I'll Admit It Faster With Finnegan Is Entertaining.

Streetwiseguy said:

Worst internet mechanic ever.  Entertaining, but cringeworthy technical skills.

I don't know, doing engine swaps in the snow in a parking lot is pretty impressive. So is towing a boat to the lake, swapping the engine from the tow vehicle (CMT) into the boat, running the boat around the lake then re-swapping the engine back to the truck and driving back home is pretty impressive.

I have no idea if those things are things you can do but I know I cannot and that makes it all impressive to me.

tremm said:

I stopped watching "phone-it-in" Finnegan

An 8.52 second 1/4 mile in a manually shifted, steel bodied 55 Chevy that completed Drag Week equals "phoning it in"?

ebonyandivory said:

tremm said:

I stopped watching "phone-it-in" Finnegan

An 8.52 second 1/4 mile in a manually shifted, steel bodied 55 Chevy that completed Drag Week equals "phoning it in"?

I don't get that impression either. Trying to sleep in freezing cold in the back of a broken down ramp truck is hardly "phoning it in."

I've enjoyed almost every episode of Roadkill, and for a long time I thought that I was more of a Finnegan fan than a Freiberger fan. But I think that Frieberger is much better at carrying a show on his own than Finnegan is.

In football terms, Frieberger is the play-by-play guy and Finnegan is the color analyst.

Finnegan needs Freiberger more than Frieberger needs Finnegan.

tremm said:

Start looking for it. You'll see it.

No need to be mysterious. What are you referring to?

I honestly get the impression that Roadkill made Motortrend too much of a pain to deal with and because of that, Frieburger and Finnegan both are looking for an out. I've seen a few notable people that aren't part of Motortrend now that seem to be very happy to not be a part of it anymore. I've also seen every comment on any of Frieburger's posts complaining about something to do with Motortrend get a reply that basically says "I don't like it either but I'm not in control".  Considering Frieburger has been chief editor at multiple magazines and I believe stepped away from Hot Rod to do this silly video stuff. He's probably getting tired of having to say that.

Also, I really like Dirt Every Day. I can sort through the silliness. There’s good stuff in there. Fred is really good. 

Tony and lucky are my favourite combo right now, I really enjoy Finnegan and Dulcich as well.

Tony rebuilding that gearbox on drag week then bench pressing it into place was a great gearhead moment that I believe to be free scripted magazine bs.

Agreed on Hot Rod Garage, they do a good job. 

And I didn't mean to bash Finnegan. He's a hell of a mechanic and an amazing fabricator, but I don't think this show makes that clear. 

1SlowVW said:

Tony and lucky are my favourite combo right now, I really enjoy Finnegan and Dulcich as well.

Tony rebuilding that gearbox on drag week then bench pressing it into place was a great gearhead moment that I believe to be free scripted magazine bs.

The episodes where Tony and Finnegan team up are some of my favorites, because Finnegan is always giggling and excited about some terrible idea while Tony replies with equal parts exasperation and biting sarcasm. Tony's reaction to Finnegan unveiling the Firebird project will forever be my favorite Roadkill moment

The sales pitch on FwF doesn't really match up to the show. Going somewhere to pile lots of expensive parts on something is not especially challenging or entertaining. Figuring out how to make junk faster with more and/or different junk would be far more interesting. RKG is vastly more interesting that way. I've also enjoyed some cherry-picked episodes of Engine Masters, specifically the data-based comparisons of things like air filters and mufflers.

I’m enjoying FwF, but I think it’d be better if they had a week to improve the vehicle instead of just two days.  But that would increase production costs quite a bit, and it looks like Finnegan is already pretty busy with everything he’s involved in.

In reply to Daylan C :

Furby has been pushing the video format for well over a decade now.   Look up "CarJunkieTV" from when he left magazines the first time.


He is also behind most of the RK based shows.  You'll notice his name in the credits of them, many times as a producer.

tremm said:

 

 I wish there was more coverage of Drag Week & Ultimate Adventure.

UA can be found on YouTube still.   If you look close, you can spot me in a cameo shot doing "bodywork" on the UA Taco during The Cliffs Insane Terrain portion of the 2004 trip.   I wish I could have made the rest of the trip that year, but that was right after I was diagnosed with bladder cancer and I wasn't at my best. I have a few good stories about about Rick and Fred from the prerun and the event however.   Great guys

As far as Finn's YouTube channel goes, it wasn't always the easiest thing to watch, but that is more a product of the fact that he didn't have a film crew of 7 and tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment taking multiple shots and spending days in edit.   It was a one man operation, and as someone who has looked into doing that, I can tell you there is no way to "phone it in" when you are doing that on a regular basis.

I enjoyed the 1st 3 episodes for the most part.  Its fairly obvious that they are out of their element on suspension stuff, and turning corners.  Not to take anything away from finnigen.  As others have talked about, you cant really be a hack and have a straight axle car on the 8s.  

I like all the stuff in the RK family.

What made me mad was paying $5 a month to watch it, then see a deal for $1 a month for "new subscribers only". 

Found a work around though....

I'm enjoying FwF. The two new guys are settling down in front of the camera and it's getting funnier. It seems like a pretty realistic portrayal of some buddies dicking around with cars, which is entertaining but perhaps not revolutionary.  I like Finnegan, but I think his personality works best when you've got the right foil. Freiberger was definitely the right one for a long time, but it seemed like the show got a little stale (although I still enjoyed watching.)  Tony is a great onscreen partner with him, and the drag week Blasphemi episode is my favorite car television of the last couple years.  But then, I really like Tony's on screen presence in general anyway.

I think the original RK caught some unexpected lightning in a bottle, and there is a limited amount of time anything like that can survive and be fresh, especially with an overlord network like MT. It's like it's a fun little thing that nobody kind of paid attention to, but as soon as the eye of Sauron swung around to focus on them, the countdown started.

In reply to ultraclyde :

VERY good post!

Tom Suddard said:

I watched it and enjoyed it, but...

I think there could be some more real tech in there. For example, instead of LS swapping the Blazer I would have rather learned how to waterproof a distributor. My Trooper has a distributor and is great at swimming, and it didn't take an LS swap. 

I don't really understand the switch to gravel rally tires for that hard-packed dirt course on the rally episode, nevermind the way they picked spring rates. 

Lowering the S10 ruined it and he never did seem to get a good lap. Oh, and that Nitrous setup clearly needed tuning.

Ok, I loved the supercharged T-bird episode. That was fun. 

At the end of the day I guess I'd hoped this would be a story about minute spring rate changes, tire pressure optimization, shock valving and engine tuning. It's also a premise that requires a ton of testing and optimization, but is produced on a schedule that prohibits that. 

The show is fun, but not really about making cars faster. 

Guess we'll just have to make our own version at some point. 

Biting my tongue. 

Cooter said:

In reply to NickD :

I like Roadkill Garage a lot.   It's just a couple guys screwing around for the most part.

Hot Rod Garage has become much better.   Lucky is the unsung hero of the entire RK fimily, IMO.

....but how can you spend so much money and be so slow???

wheels777 said:

Cooter said:

In reply to NickD :

I like Roadkill Garage a lot.   It's just a couple guys screwing around for the most part.

Hot Rod Garage has become much better.   Lucky is the unsung hero of the entire RK fimily, IMO.

....but how can you spend so much money and be so slow???

Sick burn 

So is Roadkill done and Faster With Finnegan is replacing it?  I'm not a subscriber (I've only been watching the limited number of shows that MT put up for free viewing) so I'm not up on the current status.

In reply to stuart in mn :

I don't think RK is done. They just started a new "season". But they don't seem like they're coming out as frequently (though I have no actual proof of this).

stuart in mn said:

So is Roadkill done and Faster With Finnegan is replacing it?  I'm not a subscriber (I've only been watching the limited number of shows that MT put up for free viewing) so I'm not up on the current status.

MTOD is going to move towards a season system. So instead of each month you get an episode of Roadkill, an episode of Roadkill Garage, an episode of Dirt Every Day and an episode of Hot Rod Garage, one at the beginning of each week alternating, now you will get 10 or 12 weeks in a row of a new episode of FwF. Then the next 10-12 weeks you will get a new episode of Roadkill each week. Then the next 10-12 weeks you will get a new episode of Roadkill Garage every week.

On one hand, getting a couple months straight of just new Roadkill or Roadkill Garage will be awesome. On the other hand, its going to suck when its Dirt Every Day's season, because it means a couple months of no new original content that I'm interested in (sorry, for those who like DED, but they always just feel really forced and awkward and for being buddies, Dave and Fred's interactions seem painfully scripted)