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The Best Episodes of Roadkill

Every episode of Roadkill ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Roadkill!

Ride along with Hot Rod's David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan as they continue their love/hate relationship with hot rods, street machines and other highly strung performance vehicles. In Roadkill, Freiburger and Finnegan hit the road

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#1 - El Paso To LA: The Hard Way!
S1:E12/17/2012
HOT ROD's David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan head to El Paso, TX with money and a mission - to find a car they can buy, fix up, and drive back to Los Angeles. The catch? They only have $1500 bucks to do it, and they need to sell it on eBayMotors.com before they get home!
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#2 - Viva Ranchero! Alaska or Bust!
S1:E23/16/2012
HOT ROD's David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan build a clone of the 1968 Ford Ranchero that the magazine ran in the very first Baja 1000, then head north for Alaska. But sometimes when you hit the road, the road hits back, and their ambitious journey quickly transforms into the road trip from hell. Undaunted by sleepless nights, multiple breakdowns, derailed plans, 0-degree weather and the lack of a passenger-side window, the guys create an adventurous win from a comedy of errors. It's American road tripping at its best... and worst.
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#3 - Cheap Truck Challenge!
S1:E34/13/2012
On this episode of Roadkill, HOT ROD's David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan join Fred Williams and Rick Péwé of Peterson's 4-Wheel & Off-Road magazine to compete in the infamous Cheap Truck Challenge. Riding into battle with a modded 1979 Bronco, they face-off against a rock-ready 1980 Toyota Pickup and a beastly 1987 Chevy Suburban in a cash-strapped quest for ultimate off-road glory.
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#4 - Extreme Elco Engine Swap!
S1:E45/11/2012
David Freiburger, Mike Finnegan and a carsick dog drive a '69 El Camino 500 miles from home (on seven cylinders) to change an engine in the parking lot of Summit Racing. The story goes that Finnegan's wife's grandfather bought this1969 Chevy El Camino brand new, and it's been passed down through the family, finally to her. It's a solid car, and the suspension has been hopped up, but the all-original 350 engine was smoking like a freight train. That didn't stop the guys from limping it from Los Angeles, California to Sparks, Nevada, where Summit Racing has a fully-stocked warehouse. Summit sells every speed part and replacement part on Earth, including the 420hp, 383ci crate engine, so the logic was that the guys would save time on the engine swap because they could walk right into the store instead of driving to a parts store multiple times, as they would have back home. So how long will it take a couple gearheads to change an engine outside in a snow flurry? Will the EPA shut them down before they can finish? And what happens when you let a carsick dog ride shotgun?
Director:Unknown
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#5 - Rat Rod vs Lamborghini Aventador!
S1:E56/9/2012
On this episode of Roadkill, HOT ROD's David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan spend 24 crazy hours with a 1930 Model A Rat Rod and a 2012 Lamborghini Aventador to find out which wildly impractical, larger-than-life car attracts the most attention.
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#6 - Thrash Battle! Van vs Wagon
S1:E67/6/2012
On this episode of Roadkill, David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan go head-to head in an epic driving competition that's really just an excuse for some hilarious, needless car bashing. The victims are two parts cars for HOT ROD magazine projects: a '90-something Dodge conversion van that will give up its 360 V8 in the name of hot rodding and an '87 Buick wagon that was intended as a chassis donor... but after this, maybe not. Let the battle begin!
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The 20 WORST Episodes of Roadkill

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#7 - Release The Draguar! Building a Blown Jaguar Rat Rod
S1:E78/3/2012
On this episode of Roadkill, Freiburger and Finnegan do unspeakable things to a '74 Jaguar XJ12, one of about 4,700 made. Namely, they cut a giant hole in the hood and install a Weiand 6-71 supercharger and twin Holley carburetors on the 350ci Chevy V8 that was already installed in the car when it was purchased for $1,000. But things can never be easy, so the supercharger installation is staged in the parking lot of Gotelli Speed Shop in South San Francisco. Then the duo hits the road, making their way to Sacramento Raceway, where they can finally unleash "The Draguar" at the strip.
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#8 - 426 Hemi in a '55 Chevy!
S1:E89/7/2012
On this episode of Roadkill, HOT ROD's David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan hit the road on a quest to build a car they've both dreamed of for years: a '55 Chevy Bel Air sedan set up like a '60s Gasser and powered by a Mopar 426 Hemi. The guys drag out a '73 GMC Suburban that they'd never driven more than around the block (did you expect anything else?), then use it to pick up a bare '55 Chevy body in California before heading north for the 1,000-mile trip to Lincoln City, Oregon. That's the home of Jim Meyer Racing, the chassis builder that helps the guys turn the '55 into a wicked looking hot rod in a single day. There's no fail in this episode of Roadkill! Well, at least nothing terminal.
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#9 - Surviving HOT ROD Drag Week!
S1:E911/2/2012
On this episode of Roadkill, HOT ROD's David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan hit the road with 500 of their friends for Drag Week. It's the most brutal test anywhere of real drag-racing, street-driven cars, as the competitors hit the road for 1,400 miles to race five times at four different drag strips in five days in a battle to post the lowest average elapsed time at the end of the week. The winner is crowned the HOT ROD Fastest Street Car in America. It's long days and short nights but that's nothing new for the Roadkill guys! We know THEY will survive, but will the competitors?
Director:Unknown
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#10 - 727 Cubic Inches and Australian Tire Smoke!
S1:E1011/30/2012
On this episode of Roadkill, there's endless burnouts and powerskids as David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan of HOT ROD magazine are on the loose in Australia with 727ci of Sonny Leonard hemi-headed madness. The massive big-block makes 1,275 horsepower between the fenders of a 2006 Holden HSV VE Clubsport R8. In American, that's like a Pontiac G8. This display of overkill is the product of "Gup," the promoter of the Powercruise series of events in Australia, New Zealand, and Minnesota (USA) where tire smoke is the rule. On the show, you'll see tire fire from Gup's infamous "Elvis" '74 Holden HQ, from his 727ci Clubbie, from a 1,500ci diesel semi truck, and from Downunder's most throttle-happy petrolheads on both coasts. The miracle is that Freiburger and Finnegan aren't still in an Aussie jail. Of course, that might have been less punishing than the 30-hour flight home
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#11 - Junkyard 'Cuda Rescue, With Nitrous Oxide!
S1:E111/11/2013
On this episode of Roadkill, David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan of HOT ROD magazine fly out of town, buy a car from a junkyard, make it run and drive, do burnouts, add nitrous, drag race twice, almost die, and the auction off the car at the end. The scene begins at CTC Auto Ranch in Denton, Texas, where the guys score a '67 Plymouth Barracuda with a 360 V8, but without a carburetor, interior, glass, or brakes. By the time they sort out a number of other mechanical woes, they're off for some burnouts and some racing at North Star Dragway, right next to the Auto Ranch. Then it's a 300-mile drive to Houston for the NMCA Lone Star Nationals race. But, as you've come to expect from these guys, that doesn't exactly go smoothly. But then they add NOS nitrous and it makes everything ok as they hang out with Jeff Lutz and Tim Reed from HOT ROD Drag Week right before they have to sell the car and hit the plane home.
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#12 - Chevy vs. Ford Cop-Car Thrash Battle!
S1:E122/8/2013
On this episode of Roadkill, Freiburger and Finnegan are out to discover which used cop car they like best, the Chevy Caprice 9C1 or the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor P71. Of course you expect nothing but the most professional, scientific analysis from these guys, and that includes a day doing donuts and bashing into stuff on pavement, tire explosions, a road trip to the desert, camping, thrashing on dirt roads, and a finale that just might create a new form of low-buck off-road motorsport.
Director:Unknown
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#13 - The Ranchero Returns! Alaska or Bust: The Sequel
S2:E13/8/2013
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.
Director:Unknown
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#14 - The Ranchero Returns Part 2! Alaska or Bust, the Sequel
S2:E23/8/2013
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.
Director:Unknown
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#15 - Rat Rod Jeep Death-Wish Trip!
S2:E35/3/2013
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.
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#16 - Leaf-Blower Supercharging a 1978 Chevrolet Monza Spyder!
S2:E45/31/2013
On this episode of Roadkill, it's fun with Leaf Blowers. Experts on the Internet said it would never work. That's never stopped Freiburger and Finnegan, and this time on Roadkill the guys put the theory to the test: can hardware-store leaf blowers supercharge an engine and make power? Step one was buying a '78 Monza Spyder with a 305 V8 and a four-speed stick. Step two was to take it to the shop of HOT ROD Drag Week racer Jeff Lutz to tune it up, swap the engine to a 350, dyno test it with five leaf blowers, and do a whole bunch of needless burnouts. Step three was to drive the Monza to Willmington, Ohio, for the East Coast Timing Association's Ohio Mile event, a standing-mile race where they'd find out if leaf-blower power adds up to more speed in the real world. The outcome? Who really cares? Because on Roadkill, it's always about the adventure. And more burnouts.
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#17 - Tank Smashes Prius! Toyota Prius Battles AMC Gremlin & Suffers Crushing Defeat
S2:E56/28/2013
On this episode of Roadkill, a tank squashes a Prius to smithereens! It runs over that junk without even noticing. That's all you really need to know about this episode of Roadkill, but if you jump straight to the tank carnage you'll miss a bunch of cool stuff. Like when Freiburger and Finnegan attempt a shootout between a Toyota Prius hybrid and a '75 AMC Gremlin, trying to prove that the Gremmie is more of a greenie. It was all fun and games until the Prius engine let go on the race track in a ball of flame. Because Roadkill. After that, you've gotta see the guys once again embrace their own Kryptonite: flat-towing. Yup, as it turns out, dragging a dead Prius with a lighter, smaller Gremlin ends real badly. But in the end, the Prius is wafer thin and the Gremlin's still on the road. Still want to jump right to the tank smash? Don't be that guy.
Director:Unknown
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#18 - Nitrous Muscle Truck and Mini Bikes!
S2:E67/26/2013
A Vette-powered stepside truck. Nitrous oxide. Honda Trail 70s. Drag racing, and lots and lots of burnouts. Those are the basic plot points on this episode of Roadkill, as Freiburger and Finnegan have big fun with retro trail motorcycles on their way to revitalizing a long-neglected HOT ROD magazine project vehicle and road-tripping it to the eighth-mile drags. The vehicle is the Muscle Truck, a '74 Chevy shortbed stepside beater powered by an all-aluminum Corvette LS6. It also has a Turbo 400 transmission, a Gear Vendors under/overdrive, a Ford 9-inch with 5.13 gears, and the most wicked sounding exhaust ever. The goal is to get thrown out of the dragstrip for going too fast without a rollbar, then race the minibikes instead. How much nitrous can the Muscle Truck take?
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#19 - '67 Crusher Camaro vs '70 Super Bee 1,500-Mile Burnout-Fest!
S2:E78/23/2013
On this episode of Roadkill, it's Freiburger in the Super Bee versus Finnegan in the '67 Camaro as the guys make the trip from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City and back to go race at the Midnight Drags at Rocky Mountain Raceways in hopes of running the Bee on nitrous for the first time since the Hemi was installed. Which car will work best over 1,500 miles of mayem in three days?
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#20 - Chasing a Landspeed Record at Bonneville with a 1100hp Camaro!
S2:E89/20/2013
On this episode of Roadkill, Finnegan builds an 1,100-horsepower big-block and Freiburger brings a Camaro that he's run 261 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Put 'em together and it's a recipe for win, right? If you think so, you're probably not a Roadkill regular. It turns into an entire adventure just getting there, and gets more interesting from there.
Director:Unknown
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#21 - Rat Rod Custom 1950 Mercury Rescue!
S2:E910/18/2013
It's always a good idea to buy a car off the Internet sight-unseen, right? That's what a friend-of-a-friend of Roadkill did with the kustom Merc—and maybe he made an even worse decision when he allowed Freiburger and Finnegan to wrench on the thing and deliver it to him. This deal was set up by a Roadkill fan, Jim Norman of Norman Vinyards in Paso Robles, California.
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#22 - 24 Hours of Lemons in a 1973 Plymouth Fury!
S2:E1011/15/2013
On this episode of Roadkill, Freiburger and Finnegan attack the low-buck endurance race called 24 Hours of Lemons. Not content do do this ridiculous race in a reasonable car like a little handling-oriented import, the race car of choice is a one-owner '73 Plymouth Fury that Freiburger bought for $200 before setting it on fire a few times and then gutting it into a race car. The truth behind the scenes of this episode is that much of it was shot almost a year ago, and back then the guys didn't want to air it. You'll have to watch to see why. But now, in 2013, the story came full circle in a way that it only can on Roadkill, and so here we finally present the whole story.
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#23 - Dirt Cheap Rat Rod! 1968 Charger Buildup and Thrash
S2:E1112/20/2013
Freiburger and Finnegan think this is the best episode so far! It's the longest, too. This show has it all: a Mad-Max-vibe 1968 Dodge Charger built with motorhome parts, sideways Dukes-style action, lots of low-buck wrenching, hilarious snafus, and cameo appearances by the Macho Grande from episode 8, the '66 Buick Special convertible from a pre-Roadkill episode, the ramp truck from episode 20, and the Fury from episode 22.
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#24 - 700 Horsepower & 2,400 Miles! Crusher Camaro Engine Swap Aftermath
S3:E11/14/2014
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.
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#25 - Project Car Shootout! Watch Every Roadkill Car Ever Battle it Out
S3:E22/21/2014
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!
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Best Episodes Summary

"El Paso To LA: The Hard Way!" is the best rated episode of "Roadkill". It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 2/17/2012. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Viva Ranchero! Alaska or Bust!".