Driver of this Scat Pack Challenger skillfully drifts back and forth on the crowded street, narrowly avoiding people and vehicles.
The footage above comes to us from the Instagram account of jerrylokszz and it features a Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack sliding around the streets of Southern California. On one hand, the video shows that the Instagrammer has decent car control skills, but this is the kind of hoonage that we recommend against, as the reward of being Insta-famous for a handful of grainy drifting videos is hardly worth the risk of plowing through a crowd of innocent bystanders.
Drifting in SoCal
In the short video above, the Challengeris drifting back and forth on a fairly wide street, but there are cars lining both sides of the street, narrowing the area in which the driver can slide. Worse yet, there are hundreds of people gathered at one end of the street, so after barely avoiding the parked cars while whipping the back end around, the driver barrels through an area that is packed with people on foot.
Fortunately, the Scat Pack Challenger leaves the crowded area as quickly as it entered with the tires smoking the whole time. After racing away from the crowd and doing a smoky U-turn, the driver storms back into the crowd to offer a few more close-up shots of the Mopar muscle car in action before the video ends.
Insane Risks
We don’t want to take anything away from this Instagrammer, as he does a fantastic job of controlling his Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack and in looking through his video, this is something that he does quite often.
However, with the many videos online showing this exact type of automotive action going wrong, usually with a Ford Mustang losing control and slamming into people, we have to wonder how long this driver and his spectators will keep leaving the scene without incident.
The driver has skills and a car that could do well on a proper closed circuit course where there is no one to run over, but in the meantime, his latest video is proving to be very popular online.
"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.
