the shop is only a couple miles away). That is probably why I like Vice Grip Garage, it seems genuine.

As far as the other shows, I really enjoy Junkyard Gold, Engine Masters, Roadkill Garage... really I can't think of too many shows on MTOD from the "Roadkill Universe" that I don't enjoy. I usually end up learning something, too.

I'd like to see Steve Magnante do a crawl of Dulchich's yard for a crossover episode.

All in all MTOD is literally the only streaming service I subscribe to anymore and will continue to do so for the forseeable future.

newrider3 said:

stuart in mn said:
Like  you say it's his car, but that doesn't mean I approve.  There are plenty other Cadillacs out there that would have been better subjects (and I suspect getting that car to go 200mph in the mile will prove to be futile anyway.)

Indeed, there are plenty of stock Cadillacs out there, and plenty of restoration projects. Which means you can spend your money to "save" one or to work on a rusty heap. I assume this example was for sale on the open market before Finnegan bought it, and none of the internet "y u rune klassic?" crowd stepped up with their own money to buy it.

Rust repair sucks, he made the right move starting with a clean base for his build. I don't really get it, no one would be complaining if he was putting a drag chassis under a Camaro or Mustang or whatever.

My concern with this is that they never seem to keep cars.  You see them for one or two episodes of Roadkill, then on the recap every other season you find out they sold it at some point shortly after the episode(s) it was in.  If he is going to keep it for a long term, fine.  However if he is going to run it a few times and then get rid of it, I don't see the point.

Mr_Asa said:

newrider3 said:

stuart in mn said:
Like  you say it's his car, but that doesn't mean I approve.  There are plenty other Cadillacs out there that would have been better subjects (and I suspect getting that car to go 200mph in the mile will prove to be futile anyway.)

Indeed, there are plenty of stock Cadillacs out there, and plenty of restoration projects. Which means you can spend your money to "save" one or to work on a rusty heap. I assume this example was for sale on the open market before Finnegan bought it, and none of the internet "y u rune klassic?" crowd stepped up with their own money to buy it.

Rust repair sucks, he made the right move starting with a clean base for his build. I don't really get it, no one would be complaining if he was putting a drag chassis under a Camaro or Mustang or whatever.

My concern with this is that they never seem to keep cars.  You see them for one or two episodes of Roadkill, then on the recap every other season you find out they sold it at some point shortly after the episode(s) it was in.  If he is going to keep it for a long term, fine.  However if he is going to run it a few times and then get rid of it, I don't see the point.

Its not a Roadkill car. Its Finn's personal project on his own channel. And while he trades big ramp trucks around all the time, he tends to hold onto cars for a while. Look at Blasphemi. That's been completed, usually running and evolving for years. 

Yeah, I don't really understand the motor swap in the state park vs going back to Finn's garage/shop right down the road where they have all the tools necessary to properly do the job.  It's not like there wasn't enough drama from that barn find totally imploding all the time

In reply to docwyte :

They said the reason was "they were tired of being in the shop", which I totally understand, but at the same time if you have a legitimate spot to work on things it is better to work on them there. If they were 50 or more miles away, OK I guess... but 8 miles from home, and risking a fine or getting kicked out of the park, seems like just a stupid move.

They need to do another "throw a dart at the map" eposide.