Roadkill

Peter Laurence is a charismatic government minister on the verge of promotion to high office. He is also celebrating a win in a newspaper libel case. But an inmate at a women’s prison claims to have a secret about Peter’s past that could affect his future.

As Charmian digs into Peter’s political past in Washington DC, troubles arise at home as Peter’s family discovers his affair.

Confronted with his affair, pressure mounts on the home front for Peter, meanwhile Rochelle questions whether to pick up where Charmian left off.

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.

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.

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.

More than any other episode, this Roadkill reveals what it's really like to work at HOT ROD Magazine. Follow along to get the behind-the-scenes dirt on how we pulled off the Roadkill Live engine swap in the Crusher Camaro at the 2013 Performance Racing Industry trade show, then watch the 2,400-mile trip home from Indy to LA in the Crusher Camaro--including visits with Funny Car Racer Tony Pedregon, Steve Schmidt Racing Engines, and Finnegan's dad! It all ends with a session at the drag strip where the Crusher went quicker than it ever has.

On this episode of Roadkill, we celebrate with a 44-minute special that includes details on what's become of every Roadkill project car since the start, plus a big-action showdown of 9 of the popular survivors. As a bonus, we invited Motor Trend hosts and editors Jonny Lieberman and Carlos Lago to come make fun of us. Make sure to hang to the end for the big nine-car drag race and some hellacious tire smoke!

What do you get when you cross a rusted 1971 Datsun 240Z with a Chevy 4.3L V6 and a turbo from a Ford Power Stroke Diesel? The Rotsun! During Roadkill Episode 25, Freiburger and Finnegan revived the Rotsun expecting it to dominate in the 9-car autocross showdown of previous Roadkill project cars. It also needed to beat a 2014 Kia Rio 5, but failed to do so with the Rotsun shamefully breaking down before completing a decent lap. So in this episode: revenge. After swapping in the mismatched turbo and making nearly 400 rear-wheel horsepower, the guys head to the autocross at the Goodguys 5th Spring Nationals in Scottsdale, Arizona and mingle with fans on their way to a rematch with that dastardly Kia.

On this episode of Roadkill, the boys are back to kick off Season 4 with their most epic engine swap to date! This time Finnegan and Freiburger drag an old Rogers Bonneville jet boat to a local Southern California lake behind the Muscle Truck, a lowered 1974 Chevrolet C10 pickup that's powered by a Chevrolet Performance LS6 crate engine. Once at the lake, they proceed to remove the engine from the truck and install it into the boat, hoping to do a little drag racing during the Tom Papp Memorial boating event. As usual things don't go as planned but the guys still manage to have fun involving an outhouse, shower curtains, scummy water and a trailer hitch. Oh yeah, did we mention that after going boating Finnegan and Freiburger still had to take the engine back out of the boat and re-install it into the truck to get home?

This episode of Roadkill is stuffed with speed parts donated by sponsors. That ought to make the install easy, right? Not when you decide to embark on a road trip from Phoenix, Arizona to Wichita, Kansas in January in a station wagon that’s missing a few windows and you want to install the parts along the way. Finnegan and Freiburger are at it again taking the hard way out by fixing up a 1969 Buick Wagon during a brutal winter road trip where they spent as much time hanging out in parking lots as they did hotels. Why? Well there was a kid in Kansas who wanted to trade them his Cavalier for their wagon and they didn’t have the heart to bring him the POS without churchin’ it up a bit prior to delivery. We don’t want to spoil the party, but it does look and sound a tad different before they reach Kansas.

Roadkill is now powered by Dodge! To kick off the sponsorship, Finnegan and Freiburger called for some brand new 2015 supercars: the 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and Charger SRT Hellcat, plus a 645-horsepower Dodge Viper GT. Why? For an epic thrash, of course! This video has more tire smoke than you've ever seen from these cars, plus a big, irresponsible surprise at a motocross track. There are guest spots from Carlos Lago from Motor Trend, Fred Williams from Dirt Every Day, and pro drifter Tony Angelo. None of these guys should have been handed the keys. And by the way, we used the Hellcat red keys the whole time.

A ’71 Ford Crew Cab 4x4 tow truck. Yeah, exactly what Finnegan and Freiburger need in their lives. In this episode of Roadkill, powered by Dodge, the guys trek to Colorado to meet up with cool fans who sold ’em the homebuilt, 460-powered tow truck that instantly became known as Harry Tow, or Harry for short.

Roadkill is powered by Dodge, which honestly has nothing to do with us needlessly destroying a Chevy and a Ford in this episode. It’s the mullet-car showdown, a battle of dirt-cheap beaters: an SN95 Mustang V-6 and a third-gen Camaro with a 305 that’s so gutless it might as well be a V-6.

Roadkill survived 50 episodes! In that time, we’ve built a whole lot of cars, and in this episode we’ve got a shootout of the 10 that are still running and driving (and that have appeared on the show since our similar competition for the 25th episode).

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.

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.

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.

Surprise! Fans assumed we’d do this for the 75th episode of Roadkill powered by Dodge, but we jumped the gun and served it up here in Episode 74: yup, it’s a Roadkill project-car showdown at DirtFish Rally School. This location became famous on Episode 32 when Subaru challenged Roadkill to a showdown and we went head-to-head on the rally course with a Subie versus the General Mayhem 1968 Dodge Charger. It made for some of the best action scenes in the history of Roadkill, leaving fans demanding more. So, on this episode, the General Mayhem is back—complete with its new 707hp drivetrain from a 2015 Dodge Charger Hellcat. We also brought a number of other cars chosen loosely because they have appeared on the show since the last project-car showdown on Episode 50. You’ll see the off-road Hornet from Episode 71; the Disgustang from Episode 66; the Crusher Impala from Episodes 60 and 65; Laphonda from 59; the frame-dragging Datsun mini-truck from 58; the Mazdaratti from 45, 50, and 51; and Nascarlo from Episode 46. Time for big action on Roadkill.

This is Roadkill, powered by Dodge! Way back in 2010 before Roadkill was even a thing, hosts David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan built (or unbuilt) the Vette Kart, a 1985 Chevy Corvette that was stripped to nothing but a chassis and powertrain to save weight and go fast for cheap. The Kart contraption was first seen on Roadkill, Episode 35, and later on Episode 47, and it inspired a legion of people to build similar rides. The Vette Kart has proven itself on the autocross, big track, and dragstrip, and now the guys are bringing it back to round out its motorsports accomplishments with sand-dune blasting and Roadkill’s least-predictable stunt yet: skiing a car, which means driving on two wheels! Joining the guys for the adventure is stuntman James Smith, a ski-car specialist. He thinks Roadkill picked the worst car possible for learning to ski, and after watching the episode, you’ll probably agree. Roadkill is supported by Jegs, Pilot Auto Transport, Optima Batteries, Gearstar Transmissions, and EBC Brakes.

Is it the effort that counts? If so, Roadkill powered by Dodge wins again on this episode! In the early ’50s, the first dedicated drag-race cars were ’rail jobs—vehicles stripped down to nothing but the frame and drivetrain to build the lightest setup for speed. Applying that concept, David Freiburger figured that a big-block pickup would make a great modern-day ’rail job. He scored a cheap GMC Crew Cab, and things got out of control in a way that ended up with Lucky Costa, Steve Dulcich, and Calin Head helping to lay the groundwork of a monster before Mike Finnegan showed up to zap the whole thing together. Then Freiburger and Finnegan drove the mid-engined, road-going dragster 500 miles to the Roadkill Zip-Tie Drags at Tucson Dragway. All we can say is the whole thing performed as expected. Or at least probably as you expected, not so much for Freiburger.

For years Mike Finnegan has wanted to build a 200-mph Cadillac, and now David Freiburger has finally agreed to make it happen...or at least get it started.

What happens when you take the front half of two separate four-wheel-drive vehicles and combine them into one? David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan are back in the junkyard to answer that question and make one of Freiburger's dream schemes come to life! With two engines, four driving wheels, and two steering wheels, is it twice the fun?

The Mazdarati is forever gone but still in our thoughts-so much so that David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan figure they could fill its void by taking the He Hate Me '66 Ford Econoline and make it a rear-engine monster. Maybe this one will actually run 10s!

If there has been one car in the Roadkill fleet that absolutely never fails to fail, it’s the 1971 Datsun 240z rust bucket known as the Rotsun. From the beginning, the Rotsun has let Freiburger and Finnegan down over and over, whether it be at autocross events, drag races, shootouts, or even 24 Hours of Lemons. However, it’s the one car the guys can never quite give up on even though it’s fulling deserving of desertion. Over the years it’s had a variation of power plants, it’s latest being a junkyard turbocharged 5.0 Liter V8 pulled from a fox body Mustang. Now on this episode of Roadkill, Freiburger and Finnegan attempt to get the Rotsun back up and running after years of neglect, by finally fixing its independent rear suspension issues and attempting to drive it to SEMA. Will the Rotsun fail to fail? Will it break more axles or will the axles break the guys?

Why would you purchase a 1971 Ford Torino Wagon with a Cummins 12-valve diesel engine swapped in it? Because your name is Mike Finnegan and you thought it would be an awesome vehicle to use to tow your newly purchased Toyota mini truck home with, of course! But why would you grab Tony Angelo and have him help you take the Torino from a manageable 300-ish horsepower to over 800 galloping horses? Because Cleetus McFarland challenged you to a diesel swap drag race duel - you know a normal day in the life of Roadkillers! That’s right, in this episode of Roadkill, Finnegan and Tony take a diversion from their road trip to take on Cleetus in a diesel swapped Ford vs Ford drag race…but spoiler alert, all the real Roadkill action takes place as they take the Torino to new levels of ‘hot mess’. Hold on tight, this one’s a roller coaster!

What’s better than racing a cheap beater? Picking the worst possible beater and making your friend drive it. On this episode of Roadkill, Freiburger and Finnegan buy each other their worst automotive nightmares and put them to the test against Steve Dulcich in an epic showdown! Finnegan rides high, Freiburger works through some “cosmetic” damage, and Dulcich rampages through fire.

Freiburger and Finnegan rediscover and road trip the 440-powered 1971 Chrysler Newport eight-door airport car they found back on episode 106. Nothing says winter road trip fun like taking 24 feet of rusted out, floorless junk from Fargo down south to some warmer climates and dirt tracks!

Freiburger and Finnegan set new records for oil consumption in a '74 Toyota Hilux with a small-block Chevy V8. Follow along as they road trip to Cleetus McFarland's Freedom Factory to race in the action-packed 2.4 Hours of LeMullets. Is this the smokiest road trip to date?

Freiburger and Finnegan acquire all the awesomeness the late '70s had to offer rolled into one love-it-or-hate-it Mulholland-racer-inspired Camaro. The guys take their sight-unseen purchase on a test run road trip to a very famous racetrack.

What is a Pro Street car? Basically, it's just a car with a tubbed rear end that allows for bigger tires. But this time on Roadkill, it means so much more to Freiburger and Finnegan as they take a big-block 1980 Mirada on a road trip to the site of the Street Machine Nationals in Du Quoin, Illinois. Is this Pro Street Mirada fast? No. Does it handle well? No. Does it look obnoxiously awesome? Of course.

What do you do with access to a sprawling, deserted, snow-covered factory? You buy cheap beaters for a winter adventure battle and real-life road testing. This time on Roadkill, Freiburger picks the adventure and Finnegan picks the vehicles, a survivalist 2001 VW Jetta TDI and a horribly modified 2001 Toyota Sequoia. Find out which one survives the road trip to discover their next project.

When one vehicle fails, always make sure you have a suitable backup. This time on Roadkill, Freiburger and Finnegan attempt to road-trip the Hemi Gremmie only to be foiled by engine trouble. Instead of roadkilling fully and risking more damage, they do the only sensible thing...continue the road trip by "street legalizing" an Off-Road Race Truck and driving it 400+ miles on the highway.

Viva Raunchero! Freiburger and Finnegan unearth their '68 Ford Ranchero from the depths of storage. The guys built it back in episode 2 as a clone of Hot Rod’s entry into the first Baja 1000, and then subsequently drove it all the way to Alaska. After sitting dormant for far too long, the Raunchero is revitalized and taken on its first road trip in over eight years!

What's better than hauling your race car with something cool? Hauling it with something big! Freiburger and Finnegan fix up a stretched '86 Chevy crew cab "limo dually" to haul the '56 Chevy Field Car to multiple dragstrips. Will the famous '56 with a 500-hp small block run its fastest quarter mile yet, or will the ridiculous stretched truck fail to get it there?

Some vehicles need to be saved, but we need to save ourselves from some vehicles. Freiburger and Dulcich divert from their original plan of road tripping a Cadillac to rescue a '67 Ford F-250 that was recently purchased by a member of the crew. As they road trip the truck, it's not long before they realize they might actually be rescuing the crew member who bought it.

Steve Dulcich joins Freiburger and Finnegan to rescue a stripped '69 Plymouth Belvedere that's been sitting stagnant. The guys bring parts, including a 426 Hemi and a 4-speed trans, to the junkyard and drive out with essentially a cheaper Road Runner.

The matchup you've been waiting for! Finnegan and Freiburger go heads-up on the dragstrip in their eight-second project cars. After a road trip in the Blasphemi, the guys add a new supercharger and dyno tune the '55 Hemi-powered Chevy to over 1,000 hp, before seeing how its new tech holds up against Freiburger's old school, all-mechanical, big-block '31 Ford Model A

There’s no better way to see the sights of America’s highways and byways than to take a cruise in a land yacht. On this episode of Roadkill, Freiburger and Finnegan hit the road in a literal boat. After purchasing a 1957 Glass Craft affixed to a 2010 Nissan chassis that at least one person thought was a good idea, the guys set out on a Midwest road trip in the dead of winter.