"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.
Sometimes our Photo of the Week segment focuses on build up show quality Dodge or Ram vehicles all shined up while others show the cars, trucks and SUVs that we all love getting down and dirty – and this week’s feature falls into the latter of the two. The 1st gen Dodge Durango shown above […] More »
The Cummins Turbo Diesel engine that powers so many heavy duty Dodge Ram trucks can be easily recognized as modified if it blows smoke when in action but you really know that you’re in for a show when the engine churns out smoke at idle. The 2nd gen Ram in action in front of the […] More »
One of the easiest ways to personalize your truck is to add aftermarket wheels and the latest Cool Thread of the Day features a wheel poll in our 3rd generation Dodge Ram section. This thread asks 3g Ram owners to vote for their favorite wheel company in the poll and then post up what they […] More »
If you have a 3rd gen Dodge Ram pickup with windshield wipers that don’t work quite as well as they once did, you are in luck as DF member ewing111 put together a great DIY thread with a ton of pictures that walk you through the process of fixing the intermittent wiper issue. The good […] More »
This week’s Mopar Muscle Thursday clips features a pair of classic Mopar drag cars in a head to head battle that begins with a couple of massive wheelstands. In the right (far) lane is a 1962 Dodge Dart and in the left lane (near) is a 1964 Plymouth Savoy as these two old school racers […] More »
This week’s Muddy Monday feature takes a look at what looks to be an early to mid 1970s Dodge Ram D150 in a seriously deep mud pit. When this Ram dives down into the pit, the walls of mud are up to the windows of the truck but thanks to a serious set of tires, […] More »
Due to the fact that the vast majority of our members either own newer Dodge cars or Dodge/Ram pickups, we don’t feature a great many classic Mopars on the DF front page but if we had more members with cars like the 1969 Dodge Coronet R/T shown above – we would have a whole lot […] More »