A car’s exhaust note reverberated off downtown Seattle buildings and only got louder as the driver continued under wide-open throttle.
A Seattle police officer on patrol last week knew immediately the source of the signature sound: The Hellcat.
The tiger-striped muscle car then passed the officer, who stopped the vehicle, according to a Seattle Police Department report. The officer recognized the driver; he had pulled him over for similar reasons in January.
The “Belltown Hellcat,” known by several monikers, has for months drawn the attention — and ire — of residents of Belltown and beyond, Reddit sleuths and Seattle police, whose attempts to curb the loud revving and speeding have thus far been futile.
Specifically, the car is a Dodge Charger Hellcat SRT, registered to a 20-year-old whose 600,000-follower Instagram account features videos of him driving and revving the car’s engine at night and in the early hours of the morning. The car’s appearance changes often but currently has tiger stripes, as shown in social media photos.
His Instagram is now evidence. The Seattle City Attorney’s Office last week charged Miles Hudson with two counts of reckless driving stemming from a video posted in February that showed a driver racing another Dodge Charger at speeds up to 107 mph. The speed limit for the area is 25 mph.
Reached Monday, Hudson said he wasn’t aware of the charges and doesn’t plan to stop driving his car, which he said he recently purchased.
“The car is loud, whether I am going 10 miles an hour or 200,” he said by phone. “It’s a muscle car, it’s going to be loud regardless.”
Police reports detail months of officers fielding complaints and hearing the car themselves, and using Reddit and Instagram to find the driver.
The patrol officer had pulled over the Dodge Charger in January, shortly before 2 a.m., after observing the car being driven recklessly in downtown Seattle. The officer explained to the driver, identified as Hudson, about the dangers of speeding in populated areas. At least 788 people were killed in 2023 on Washington roads, according to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.
The officer gave him a verbal warning.
He noted that the car had a modified exhaust and other modifications where backfires would be “exceedingly loud, equivalent to the decibels of gunshots or fireworks.”
Seattle City Councilmember Bob Kettle said his office received more than 100 complaints from area residents about a loud driver, and raised the issue to the police department and city attorney’s office. Kettle pointed to the recent deaths of a Renton woman and three children, who were hit by a driver going more than 100 mph through an intersection.
“If we aren’t engaged in this and tackling this issue, it goes to the idea that it’s permitted, and we can’t have that,” Kettle said.
On numerous occasions, the Seattle police officer wrote, he would see or hear the Hellcat while working on other calls downtown. A resident told the officer about a Reddit page documenting complaints about the Hellcat. On Reddit, users posted about the noise and recounted their attempts at contacting councilmembers and police; one user said he could hear the car from his residence 50 stories up. In Seattle, it’s illegal to operate a car whose noise exceeds 95 decibels — roughly the sound of a leaf blower or approaching subway car — or can be heard by a person at least 75 feet away.
Through Reddit, the officer then found the driver’s reported Instagram account.
In the police report from the traffic stop last week, the officer wrote that the Hellcat’s custom taillight cutout matched the username of the Instagram account. Hudson was cited for having an improper headlight color.
Hudson said he considers himself an Instagram influencer. In one video, which has 6.6 million views, the driver films himself behind the wheel and says it’s 2 a.m., then revs the engine multiple times. He told the officer who pulled him over last week that he was going to continue and that the money he made filming videos had paid for the car.
“The way I look at it, even if people are hating the car, any publicity is good publicity,” Hudson said Monday.
He acknowledged he makes noise, but said there are bigger issues facing downtown Seattle, like drug use on the streets. He said he’s seen the messages on the internet talking about his car.
“I feel like people are more bothered that a young Black man has a nice car,” he said. “There are way bigger issues than a Black man with a nice car who makes noise occasionally.”
Penalty for reckless driving includes up to 364 days imprisonment and/or up to $5,000 fine. Conviction can also include a license suspension of at least 30 days.