Roadkill (2012–2020): Season 7, Episode 85 - 1,700 Miles in the Vanishing Paint Challenger! - full transcript

- This time on Roadkill,

1750 miles, all the way across the country

in the Vanishing Paint Challenger

at the Tire Rack SCCA Solo Nationals.

(engine cranking)

(engine backfiring)

(tires squealing)

(hard rock music)

(engine accelerating)

(upbeat rock music)

This is going to be a big
road trip episode of Roadkill,



we're going from California
to Lincoln, Nebraska

for the Tire Rack SCCA Solo Nationals.

It's a huge autocross event,

I understand it is the largest
amateur motor sports event

in the world.

The other thing that's
unusual about this episode

is for the first time every,

we're going to be with a car that we built

on the Roadkill Garage show

and then we're road
tripping it on Roadkill.

And because of that, my
co-host on this episode

is going to be Steve Dulcich, the same guy

that I do Roadkill Garage with.

The car is going to be the Vanish
Paint 1970 Dodge Challenger.



This thing, Dulcich bought
some time in the mid '90s

and it has just been sitting,
rotting in his backyard,

literally soaking into the ground

until we got into some horse trading.

The car ended up mine

and we decided to put the thing together.

We installed the engine,
rebuilt a transmission,

put a Ford nine inch in it.

And the engine itself is a 360 small block

that makes in the neighborhood
of 400 horsepower.

(engine accelerating)

Now, the second episode
of Roadkill Garage,

we did all the suspension on this thing

and I use just middle of the road parts,

it's all average guy
stuff, nothing super trick.

And on this episode,
we're going to see if we

can even get to Lincoln, Nebraska

and then find out if our
clapped out old muscle car

can hang with these hard
core autocross guys.

(upbeat rock music)

Alright Dulcich, let's go!

- [Steve] Alright.

- Make like a seagull and
get the flock out of here.

- I know, this is what I've
been waiting for, dude.

- I know, I've been dying to
hit the road in this turd.

- Yeah.

- We have not driven this car,

probably not even 20
miles since the engine,

trans, and rear end were new.

- [Steve] I know, it's all
brand new, what can go wrong?

(engine revving)

Listen to that thing purr.

- [David] Oh, I know.

Oh, finally on the road,

I've been looking forward to this so much.

We need to do 400 miles
a day to get there.

- I'm happy that you have
this thing registered

and insured.

- I know, that's big for me.

The VP has everything.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- Why we call this car
the Vanishing Paint,

in 1971 there was this
movie called Vanishing Point

where a guy who was an ex Marine, ex cop,

is drug running from
Colorado to San Francisco

in a 1970 Dodge Challenger.

Oil pressure, charging, cooling,

new engine, only a couple
thing have changed on this.

We put a back seat in to
match the rules of the event.

- Yeah.

- We put the TA spoiler on the back,

we put body plugs--

- Body plugs.

- In the floor.

- In the floor.

It's transformed because it's way quieter.

Luxurious, I might even be tempted to say.

- Oh yeah, the VP is going to deliver.

What if we win?

(upbeat rockabilly music)

Alright, your turn.

- Alright.

Hey Freiburger.

- Huh?

- Do you realize that this
is as close to automotive

perfection that we've ever
achieved on Roadkill Garage?

- That's probably true.

- Yeah, I mean.

- Yeah.

- How does it get better than this?

(engine accelerating)

I didn't want to over rev it and go crazy.

Man, I think you're going to
dominate this car, Freiburger.

- Think so?

- [Steve] Ah, yeah.

- We're really taking the long way

for guys that need to go
1500 miles in an old car.

- I know but we're having fun.

- [David] We're basically doing
Vanishing Point, backwards.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- Weren't they doing
Denver to San Francisco?

- [Steve] Yeah.

- We're going basically
the same thing backwards.

Oh man, this is has been awesome.

We're going full Kowalski
here in the Eastern Sierras,

just blasting it like 80 miles an hour.

Things been running at 170 degrees,

50 pounds of oil pressure,
it's almost as if

we build this thing right.

Up to the point where we never thought

to check the headlights.

This thing just cruises, man.

Steve and I are both
just stoked on the car.

- Seems like you're just
in love with it Freiburger.

- Aren't you?

- Yeah.

- Maybe we should fiddle
with the dimmer switch.

- Oh, the dimmer switch,
yeah, good thought.

- The dimmer switch is
always a good first start.

- So far it looks like
everything we touched on this car

has been perfect, the only problem is,

we haven't touched everything.

None of the wiring's been looked at,

Freiburger's going to do a
bunch of futile electrical tests

but first we got to fix these headlights.

There's no, hey, Freiburger!

- [David] What?

- The headlights work, what'd you do?

- [David] Seriously?

- Yes!

Oh, you fixed it, it's just
packed with dirt and stuff.

We just had this one
going, too, we had four.

- Well, that blinked this one

when you kicked that one, so that grounds.

- Oh!
- Oh!

Hold on, how about now?

- [Steve] No.

I'm wondering if the
ground wire is jacked.

- Let's bypass this switch.

Whenever headlights go bad on old cars,

my first stop is always
the floor dimmer switch.

Sometimes you can fix them

just by clicking them a lot

because the contacts get filthy in there

but it doesn't seem to be the deal.

What I plan to do here
is pull the plug out

and I'm just going to
jump the wires together

until we have enough lights.

And what do you have, now?

- The low beams work, yeah.

(rock music)

- [David] What do you
want to do about the back?

- I don't think there's
any power going back there.

- We've taken the backseat out of the car

because there is a connector under there

that goes to the rear wiring harness.

- So the whole thing's
escalated pretty quickly

but it'd be nice to get
the taillights working.

Freiburger is going to work his magic

and pretty soon, this is
just going to light up

like New Year's eve.

Okay, we have tail lights.

- Boom!

Oh yeah, lights are bad,
but they are lights.

(engine humming)

Ah, Bishop, California, the
beef jerky capital of the world.

- It's good.

- We're at Mahogany Smoked Meats,

this is literally the best
jerky, what do you think?

- Pretty good.

- Bottom line, we're going
to Salt Lake City today,

it's 525 miles from
here and you're driving.

- I like that.

- Let's go!

(engine accelerating)

(upbeat rock music)

- It was really gripping on these tires.

- Yeah.

I like the way it sounds.

(engine accelerating)

- It's a little skittish at that speed.

- Yep.

- You said the wheel
alignment looks like it out?

- I think it's falling apart.

'Cause it's got a shake now, too,

that it didn't have before.

- [Steve] Yeah.

Should take a look at that.

- Okay, you knew this wasn't
going to go trouble free,

I noticed that our camber
is completely jacked,

it's going to eat up tires

and you said it's starting to
get pretty twitchy, too, huh?

- Oh yeah, passed a truck and it was,

you really had to drive it
because it was all over the road.

- Yep.
- Yeah.

- So fortunately, we had
an old car guy friend

who we met on another road trip

and we're going to use his driveway here

to see if we can figure
out if we can fix it.

- When we went and got
the wheel alignment done,

Freiburger suggested several times,

we better make sure they
tightened the bolts.

- I don't think he tightened the cam bolts

on the upper control arm that
adjust virtually everything.

- Well--

- What do you bet?

- I insisted it'll be fine,
there's no reason to check it.

- Oh, this one's gone.

These cam bolts that adjust the position

of the upper control arm

and because there's two
cam bolts on both sides,

they'll move the arm in and out

and also side to side.

So they're going to effect
camber, caster and toe in.

You can see, it was never locked down

and that's our problem.

- Yeah, this one's completely
loose and lost adjustment.

- Yep, so that's it for sure.

Never tightened the upper cam bolts

and so they slipped and
our camber is a disaster.

- And that's going to wipe the
these tires out in no time flat.

- Well, we should probably get
them as straight up and down

as we can, but as you know,

it's also going to effect
the caster and the toe.

Field fix, let's get our stuff.

- Okay, grab the wrenches and sockets.

- [David] Yeah.

- And I'll standby here and wait for you.

- [David] Okay, you can
admire the collection

of good stuff behind you.

- I know!

(mellow country rock)

We came here one time before,

we just happened to brake down

right in front of Bert's place again, so.

(laughing)

Bert actually remembered us.

- How can you forget?

- Yeah, that's right.

- I read every book you
get, your pictures is in it.

- Right, I know, I can't
forget the car guy, either,

you know, it's just like
I was here yesterday.

That's a nice '68 Satellite.

- This Satellite was mom's car.

- That is a 383?

- My mom liked it.

- Yeah.

You got a row of Chevys here, too.

Man, look at that Nova convertible.

- [Bert] Super Sport in
the corner behind it.

- Well, I can see some little cheerleader

driving this thing around, Bert.

(laughing)

- I really wanted to take this
thing to an alignment shop

but the one place that's
20 miles back is busy,

so I'm going to make Steve
actually do the best he can

and hope that we don't kill tires

before we get to Salt Lake
City and make it right.

- As best we can, I'm hoping
to make it great, Freiburger.

- Okay, do it.

- All you have to do is jack the car up

and I'll take it from there.

- You can borrow Bert's tape
measure and make it flawless.

Comin' down.

I would say rip it up and
down the street to see.

(engine accelerating)

You like the way he goes
straight to wide open,

'cause, you know, nothing could go wrong.

It actually looked pretty
good, I think we're alright.

(engine accelerating)

It's good enough to get
us where we're going,

how's it drive?

- Drives better.

- Okay, let's just hit it,
we've got miles to cover.

- Yeah, let me take a look at it.

I think it's good.

- He asked you, you happy with it?

- Yeah.

(laughing)

Great, I think we're on the road again.

- [David] Good work Dulcich.

(engine accelerating)

- I wouldn't say it's perfection

but it's not pulling,
it's good enough for us.

- Oh yeah, we're good.

Next stop, Totapaw, Wendover.

- Actually that was a good stop.

- See, that's the advantage
of hanging out with old guys

with junk yards in the middle of nowhere.

- [Steve] I know.

- It's whatcha got to do.

- And Bert remembered
us from three years ago.

- [David] Oh, of course.

- Only one afternoon visit.

- [David] Salt Lake City, pretty good.

- [Steve] I like it around here, man,

this place is great.

- You know what, yesterday
we drove 525 miles,

which I'm pretty sure is an
all time Roadkill record.

- Oh, it was just a Sunday
drive in the Vanishing Paint.

- [David] Yeah, it was really no problem.

- Yeah.

- The other thing is it's now
880 miles to Lincoln, Nebraska

and we've got three days to
do it, so we're home free.

- Oh, I know.

- Well, let's hit it, we're
going to Wyoming today.

- Oh yeah?

- I want to cruise old
towns and maybe camp.

You know what the thing is, I'm
not sure they allow burnouts

in front of the Temple.

- [Steve] I though that
was a castle or something.

- The LDS capital of the world, let's go.

(rock music)

Make sure nobody's coming.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- Yes, this would be the state capital.

- [Steve] It would have to be,

look it's a magnificent building.

- We're going to get wet.

That's rain.

- Oh, I know but it's
going to be nice, cozy,

comfortable and warm in the
hotel room tonight, right?

- [David] Huh, no.

- What do, no?

- We're going to camp.

- We're camping?

- Yeah.

- Can I sleep in the car?

- Sure.

- I'd sleep outside, too, but
I'm afraid of rattle snakes

and spiders.

- They're more afraid of
you, you're Steve Dulcich.

- Oh yeah?

Oh, cattle crossing.

- Oh, we're adventuring now.

(upbeat rock music)

- You're going to lose it, dude.

(laughing)

The Challenger's handling
it pretty admirably, so far.

- Yeah.

Oh man, this road is
shaking this car apart.

The Challenger isn't
as good at off roading

as like General Mayhem and stuff

but I think it's 'cause
of the low profile tires.

- Yeah.

- [David] Ah, annoying!

- Got that fixed yet, Freiburger?

- Almost.

- Alright.

- So, the washboard road has
just shaken this thing apart.

The suspension on this
deal is not intended

for washboard road.

It shook the exhaust system off,

all the bolts fell out
of the muffler hangers

and Steve had to pull a
bolt out of door hinge

on the other side in order to get

a new bolt to hang the muffler.

This side, I'm able to just
sort of put it back together,

which is what I'm working on here.

Hey Steve, can you bring that light over,

I can't see anything.

(mellow rock music)

Driving the Challenger down
that dirt road was a mistake,

the thing was just shaken apart bad

but we ultimately got to our campground

and it was an awesome evening
of campfire and fireworks.

(snoring)

(crickets chirping)

(mellow country guitar)

(grunting)

- That wasn't too good.

It was freezing cold inside this car.

That's the thing about
the desert at night,

this cars not big enough
for the two of us.

So Freiburger's camped out over there,

I'm going to go wake him up

and get to makin' some miles.

(snoring)

- [David] No.

Ah!

No!

Quit!

- That's actually kind of fun.

- Jerk.

Kind of refreshing, actually.

(laughing)

- Why did I like doing that so much?

Where'd every body go?

- How did you sleep?

(laughing)

Based on the snoring value,

I could hear you from the
Challenger way over there.

- [David] Oh, I believe it.

- Do you accept my apologizes?

- No.

Dude, I can't believe after
your comfortable night

of indoor sleeping with
climate control and everything

that you would then pour water in my face

to make me wake up after my
freezing night by the fire

and my sleeping bag.

(grunting)

And now we have to drive
the world's roughest road

that shakes the whole car apart.

- I'm going to have to go
slow here on this washboard.

- [David] Yeah.

(engine accelerating)

(laughing)

- I couldn't help myself.

- Some cars I love off roading,

this one is terrible, we're
just shaking it apart.

- It's actually pretty bad.

- Making my moobs bounce.

Oh dude, we only have 591 miles to go.

- Oh wow.

I think the road smooths
out a bit at some point.

- [Together] Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah

- You stiffened those rear shocks.

(laughing)

(engine accelerating)

(upbeat rock music)

I'm going to take it
easy so I don't end up

in the penitentiary.

- Yeah.

I just love cruising
the old western towns.

Wyoming Frontier Prison Museum.

And there it is.

- [Steve] Oh wow!

- The old penitentiary.

I don't know why when I'm on a road trip

I always want to go to prison.

Finnegan and I visited
that old Joliet Prison,

near Chicago but check this out.

This is an old penitentiary in Wyoming,

we're in the town of Rawlings

and it's just cool to me to
drive through these old places

and find things that I didn't know existed

and this is one of them.

We were just looking at the signs,

1888 they started this place,

shut it down in 1981
and it's still standing,

which is really cool.

But we've got miles to make,

so we're going to hit the road again.

(upbeat rock music)

- Take it from me kids, stay
on the straight and narrow

and stay out of a place like this.

Those are words to live by.

(engine accelerating)

It drives pretty nice
other than the vibration.

- Yeah, you're right.

And the problems begin,

we're in Cheyenne, Wyoming
and I used to be able to

drive this things 85 miles
an hour all day long.

The problem now is anywhere
above 70, it shakes bad.

Like almost undriveable bad.

Look at this, you can see,

if you look at the over
all stance of the vehicle

that it's tail down and it's
just sagging, sagging, sagging.

And maybe that's even an
issue with the driveshaft

angularity that's causing the vibration

that we have to go fix right now

if I can only get Dulcich
to jack the car up.

- Okay, I'm feeling pretty magnanimous,

I'm going to help you work on the car

but I'm going to have to change my shirt.

- Oh you're going to
change out of the Kowalski?

- Yeah.

- Kowalski by the way, the lead character

in the Vanishing Point movie,
played by Barry Newman.

(upbeat rock music)

- [Steve] We got an Union
Pacific eastbound coming through.

(train whistle blaring)

- So Steve is spinning
the driveshaft around

by rotating the tire
and I am trying to feel

for any problems with the driveshaft

like dents, straightness,
any binding on U joints.

'Cause what's going on feels like

the world's worst driveshaft vibration.

- Well, our vibration seemed
like it had something to do

with the driveshaft, the
back of it was pretty good.

Up front you have a slip joint

where the yolk goes into the transmission

and basically, I don't think
we have enough engagement

of the yolk inside the trans.

It's supported by a bushing
and it's hanging out

a little too far back.

I think the driveshaft
was probably made wrong

and with the sagging spring,
it pulls out even more.

- Basically what Dulcich said,
is we're not fixing that.

It's going to have a vibration problem

until we get a different driveshaft in it

and probably change that bushing

in the tail shaft of the trans.

So, we're going to move on to
changing our front brake pads

to EBC stuff.

- Okay, well, that should
be straight forward.

- Man, these tires are grippy.

- [Steve] I know, the car stuck like glue

when I was driving it
on those mountain roads.

- This next thing is
actually pretty optional,

it's not really a field repair

as much as an upgrade.

For going to the autocross I wanted

super, super sticky pads.

And so EBC's the official
brake of Roadkill,

they recommended their yellow stuff pad

and I'm putting them
on a couple days early

because they need to be broken in,

like bedded into the rotor.

I'm just going to take this
apart and make that happen.

(rock music)

I'll right, well, I guess we're committed

to Cheyenne for the night.

- Yeah, well, that sounds good to me.

- Okay.

(engine accelerating)

Maybe we could do it in the
city jail, that'd be good.

- Yeah.

(laughing)

It's a lot cheaper than a hotel.

Alright, you know what I am, Freiburger?

- Kowalski?

- I'm ready for action.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Ignition on.

(engine cranking)

I've got no ignition.

(engine starting)

Okay, nice work Freiburger.

(laughing)

You know, putting on
this vest really kind of

changes your whole mental attitude.

- [David] Really?

- Yeah, no wonder Kowalski had that vest.

- [David] You're going to pop
Denny's and outrun the law?

(engine accelerating)

(upbeat rock music)

- [Together] Whoo hoo!

- [David] We're in Nebraska!

Yo, milestone.

- It's hard not to feel good

when you're behind the
wheel of a '70 Challenger.

(engine accelerating)

(tech beat music)

- [David] You know what Dulcich?

- [Steve] What?

- Everyday with plaid
and camo is a great day.

- I like it!

- It's a good style but...

- It's very coordinated.

- It's going to rain.

I've talked to the guys who
are at Lincoln, Nebraska

and it's drizzling and
they do race in the rain

and so we got to figure out
how to make the wipers work.

I don't even know if
the motor works at all.

Let's figure out the wiring first.

- There's no juice coming to it,

it's going to take a
little fiddling around.

It's not a really simple wiring thing,

it's complicated.

- The wiper motor doesn't work,

we've tried jumping it
every way that we can

and we're forced to take it
out and hopefully fix it.

And if not, hopefully
see if we can get someone

to deliver one to the racetrack tomorrow,

'cause it's a holiday, so
we can't even overnight one

or anything, no one's going to be open.

- I really thought we'd
be at the track right now

changing the leaf springs in the car

but the wiper thing, it's
just that one little factor

that just came back and bit us on the ass.

We're going to have to
get that functional.

- I got it.

- [Steve] Can we rotate this?

- Sure.

Now let's try it.

Ready?

- Yeah.

- This could be the moment.

Yeah, it moved.

- Let's open this up.

- [David] Yeah.

- [Steve] There maybe brushes in there

because it's a 12 volt DC motor.

- Oh, clean that up, clean this up.

We got a lot of, whoa!

- Whoa!

- Okay.

- Ugh.

- That was a fail.

Alright, fortunately, I got
all the parts in my hand.

Okay, there's the brush,
that was actually good

'cause now we can clean these brushes.

We took this motor apart
and it's all sort of filthy

and sticky and stuff.

So we're basically going
to try and clean it up

and make it function.

Ready?

- Ready.

- This is the moment of truth.

(electricity popping)

Yes, it works.

What?

- You assured me that was going to work.

- I know.

Okay, Steve, ground it, I
found a new wiring diagram.

- Okay.

- That I think proved
that we were failing.

This needs to be grounded, too.

Ground that and then--

- Okay, make it work.

- Ready?
- Yeah.

(motor humming)

- Boom.

High speed.

- [Steve] Whoa!

That's genius.

- Yeah!

- The saga of the wiper motor.

- How's your ectasy, your euphoria?

- I'm just like in, stunned disbelief.

(jazzy music)

Bam, I'm done already.

- Okay.

There, boom.

Now that we've done this,
it'll probably be sunny

the whole rest of the trip.

Pack up, get out, we still have two hours

before we get to Lincoln.

- That was one of the greatest wins ever.

- I know, nobody ever gets that done.

Alright, out of here.

(upbeat rock music)

(engine revving)

Alright, we're on this for 122 miles.

- [Steve] Next stop, Lincoln, Nebraska.

- It's Labor Day in the USA.

- That's right.

- And?

- I'm Captain American, baby.

Yeah, this is going to be great.

(laughing)

- Okay, I hope this works.

- How can it fail?

- Normally on Roadkill, the
cars are just smoking naturally.

- [Steve] Oh no, this
is going to be great.

- [David] Okay, are you ready for this?

- I've been ready all my life, buddy.

- And boom!

- I see something, yeah.

- Oh yeah, we got white smoke.

- Oh yeah, whoo hoo!

- [David] Whoo hoo, yeah!

- [Steve] Whoo hoo!

- [David] Oh, this is great!

Still going.

That's awesome.

Hammer down!

(engine accelerating)

- Yeah!

(engine accelerating)

- We did it!

1700 plus miles to Lincoln, Nebraska.

We had a little bit of
Labor Day celebration

with a smoke show and now
we got to fix the car.

We've been whining for roughly 1,000 miles

about how the rear leaf
springs on this thing

are completely sagged
out and they're a mess.

I had some brand new
Hotchkis suspension springs

FedExed to this hotel,
so we've got the parts

and now we got to change them

because we're racing tomorrow.

We got to fix the seats and who knows

what they'll throw at us at
tech inspection tomorrow.

Prepare to catch because
I'm about to drop it.

- I've got it.

- It is out.

Baboom.

This is the front spring hanger bracket

and check this out, we did
this on Roadkill Garage.

We ended up taking a plate

and taking the stock spring hanger

and moving it over and
welding it back together

and what that does is it
takes the whole leaf spring

and it moves it inboard so
we've got more tire clearance

and we have an offset
shackle in the back, too.

So, watch the episode of Roadkill Garage

where we did the whole
suspension on this car

and you'll learn a bunch
of little tricks like that.

This is the shackle bushing that goes

in the back of the leaf spring
and they are polyurethane

and you got to cover them
with this monkey snot grease

or they'll squeak your brains.

And if you get his on your
finger, it will never come off.

So hopefully, I escape that fate.

(drilling buzzing)

- Ow.

- That was record time, it's pretty good.

- [Steve] That wasn't
bad, I'm pretty proud.

- I hope it's right.

Drop it.

Boom.

- Freiburger!

- Yep?

- You nailed it.

- Nailed it.

- That's really good.

- We're ready for racing!

Boom!

- Bam!

- We did that fast, man.

Got rid of those old,
sagged out leaf springs,

installed some Hotchkis stuff,

they'll probably settle in a little bit.

Oh, wow, that's pretty rigid, too.

We're pretty much set for racing tomorrow

except for that that driver's seat

keeps falling backwards,
so he's going to take

the two seat backs and swap them.

And then tomorrow
morning we do track walk,

then we have to tech the car,

and then we have to find out
what they're not going to allow,

and then we're going to race.

(mellow rock music)

This is it, the Tire
Rack SCCA Solo Nationals.

Solo being one car on the
track, full on autocross,

this place is enormous and it's raining.

I'm pretty intimidated
by making this happen,

didn't really sleep last night,

so when I got up I was
like, you know what,

Dulcich has had this
certain magic going on

in this entire episode

and I realized it was
the power of the stash.

So I had to go for it this morning.

Unfortunately Dulcich took
one look at me and said,

that's no the Bronson,
that's not the Kowalski,

that the Hulk Hogan!

Aw well, so what we're going to do now

is do a track walk because I guarantee

I'm going to get lost out here.

So you start right there and I guess

you zoom around and the time
doesn't begin until there.

- Yeah, use that part to pick up speed

go (imitated engine accelerating).

- (imitated engine accelerating) Yeah.

You always have to be looking ahead,

you're not worrying
about the turn you're in,

you're worrying about the next
one you're setting up for.

- Okay.

You could just come sweeping out of here

and you just go to the
outside of that cone?

- Yeah.

Do you feel that mustache
is going to save me?

- [Steve] Oh yeah.

- There's just so many
opportunities for you to get lost.

- So that huge sweeper,
then you come up here, man,

and you better be ready for action, baby.

(whistling)

You're taking a right turn, right here.

- This would be a left turn actually.

- Oh, left turn, yeah, right here.

So this is going to be (whistling).

- [David] Yep and then (whistling).

So that was track walk, wow.

- [Steve] It's really fast.

- [David] This is fast.

- [Steve] And I'm glad it's raining.

- [David] Why?

- [Steve] Because I needed
the added test of difficulty.

- [David] Okay.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- To test the power of the stash?

- Yeah.

- Next up, we got to go get the car teched

and find out if they're
going to make us fix stuff

before we can actually run.

- Oh man, I certainly hope not.

- [Tech Inspector] We're do a quick check

of your car and make sure it's safe.

- [David] Good luck with that.

(laughing)

- [Tech Inspector] I'm feeling
a little play in the steering

but you're probably used to that by now.

- [David] Once the hydraulic
pressure's on it it's better.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- And we're going to ask you to
cinch that battery down for us.

- [David] For sure.

- [Tech Inspector] What's that? (laughing)

- [David] That's the windshield wiper.

- Oh, that's the windshield,
oh, got it, okay.

- [David] See, positive and negative.

- [Steve] That completes the circuit.

- Well, we went through tech,

the guys were actually super cool.

Right now I'm installing
decals for our class.

You might not have known actually

that SCCA has classes
for old cars like this.

It's actually for 1990 and older.

We're going to be ready
to race as soon as we

fix some of that little stuff
that they told us to do.

We want to thank Jeff and
Kimsen back in our office

for making meatball numbers for us.

- That's sweet.

(upbeat music)

- [Track Announcer] We're
about on a two minute warning,

Jacob Montgomery should be first,

we see as he is at the line now.

(engine accelerating)

- Finally we're here on the grid,

actually ready to race.

I've been watching the
track trying to memorize it

'cause my biggest fear is
losing the track out there

and not knowing where I'm going.

My second biggest fear is
spinning the thing out.

And it all comes down to this right now.

We got together with the SCCA

and found out how this is going to work.

Basically, I'm going to get three runs

and Dulcich is going to get three runs.

Alright, this is it, my main goals here,

don't get lost, don't spin out.

Here we go!

(engine accelerating)

- [Steve] Freiburger's out there,

that's going to be our first run,

it's looking pretty good.

Smart thing to do is take
it easy, learn the course

because this is a big and fast course.

- Got lost.

I'm completely lost.

And so my worst fears were realized,

I got completely lost out
there among all of the cones,

it's really hard to see.

And normally these things
have a big chalk mark

but the rain had washed it all away,

that's my excuse.

And I'm thinking it might
be Dulcich's excuse as well

because he went out for his first pass

and sure enough, got just as lost.

I think he just lost the course.

- [Steve] Ah man, now where do I go?

- He lost it.

- [Steve] It looks like--

- [Course Worker] It's that way.

- [Steve] I lost the course.

- [Course Worker] Yeah, you
got to go this way out here.

You got to go through the lights.

- Huh, yeah, he's just coming in.

(engine accelerating)

I went and got some help from
guys who've done this a lot

and they told me a couple things.

One of which is, I
needed to walk the course

two to six times instead of
once in the pouring rain.

And then, I got another help,

we sat there and watched a POV camera

going around the track
about five times, so.

- [Steve] Alright, here we go again.

- [David] And on my second pass out there,

I just took it really slow,

wanting no risk of getting lost again

and finally, I made it all
the way around the course.

(rock music)

- Yeah, he made a run, alright.

- Okay, I feel much better about that.

83 seconds was my time,
so that's pretty lame

but at least I made it all
the way around the track

and then Dulcich went out
and got completely lost

for the second time.

- [Steve] Now what.

- Over there!

- [Steve] Oh, I'm getting
the heck out of here.

Oh, I just blew it on that.

I'm out of here, I'm
just totally screwed up.

- [David] It's been a long way to go

and right now, this is our last shot.

We each get one more run at redemption.

My temptation is to go out there

and try to go real fast and
find out what the car can do

versus these other things.

But the reality is, all I want
to do is not get lost again.

- [Steve] And, he's off, alright.

It's looking pretty quick.

(upbeat rock music)

- [David] Got it.

- Ah man, he's got this.

Around that corner, he's almost out of it.

He's just got a short slalom there,

a hook a the end and the
long, straight slalom

for the finish line.

Ah yeah, he's got this.

He's going to start hot dogging it now.

I don't know what his time is going to be.

- [David] Okay.

79.117, I did it, made it
all the way around the track,

didn't fail and ran four seconds quicker

than I had on my prior lap.

It doesn't really matter to me that put me

as the slowest car in the category

because I finished the Tire
Rack SCCA Solo Nationals.

- Well, you made it.

- [David] Cut four seconds off my time.

- Well, you were faster, yeah.

- [David] Didn't hit a cone.

- I think the heat's on for my next heat.

- [David] Huh, so that
felt pretty good and now

it's down to Dulcich's last chance.

- [Steve] I am literally
the last car on the track.

(upbeat music)

- He's got the lights on.

He's taking it easy, it
is so much harder at dusk

when you can't see the cones,

it's really hard.

I hope for his sake that he
makes it all the way around

'cause otherwise it's going
to be just complete defeat.

- [Steve] Oh, did I lose
the freakin' course again?

Oh, now where's the course?

- Well, sure enough Dulcich went out there

and gave it his best shot but
got completely lost again.

But at least he ended
it all in Roadkill style

with a massive smoke show.

(engine accelerating)

And really, I think that donut session

kind of capsulates everything
that this episode was about

because we may have, sort
of failed at the autocross

but we won at life.

We put this car together
with our own two hands,

in our garage, we have
touched every nut and bolt

on the entire car and
then we road tripped it

1750 miles, had an
awesome time along the way

and we were victorious just
in getting off the couch

and arriving at the SCCA Solo Nationals.

And you know what, I completed a lap

and that's all that's important right now.

This was a Roadkill win.

(engine accelerating)

Support companies that support Roadkill,

- Well, you've got me
out here in the rain,

wearing this ridiculous vest, you know.

Let's just put Dulcich
in the getup, right?

You know, Freiburger,
he gets a nice hoodie

with the Stubby Bob shirt,

I'm telling you man,
I'm going over the limit

on this whole character thing.

You keep it up and...

I guess there's nothing much I can do.

- What?