Mopar or ‘No’par: 75-year-old Great Grandma Loves Her Dodge Challengers

Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and 50th Anniversary Edition will soon be joined by a Demon and a TRX.

The Dodge Challenger has become one of the most popular performance cars sold in America, often ranking second overall in monthly and annual sales. All sorts of people drive the modern Mopar muscle cars, but we generally don’t see many 75-year old great grandmothers driving the likes of the SRT Hellcat or Demon. However, Carolyn Batteas isn’t your average great grandmother and her current vehicle lineup makes that quite clear.

Batteas currently has two modern Dodge Challengers – a White Knuckle 2019 SRT Hellcat and a Go Mango 2020 50th Anniversary Edition – but she also has a Demon lined up to purchase AND she has a Ram 1500 TRX on order. Oh, she also has her NHRA drag racing license and she has taken three different high performance driving courses at Bondurant, with plans to move onto the Advanced courses soon.

The folks from The Dodge Garage recently chronicled how this 75-year old great grandmother came to have such an impressive stable of Dodge performance machines. Surprisingly, her need for speed has only come about in the past few years.

Ms. Hellcat Gets Her Dodge Challenger

Carolyn Batteas grew up in a single parent household in the 1950s and 1960s, where she had to help with the other children. While her brothers got to ride bikes and play with BB guns, she had to learn to sew instead. She grew up, went to college, became a nurse, got married, had kids and eventually retired. At some point, she moved to Lubbock, Texas, where she is closer to her grown daughter’s family. A few years back, she began noticing more and more Dodge Challengers on the road, prompting her to visit her local dealership.

“A few years back, I was noticing many Challengers driving around in my town and they’re really beautiful cars. Since I was single and all my kids were grown and out of the house, I wanted a cool car. I went to my local dealer to see if yellow was still available but he said no, so I ended up buying a White Knuckle 2019 Challenger SRT Hellcat. I had so much fun driving and racing my new car, my kids and grandkids thought I was crazy,” Batteas told The Dodge Garage.

After getting comfortable with her Hellcat Challenger, she made a trip to the drag strip. Having never driven such a vehicle on the track, she struggled, so when a friend sent her information on the Bondurant High Performance Driving School, she began to make plans to attend. Rather than just sticking with the free class that comes with her Hellcat Challenger, she paid the extra money for a full three-day class.

Her Passion Grows

After attending the initial Bondurant program which focused on road racing, Batteas entered the drag racing program with the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. She went so far as to go through the entire NHRA licensing process, certifying her to run 9-second quarter mile times. While doing this, she fell in love with the Demon, so she reached out to her dealership to see if they could find her one. As luck would have it, the dealership is currently working on bringing one in for her. She also purchased a 2020 Challenger 50^th Anniversary Edition model and she has a Ram 1500 TRX on order.

So to review, right now Batteas has a Dodge Challenger in 2019 Hellcat and 2020 50^th Anniversary Edition trim. She will soon take delivery of her 2018 Demon, which she already knows how to drive and is licensed to run wide open at NHRA tracks. She also has a TRX on order, which is guaranteed to impress her five grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.

As for her high performance driving education, Batteas will soon begin working her way through the more advanced Bondurant courses in addition to driving and racing her three Dodge Challengers and her Ram 1500 TRX.

Click here to read her entire story at The Dodge Garage.

Photos: Dodge Garage 

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Patrick Rall

"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.

"Being based on Detroit," says Rall, "I never miss the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit's Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.

Rall can be contacted at QuickMirada@Yahoo.com

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