"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 morning at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, fellow Fiat SpA subsidiary Ferrari introduced the most powerful supercar in the storied history of their brand and because this isn’t just a Ferrari, the company has opted to name it LaFerrari – The Ferrari. Mind you, this car isn’t the Ferrari LaFerrari but rather, it is […] More »
The Chrysler Group moved 139,015 new vehicles last month – marking the 35th consecutive month where the company as a whole has shown year over year (compared to the same month in the previous year) growth. No other automaker can make a claim like that but the bigger story is which vehicles did the best […] More »
The Chrysler Group posted their best February in five years last month with 139,015 vehicles sold accounting for a 4% improvement over the same month in 2012. The Ram brand was up 2% thanks to the Ram truck lineup while the Dodge brand was the star of the company in February 2013 with 55,639 vehicles […] More »
While you might be thinking “the 2013 SRT Viper has been here since being introduced at the 2012 New York International Auto Show” after reading the title of this piece – I am referring to a different sort of being officially here. The Chrysler Group issued their February 2013 sales report today and for the […] More »
While getting the most in terms of pulling out of your Ram Heavy Duty has generally meant operating with steeper gears, the 2013 Ram 2500 and 3500 will only be available with a 3.42 gearing radio. The 3.73 and 4.10 gears previously featured in the Ram HD lineup are no longer available with those trucks […] More »
The Drive SRT Facebook page is spending this entire week taking a look at how the interior of the 2013 SRT Viper went from a handful of crude doodles to the sexy production cockpit featured in the Mopar supercars in production right now. In addition to posting images each day of the steps required to […] More »
The new SRT Viper American Club Racer (ACR) is expected to arrive during the 2014 calendar year and while it will likely have some serious high performance road tires when it arrives – it may not have the significant level of upgrades that many Mopar enthusiasts are expecting as the Street and Racing Technology team […] More »
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