"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.
In the world of watching drag racing, the only thing better than watching a Dodge tear apart a Ford, Chevy or import brand is watching a pair of classic Dodge performance cars going head to head. This week’s Mopar Muscle Thursday clip features one such race, with a seriously built 1968 Dodge Charger racing overseas […] More »
I think that the 1at generation Dodge Dakota convertible was one of the coolest trucks of all time – not because it was super fast or because it could pull a house off of the foundation –because it’s hard not to love a small pickup with a V8 engine and a convertible top. This Dakota […] More »
The vast majority of the pickups and SUVs that we feature on DodgeForum’s Truckin Fast Wednesday are a bit quicker than the 2005 Dodge Ram Quad Cab in the video shown below but running low 13s in a truck of this size is still mighty impressive – and I can’t get enough of watching a […] More »
The modern SRT Viper GTS-R race program made its less-than-triumphant return to the 24 Hours of LeMans race last year and with a strong finish to the 2013 combined with a strong start to the 2014 endurance racing season – many Mopar racing fans expected this to be the year where the Viper would head […] More »
There is no question that 1st gen Dodge Ram (and the Dodge D Series trucks before they became the Ram) look awesome when dropped. While they have very upright lines, a slight drop goes a long way in making the earlier Ram trucks look like sport trucks but those old school Dodge truck owners who […] More »
Now, while I admit that the vast majority of our Tire Shredding Tuesday clips show Dodge, Ram or some other Chrysler brand doing a much nastier burnout than the few shown in the video below – this 1969 Dodge Charger looks and sounds too awesome to skip over. This Charger roars to life around 5 […] More »
This week’s featured “cool thread” is unusual as it is a little bit of a project thread and a little bit of a general Dodge Ram offroading discussion thread. Wh1t3NuKle started this thread almost two years ago with the hopes of showing off what his 2g Ram could do, posting pictures and videos of him […] More »