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FEATURE INTERVIEWS:
Fifteenth Year Anniversary Special Throwback
Mike Finnegan Edition:
It is hard to believe that in May of 2024 it will have been fifteen years since I carved out a hole in my basement and started recording this podcast! Many listeners have tuned in and followed along as I met people from all across the automotive world and simply asked the questions we all wanted to know about business and cars. I had no idea that 15 years later I’d still be in the business, nor did I have a clue what a life defining thing this would become. In a nutshell, this podcast (and you) have changed my life. As a tribute to you the listener, please enjoy this step back in history to when the podcast was new and the journey was just beginning.
Way back in 2015, YouTube was paying people to make content to help build up the platform hoping to attract watchers to use the service. The video hosting service approached Hot Rod magazine to see if they had some automotive content that could be used at the time as they knew they had an automotive component in their viewership. It just so happened that David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan had gone on a trip, filmed it as something fun to do, so they posted that to YouTube as the first episode not knowing if it would be something people would watch. They used that as a template to basically make a show about nothing but two guys getting cars and seeing if they can make it home. No other plot was used and no script was written besides buy something and get somewhere.
Mike admitted it was very hard on the camera crew and editors as the cameras were not always running at the right time or if there was something recorded it was after long segments of nothing but road footage. To say all of this turned into a hit would be an understatement. It was the start of something that made Finnegan and Freiburger a household name to gearheads around the globe, and in 2015 I landed an interview with THE Mike Finnegan.
In Episode 254 I talked to Mike for the first time on air. We hit it off big time and I found out we had a lot in common, most particularly in our love for the TV show “The Dukes of Hazzard” and a bright orange Dodge Charger called the General Lee. In one series of the Roadkill episodes Mike and David built up a beater Charger with a motorhome engine and took it to the world famous Dirtfish rally school to thrash it around a dirt track. The resulting images are permanently embedded in thousands of peoples minds and cemented the General Mayhem as latest Charger in the automotive hall of fame!
Of course it was a huge nod to the 80s show and the dirt road antics of our favorite cousins and the world loved it. General Mayhem shirts and artwork have been flying off the shelf for years and numerous follow up episodes have been made with this iconic beater car. This mutual love of the General led Mike and I to discuss starting a podcast that also has no plot other than reviewing episodes of the Dukes of Hazzard thirty years after the shows aired.
Listening to this interview with Mike and looking back over what has happened since is a bit of magic, as he once again helped launch another show that thousands love but this time it was the Kibbe and Finnegan Podcast. He has also been a regular guest on The Muscle Car Place and a spot interview personality at large events like Roadkill Nights. He is a great friend and over the years he has been able to put me and the shows into some pretty fun situations including yet another famous car, the Death Metal Charger, that I helped him purchase. To say my interactions with Mike since this interview have been a rollercoaster ride maybe an understatement, but I am very glad it all happened.
You can follow Mike on many social pages but he suggests the best place is Instagram as Finnegan999 but you can also find him on Facebook and Twitter. You can catch RoadKill on the Motor trend network or Mikes own show on YouTube.com/@FinnegansGarage.
Thanks Mike for the fun over the years
-Rob Kibbe
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This interview sponsored by our pals at National Parts Depot – your premier source for muscle car restoration parts!
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