Automotive enthusiasm has always been an expensive pursuit, and in pre-Internet days, it helped to come from a wealthy family or make a large amount of money to support a car habit.
It’s still pricey today, but these are the heady times of YouTube stardom and Instagram influencers in pop culture
. Ordinary car fans with a knack for content creation can put themselves in a great place to purchase (and mess with) expensive vehicles. But fame comes with its own price tags and bizarre twists. One YouTuber, a truck and auto enthusiast who goes by WhistlinDiesel, is involved in an ongoing lawsuit with a dubious premise.
Hell on wheels
WhistlinDiesel, né Cody Detwiler, is known for his hilarious and impish YouTube videos. In many of them, he shows off his mechanical prowess by conducting experiments on his cars.
In one famous video, he exchanges the tires of his Duramax with wooden horse and buggy wheels, a comic mismatch, and then drives this Frankenstein’s monster through a field to test it. One side quickly collapses, and the other follows in short order.
In another classic, he does the same prank on his Hellcat, but ups the stakes by driving the car into town, where he stops at a grocery store and orders from a fast food restaurant. Curious bystanders take a constant stream of photos and videos of him as he drives by, the Dodge miraculously upright on the skinniest of spokes.
Never one for subtlety, WhistlinDiesel then takes the modified Hellcat to an open road outside of town, where he does some burnouts for a while. There’s an air of triumph for a minute or two, but then the rubber from the wheels flies clean off, and deep cuts in the asphalt begin to appear as the wheels spin up faster and faster with no traction. It’s lighthearted and irreverent, and it’s funny as all Hellcat.
The WhistlinDiesel lawsuit
But even the famous WhistlinDiesel is not immune from run-ins with law enforcement.
In May of 2022, the YouTuber posted a video of a confrontation that occurred on a lake in Tennessee. He and his friends were riding jet skis out on the water and apparently created a bit of a wake in a no-wake zone. They stop immediately when they realize where they are, head to shore, and all seems to be fine.
An irate man then marches up to them, yelling and cursing them out for creating a wake. WhistlinDiesel seems to attempt to be cordial before resorting to trolling the man for his over-the-top reaction.
The conflict seems to end there, but then as WhistlinDiesel and his friends head back out into the water they are approached by a police boat. The policemen then issue citations for inappropriate splashing, and WhistlinDiesel and his friend get a court date.
And what do you do when you’re a YouTube star? You invite your followers to come along with you to your court date, carrying signs that lament the unfairness of the splash law, and you offer to take photos with as many people as possible, which is their catnip.
On June 1, WhistlinDiesel and his friends drive up to the court (in a very nice car) and his followers have turned out in spades to support him. It all has an air of jovial indignation. WhistlinDiesel finds the law ridiculous, so he will treat it as such.
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WhistlinDiesel seeks justice
WhistlinDiesel, though an accomplished troll, seems to have a strong sense of what is just and fair.
He was offered a different deal than his friend, and he won’t take it because, as he said in a Facebook post, “It posed unfairness to the kid being charged with the same things as me who was not offered the same deal. Also, I believe the charges were excessive and unusual for what actually happened on the lake that day, and could ruin someone’s life.” (His friend would, if he took the deal, be forced to add a misdemeanor to his permanent record, and he apparently has a scholarship to college on the line.)
He then underlines that boat safety is important, and that laws should be followed—but only when they make sense. The WhistlinDiesel lawsuit is currently ongoing, and as of July 4 the YouTuber has hired two lawyers to defend him and his friend. So much for a nice day out on the lake.
We’ll see how the WhistlinDiesel lawsuit shakes out, but spending a ton on lawyer fees after an unfortunate aquatic police encounter is never fun.
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