SAFETY ISSUE
Inside Memphis car culture: Club interest revs up while reckless drivers menace streets
The members of a Memphis car club drove their powerful Dodge vehicles into the Hickory Hill parking lot and climbed out. Then a sports car on a nearby road whipped past the group, its engine roaring.
“Not with us!” the club’s vice president Pierre Blackman shouted.
Later, as the club members slowly drove their tricked-out cars around the parking lot for cameras, another driver not in the group cut his car through the line of vehicles, risking a crash.
The moments illustrate some of the dueling elements in the growing Memphis muscle car culture.
The CEO of the club, Latricia Harvell, nicknamed “Poundcake,” works as a fourth-grade schoolteacher and says this club promotes low-key activities such as static car displays and community service events, including a recent Easter egg hunt for kids.
“We want everybody to know that’s not us that’s
out there doing the reckless driving, burnouts, expressway shutdowns,” she said.
But demand for fast, powerful vehicles is strong in Memphis, and some sports car owners don’t appear to accept limits.
In recent months, Memphis crowds have gathered at unauthorized car shows in parking lots where drivers perform burnouts, sending up clouds of smoke from spinning tires. Other times, the cars drive in tight circles, sometimes barely missing spectators.
In one notorious case on Jan. 2, a group of drivers blocked interstate traffic so other drivers could drive around in donuts.
More frequently, drivers race down local highways at extreme speeds. State and local authorities are trying to stop them.
Last year the Tennessee Highway Patrol issued about 1,800 tickets statewide for speeding above 100 miles per hour.
That’s up 33% compared to 2019 and up 67% compared to 2018. And those numbers don’t include tickets issued by city or county police.
It’s part of a national trend. Unauthorized car shows are not new, but anecdotal evidence suggests they have become more common during the pandemic, cropping up from California to Dallasto Florida.
And during the pandemic, reckless driving has killed more people nationwide. “Preliminary data tells us that during the national health emergency, fewer Americans drove, but those who did took more risks and had more fatal crashes,” the National Highway Traffic Administration wrote in an open letter in January.
Those risky behaviors include an increase in speeding, in drug or alcohol use while driving, as well as people not wearing seat belts.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol recorded a total of 1,220 fatal crashes in 2020.
That’s up 7% compared to 2019 and up 17% compared to 2018.
Observers have offered many explanations. Lockdowns early in the pandemic greatly reduced traffic, and police officers in many jurisdictions were told to avoid traffic stops. This created an opportunity for anyone who wanted to treat roadways like racetracks.
More broadly, though, the story of car culture in Memphis and across the country is about human emotions: for many people, the pandemic brought boredom and loneliness.
The hot rod hobby brought excitement and connection with others. Only time will tell how long it will last — and whether the car craze might be channeled into a more positive direction.
Poundcake’s story
Harvell said she got the nickname Poundcake in 2015 when she was a member of another car club. She recalled one of the group’s leaders was giving everyone nicknames, and walked up to her, saying “‘What’s up, PoundCake!”
“And it was history,” she said. “They wouldn’t call me nothing else.”
Harvell said a large group broke away from the other club in 2016 to form the current club. It’s called Street Runnersgta Mopars of Memphis.
What does GTA stand for? “Guaranteed Traffic Attention. Because that’s the truth!” Harvell said, and laughed. “It is not Grand Theft Auto,” she said, referring to the popular video game in which players steal cars.
The word “Mopars” in the club’s name refers to “Mopar,” a company brand name that’s short for “motor parts” but has become a generic term for Dodge muscle cars and related vehicles.
Now 39, Harvell grew up in South Memphis and says she was introduced to cars by one of her brothers, who used to take her to the racetrack at Holly Springs.
Today, she drives a Dodge Challenger V6. “It feels good! I get compliments every day,” she said.
Police have noticed the Street Runners club too, particularly after the drivers did donuts on the interstate early this year. Harvell said she told police that her club wasn’t responsible. “That had nothing to do with us.”
At least one person associated with Street Runners has shown willingness to break rules. One Youtube channel called Heavy Hemi901 includes a video shot from the point of view of a driver as he speeds onto a Memphis highway. At one point the speedometer hits 113 miles per hour.
Someone using the Heavy Hemi901 name — perhaps the same driver — wrote in a comment on another video that he’s a member of Street Runners.
Harvell said this driver made these videos on his own, not as part of a Street Runners activity. “He was a newer member. We did have to let him know ‘Hey, we don’t operate like that.’”
She also shared with the driver something the police had told her: that investigators were looking at these videos for evidence, and he’d better be careful.
Club members include warehouse workers and supervisors and some firefighters and police officers. That professionalism helps reduce reckless behavior, she said.
Today, Harvell has about 100 people on her club text message list, and new inquiries come in every day, she said. When The Commercial Appeal met members of the club on April 7, a new driver came up to talk about joining.
It was a notable sign of the appeal of the car culture — though other signs pointed to the risk. That same day, Harvell wore a necklace that showed a young man’s photo. She said it was her nephew, Willie Massey III. He was a fan of Dodge cars, too, she said, and came with her to car events. Whenever they parted, he would tell her, “I love you, Auntie. Stay dangerous.”
He was still in his early 20s when he died last year on April 28. His aunt said she cried over the loss over and over. She said she doesn’t know the exact circumstances — but he died in a car crash.
Buying a Hellcat
Another club member, 26-year-old Timothy Conard, believes boredom has led to an increase in unauthorized car shows and reckless driving.
“There’s been literally nothing to do other than maybe go get some food,” he said. He said the pandemic shut down many of the fun activities he liked to do, like going to the movies, visiting Puttputt Golf & Games, playing laser tag or paintball.
But he says he was interested in cars long before the pandemic, a hobby instilled in him by his father, who liked to clean up and display cars.
Conard formerly owned a Challenger RT and saved up to buy a 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. Why this car? “The horsepower!” he said. The latest model of the car has an advertised horsepower of up to 717.
The list price for a new Hellcat starts at around $60,000. In October, Conard said he secured financing to pay $53,000 for the vehicle, used.
He works night shifts as a truck driver and said the car makes day-to-day annoyances fall away.
“To me, knowing what I have, amazing. I love it. Makes you feel like, you know, everything you went through was worth it.”
He’s added modifications including a yellow racing harness and has taken it to drag races at a legal racetrack, Memphis International Raceway. In these races, he says he’s hit about 120 miles per hour.
He said the car invites attention — strangers even pull up beside him when he’s driving to work and want to race right then.
He says he doesn’t accept the street challenges because he would run the risk of wrecking the vehicle or having it impounded by police.
“Where do I draw the line? I draw the line at it took me six years to get it. And I don’t want to lose it!” he said, laughing.
Heavy demand for muscle cars
Demand is heavy right now for all types of vehicles, not just sports cars, and many models are hard to find, said Paul Kirk, general manager of Wolfchase Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram.
One of the most popular models is the Dodge Charger Scat Pack, which delivers heavy horsepower at a lower price than the Hellcat, about $42,000.
When trucks bring in these cars, they sell fast. “Most of the time, it’s gone within three or four days.”
Dodge dealerships in the Memphis area have sold 38 new Scat Packs in the most recent 90-day period, he said.
“That 38 number doesn’t sound really big, but if you take into consideration how hard it is to get a car right now, much less this car, that’s a huge number.”
And demand for the used Dodge sports cars is even higher, he said.
Complaints mount and police vow a crackdown
Not everyone is happy about the car craze. Complaints about reckless driving and loud cars from all across the city have increased, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland wrote in an April 9 message to constituents.
Late last month, Memphis Police Department Director Michael Rallings gave a press conference in which he mentioned a recent unauthorized car show at Martin Luther King Jr. Riverside Park. “Very dangerous. And we actually had to close the park.”
Over a two-day period, police made 10 felony arrests, 20 misdemeanor arrests, wrote 48 misdemeanor citations, and 155 traffic tickets. In the process police recovered 14 guns and also seized 10 vehicles, he said.
“But I can’t stress enough how dangerous these events are. The spectators that are watching put themselves in danger. The citizens are placed in danger. Speed kills.”
Strickland’s message to constituents highlighted tickets and arrests and asked people to report incidents to police. A bill to boost penalties for drag racing is pending in the state legislature.
And with many sports car owners modifying mufflers to make them louder, Memphis City Council on March 2 passed two ordinances meant to clamp down on noisy vehicles.
Turning the love of cars into something positive
So how to cut down on dangerous reckless driving and channel this hobby into something better?
Conard points to a good side of the car culture — he says he’s met many people he never would have spoken with otherwise, and says the passion can bring people of different races and backgrounds together. “Y’all just meet on a common ground basis.”
Most of the members of Street Runners-gta Mopars of Memphis are Black, but the club CEO says the group also has white and Hispanic members.
Conard said he’d like to see more opportunities for people to participate in legal car events.
“Like just give them a designated location, a designated time. ‘Ya’ll want to do burnouts? Okay, come pay your money, get in line, do a burnout.’” A local racetrack recently held a sanctioned event like this, he said.
Harvell, the club’s CEO, likewise said a designated, legal space for stunt shows would help.
In the meantime, the club is organizing one of its next activities: a Mother’s Day raffle. First prize is a gift card to Ruth’s Chris steakhouse.
Investigative reporter Daniel Connolly welcomes tips and comments from the public. Reach him at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.