‘Roadkill’ Show Hits the End of the Road – News That the Thirteenth Season of the Popular Show with Freiburger and Finnegan Will Be the Last
“This is the show where we play with cars, and you point and laugh. We call it Roadkill.” Those words were stated by David Freiburger in Episode 1 of the popular MotorTrend show Roadkill which hit YouTube in early 2012.
Nearly thirteen years and thirteen seasons after that first show was recorded, Mike Finnegan broke the news on Reddit that Roadkill will not record a fourteenth season, as MotorTrend Production Studio will close.
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The Roadkill show was born out of the Hot Rod Unlimited show, where a couple of episodes were inspired on the ‘having fun with cars on a road trip’, or ‘rescuing a car from a field or junkyard’, or even a cool and different build.
Freiburger, who at the time was the editor-in-chief for Hot Rod magazine, was joined by then staff editor Mike Finnegan for selected episodes of Hot Rod Unlimited, and what would normally result in epic adventures, break downs, laughter and sometimes utter frustration with cars.
The Hot Rod Unlimited show episodes that most will remember were two: Freiburger and Finnegan road tripping a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro known as the ‘Crusher Camaro’, packing a blown big-block and overdrive transmission, from California to a car show in Arizona, and then back again.
Just four months later, Freiburger and Finnegan teamed up to rescue a 1966 Buick Special convertible with Rick Pewe, who was the editor at 4-Wheel & Off-Road magazine at the time.
Pewe’s mother originally purchased the Buick, and after some troubles with it, the Buick had sat in a driveway since 1978. Pewe, Freiburger and Finnegan went through the Buick and made the necessary repairs, and then Freiburger and Finnegan road tripped it back to California.
Less than a year later, the first episode of Roadkill hit YouTube. It was an instant hit, as Freiburger and Finnegan would team up for what would normally be about a half-hour of adventures, break downs, laughter and sometimes utter frustration with cars in each episode.
In the first episode aired (but not the first one recorded), Freiburger and Finnegan were armed with $1500 and throwing a dart at a map to determine their destiny.
Since that first offering on YouTube, Roadkill has recorded over 100 episodes, with everything from creating a supercharged wheelstanding Ford F-6 dump truck known as ‘Stubby Bob’, to covering a big-block to LS driveline swap in the 1967 Camaro known as the ‘Crusher Camaro’ live at the PRI show. Freiburger and Finnegan would then drive the car from Indianapolis to California.
The show even did a couple episodes covering drag-and-drive events, with one of them being Finnegan and former Hot Rod Garage host Tony Angelo in Finnegan’s ‘Blasphemi’ 1955 Chevy on their winning trip during the 2019 Hot Rod Drag Week event.
Roadkill also covered Freiburger and Finnegan joining us for the inaugural Sick Week in 2022, where they purchased a Pontiac Firebird off Craigslist the day before, completed the event with a 14.54 average time.
Roadkill spawned several other shows to come out of the Hot Rod (and later MotorTrend) offices, including Hot Rod Garage, Engine Masters, Roadkill Garage, and Faster with Finnegan (which became Faster with Newburn and Cotton after season two). The popular Roadkill Nights event, taking place in Michigan in August, also was a brainchild of the Roadkill / MotorTrend team.
The Hot Rod Garage show brought in drag-and-drive veteran, Alex Taylor, to team up with Lucky Costa for three years of episodes, and she gave an update in a Facebook post on her Alex Taylor Racing page:
“While part of MotorTrend may be ‘going away’ there’s still another part of MotorTrend (events, print, etc.) that still exists. There’s are still new seasons of shows coming out soon. I can’t speak to exactly what the future of MT will be, BUT if you love the shows, stick around. Don’t cancel subscriptions. We’re all coming back on (something a lot forgot to mention). I can tell you Lucky and I have a great crew, and we’ve busted butt this season with some awesome projects. We got a Hot Wheels this season. We made a public event and we sold it out. We have 13 new episodes ready to head your way. None of this is a dis. But a thank you for everyone who has made my last 3 years with MT great, a thanks to our crew, and a thanks to all of you for watching. Stick around a while longer - you won’t be disappointed Here’s to the future! Soo many good things to come and in the works already. And in the meantime - check out my YouTube Riding with Alex Taylor! You can stay up to date with all of the projects and events that 2025 will bring.
“For clarification: what you’re seeing is true about MT Studio closing and shows being cancelled. BUT we will still have new episodes coming out that are already shot. Hope that helps clear things up.”
With the MotorTrend Production Studio shutting down, what’s next? The rumor is we may see new episodes of the shows in their final season (as Alex Taylor mentioned above).
Many of the hosts, including Freiburger and Finnegan, have their own YouTube channels.
Will we see a reunion for Freiburger and Finnegan, or the other hosts, for a new show? Only time will tell.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Evan Smith, Jon Morris, Alex Taylor, Holley and Roadkill / MotorTrend.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com