February 16th, 2011

Turkish Female Race Car Driver Travels to Pakistan

Burcu Çetinkaya, a female race car driver from Turkey is traveling to Pakistan to talk about motorsports and to encourage and inspire women in general. Her sponsor, Red Bull, is organizing the trip. She’ll meet with local athletes, students and media.

Çetinkaya has won the Turkish ladies rally championship three times. She also has a female co-driver Çiçek Guney. They are the first, and currently only, all female team participating in the Intercontinental Rally Championships.

Çetinkaya is certainly one to watch.

February 10th, 2011

Jennifer Jo Cobb Breaking Ground for Women in NASCAR

Jennifer Jo Cobb, 37, had quite a night yesterday. While racing at Daytona in the NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series she made history. She finished sixth, a career best and the best finish for a woman in that series. It was also the second best finish for a woman.

The best finish was by Sara Christian, the first female in NASCAR, when she finished 5th in 1949. It was also the first time a woman finished in the top 10 at Daytona.

Congratulations JJC, we’re behind you all the way!

February 04th, 2011

Women Are Driving in Saudi Arabia

Outside the major cities, reportedly it is common and accepted for women to drive. Mainly, it is because women need to drive in order to run errands while their husbands are at work. In rural areas, towns, businesses and homes are so spread apart that it would be impossible to live without having a car and for most families in rural areas they do not have the budget to hire a private driver. An article for MidEastPosts describes it as a “don’t ask, don’t tell policy.”

The author, Rob Wagner, who was the managing editor of the Saudi Gazette, writes in the article that technically there is no law that says that women cannot drive and that Sharia law does not address the issue.

Wagner quotes Abdullah Alami, a Saudi economist who is advocating to lift the ban.“You see, Islam calls for protecting women’s legitimate rights,” Alami says “Driving is a right for women, as it is for men. Article 32 of the Saudi Traffic Regulations provides that. It’s prohibited for any ‘person’ driving a vehicle before getting a driver’s license. Based on this text, the term ‘person’ isn’t limited to males.”

While women driving in rural areas is good news, the ban is still in effect in the cities.

January 28th, 2011

First Female Taxi Driver in Fez, Morocco

Lamiae El Oubeidi, 36-years-old is the first female taxi driver in the city of Fez and the second ever female taxi driver in the country of Morocco. It has not been an easy road for her. It took her 8 years to get her permit from the government. They were reluctant to let a woman drive a taxi but her persistence paid off.

Her journey started when she lost her job teaching and she needed to support her two kids while also wanting flexible hours to spend time with them. Her family and her husband, who is also a taxi driver, were skeptical at first but eventually supported her goal. El Oubeidi not only fought to become a taxi driver to support her family she also did it to inspire other women that they can do and be whatever they want.

“I want to see women taking all possible jobs and encourage women to challenge themselves. That’s what I’m aiming to achieve, and that’s why I took this job, to set an example to young women and show them that anything is possible.”

January 20th, 2011

Sexy Lesbian Renault Ad Banned In Italy

Two television stations in Italy, state run TV RAI and Mediaset (headed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi) have refused to run this racy Renault ad. Sky is the only station running the ad for the Renault Twingo. Check it out for yourself and see what you think.

January 12th, 2011

Female Buyers Help Rolls Royce Sales Rise

Rolls Royce is certainly on a roll this year. In this time of economic crisis, it’s a bit surprising to see the increase in sales for the maker of cars that cost $250,000 (Ghost) and $370,000 (Phantom). But they haven’t just risen, they’ve skyrocketed, and in just about every market.

According to BBC, in 2010 US sales were up 220%, UK sales were up 150%, and the Middle East rose 160%. The biggest growth market for RR will surprise no one—China. Sales in China last year grew an unbelievable 800%!

But what might surprise auto industry insiders the most (though it doesn’t surprise us at all) is the growth of female buyers. 10% of the Ghosts were bought by women.

According to Rolls Royce CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoe, women are attracted to the “masculinity” of the car. Mueller-Oetvoe says: “Women love their Ghosts. But Rolls-Royce is a male brand. And women like that. It’s a nice masculine car. It’s a statement. It’s all about powerplay.” While women are attracted to the Ghost they seem to not have the same love for the Phantom. It seems to make sense to us given the larger size of the Phantom.

The auto industry has tended to only market certain types of cars (see minivans and electric cars) to women. But this clearly shows what we’ve been saying for a while now: women like luxury, women like quality, women like power (horsepower and otherwise). With the economy as it is and every brand fighting for new audiences we hope that car companies will start to realize that the untapped wild west is women and we are waiting for you to speak to us.

January 09th, 2011

Victoria’s Secret Model Karolina Kurkova is the new Face of Mercedes CLS

Model Karolina Kurkova, best known for her work for Victoria’s Secret, was named the new face of the 2011 Mercedes CLS.

Kurkova is quoted as saying the CLS is “a beautifully smooth and luxurious car that immediately appealed to me. It has these fascinating contours that I wanted to convey with my body language during the shooting. I can imagine myself behind the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz CLS. It fits my style. Since I recently got my driving license, I need to gain more experience driving. And I’m sure that would be great fun with the new CLS.”

The campaign will officially launch at Mercedes-Benz fashion week in Berlin, January 19-22, 2011.