Here we go!
After my accident,
they gave me a 50/50 shot to make it.
I didn't know if I was gonna race again.
I wanna win to prove that you can come back from that.
When I got back from Afghanistan,
it takes a little bit to adapt to the civilian lifestyle again,
but my car got me through that time.
I built it myself, but I know I could definitely beat a supercar.
A few years ago, nobody had ever heard about Tesla.
It doesn't look like a stupid fast car,
but we've pissed off quite a few people at the track.
I would love to see this Tesla wipe the field
with all these damn muscle-car guys or import guys.
I think I can take the race because
I've got the vehicle that can do it, and I've got more balls than brains.
If my junk holds together off the line,
the supercar doesn't have a chance.
A little more. A little bit more. A little bit more.
♪ A little bit louder now ♪
I like to think about this truck, how it lived a long, hard life in Arizona,
and retired and died in the desert,
and then it got revived, and it's livin' the wildest reunion tour
of any little Japanese Toyota pickup truck on the planet.
If you asked that truck, it probably would say,
"You should've left me there."
Yeah. "Let me die."
My name's Joshua Mazerolle,
and I'm drivin' a 1977 Toyota Hilux pickup.
You can't see this truck and not wanna know more about it.
Its name is Death Wish.
It's always trying to kill me,
whether it's killing me by keeping me up for days straight to get it to run,
or it's just sendin' me off the road.
It's a twin-turbocharged, six-liter LS motor,
and it's sittin' on 2006 Crown Vic front and rear suspension.
I came out of the womb kickin' the clutch,
so I was kind of born into cars.
My dad always had a pickup truck
that we'd take out in the woods and go through the mud,
and always modifying
and trying to make bigger, better, faster.
I've always been attracted to Toyota pickups.
I think it's 'cause my dad liked 'em and I just had to learn how to like 'em.
It's a disease and I'm hooked.
I've got a life motto. I believe that negative experiences
hold more value than positive experiences.
When you're in your worst times is when magic happens,
and that is 100% the story of my '77 Toyota Hilux.
I take a lot of road trips, and a buddy of mine and I...
had spotted this Toyota Hilux in this guy's backyard,
abandoned in the desert for 15 years.
And it didn't run, but there was just somethin' special about it
that I had to have.
I spent about a week or so trying to get the truck running in Phoenix,
because I intended to drive it back from Phoenix to New Hampshire
in 100% stock form.
And when I finally left,
within the first 200 miles, I had to stop 35 times to fix or diagnose this thing.
So many people asked me, "Why didn't you burn the thing? Get a plane ticket.
It's a junk little truck and it's not worth the aggravation and the effort."
But doing something that people think you can't do or shouldn't do
is sort of a little bit of a mission for me in general.
I didn't wanna quit when I knew it was possible.
So I started doing somethin' where anybody who helped me
out of the kindness of their heart and expected nothing in return,
I had them sign the truck,
whether they donated parts, time, material, labor, a shower.
And that happened all the way across the country.
This truck has its own magic.
And I don't know what it is, but people love it.
Meeting all of these amazing people
that just stepped up without even being asked,
I've come to realize, if you look at the world through the eyes of the media,
it's a dangerous, scary place,
but if you actually get out to experience it on a person-to-person level,
it's full of love, kindness and regular people who just wanna help.
Winning this would be like a... a double middle finger
to anybody who's ever doubted my drive or abilities.
I would be able to present the work and the effort that
hundreds and hundreds of people have put into this vehicle,
and they'd be able to see their effort didn't get stuffed in the back of a barn.
It went on to whoop some supercar ass.
In drag racing, the most important thing is reaction time.
Red light.
- Green light. - Ooh.
- Double-0-two, that's pretty close. - That's not too bad.
I might wanna hire you to drive this supercar.
Maybe I should race!
- Perfect. - Oh!
Trip, zip.
My girlfriend Melissa likes to see me win,
because she knows that if I win, I'm in a better mood.
- It's gettin' bad for you. - Yeah, it is.
I'm a sore loser, especially if I get beat on the drag strip.
This is, uh, the LS single-turbo powered '89 Ford Mustang
that we call Beer Money.
Kind of a name that we coined after buying beer
with the money we sold the parts off this car with.
With this $10,000 shitbox,
we are gonna absolutely donkey stomp whatever supercar
they decide is fitting to run against us.
Drag racin' is somethin' that was kind of instilled in me from birth.
My dad and my grandfather, they had a little hot rod shop.
Both did some drag racing.
I remember as a kid, sittin' in his dragster
and lookin' at the big slicks out beside me
and touchin' the steerin' wheel and stuff.
Just thinkin' it was so cool that I was sittin' in a drag car.
When I became of age, my dad's like, "What do you think about drag racin'?"
"Sure. If it's fast cars and... and high horsepower, I'm good."
And literally that weekend we bought our first drag car.
It's in his blood.
He definitely started driving things at an early age.
Goin' down the track fast, it's an adrenaline rush.
It's kinda... I guess that's what I feed off of.
You know, it feels good to let loose the button and that thing kick back,
and pick the tires up a little bit.
My dad and I, we... we bracket raced together.
We were tough to beat for a while. You know, we... we did very well.
I've been his coach, crew chief.
We're best friends.
I never envisioned where we are now,
particularlyconsiderin' some of the things we've been through.
The idea behind purchasing the Corvette was to take that next step.
We knew then that we were going to the top of radial tire racin'.
I was about 22 years old.
That was arguably one of the most exciting times of my life.
This was our first race with a brand new race car,
and this was a big race.
Tens of thousands of people online watching this.
A big crowd gathered. It was a great stage.
Both drivers movin' in. Here we go!
First car... Second... Comin' alive.
In the...
...97 and 185...
Everybody, stay where you're at, please.
Everybody, stay where you're at.
At just over three and a half seconds into the run,
we, uh, had an electronics failure,
and it caused one of the fuel injectors to stop pumping.
It torched out the back, set the whole inside of the car on fire.
I bounced off of both walls and literally burned alive for almost 30 seconds.
I was on fire.
The worst feeling ever is bein' enclosed in a capsule like that on fire,
and there was no doubt in my mind that I was gonna die like this.
When I got to him, uh, he was layin' on the track.
The first thing he said to me was he was sorry.
I started not being able to breathe because my lungs were burnt so bad.
And, uh... woke up two and a half weeks later.
They gave me a 50/50 shot to make it.
The unknown was what scared me the most.
One of the most vivid memories I have is that first time walking again.
Like, "Holy shit. I gotta learn how to do this again."
Good job, buddy.
I could just barely move my fingers,
so was I gonna be able to hold a wrench?
Was I gonna be able to hold a fork? Was I gonna be able to wipe my own ass?
What was people's reaction gonna be to me
when they saw me in public, you know?
After the wreck,
when I saw Lyle for the first time, my heart dropped.
I thought, "I can't lose him. What is our future gonna be like?"
It was rough.
I went through about eight months of weekly physical therapy.
And I didn't... I didn't know if I was gonna race again.
But I'm a firm believer in if the horse bucks you off, you gotta get back on it.
I was gonna do it again.
It surprised me.
As soon as he healed up enough that the doctor would clear him to drive and...
I mean, he was... he wanted to get in a race car.
You know, I made my first pass pretty much exactly a year after my crash.
About to go down and this will be emotional,
if Lyle Barnett and the Tooth Jerker can get down ahead of John McDonough.
I eat, sleep, and breathe it.
You know, it's... it's all I've known since I was 15 years old.
It's just not something I can let go.
And John McDonough smokes the tires, ladies and gentlemen,
Lyle Barnett, your first champion at Lights Out 8.
That was the beginning to where we are now,
still racin' and still love every minute of it.
Dad's been my number one supporter as far as racing's concerned,
you know, all my life.
I feel like I owe it to my dad to win this race
because he's kinda gotten me to this point, you know?
We're not here to run second, finish third,
and definitely not lose to a damn supercar, so...
we're here to win.
I feel like I... There it is!
- Oh! - Oh!
That was a good game. Who's got next?
The purpose of being a part of Section 8, and part of a team,
is just to have, like, a brotherhood, you know,
everybody's about drag racin', everybody's about progressin'
and gettin' faster and helpin' each other.
We all wanna win.
- We gotta wanna win. - We've all been winners for a while,
and, uh, that's what the reputation of Section 8 has become.
When it comes to team,
it doesn't matter if it's Coyote or LS or V6s,
- we're all supportin' each other. - No, I get it.
For sure. If one guy wins, in my mind, we all win.
- That's the end goal. - That's what we want.
Here in Savannah, most guys have muscle cars.
I'm really the only, you know, import, Nissan guy in the group, and...
it's very rare to see an import that's,
you know, fast enough to keep up with the muscle cars, if not beat 'em.
I would definitely see myself as an oddball
in the car scene, especially around here.
For me, I just like makin' something that's not normally fast, fast.
So the name of my car is Devil Z.
After I got back from Afghanistan
and I put all the parts that I had ordered in the car,
I ended up making 666-wheel horsepower.
I still feel I get more adrenaline
from a close race than I did from gettin' shot at.
It really gets my heart goin', you know, just a nice, good race.
Me and my grandfather, we were still very close.
He told me he thought it was a good thing for every man to go into the military
to at least learn discipline and get that structure.
Right after I graduated high school,
a month and a half later, I was in basic training.
I went in as a 91 Bravo, which was a wheeled vehicle mechanic.
Around 2012,
I found out we were gonna go to Afghanistan
and that we would be attached to Special Forces.
I was very scared at first.
You see people die,
you'd be sleepin' and gunshots would go right over you.
Drivin' over there,
you could hit an IED or you could be ridin' next to a guy
that just blows it up right next to you.
It's a hard thing to take in, sometimes.
You know, it could have been you,
you could have been the one that got your life taken away.
When I got back from Afghanistan,
it takes a little bit to adapt to the civilian lifestyle again.
My car was actually at my buddy's house while I was in Afghanistan,
and so when I got back, I just started tearing the car down,
pulled the motor out, put new turbos on it.
My car kinda got me through that time.
All my stress or whatever that was going on,
military and all the heartaches and stuff,
I just all put it into the thing that I loved the most, which is my car.
Pretty much been a mechanic my whole life.
When I was younger, my dad actually had a shop
where he built GT American race cars.
And every day after school, I'd go to the shop
and it would be me and my father and my grandfather.
And then, every weekend, we would go to racing.
I always looked forward, I'd be in school and be like, "I can't wait to get off.
I just wanna go help my pappy and my dad work."
They were the two biggest people in my life.
And this is one I always keep around
to remind me of my pappy.
He was the rock of the family.
When I was about 16 or 17, my pappy passed away.
He had a heart attack.
He was like the foundation of the family, so...
once he passed away, everybody kinda, you know, went on their separate ways
and nobody was really as close as they were.
When I was in the military,
I definitely feel like Pappy was looking down on me,
trying to, you know, keeping me safe.
My pappy would be super excited to see me do this race,
uh, against a supercar and other fast cars.
The plan is to definitely win this one for my pappy.
And I like the wow factor of takin' a car that's not known to be as fast
and endin' up winnin' and beatin' all these super fast cars.
We gotta get out 60 orders today.
Ah, well, we're gonna be tryin'.
If we get all this done by Friday, then you're goin' racin' this weekend.
Yeah. Car has got charge. Got a fresh set of tires to put on.
Everything we need to kick some ass, pretty much.
My name is Charles Corriher.
I'm from Newton, North Carolina and I'm 23 years old.
Currently I drive a 2016 Tesla Model S P100D.
The Tesla's all-wheel drive, it weighs just under 5,000 pounds,
which is extremely heavy for anything racin'.
It makes roughly 700 horsepower and it's fully electric.
I've been lucky enough to have my dad pretty much get me this.
So, all the people out there sayin', "Daddy's money bought you the car..."
Don't get me wrong, it's true, but if somebody's gonna hand you a Tesla,
you'd probably drive it, too.
Currently, for a livin', I'm a laser operator at my dad's factory.
We manufacture tractor attachments.
I started workin' there about three years ago now,
and, uh, the business has been just like, extremely good lately,
we've been real fortunate there.
Don't let him fool you. He's not just a spoiled rich kid
that gets everything for free.
He works here hard, he makes me money here,
and he's a really good guy.
My mom and my dad both love racin'. They're still passionate about it.
They ended up, uh, meetin' at the Hickory Motor Speedway
a long time ago, and they ended up being together for a little bit.
Since my mom and my dad loved to race,
it's just, it's in my blood now, and now I can't get it out.
We started going to the drag strip, and then the next thing I know,
I don't have a car anymore.
He has my car every weekend.
I started street racing a few years ago.
One of my buddies was like, "Hey, let's take the Tesla to the street race."
Everybody was like, "Oh, it's a Tesla."
Nobody had really seen 'em on the streets at all.
How the hell did you end up with that car?
- That's my dad's, man. - Oh, really?
People really wanted to race, actually, 'cause people just wanted to see
what the car would do in person.
Come on, Charles! Go! Woo!
We didn't lose that night, luckily. It ended up being a really good night.
The video, it was doing okay, and then, out of nowhere,
Elon Musk, I guess he saw it, and was like,
"Damn, this guy's kicking people's ass in a Tesla, pissing people off.
He loved it and he ended up sharing the video on his Twitter page.
When you're gettin' a few hundred views,
then wake up and it's got a few hundred thousand views,
you're like, "What the fuck, is this real?"
And now I've kinda got the reputation
of just the Tesla guy around here, so it's kinda worked out well.
Teslas, they're not too popular in the area.
Here in NASCAR country, of course,
everybody is around muscle cars, you know, your big V8s.
Their first question is usually like, "What is the car?"
Like, "It's a Tesla." Like, "Who makes it?" "Tesla makes it."
It's not cool 'cause it's electric,
but when they get in the car and they feel that torque off the line,
they're sold at that point.
Woo!
My chances in this race?
I'd love to say that they're extremely good,
because when this car hooks and goes, I mean, it hooks and goes.
It's a freak.
Being the Tesla guy on YouTube,
I'd better not get beat by no damn sleeper car.
All right, guys. I know what we're racin'.
Yeah?
Yep.
It is a 2016...
Tesla.
- A Tesla? - Model S P100D.
I know absolutely nothing about it.
I know Teslas are like drivin' a cell phone.
- They have vicious acceleration. - Yeah.
So the biggest disadvantage is traction, with this truck.
And it sounds like that's his biggest advantage.
An electric car's got all the torque.
- It's... - Instant torque.
- It... Yeah, it's instant torque. It's now. - Yeah.
I do have, uh, some slicks that I acquired.
So we gotta get these slicks fitted,
and then we can start dialing the shocks in,
do a couple of test hits and get it to bite.
I think, for my car, I'm gonna be able to mile an hour at the top end,
and so the most important part for me
is gettin' it to hook and bite, come out of the hole hard,
because it's a pickup truck and there's no weight over the back.
That thing's fast out of the hole and slow on the top end,
and this is slow out of the hole and fast on the top.
They can't get any more opposite than they are.
But with you racin' this truck,
it means somethin' to everybody who's got their name wrote on it.
A hundred percent. That's exactly the whole purpose of this vehicle.
This year, I've put 28,000 miles on that car.
I basically lived in this truck for three months.
It's been coast to coast several times.
I've come to realize that the only time I actually feel at home
is when I'm on the road, driving in my car.
- That's a lot of tire. - It's a lot of tire.
The problem is they're a little bit too big.
We can fix that. We'll have to cut the wheel off.
At this point, I don't care what we cut out as long as I win.
How much do you think this tire will balloon when you do a burnout?
I... have to imagine it'll balloon at least an inch and a half,
two inches, the top end of the track.
- Okay. 'Cause my... - And...
My concern is, you know, we can cut it to fit,
but this thing will be like a razor blade if it balloons too much.
- Yeah. - When it gets hot...
Imagine losin' a tire at 160 miles an hour?
- Right. - That'd be a hell of a ride.
We'd really test the cage out.
- So... Yeah. So let's cut deeper... - Extra.
- Yeah. I agree. - Extra than more than we thought.
Looks great.
- That's precision right there. - Yeah. I cut it to his line perfectly.
I think traction is no longer our weak link.
- No? - We should get outta the hole pretty hard.
- I think driver's our weak link now. - Driver is definitely the weak link.
Let's take it out and do some test hits.
- All right. Let's go. - Cool.
I really just need a little bit more practice and more seat time
so I can dial the truck in.
I'm gonna put my foot all of the way on the floor and hold on.
So it's Beer Money versus Elon Musk.
All I heard was Tesla, and was like, "Don't have to worry about that one."
The Tesla driver's gonna be like, "Oh, yeah! Look at me! I'm out for...
Gone.
If he has a beard, out of here. Eyebrows... Gone, too.
- Curb weight's 4,900 pounds. - Jeez.
- So, pretty heavy. - But it is all-wheel drive, ain't it?
- I would assume so. - Pretty sure, yeah.
Bein' all-wheel drive,
I would say we're not gonna be able to keep up with that thing
in the first 60 feet.
Probably need to make a couple of changes. What do you think?
- See where our weight's at. - Maybe add a little bit?
- Add a little weight in the rear. - In the rear.
As much on the rear tires as we can, help it hook up.
Sounds good.
With the Tesla being all-wheel drive,
I am less confident that I'll have a big advantage off the startin' line.
Tires, I think, play a huge role here.
- Bam! - That oughta help.
- Yep. - That should help.
So right now, we're 3,450, uh... total weight.
- 46? - Yeah, we added that...
Yeah, added that weight on the rear.
We just scaled the car out trying to figure out
kinda percentages front to back.
Of the total weight of the car, 46% of that weight
is the front half of the car, the rest is in the rear.
You need that weight back there to plant the tire.
That's why the Tesla's gonna be good out of the hole.
It weighs 5,000 pounds,
and it's got that tire planted pretty good.
Hard to spin one with 5,000 pounds sittin' on it.
We can let it down.
Mr. Tesla P100D is probably, uh...
vacuuming his carpeted garage with his Dyson.
He's not changin' his oil, I know that.
The biggest challenge for this Tesla is the launch.
They got real good traction out the hole, so I'm thinkin'
we can do a little bit softer spring...
Uh, helps transfer the weight and I actually can hook off the launch
and a scramble button just in case the Tesla gets out a little too hard.
Then I can hit that scramble button,
up the boost, and really run around him on the big end.
- I guess we can start the spring swap. - Yeah. Jack it up.
Bang it on home.
I'm actually gonna take off this bottom bolt on the shock
so this whole shock will come out.
- You good? - Yep.
All right, comin' out.
- You got those two out? - No, I got one more almost out.
All right, I'll push it up for you.
All right, there's the shock.
So now we'll do the spring change.
Where I grew up, it wasn't the... the greatest area.
I lived, kind of, I would guess you would call the ghetto.
Around 16 or so, we ended up having to taper off of being able to race.
Everything was so much more expensive
that we couldn't afford to be competitive with the guys with that kind of money.
But now that I have my own car and I got my own money,
and I... I got it fast enough, I know I'm gonna beat that supercar
and beat that guy with all that money.
I don't think there's a thing on the car that I haven't changed.
All right, so we got the suspension set up,
it should be good to go,
so let's just hook up that scramble button just in case it gets out on us.
- All right. - That's not too bad.
- I could pull back and I can still hit it. - Yeah.
Okay. Should be about 100 more horsepower on that button,
just in case we need it.
We changed the springs and then hooked up the scramble button
for more horsepower.
Now I've got to test it to see if we've done enough.
Let's go to Mexico.
The Teslas are extremely technological cars.
I mean, it's basically a rolling computer, if you were to say.
This thing has got autopilot where I can literally just take my hands off the wheel
and let it drive itself.
It's not like a typical car, I mean, this car gets, like, updates every night.
There's always, like, hidden features which people call Easter eggs.
There's no gear changes, no oil changes, it just works great.
One of the newer features our Tesla's got that makes your car even faster
is Ludicrous Plus mode.
All you gotta do is hold down the Ludicrous button
and it goes into a screen
that says, "Are you sure you want Ludicrous Plus mode?"
And it... You know, your options are, "No, I want my mommy,"
or "Yes, bring it on."
So, of course, you're gonna bring it on.
Hey, man. Hey! Hey, hey, hey!
Hey! Hey! Hey! Wait!
Pretty much right then and there they give you a power update
and it gives you an extra tenth of a second to the quarter mile.
Shit, man. Hey, motherfucker!
That's awesome in a drag race.
People get mad when they get beat by it, so we've pissed off quite a few people.
I took that lane 'cause it felt better...
You took that lane in a goddamn all-wheel drive!
Lookin' as young as I do, people are like, you know,
"You even got a license?"
People hate on it, but at the end of the day,
I just love to race and kick people's ass if I can.
While the other guys are here wrenchin' on the cars,
makin' sure they're in tip-top shape,
I'm over here just pluggin' my car in.
All I gotta do before a race is really just make sure my car's charged,
make sure you're on Ludicrous Plus mode, and just get ready to nail the throttle.
It's almost too easy sometimes.
As part of our safety check,
we look at the engine temperature on the computer,
and we noticed signs it had been overheating this past week.
I'm a little bit concerned with what possibly could've happened.
Let's talk about what we got goin' on. Um...
We would feel better if we took a look at the inside,
jerk the motor out now, and made sure that we're good.
- It got super hot. - I know it's last-minute,
- I hate to do it now, but... - Better safe than sorry.
Check it out, take a look.
- Yeah. - A safety issue, ultimately.
You know, I mean...
We don't want anything bad to happen and us end up
piling into the side of my man's vacuum cleaner mobile, so...
So, due to what we found or what we're concerned with,
uh, testing is out this afternoon.
We don't have any time for us to do that.
We got to get the motor out and just take a look.
Completely, just a safety check.
Since my crash, safety is at the forefront,
so I am as safe when I'm...
when I'm behind the wheel of a race car as I could possibly be.
And that's how you pull the LS out in 15 minutes.
'Cause it's inevitable.
You know, it's not if, it's when it's gonna happen.
If you do it long enough, you're gonna crash.
I had on the right suit, but I did not have on the right gloves, the right shoes.
You know, when I would look in the mirror it was like, "Jesus Christ."
That was tough. I mean, a very humbling experience.
I could have saved the majority of my face if I'd have just put my visor down.
When he was in the hospital room,
he would make, you know, comments to me, like,
"How are you gonna look at me the same?"
I saw someone who was strong, who, you know...
Obviously, yeah, he looked different, but he was still Lyle to me.
The first time he went back to racing,
I was like, "You're not racing again."
Like, "I can't go and watch you risk doin' all this again."
But seeing how happy he is racing,
you can't stop doing what you love.
It's his passion.
- Yeah, nothin' catastrophic. - Still looks fine.
It turns out the motor was pretty good.
We had a scare. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little worried.
I slapped her back together. We're ready to rock and roll.
I know my car has the power to outrun a supercar,
and now we've added new springs, so traction should be even better.
I... I gotta check somethin' on the car real quick.
Hey, Jordan. Can you close the bottle?
Yeah.
- What's wrong with it? - I don't know. It blew somethin' off.
- Oh, it blew this bolt out here. - Oh, shit.
- What the hell? - Yeah.
It blew that bolt out the balance tube so it's making it idle pretty high.
- Well, we'll have to go back and fix that. - Yeah.
Once we got out a bit and I hit that scramble button,
it blew that... that bolt out, just a part of it, too much boost.
So I'm just gonna have to re-tap that intake
and put that bolt back in and then we should be ready to go.
We don't have a lot of time before the race,
but I think we'll be able to get it done and be ready for it.
I think all I can do to win this race
is be as absolutely prepared as I can.
The bigger tires I've got on the back are definitely gonna help.
Basically, I started spinnin' the tires,
and I left a big long number 11 on the road
instead of actually hookin' and goin'.
But once it caught traction, it boogied.
Hot-rodders from almost every single state
have put their sweat equity into this truck to make it what it is.
I think I can take the race because I've got more balls than brains
and I'm not afraid to leave the pedal to the floor,
whether it's checkers or wreckers.
If my junk holds together off the line, the supercar doesn't have a chance.
I've been through a lot. You know, it was a rough go there for a while.
I hope to... to prove that you can come back from that.
One hundred percent of this is... is to win.
We've fixed the bolt,
and now I'm confident that my car is ready to win the race.
I'm doing this for me, my crew, and I know my pappy's watchin' over me.
Everything I've ever done has always been about racing.
There's definitely lots of pride on the line.
In the end, I feel... I'm confident I'm gonna win this one.
I'm sure when Elon started making these Teslas,
he didn't expect some young guy to really come out there with a racing channel
and street race his Teslas and stuff like that,
so, of course, I wanna win the race and keep my reputation up.
I would love to see this Tesla just wipe the field
with all these damn muscle car guys or import guys, you know,
whatever may show up to the race.
We've been toying with this thing for... it feels like months.
And, you know, I mean, there's a lot at stake.
This is my reputation. We wanna win.
We'll celebrate after we donkey gap a Tesla.
I'm slightly concerned about how cold it is.
When the surface is cold like this,
the tires and the surface don't agree with each other.
It's slick. Traction will be an issue.
Tesla guy shouldn't have a problem.
Um, this really kinda plays into his favor with all-wheel drive.
Look, a victim. A Nissan.
I'm nervous and excited at the same time.
It's a lot of pressure to make sure that I beat all the cars,
including the supercar.
But I like a challenge, it's gonna be fun.
And at this point the Devil Z realizes he's fucked.
- Shut it down if you want. - All right.
How's it going, man? Lyle, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you. - How's it going? Lyle.
- Dean. - That thing is serious.
I'll pop mine. I mean, it don't look as fancy as this one, I'm sure.
Oh, that's awesome. I like that.
I'll pop my hood but there ain't really nothin' to look at on mine.
Fuck yeah.
Mine's just a... It's a stock motor with some turbos on it.
Dean is a local guy, I know he's an experienced, no-prep street racer.
So he has a decent advantage, but we do make a lot of power,
so I think their experience and our power level, it'll all...
I think it'll all pan out pretty good.
I'm feelin' pretty excited.
If I don't bring home the victory, it really would be a surprise.
I think my biggest strength, if I had to pick one,
it's probably just the testicular fortitude
and lack of brains.
What the heck is goin' on?
- Homemade. - Homemade.
- Hopefully it does that during the race. - No shit.
Boo!
Oh, shit.
Yes! One down. Three to go.
That is awesome, though.
Come on over here, cowboy.
- How's it goin'? - How are you?
- What's up? - Lyle.
- Josh. - Nice to meet you.
- I'm Dean. - Dean. Josh.
- That is insane. - It is fucking wild.
These fenders is ridiculous. What tire is that?
It looks like a 12-tread width right there.
I see everybody else signin' it.
This thing was actually built on a road trip across the country,
and anybody who helped out of the kindness of their heart
got to sign the truck.
- That's cool. - So, hundreds of times I broke down.
That sounds about right.
There's some stiff competition here, but I'm feelin' pretty confident.
I do have the biggest tires here,
so the bigger tires are definitely gonna help,
you know, with trying to stick on this limited-traction surface.
I thought the only thing I had to worry about is the dang Tesla.
- Oh... - I thought wrong.
- Wrong. - Wrong.
Dang. Big underdog now.
I wasn't expecting all this.
Goin' through the vehicles out here, I'm definitely...
a little more worried than I was to begin with.
I'm working with the smallest motor, the smallest turbos,
and probably one of the heavier cars.
But we all gotta get down the same road,
and hopefully I just get down it better than they do.
- There it is. - There it is.
'Bout time.
- Cocksucker. - Ooh. That's clean.
Good thing we saw it. It'd run us over before we heard it.
- That's true. - Gettin' beaten by the Tesla...
- We built them out twice. - Not cool.
It's crazy how quiet it is. Well, here we go.
What's that? Pop the hood.
If y'all wanna see under it, we can show it!
I'm glad you parked next to me. I'm gonna need a jump-start.
- Yeah. - This thing's nasty as fuck.
What size motor, a 5.3?
It's a 6.0.
Everybody's on the same team except for the Tesla.
Like, we don't care who wins as long as it's not the Tesla.
So I can see under this hood. What's everybody else got?
- No, just an old big VG in there. - Nice.
Is it 300? Is the LS swapped or has it still got the stock motor?
- It's stock motor. - Is it?
I don't know much about these.
Yeah, I've seen some fast ones on YouTube but that's about as far as I've seen 'em.
Yeah. That Tesla guy definitely has a really good reputation.
Seen a lot of his YouTube videos. He beats a lot of people.
That makes it a bit more interesting, havin' a car like that
and a guy who knows how to use it.
Well, let's see the Chevy motor in this Mustang now.
Yeah. That's what I was lookin' for right there.
It's a big bitch. That's bigger than my fuckin' head, man.
This thing's gonna be nasty, all right.
That's my Tesla scramble antennas, right there.
Oh, that's... that's a scramble button?
- She gonna fry that motherfucker. - Mess with the damn frequency and shit?
The Toyota truck, it's a twin turbo.
It's gonna make some power so it's kinda right there with that Mustang.
He's probably got the best set of tires
as far as, street racing goes with the slicks.
It'll be some damn close racin', actually, with everybody.
About the only thing I gotta do is just drop tire pressure, I'm good to go.
Drivers, please.
I wanna welcome you to the qualifiers.
Today you'll be running in a four-wide race,
and the winner of this race
will go on to the championship round in California.
So one of you will leave the race today as a champion.
A little more confident now some sun on the track's heated it up some.
It just makes us feel better that we've got that extra grip.
Right now I'm kinda getting nervous.
It's all on me. All I can do is screw it up.
I just gotta keep it between the yellow lines and get down there first.
I'm probably a little bit more calm and confident than I should be,
but ignorance is bliss.
I think that I could win if I can get out of the hole hard
and keep traction the whole way.
This'll be bigger than any, you know,
drag strip street race I've ever won before.
We got our work cut out for us, but this car's got Ludicrous mode.
I love being the underdog, and I definitely am,
but my biggest thing is just trying to cut that light, then as soon as I take off,
everything just becomes second nature, I've been doin' it for so long.
Yeah! Z!
Yes.
Nice job, nicely done.
Drivers, teams, friends and family, let's bring it in, please.
All of you worked hard to get here and you gave us a great race.
So thank you so much for that. Really appreciate it.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
In fourth place, drivin' the Toyota pickup,
- we have Josh. - Woo!
- Yeah, Josh! Good job, man. - Yeah!
Yeah, me!
As the lights turned green, I was already spinnin'...
- Okay. - ...and it was just a turd.
But I had a blast, man. I wanna do it again. Like, best out of 15.
- Best out of 15... - I like that.
There you go!
This truck, it's more than just a Toyota pickup.
The hard work and determination of people from all over the country
have helped put this thing together and make all of this possible.
In third place,
drivin' the Tesla,
we have Charles.
- Congratulations. - Woo!
It was a good experience. At the end of the day, you just gotta stay humble,
you know, you win some, you lose some.
Elon Musk might say, "Let's give this kid some damn more power now, you know?
He definitely needs it."
In second place, drivin' a Nissan 300ZX,
we have Dean.
- Yeah! - Yeah, Dean!
I'm happy with the results.
At the end of the day, I think that Tesla was probably
the one thing I didn't wanna lose to.
I think my pappy would be happy. He'd be excited for me.
He knows I'm havin' fun, and it was a good day.
And in first place,
our champion, who is going to the final round in California
to see who is the Fastest Car... is Lyle.
Yeah!
We prepared for this for a long time, myself, Pete, my dad.
I'm excited. I appreciate it was a clean race. Everybody made a clean hit, so...
that's cool, that it went off without a hitch.
So, try to... try to bring it on back,
so we'll see how it goes.
Today's champion. Congratulations.
Congratulations.
To still be here and able to compete like I did today,
you know, that's big, man.
You know, I'm blessed to still be here, for sure.
Dad's been my number one supporter, you know, all my life.
I know he's proud, man. And my girlfriend and stepmom were here, and...
Also... You know, an emotional win all the way around for me.
You know we're rooting for you, man.
This was a big win, but the ultimate goal is to win it all,
and I'm not gonna be satisfied unless we do.