If there’s one media title of the past 20 years that’s done more for American automotive enthusiasm than anything else, it’s Roadkill. The spirit of getting it running instead of getting it perfect has inspired thousands of people to get cracking on their own hot rods, and antics like hooking a bunch of leaf blowers up to a Chevy Monza, using a motorhome as an organ donor for a wicked classic Mopar, and shutting down Woodward Avenue for Roadkill Nights will forever be canon. Although the show’s officially over, you can now own a surprisingly reliable part of it: The 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat known simply as the “General Maintenance.”
Flash back to 2015, and Dodge set the internet alight with its now-infamous 6.2-liter supercharged Hellcat V8. The figures were biblical for something you could walk into a Chrysler dealer and finance: 707 horsepower, 650 lb.-ft. of torque, and the ability to do burnouts measured in city blocks.
Around the same time, Dodge became the title sponsor of Roadkill, so it did the sensible thing and let hosts David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan loose on a Challenger SRT Hellcat, a Viper, and a Charger SRT Hellcat. You know, because a three-way tug-of-war between more than 2,000 horsepower of hell-yeah is undeniably awesome. The last car of that trio, the Charger, stayed on long-term and got a cosmetic makeover in tribute to the famous General Mayhem.
To match the once-Hellcat-swapped ’68 Charger, the 2015 model was done up with a distressed look and given a monster hood scoop. The plan? Something that did awesome burnouts but would function more or less flawlessly, quite the change from the show’s overall theme of glorious failure being virtually guaranteed. General Maintenance was the name, burnouts were the game, and this wild sedan sure did them well.
Given the popularity of Roadkill, it’s not a surprise that the General Maintenance is well-traveled. It’s been to Korea, Saudi Arabia, and criss-crossed the Lower 48. Despite its travels, it only shows 16,000 miles on the clock, the vast majority of which were put on in the pursuit of automotive greatness. It’s well-equipped too, with heated and ventilated front seats, a 13-speaker Harman/Kardon audio system, and blind spot monitoring. After a life of mayhem and one subsequent caretaker, it’s now up for auction on Bring A Trailer.
Needless to say, the General Maintenance is going to be a difficult vehicle to accurately place a value on. On the one hand, it plays a special role in car culture, a machine from a beloved web series that should function pretty well as a car. On the other, it took quite the hit back in 2024, and it still bears the scars of hard use. According to the listing, the left rear wheel is bent, there are some scrapes and scratches on the front bumper cover and underbody, and when the maintenance history on a 16,000-mile car lists new half-shafts and a new differential, you know it hasn’t been babied.
Still, with the patinated appearance, giant hood scoop, and celebrity status, this 2015 Charger SRT Hellcat is cooler than pretty much any other example out there. In other words, it’s mint. Will the Roadkill history help or hurt the value of this Charger SRT Hellcat? We’ll know in six days where the hammer falls. Until then, burnouts for distance?
Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer
I have a Dodge-branded T-shirt from Roadkill Nights that I reckon is just as relevant to Roadkill as this car is.
This bone-stock Hellcat wearing a costume is more of a sponsorship concession than a real part of the show. If you told me you were selling a press car that’s been driven by the likes of Ben Collins, Chris Harris, Randy Pobst and Mercedes Streeter, I’d run the other way, those speed demons will only have flogged it within an inch of its life. Roadkill’s long-term press Hellcat? With that wrap? You might as well be selling a Rimac driven by the illustrious Richard Hammond.
According to David Freiburger, it’s paint, not a wrap.
That’s actually somehow worse.
It needs splitter guards! Nothing like leaving bits of packaging on your car. Lol. I hate that.
The true definition of someone else’s project. Maybe for salvage value but I’d never let those guys even change my oil.
The auction is currently at $20K, with 6 days left to go. Somehow, I don’t think I ever heard of ‘Roadkill’ but I’ve got big gaps in my media knowledge.
Oh man, it was the best when it was free. Then you had to pay a subscription fee to watch and I dont think I ever watched one again. The orignal General Mayhem, the orignal muscle truck, and the orignal Rotson were 3 of the all time coolest project cars, IMO.
I still look back in shock at how many people couldn’t get past “it’s not free anymore” with the move to MTOD. It wasn’t even $4 per month if you got the 2 year plan, and you got 4 shows (RK, RK Garage, HRG, and DED) for that. I thought it was a freaking steal.
Hell, I built my first SBC using what I learned from Roadkill Extra.
There was the ‘not free anymore’ stage and then there was the ‘we don’t want your money’ stage when they cut us from other parts of the world off from MToD. Yea I could have used a VPN but if they didn’t want my money why bother jumping through hoops to give it to them, y’know?
Still, at least now it’s closed up Finn and Frei are Free to work together on Youtube again. The Rotsun is even back up and running!
Thats the point. Loved it till they took it from everyone except the Americans.
Don’t forget Engine Masters. I learnt so much from that show.
You’re not wrong, but as the customer I had been watching the show for free for 3 years or something. It was the principal of the matter for me. There was no improvement to the product to warrant me paying. They definitely didn’t owe me free entertainment so I’m not mad they did it, but I didn’t owe them my subscription either. It worked out – I found a bunch of other car channels on YouTube, a couple of which I still regularly watch today.
If you liked the old Top Gear and Grand Tour road trips, Roadkill is a more barebones and mechanically inclined version of that. I believe I’ve seen it on HBO Max and The Roku Channel (which you don’t need a Roku to watch.) Highly recommended, if you like David Tracy and The Autopian you will probably like the 2 guys on Roadkill.
Thanks Dan! 🙂
Gives a whole new meaning to “Drivin hard and put away wet”
I’d take the Yellow Crusher Camaro 🙂
There’s a handful of Roadkill cars I’d love to own – the OG Muscle Truck, General Mayhem, and the Draguar topping the list.
This one is cool, but to me it’s just an early Hellcat that Frieburger and Finnegan drove. I’m sure there’s someone else who’d value this a lot higher than would.
I’ve always been a fan of the Crusher Impala and the WRX ute MCM built and left over here somewhere.
Pretty sure the MCM Subaru went to the junkyard after the episode.
That stinks.. those guys put a lot of work into it and did a great job!
Still my favorite episode having no knowledge of MCM when it came out. The simplicity and absurdity of dropping such a giant engine into that Impala was great. Crusher Impala became my favorite from then on, Crusher Camaro, OG muscle Truck and Draguar are also great choices.
Frieburger has kept all those cars, based on his ongoing YouTube series, he has stated both the Muscle Truck and Mayhem are keepers for him. He even went so far as to mostly return Mayhem to it’s pre-hellcat era, removing all the swap stuff done to it, as “It ruined the car” which for a classic muscle car making it a modern thing in an old skin I can see his point.
I don’t blame him for returning the Mayhem to original form. Mayhem was the first ever Hellcat swap, and it showed – the engine and trans alone would have been fine, but the 2015 interior stuff was just messy.
Birdsong’s videos covering chassis restoration (un-&*#^ing would be a more appropriate word) were pretty cool to watch though.
The Muscle Truck was so cool it made me actually idly look around Marketplace to see what ’70s shortbox Chevies were selling for and I’m not even much of a fan of hot rod trucks. The earlier iterations of General Mayhem were great too. This one just isn’t on the same level not least because it was obviously done as a corporate sponsorship project that arguably felt at odds with the shows general ethos, and imo the whole faux patina thing always feels a little forced. Very curious to see what this sells for.
Someone valued it at almost $60k. So yeah, they were out there
I get it was painted to look like the old car, but I draw a line at fake rust on plastic bumpers