Love and marriage, love and marriage.. Go together like a Griswolds and Family Truckster. Wait, that's not right. But believe it or not National Lampoon's Vacation and Married With Children share a connection. A scene in fact. In the early episodes of Married With Children, a scene from the movie was reused in the opening credits! Season 1-4 featured an aerial shot of Chicago skyline and interstate system. If you look closely in the Truckster.
It's hard to believe it's already been 10 years since the early years of Roadkill. If you haven't seen Roadkill, it's a must see. In each episode on Motor Trend the dynamic duo, David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan set out to build a cheap classic and take it for fun adventures. During Episode 23 of the YouTube series that would later become the show, we got introduced to a long term friend. The General Mayhem, a gutted 1968 Dodge Charger in need of a heart transplant. The car was missing everything, no engine, no transmission, nothing! Just a ton of mismatched panels and random parts. Freiburger had traded a set of cylinder heads for the barebones car a few years prior. Now it was time for it to come alive.
First Engine
After some searching on Criagslist, the guys found a big block Mopar 440 plant for only $1000. Only one small problem, it was in a Pace Arrow motorhome. Having no reservations about destroying the tenament on wheels, they set to work ripping the engine and transmission out of the big white beast. They slapped everything into the General Mayhem and borrowed a few parts from a previous project. A star was born. But this was only the beginning for the car.
Second Engine
Later in the series in during Episode 43, the guys got a boost from Dodge with a sponsorship. Which meant a major upgrade for the General Mayhem. When I say major, I mean a 707 hp factory blown Hemi out of a Hellcat. The crew over at Diversified Creations did the conversion, blending in the old with the new. They started with a brand new SRT Hellcat, that had been flagged to be crushed by Dodge. Not much backstory on that vehicle. But everything they could harvest went into General Mayhem. This is included parts of the dash from the new car too! At this point the car also got some major suspension and rear-end upgrades as well.
Third Engine (sorta)
The most recent engine swap occurred earlier this year on Episode 70 of Roadkill Garage. The Hellcat motor came back out of the General Mayhem and the Motorhome 440 returned. So where has this motor been all this time? Well it actually bounced around a bit. After being pulled the first time, it was dropped into a vehicle nicknamed the Crop Duster. Since then its been sitting around. But now it's back and better than ever, making over 500 hp. Steve Dulcich, along with Freiburger rebuilt and drop the motor back into car. But before that, all of the Hellcat stuff had to come out. One of my favorite quotes from Freiburger about the amount of electronics and wiring: "I think we sent people to space with less wiring.."
The Reunion
Just recently, the guys got back together for a 10 year reunion with old General Mayhem. Taking the car for a road with the fresh 440 Motorhome motor rebuild. I won't spoil too much of it for you. But you can find it on the Motor Trend and YouTube. But let's say its back in all it's glory. Till next time, keep the shiny side up!
October 2023 is going to be an exciting month to watch car movies on streaming! Using an awesome post over at ComicBook.com, we were able to filter it down to great films that feature classic iconic cars or car chases. A little bit of something for everyone! Especially if you're a Back To The Future fan or a Bond fan. Some of these may not be just pure car movies. But you will see some awesome cars in all of these movies. So if you're looking for something new, here ya' go!
Are you an All-Star? We know you are! This week we're saluting the car loaded music video "All Star" by Smash Mouth. So you get your game on! This music video came out in 1999 and is based on the B movie Mystery Men. Don't worry, I didn't remember that movie either. But apparently it had a good cast. Was it just too cheesy? Who knows. But anyways, without the movie we wouldn't have this beloved video. So on to the cars.
One of the major stars of All Star is this 1979 Corvette Custom Limo. Digging through blog archives over on Corvette Blogger, I managed to find a few details about the car. Apparently it's a custom build from Cinema Vehicle Services for the movie and later the video. Yes, the same folks who build Eleanor! One of the things I love about this car is the paint scheme. It's the same paint scheme featured on the 1978 Indy Pace cars. According to the post, it was built from a stock 1979 Corvette that was stretched to 23 feet long! Can you imagine driving around in this thing? The article later mentions it being sold on eBay. I haven't been able to find much else about it. Other than this post over on Bang Shift. I can hear Adam Sandler walking up to this thing and saying "Woah.. must be Burt Reynolds or something.."
Believe it or not, this is the villain car of the movie and music video! But what about our heroes? Well they get a 1959 Rambler Rebel Cross Country Custom. The Mystery Men pile in it and later pop out for a fight scene. There's some debate over on IMCDB as to what exactly the car is. I think it could be just a dagwood of a car put together from pieces. It's Hollywood, we can do anything we want right? One interesting note about this classic is, like a lot of classics. They only made this body style two years, 1958 and 1959. You can learn more Rambler Rebel Cross Country over on Hemmings.
This next ride, I honestly don't know much about. It looks straight up out of the 70's. A time when the custom trikes were all the rage. But I thought it was worth a mention. That's the wrap for this post. Check out full video below! Till next time, the articles start coming and they don't stop coming (hopefully). See ya!
If you're as big of a fan of off-road driving games as I am, I'm sure you've played MudRunner or SnowRunner in the past. From the creators of those games comes a new exciting game in the series: Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game. Expeditions will expand on the open world concept of previous games, by bringing us more long distance challenges and journeys. While maintaining the co-op online game play we've grown to love. Looks like they're adding in some elements of scientific expeditions, which should be interesting. A ton of new vehicles with customization options as before. From the trailer I spotted a vehicle looking similar to an International Scout! I'm excited to see the stock vehicle offerings expand. Not that there arn't a ton of great mods to add into the current games. Trust me that's a rabbit hole in itself. The new terrain and theming looks fun as well. In the trailer I saw an RV that looks very much like a nod to Breaking Bad. But I'm excited about the new worlds and look forward to seeing what this game is all about. Watch the trailer below and you'll see what I mean. Till next time, keep the shinny side up!
Expeditions will be available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC in 2024.
