"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 week’s Drag Race video features a 4th generation Pontiac Firebird Trans Am powered by a worked LS1 V8 racing heads up with a New Edge Ford Mustang GT. We don’t know anything about the Mustang, but we know that this Firebird has an unspecified camshaft, headers, exhaust cutouts, a 4.11 gear set and a […] More »
This week’s Burnout video features a 3rd gen Chevrolet Camaro and while the average 1986 Camaro isn’t a monster burnout machine – this overseas F-Body is no average 3rd gen. Early in the video, we get to see a car show board with what I imagine is all of the information on this 3rd gen […] More »
I love vintage automotive ads and I feature a great many of them for Throwback Thursday, but this week’s old school commercial for the 1969 Pontiac Firebird is very likely one of the strangest new car ads I’ve seen. Evidently (according to the commercial), the introduction of the redesigned 1969 Firebird caused such a significant […] More »
This week’s Dyno Blast video features what might just be the baddest 4th gen Chevrolet Camaro ever with enough rear wheel horsepower to literally blow apart the rear tires on the dyno. The details on this twin turbocharged monster are limited, but the details explain that this Camaro was built to run the Texas Mile […] More »
This week’s Burnout video features a 4th gen Chevrolet Camaro SS taking part in a burnout contest at RPM Powersports in Omaha, Nebraska. We don’t know anything about the Camaro in question, but based on the sound of the engine and the ease with which is turns the rear tires into little bits and a […] More »
This video starts off by showing a 2009 Ford F-350 Super Duty getting beat in a street race by a built Chevrolet Silverado 1500. And it ends with a second race after the F-350 has added some very minor modifications. In the first race, the Silverado wins by a fair margin thanks to a built […] More »
This week’s Drag Race video features a 4th generation Camaro Z/28 packing a monster motor mated to the original transmission and rear end to blast down the quarter mile in the high 10 second range. The details on this Camaro build are a bit sketchy, but in reading through the comments it appears that this […] More »
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