Badass Contributors

Patrick bought his first Dodge when he was 15 – a stock 1983 Dodge Mirada with a smog-era 318 that struggled through the quarter mile in the low 18-second range. A few months later, his dad scored a junkyard 340 in pieces that would eventually transform that Mirada into a 12.0 bracket monster. After competing in a variety of all-Mopar_® racing series throughout his high school and college years, Patrick moved to Michigan where he met his wife and transitioned from working as an accountant to a full-time automotive journalist.

Patrick served as the lead writer for years at Allpar, providing the Mopar community with all of the latest news and reviews. When FCA became Stellantis, he helped launch Stellpower, where he continues to cover the Mopar universe. At the same time, Patrick still writes for a long list of Mopar-focused outlets, including Mopar Connection Magazine, but he also covers other brands for various outlets. This allows him to experience many of the hottest new models from Dodge and from the competition.

Patrick still owns his 1983 Mirada, but with his wife Amanda – who is also a hardcore Mopar enthusiast – the stable of Dodge performance vehicles has grown. They also have a 1972 Demon 340, a 2017 Challenger SRT^® Hellcat and a 2006 Dodge Ram 1500 that has spent 15 years serving as a tow vehicle for all of the cars. When he is not writing about the automotive industry or test driving a new model, Patrick spends his time with his wife at their horse farm.

If it has a motor and tires, there's a good chance Sean Yoder has found a way to race it! Starting with MotoCross at the ripe old age of 4 and transitioning to things with four wheels and a roll cage in his teens, he’s still going today and doesn't see any reason to slow down any time soon. It only took a few events as an instructor and crew chief for the SRT^® Track Experience for the vehicles and massive family of enthusiasts worldwide to make an indelible impression on him. With two tours of duty with the SRT Tour, product expertise and high-performance driving instruction with Dodge//SRT and ABARTH for multiple years and a string of HEMI®-powered vehicles in the garage over the last decade, he’s massively excited to be a part of the DodgeGarage family. If you ever see a black Chrysler Pacifica running a road course or autocross, say hi, ask for a ride… and hold on tight!

David Hakim, a lifelong Motor City resident, runs on high-octane fuel and with a fast crowd. He's worn many hats during his quick-moving automotive career that has included marketing, PR/social media and consulting positions for both the automotive OEM and aftermarket industry.

Additionally, David has spent time as a racing photojournalist, covering IndyCar, IMSA and NHRA events for various media outlets. He's also a regular contributor to Hot Rod Magazine, Car Craft and Mopar Muscle. When David's not behind the lens of his Nikon and hammering out features for dodgegarage.com, he can be found in the staging lanes getting ready to make a pass in his Sublime Challenger Scat Pack 392 Shaker.

Have you ever heard the saying: Leave well enough alone? Most people have and make the wise choice to follow that motto. There are, however, a select group of people out there in the world who chose to hear that saying and work every waking hour to go against the grain of sticking to the path of least resistance. Mush is one of those types who would rather spend countless hours trying to change something just to see if it is possible only to find out it isn't, rather than just leaving it alone to begin with. An avid automotive and racing enthusiast, he caught the bug early on in life. “I never really had much interest in cars, until I got my first car,” he says, “and I instantly realized that my car was my ticket to freedom and to be a means of expression of my personality.”

The passion for Dodge was born from an unlikely period: the late-'80s turbo 4-cylinder cars a la Dodge Daytona, Shelby Daytona, Omni GLH. Mush got into drag racing in the late '90s right out of high school. Every car purchased got faster and faster. Fast forward from the turbo 4 cars on through the twin turbo Stealths, through the first-generation SRT8 cars to the SRT^® Hellcats and you end up with the ultimate horsepower…the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon.

Since 2016, Mush has documented his automotive journey via YouTube, from taking delivery of his 2016 Charger SRT Hellcat and now his 2018 Dodge SRT Demon, which he wasted no time modifying and racing. “We do all the work ourselves because it is the best way to learn, not to mention, I don't want to blame someone else if something were to go wrong, I would only have to blame myself,” says Mush. “And there is an amazing satisfaction knowing that YOU made this what it is. YOU had the vision, YOU put in the hours, blood, sweat and tears. YOU left your skin on various pieces of the car. Between the sense of accomplishment and learning, mixed in with using it as my own way of creative expression, it is just something that I seem to enjoy doing most out of all my interests and hobbies.”

If you aren’t already following SRTaddicts, it’s like we don’t even know you. Matt Green, one of the founders of the SRTaddicts group, has turned what was once a hobby into a lifestyle. Dedicated to connecting with owners who share a passion for performance, Matt and Kate Green, along with Patrick Achorn, Daniel Weiner and Abriana Jette, have traveled the country since 2013 in search of the stories SRT^® owners all have to share – about how their vehicles changed their lives.

With five of their seven Mopar_® vehicles being SRTs, they know firsthand what that thrilling ownership experience is like. They manage a private shop in Pennsylvania with projects ranging from a 1,000-horsepower Ram SRT-10 to restoring numerous salvage SRTs. SRTaddicts strives to create and connect as many SRT owners as possible, and to preserve the history of SRTs by keeping older models on the road alongside modern Dodge/SRT models.

Steve is a life-long Dodge fan who was born in July of 1964; the same month and year the first cross-rammed 426 Race HEMI^®s appeared on drag strips from coast to coast. Though Steve was too young to own any of the legendary 1960s Dodge muscle cars when they were brand new, in 1987, he made up for lost time and bought an original 1968 HEMI Charger R/T. That potent 426 Street HEMI led to a string of vintage Dodge muscle cars powered by 340s, 383s, 440s, a Max Wedge and another HEMI. Along the way, Steve has been a devoted student of Dodge corporate history, vehicle trivia, and Dodge's many successful factory-supported racing and high-performance vehicle development programs.

In 1992, Steve turned his passion into a career and began writing for Chrysler Power magazine. Since then, he has been a full-time automotive journalist, joining the staff of Hot Rod Magazine from 1997 through 2004 and also contributing regular freelance magazine articles to Mopar Action, Mopar Muscle, Muscle Car Review, Car Craft and Hemmings Muscle Machines. Steve has also authored several books on automotive subjects.

Steve is deeply involved in automotive television programs, serving as the host of Motor Trend on Demand's new hit series Junkyard Gold. Since 2005, he has also been a part of the on-air vehicle commentary team for the Barrett-Jackson collector car auctions on Velocity Channel.

It's no wonder Olivia has such a passion for all things Dodge. The Mopar_® vehicle-crazed bloodline began back in 1934 when Olivia's great-grandfather opened Steeb Dodge of Saline, Michigan. She proudly keeps the spirit alive today by rescuing and restoring any old Plymouth, Dodge or Chrysler she can get her hands on. Olivia was hooked when she watched her dad single-handedly transform his dream car – a 1968 GTX convertible – from the shell of a has-been into a hell-raising street machine. Nothing turns you into a hopelessly addicted (borderline obsessive) Mopar vehicle nut like being strapped into the passenger seat of a Plum Crazy convertible at 12 years old. When Olivia turned 18, she started on a project of her own – a radically customized 1971 GTX. When her weekends aren't spent at car shows or dragways, she can be found chasing down abandoned Dodge vehicles, writing for her personal blog, Dodge Girls Have More Fun, or baking off the tires in her GTX.

Hammer was born and raised in Detroit and has been a car guy his whole life, owning such gems as a 1965 Corvair (that caught fire, TWICE!), a Saab 900 (that rusted so badly the frame broke in half) and a 2001 Dodge Viper GTS (that he says he never should have sold!). Ironically, it wasn't until he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, that he started working for Dodge as a pro driver with the SRT^® Track Experience.

Hammer has been racing for 25 years; won the One Lap of America in a factory-backed SRT entry and has taught high-performance driving to tens of thousands of enthusiasts. These days, he represents the brand online, on TV and at events all over the country. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, travel and hosting The Driving Show, his nationally syndicated radio program. Follow @TheJohnHammer on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter.

Josh Welton believes life is too short to drive boring cars. He's a lover/creator of art and also enjoys welding, talking his way out of speeding tickets, smoky burnouts, and dogs. A former Chrysler millwright, Josh learned his trade in Detroit, where he still lives with his wife Darla. Currently Josh fabricates and wrenches on military vehicles at General Dynamics Land Systems' prototype shop, sculpts metal through his business Brown Dog Welding, and travels the world as much as possible.

In the midst of a series of severe arm surgeries that sidelined him on and off for several years, Josh turned to writing as a creative outlet. A passionate supporter of blue collar trades, this led him to pen several popular recurring columns for TheFabricator.com and The Welder magazine.

He's done a wheelie in an SRT Demon, was the first person to pilot a 5th gen Viper ACR cross country, and has a license to drive Abrams tanks. One time, Jalopnik called him the Horacio Pagani of welding. Current vehicles include a multi-colored SRT4 swapped 2001 Neon, a Destroyer Grey 2009 “widebody” Ram R/T, a 1970 Buick Electra 225 convertible (in many pieces), and a Maximum Steel 2018 Dodge SRT Demon. Follow his adventures at @welderassassin on Instagram and @browndogwelding on Instagram and Twitter.

Chris Jacobs is a host and TV personality best known for his automotive makeover show Overhaulin'. When the excitement of hosting blended with powerful vehicles packing serious horsepower, he realized he'd found his calling. Soon, Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auctions brought Chris on board as the lead host for all four annual auctions seen on both Motor Trend and Discovery. He also hosts Motor Trend Live at the annual SEMA convention. Outside of the car world, Chris is a huge Chicago Cubs fan and can often be found taking in a game at Wrigley Field (where he's thrown out the first pitch!) or sporting a single-digit handicap on the golf course.