Phantom Car

The Phantom Car is one of the random events in Grand Theft Auto Online, first introduced in the Los Santos Tuners update, during the Halloween event weeks in 2021.

Description
Appearing as a special variant of the Tornado Custom, the Phantom Car comes in a Garnet Red paintjob with a Graphite roof, OG Hunnet wheels with whitewall tires, and a license plate that reads "EAB 211". It also has custom flame sounds and effects, with a unique detuned horn. It will be driven by an invisible NPC to give the appearance it is driving on its own.

The Phantom Car will spawn in any free roam session with a minimum of two players, and when at least 16 minutes has passed since the player joined. Once these criteria are met, the Phantom Car will spawn between 9pm and 5am, and choose one of the players as an attack target when they're on foot or in normal vehicles (planes, boats, weaponized vehicles and special vehicles are not allowed).

When a target player is inside a vehicle, the Phantom Car will remain passive and simply follow the player around. However, when they're on foot, it will become aggressive, the hood will catch fire and its headlights will turn red, and it will attempt to ram and kill them. The target player can also catch fire from the car when being attacked, and the fire will keep burning until they have died, which is different from the normal settings, while it has no effect on non-target players. The Phantom Car is almost indestructible, but can be defeated through the use of explosive weapons (e.g. Rocket Launcher or Grenade Launcher).

The event will be completed and the Phantom Car will disappear after it has been defeated or the target player has been killed. If it is stuck for too long, doesn't encounter an on-foot target, gets forced into an interior such as Los Santos Customs, or other events are triggered, then the car will simply despawn.

Influence
The Phantom Car is a reference to "Christine", a malevolently possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury that stars in the Stephen King novel and 1983 film of the same name. The way the vehicle catches fire and attempts to run over the player is a reference to a scene in the film where Christine attempts to run over a gang member that has vandalized her while being set ablaze.