Yesterday afternoon, Freiburger and Finnegan evaluated their situation after a bunch of delays and determined that at the pace they were on, the ice races they were planning on competing in would be long over by the time they got there. They have since switched over to Plan B…which has not exactly been revealed or explained yet other than for Frieburger telling viewers on a streaming video broadcast from the car that the plan involved, “another state and another car”. They are saying it’ll still be a hoot and known those two crazies, we believe them.
So what caused them to finally call it quits? It was a confluence of things. Firstly was the fact that they left a day late, already putting themselves in a time hole, secondly was the fact that they ran into a lot more snow than they expected, earlier in the trip, effectively thwarting their ability to make up time. Thirdly Finnegan broke the passenger side window out of the Ranchero and it took them more time to make the obligatory cardboard and plastic repairs. Then the rear main seal leaked, then the block heater was leaking, and finally the reality of when they would actually get to Alaska caught up to them.
We have no clue what they are up to now, other than they got a decent night’s sleep at a hotel last night and will set out this morning for their new adventure. As usual, follow along on the Hot Rod Magazine Facebook page.
LINK: Hot Rod’s Facebook page
Epic last minute thrash for serious adventure makes good reading. And I love the ability to ride along via facebook. But unfortunately the lack of preparation often significantly reduces the chance of success. Two times recently (muscle truck.) Easy for me to say from my office. Good on them for trying. I’m still watching. Hopefully they plan the next one a little better.
Maybe squirrel and randall should be the ones overseeing all of these monumentous adventures? They seem to pull them off and make it look easy and enjoyable even given setbacks.
think they have been influenced by all those credit card TV shows where all the parts arrive just in time to build a big buck ride for some rich dude. Those shows are scripted for tension – who wants to see 18 month build historical film- but pre roadtrip you need the car debugged to get anywhere. The 2 cylinder Bonneville run and this are both great fun, and that car resurrection from someone’s drive a while back on youtube was terrific stuff. I just hope they don’t fall into man cave TV cliche territory and keep it real, they have a ton of camera crews etc with them…I’d hate for this to go all lala land on us
Epic Stories that rely on poor project planning for reader excitement are becoming played out. it would have been far better if they’d have used a realistic project plan, the right amount of time to debug the car, and actually made it to Alaska. Any alternative idea is just going to be a “plan B” because “Plan A” was poorly executed…
So because of snow, they couldn’t drive the Ice Racer?
Jeez Dieselgeek….. Aren’t you the guy always bitchin that people need to just get out there and do stuff? So things got screwed up and they didn’t make it to the destination. I bet they still have a great story to tell! To me that’s a hell of a lot better than saying “F’it, we can’t make it, lets not do anything”.
How many projects have any of us started with a REALISTIC plan and still failed to finish in time?
At least they’re out there DOING, which is way more than I can say for myself at this moment in time!
In response to Ollie, I would have to respectfully disagree. Freiburger, for as long as I can remember, has been the guy setting the trends. I doubt very much that he even watches any of that crap. And Dieselgeek, I completely disagree. If every adventure were to be planned to perfection, than it would cease to be an adventure.
I’m with ‘geek. It would be nice to see one of these last minute thrashes pan out a little better. That is probably because I’m a little bit of a control freak and like to plan out every little thing. For me to do something like build a car and drive it to Alaska to go ice racing, it would be a year or more in the making.
**Not to say that my meager effort would not fail…
baitshop, I’m not asking every adventure be planned perfectly. Just that one or two of them actually ends up as planned. Would have been better to NOT say they were going to Alaska, just a simple adventure, that way when they realized that snow is cold and difficult to drive on, they wouldn’t look bad by giving up. Everyone that works on cars know that you don’t slap something together in a few days and take it on a huge roadtrip without glitches. Some people’s jobs even DEPEND on them being able to make a plan, and achieve the goal. What if your auto mechanic told you “well, we’re charging you a thousand bucks but we just couldn’t get your car fixed on time” – you’d be singing a different tune.
Who plans a trek to alaska and doesn’t anticipate the snow is cold and hard to drive on in a two wheel drive car/truck.
If thats case it means driving my chevelle to school in the snow all winter was some epic adventure. I like others think the word epic is way over used.
Maybe if these guys took some time and SORTED the car out before embarking on one of these trips they would accomplish what they set out to do, still making for a good story….
This stuff is cool as.. would be even better if there was even a chance they’d make it. Sad state of affairs when failing is a “better” outcome than making it.