"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
This week’s Black Friday video takes a look at a purpose built, Cummins powered 2nd generation Ram race truck as it prepares and attacks the quarter mile for some “shakedown runs”. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see this rear end monster make any full passes but even in letting off around half track and coasting […] More »
This week’s Mopar Muscle Thursdays feature video is an oldie but a goodie – showing an Underground Racing built 2g Dodge Viper GTS laying down an incredible 1,546 horsepower on the dyno. This Viper, then owned by a very lucky (and likely very wealthy) individual named Garth Weaver, packs a twin turbo setup that allows […] More »
Unless you live under a rock, you are probably familiar with the fact that the Chrysler Group recently denied a request by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to recall millions of Jeeps over concerns that they are prone to burning in the event of a rear end collision. While Chrysler initially declined to issue […] More »
There are few names in the Mopar high performance tuning world that are better known than the people at Hennessey Performance and this week’s Truckin Fast Wednesday video takes a look at their awesome HPE500 package for the 4th generation Hemi-powered Ram 1500. This video of the HPE500 Ram shows the high performance pickup doing a […] More »
Since the Dodge Challenger SRT8 was introduced back in 2008, one of the biggest complaints has come from people who want to go fast in a Mopar muscle car without all of the high priced “luxury items” that drive up the cost. For the 2013 model year, the folks at SRT have answered the prayers […] More »
With any high performance vehicle, its arrival on the streets inevitably means that someone is going to verify advertised power with a dyno run but with the 2013 SRT Viper – Chrysler did the work for us. Last month, the folks from the SRT brand took a new Viper to Livernois Motorsports near Detroit for a […] More »
While we generally stick to Dodge and Ram brand vehicles in our daily feature articles, this awesome clip of a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee destroying the rear tires is too good to pass up for this week’s Tire Shredding Tuesday feature. This video appears to have been shot by some younger gentlemen who are excited enough […] More »