Cruise to the Cruise Part II: Roadkill Nights
Roadkill Nights powered by Dodge in Pontiac
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 Yep, we're going back to Roadkill Nights.
00:18 Last year when we went to Roadkill Nights,
00:20 we drove across the country in my '69 Dodge Daytona.
00:23 Wrong car for the job, wrong time of year to do it.
00:26 This year, we're taking something bigger, badder, and faster in the form of a 2018
00:31 wide-body Challenger Hellcat and to back it up, a 2018 SRT Durango.
00:36 And it's not just the vehicles that are different this year.
00:39 Instead of driving straight from LA to Detroit as fast as possible,
00:43 we're taking a southern route.
00:45 That's for two reasons.
00:47 One, because we wanted to visit some new sites of Dodge special interest.
00:51 And two, because I need to get as many tips on how to cover the 1320
00:55 as quickly as possible in the new Hellcat.
00:58 I'm going head to head with nine other drivers in front of almost 50,000 people
01:02 when we get to Woodward.
01:04 And to be honest, I gotta win at least once anyway.
01:07 So I need all the help I can get.
01:09 That's why our journey this year starts at racing legend Bob Bondurant's racing
01:13 school in Phoenix, Arizona.
01:16 Apart from being like a Dodge theme park, Bob's facility has race tracks of all
01:20 shapes and sizes, including a perfect drag strip.
01:24 I'm just hoping one of Bob's instructors can help me get dialed in and at least
01:27 give me a few pointers about what to do.
01:30 But before I get prepped, we first have to get the Hellcats sorted by swapping out
01:34 the street tires for some proper drag rims.
01:37 Oh, and meet the legend himself, Mr. Bondurant.
01:40 - Yes, Mr. Borstein, the man himself.
01:43 - Yes.
01:43 - Legend Bob Bondurant.
01:46 - As fun as it was to meet Bob, it was his son Jason who was looking
01:50 after us at the drag strip today.
01:52 How are you, sir?
01:53 - Good.
01:53 How are you this morning?
01:54 - I'm doing very well.
01:55 - Very good.
01:55 Welcome out to Bondurant.
01:56 - Thank you.
01:57 So here's the thing.
01:58 We're going out to roadkill nights in Pontiac, Michigan.
02:00 And as I'm more of a road course guy and you just happen to have a drag strip,
02:04 I need you to make me faster in that so when I go race the roadkill guys,
02:08 I don't lose.
02:09 - Absolutely.
02:10 And that's what we do best here at Bondurant.
02:11 We teach car control.
02:13 So I'm really wanting you to feel that car, lower back and the butt.
02:17 With Danny Bullock, our assistant chief instructor, we're going to give those
02:20 roadkill guys a run for their money.
02:22 - That's exactly what I want to hear.
02:24 Stay tuned.
02:26 So, Danny, what are we going to do today?
02:27 - So today, we're going to learn how to launch this car down the drag strip
02:31 with some basic information that's going to give you a better advantage going
02:35 down the strip.
02:36 - Danny got me situated and gave me some insight in how to launch the car.
02:40 So now it was time to put it all into practice.
02:43 [Engine revving]
02:53 - Fully staged, brake to the floor, pedal down, and launch.
03:00 - We did it with the launch control the first time.
03:08 - Right.
03:08 - Now we're going to do it with you just pedaling it.
03:10 - Okay.
03:10 - You're not going to use the launch control system at all.
03:15 - Okay, it's pre-stage and stage.
03:17 Ready to go?
03:18 - Ready to go.
03:18 - Let's do this.
03:20 [Engine revving]
03:31 - I'll tell you, with this car, either way, you can't lose.
03:33 - You can't lose.
03:34 This car does everything so well.
03:37 - With the tires warmed up and a few tips to think about, we got back on the road
03:41 and headed southeast towards Texas.
03:44 - We are back on the road again.
03:46 We just filled up, had a little bit of food, and now we're cruising along in the
03:50 2018 SRT Hellcat Widebody.
03:53 Now, a lot of people are going to look at this car and be like, "Well, it's no
03:57 different than the regular Hellcat," when actually that's completely not the case.
04:00 There's actually quite a few differences.
04:02 Now, let's go back to when the Hellcat first came out, right?
04:05 707 horsepower, 650 pound-feet of torque, ZF 8-speed, and the one Achilles heel,
04:12 in my opinion, were the 275 Series tires.
04:16 Now, when you have a car that has the girth of a Hellcat Challenger, which is
04:21 over 4,500 pounds, on a 275 Series tire, it kind of looks like an elephant on
04:26 stilts.
04:27 The Widebody Hellcat extends the track 3.5 inches overall, and now we are running
04:33 on 305 Series at all four corners.
04:37 We have a wider track.
04:39 The car not only handles better, but it looks vicious.
04:43 Does that mean it is the best car ever?
04:45 Well, no, because it does lack some things, like part of my seat adjustments are
04:50 manual, especially on the passenger side.
04:52 The back, for such a big car, is a little bit on the cramped side.
04:56 But if you need more room, then go buy a Charger.
04:58 Don't buy a Challenger.
04:59 This is Dodge's big, badass coupe, and it works exactly as it should.
05:05 After our overnight, we headed towards our next stop just outside Houston to see
05:09 a couple of cool Dodges.
05:11 And while they may look familiar to some, rest assured, they are both very,
05:16 very special.
05:20 We're down in Sealy, Texas, at John Hennessey's Lone Star Motorsports Park,
05:23 with two very special cars, one of which I want to talk to you about right now.
05:27 And to do that, we have Courtney Manuel from the Viper Exchange to talk to you
05:31 about the Viper behind me and why it's so special.
05:34 So, Courtney, what do we got?
05:35 What are we looking at?
05:37 Why is it special?
05:38 All the good stuff.
05:39 All the good stuff.
05:40 2017 is the very last year for Viper production.
05:42 And as such, they wanted to create five special editions to commemorate that.
05:46 Back in 1997, Viper launched itself into the international world of racing,
05:51 claimed many, many titles.
05:53 And so what they did in 1998 was create a special edition called the GTSR,
05:57 same livery as the race cars.
05:59 They made 100 of them.
06:01 And that was sold out pretty instantaneously.
06:03 So cut to now, end of the run.
06:07 And Dodge actually gave a few of the dealers a call and said, "Hey,
06:10 what would you guys like to see?"
06:12 Well, knowing the market and knowing the 1998s, everybody wanted to see this car.
06:18 It's got a lot of the same attributes as the 1998.
06:20 And they did 100 of them as well.
06:23 We at Viper Exchange bought over 55 of the chassis.
06:26 Oh, my God.
06:27 Yeah, it's a little crazy.
06:29 And we've taken two to the Nurburgring.
06:30 From an ACR, it's same in terms of drivetrain, powertrain, aerodynamics
06:34 are all of the extreme package.
06:35 So you get that 2,000 pounds of downforce.
06:37 But this one, you get the GTS blue stripes.
06:40 You get the Red Striker logo, flags on the side,
06:43 all the same stuff as the race car had in terms of livery.
06:46 But as interesting as that Viper is, this is the reason we're here.
06:51 What looks like a base model Viper is anything but.
06:55 But to tell us why it's not a base model Viper,
06:57 we've got Andy Wheeler, Performance Director of the Viper Exchange.
07:00 Great to see you again, Mike.
07:02 So here we've got two totally opposite vehicles.
07:05 We've got the current generation 5 ACR Viper, which is one of the fastest,
07:10 if not the fastest, street-legal road race car in the country
07:13 that you can buy off the showroom floor.
07:15 And here we have a purpose-built drag Viper that is a base SRT, no aero.
07:22 The car actually has a four-speed automatic and our 9-liter stroker motor in it.
07:27 It makes about 800 horsepower on the motor.
07:30 So what kind of time is this one?
07:32 So this car competed one time and has only been down the drag strip on one occasion.
07:37 And this car actually went 9.70 at 142 miles an hour in hot weather.
07:43 Will you take it down the drag strip for us today?
07:45 If you twist my arm, I'm sure I could probably do that.
07:48 I'm going to rip his arm clean off.
07:50 I just wanted to make sure you caught that.
07:53 This is a true unicorn, the only Gen 5 Viper with an automatic gearbox.
08:00 It's only a four-speed.
08:01 A few others with more gears could handle the Viper's torque,
08:04 but it's in there and it works.
08:07 A 9.70 at 140 miles an hour proves it.
08:13 [engine revving]
08:21 While these cars are great, the real reason I'm here is I need to learn how to drag race.
08:29 We're going to Roadkill Nights.
08:30 All the hosts are getting together in front of 50,000 people.
08:33 I need to not lose.
08:35 So give me your top three things.
08:37 Nobody likes it. So how much time do you have to prepare?
08:39 48 hours.
08:40 Okay, so we need to keep it short and sweet, right?
08:41 Yeah.
08:42 The number one, the first thing I would be concerned about is 60 foot.
08:45 Okay.
08:46 You're going to have drag radials?
08:47 I believe so.
08:48 All right, so all the cars are going to be equal.
08:49 You're all going to be on drag radials.
08:50 Yep.
08:51 That's great.
08:52 60 foot is so important.
08:53 Okay.
08:54 I would leave traction control on, see how hard you can get that car to leave.
08:57 A lot of times, a drag race can be won or lost right there.
09:01 The second thing is reaction time.
09:04 Equally as important as 60 foot.
09:06 If you can time that light just right, you can get out a car, two cars, and in an eighth mile,
09:11 it's going to be very hard for an equally matched car to catch you by the end.
09:15 Okay, so Andy, can we get a demonstration?
09:17 I was hoping you'd say that.
09:18 Yes.
09:19 One, two, three.
09:21 [Engine revving]
09:25 [Indistinct talking]
09:29 Ready.
09:30 [Engine revving]
09:58 That's not bad.
10:00 [Indistinct talking]
10:03 It's all about the practice.
10:06 As much as I wanted to stay there all day, it was time to get back on the road.
10:10 As we are now driving through the great state of Texas, we thought it only fitting that we transition from the wide-body Hellcat into the Durango SRT,
10:19 probably one of the greatest crew camera/chase vehicles in the history of the world.
10:25 Let's go through why.
10:27 475 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque from the 392 V8.
10:33 That means that if the Hellcat accelerates, I go like this, it drops down, and then I accelerate.
10:39 Now, will it catch the Hellcat?
10:41 Well, no, because the Hellcat's a Hellcat.
10:44 This is pretty freaking fast, I'm going to tell you that right now.
10:46 Now, according to Dodge, the SRT Durango is the most powerful third-row SUV they've ever built.
10:53 And, you know, that's pretty cool, right?
10:55 We have the Jeep SRT, but that's only a five-passenger.
10:59 This baby will hold seven people in your comfort.
11:01 The other thing is, because it's all-wheel drive, it really does jump out of the hole.
11:08 So much so that, believe it or not, you could pull up to a whole bunch of performance cars that are rear-wheel drive.
11:13 And you could totally hole-shot them, because when you put the hammer down on this thing and set launch control, it just squats and goes.
11:21 Also, I can go into my SRT pages, and I can transfer the setup in regards to how I want the all-wheel drive to be.
11:29 I can put it in track mode, sport mode, street mode, I can just put it straight down in 50/50 mode.
11:34 So, you always kind of know where you are.
11:37 Now, would you call this thing a performance SUV?
11:41 100%.
11:44 Anything that does 0-60 in 4.5 seconds or less, anything that runs a quarter mile in 12.9,
11:50 I don't care what year you're driving, that's pretty good performance.
11:54 One of the great things about road trips is that some things happen that just can't be explained.
12:08 Often, it's local weather or it's something strange on the menu.
12:13 But when we got to New Orleans, thanks to one of our friends, this happened.
12:18 [Police sirens]
12:23 So, we're getting a police escort out of New Orleans, which is something that you only see in the movies.
12:31 So, this is just, we've got three motor cops in front of us, one behind us.
12:37 How do we arrange this as a full-time thing on the House of Muscle?
12:41 Thank you!
12:43 But as wonderful and strange as that was, it was next to nothing compared to what we were about to find in Alabama.
12:50 I can't even see!
12:52 We're here in Decatur, Alabama to see our old friend Austin Griggs from RidingMuscleCars.com.
13:02 He's promised to put on a drag race with more than a few dodges in his own special Alabama way.
13:08 But, before we get to that, he showed us this.
13:12 This is the best part of North Alabama as far as I'm concerned.
13:15 This is the Mopar Capital of the World.
13:17 There's 52 acres at Ted Stevens Junkyard here in Anderson, Alabama.
13:22 I wish they could all get pulled out and saved.
13:26 Unfortunately, these all have end-of-life titles.
13:29 These cars are finished and will never be on the road again, sadly.
13:33 Mike has brought his brand new Hellcat and we've brought out some hot rods.
13:39 We've got a '73 Charger. That would be Drew Poole.
13:43 And Drew Poole's got about five of those things.
13:46 We've got my '69 Super Bee, 383 Automatic.
13:49 It's got a 355 servo rim, stolen from the Cuda that you guys saw in Episode 8 of the House of Muscle.
13:54 Mike Kobach, his son's driving the Camaro today.
13:58 And he's in his '70 Roadrunner.
14:00 It is a factory 383 Automatic, now a 446-pack 4-speed.
14:04 So it is the best Roadrunner this shy of a hand can get.
14:08 I think we're going to go get some runs in before the sun goes down, so this ought to be fun.
14:12 If you closed your eyes, this could have been four years ago.
14:29 Nothing has changed.
14:31 Two '60s cars going head-to-head down a straight road between two cornfields.
14:36 It was perfect.
14:38 But just as soon as we got there, we had to leave, as race day in Detroit was fast approaching.
14:56 So, we headed north, to Michigan.
15:00 [CAR ENGINE REVVING]
15:03 We made it. After 3,100 miles on the road, we're standing here on historic Woodwood Avenue.
15:23 Now, as you can see right now, it's quiet.
15:25 But give it a couple hours, because there's going to be over 50,000 people here, and it's going to be pure mayhem.
15:30 The 2017 Hellcat Celebrity Deathmatch on Woodward, brought to you by Dodge.
15:52 In the draw, I pulled Chris Jacobs.
15:55 That's it. I'm racing TV host, Chris Jacobs.
15:59 So, it's finally time. This is the reason we just drove 3,100 miles across the country.
16:04 It's time for the Celebrity Showdown.
16:06 Now, I'm paired up with TV host Chris Jacobs.
16:08 We're about to run down the racetrack. I really don't know who's going to win, because the track is slick.
16:13 I'm wishing Chris luck, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to beat him.
16:16 [MUSIC]
16:29 Ready, Dan?
16:31 Hell yeah.
16:32 I'll bring you up, and I'll get you this far away from stage.
16:35 Or pre-stage.
16:36 And then I'm going to point at you and walk away.
16:38 And that's when you're just going to inch six inches forward, and then boom, the top light will come on.
16:42 And now you have six inches left until the bottom light comes on.
16:46 [MUSIC]
16:55 I'm sitting here on the line trying to remember the tips that I was given over the last week.
16:59 But all I can think of is that I really, really want to win.
17:03 [MUSIC]
17:23 Oh, dude, that was awesome.
17:26 All good, man.
17:27 Way to go.
17:28 That was good.
17:29 Awesome.
17:30 [MUSIC]
17:34 So I beat Chris, but there wasn't long to enjoy the victory.
17:37 My next race against Hot Rod Garage's Tony Angelo, that was next.
17:42 [MUSIC]
18:11 Yep, you saw that right.
18:13 I treed Tony at the light.
18:15 But he did get me by an arm's length right at the finish line.
18:19 The only thing I can put that down to is I got 70 pounds on Tony.
18:23 And to be honest, that kind of hurts.
18:26 Let's talk about these.
18:28 2018 SRT Challenger Widebody.
18:32 2018 Durango SRT.
18:35 One of the best GT cars ever built by an American manufacturer.
18:40 One of the best high-powered SUVs ever built by an American manufacturer.
18:45 The widebody on the Hellcat fixes any type of problem that the old Hellcat had.
18:50 And those problems basically stem from a lack of traction from a 275 Series tire.
18:54 This, just amazing in every way.
18:57 High-speed hauler, do whatever you want to do in any type of weather, fantastic.
19:01 Now, will we be doing this again next year?
19:04 Well, the odds of that are yes.
19:07 In what, I can't tell you yet because I simply don't know.
19:09 So you're going to have to come back next year and keep following us.
19:13 So with that being said, I'd like to thank you for coming on this journey with us.
19:16 We'll see you next time on the House of Muscle.
19:18 Bob Onderhide and I went against each other nose to nose down this drag strip.
19:25 Really?
19:26 And guess who won?
19:27 She did.
19:28 Just saying.
19:29 There you go.
19:30 Just saying.
19:31 [MUSIC]
19:38 [LAUGHTER]
19:41 (whooshing)