July 09th, 2010

Although most car designers are men there are plenty of women who are making their way up the ranks.

Wired Magazine recently wrote an article about female car designers and it mentions: Kimberly Wu at Honda, Kerrin Liang of Hyundai, Michelle Christensen at Acura and Christine Park of Cadillac (who designed the interior of the XTS). We have a few more to add namely, Christina Rodriguez at Ford and Fairuz Jane Schiecht who helped design the innovative (and environmentally friendly) interior of the Fisker.

So why are there still so few women designing cars? Wired writes, “Of the 15 to 18 people who graduate from the center’s transportation-design program each year, only two or three are women. It’s the same at Art Center for Design in Pasadena, California, where one in 10 graduates is a woman.” The magazine goes to to note that women make up about 30 % of the global design staff for BMW and 20% at GM.

Designing cars isn’t always all about horsepower and torque. In the article Park says that Coco Chanel is one of her influences. When Drive Like A Woman heard Park speak recently she compared tires on a car to shoes in an outfit. When horsepower meets heels, what a fantastic combination!

Watch Michelle Christensen discuss her design the Acura ZDX.

July 07th, 2010

Driver Ruth Bowler

Australian Brooke Leech, 17, is the first female to earn a spot in the CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motor Sport) Aussie Young Gun driver development program. She’s done well on the karting circuit and was tapped to move up and join the program.

Leech will compete in the Aussie Racing Car Series starting this weekend on Phillip Island.

Also racing in the series is Ruth Bowler, the only other female beside Leech in the series. Bowler is currently in 22nd place out of 38 drivers.

July 05th, 2010

Simona de Silvestro in her Indy car

Three women (Danica Patrick, Milka Duno and Simona de Silvestro) raced in the Indy series at Watkins Glen on Sunday July 4, unfortunately none of them did particularly well.

Danica Patrick ended up in 20th place out of 25 drivers. Simona de Silvestro was doing the best of the ladies. She had started in 15th place and moved up to 10th. However, she made contact and did not finish the race. Milka Duno ended in 23rd place. Will Power won the race.

Currently in the standings, Danica Patrick is 11th, Simona de Silvestro is 20th, Milka Duno is 23rd, Sarah Fisher is 24th and Ana Beatriz is 29th. However, not all women drive in every race.

July 03rd, 2010

Actress Jennifer Garner recently came across two women who had run out of gas on the streets of Los Angeles.

According to EOnline, instead of passing them by, the A-lister stopped filled up a can of gas, paid for it, brought it to them and even poured it in the tank herself!

Women helping women on the road, we love it! Jen, you get our Drive Like A Woman hero award for the day!

July 02nd, 2010

Former Spice Girl turned fashion designer Victoria Beckham is now a creative design executive a Range Rover. Specifically, she’ll work on a new smaller model called the Evoque, which is due out summer 2011.

This is the ultimate Vogue connection, literally. Apparently, Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue UK, introduced Beckham to Range Rover. The new collaboration was announced at a party in the UK co-sponsored by Vogue of course. Watch the preview of the new Evoque below.

July 01st, 2010

Simona de Silvestro

This Sunday July 4th, 3 women will be racing Indy at Watkins Glen—Danica Patrick, Milka Duno and Simona de Silvestro.

This will be de Silvestro’s first time at the Glen. Rookie de Silvestro is often compared with Danica Patrick, so does she think they have similarities?

“Driving wise I don’t know if we are really different, I haven’t really looked at it. She’s done a lot for us women in the sport, so I think it’s very good for all of us.”

We think de Silvestro is a class act! Ladies, good luck to you all and happy 4th of July!

June 29th, 2010

Jim and Katie Shorkey, who own a Kia/Suzuki dealership in Pennsylvania, seem to think buying a car is “scary” for a woman. Jezebel thinks Jim and Katie Shorkey have the “Worlds dumbest car dealership.” We think Jim and Katie probably need some education when it comes to both women & cars and marketing.

Jim and Katie, to jumpstart your education, here are a few facts about women and buying cars: Women buying cars in India has recently increased threefold—We guess women in India aren’t scared of buying cars. Women buy 20% of the new Ferraris in China—Granted maybe these 20% only bought them because Ferrari red matched their Louboutins. In the UK, a study showed that 60% of moms enjoy the process of buying a car—perhaps after giving birth buying a car is like a walk in the park. You can feel free to use these facts in your next ad, free of charge.