September 05th, 2010

Pippa Mann Wins in Kentucky!

Pippa Mann, 27, won the Firestone Indy Lights race in Kentucky. After starting from pole she dominated the race. Mann is now ranked 7th in the championship standings.

Mann becomes the second woman to win a race in this series. Ana Beatriz, 27, won 2 races in the series in 2009 in Iowa and Nashville.

The next, and final, race of the series will take place at Homestead in Miami on October 2nd.

September 03rd, 2010

Pippa Mann Wins Pole

Pippa Mann, 27, won pole today at the Kentucky Speedway. She’ll compete tomorrow in the Firestone Indy Lights “Drive Smart. Buckle-Up Kentucky 100.”

She is the 3rd woman to win pole at the Kentucky Speedway. Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher also won pole here.

Paddocktalk.com quoted Mann as saying. “It’s kinda cool to follow in Sarah’s footsteps that way. Sarah is with a small budget team doing a great job of running her own team and still driving. That’s a neat little fact there. But to me as a racing driver it’s just neat to add another pole to the one I got at Indy and add to the podium finish last weekend. Hopefully, we’ll be adding another podium finish here, hopefully one from Victory Lane.”

August 27th, 2010

Hello Car Kitty

We get it, Hello Kitty is cute and kitschy. But what’s up with Hello Kitty and cars? It’s everywhere, in products and on cars. We were oddly fascinated with this phenomenon so we rounded up the craziest products and images to share with you, our faithful readers. We must warn you, some of these images are disturbing, proceed with caution…

One of the odder HK products was brought to us by Agip, the Italian company, who developed HK motor oil for the Japanese market.

But if you want to trick out your car with accessories, there’s plenty to choose from. For the exterior there’s the HK exhaust pipe, or how about some rims or HK halogen headlights.

There is a plethora of accessories to choose from for the interior. Here are a few of the crazier ones: the HK rearview mirror, steering wheel cover, and plenty of seat covers to choose from, here’s another.

Then there’s the all-around HK car. There are company designed cars: Mitsubishi developed the Princess Kitty edition. It would be adorable for a 6-year-old but it is actually a real car which retailed for $18,200, there was only one made. There are cars designed by individuals: This poor Porsche. And then there’s just plain wrong. Warning, these photos are disturbing, click at your own risk to view the photos.

August 18th, 2010

Dispatch from the road: Rally London-Mongolia, Part 14

We wake up and it’s all feeling a bit too familiar. We know we’ll have the same breakfast, we’ll use the internet in the lobby, and yet again we’ll wait anxiously for a call from Land Rover.

But this morning feels a bit different. This is it, it will either be the end of the road or we will begin again. If the car is not ready we will not have enough time to reach Mongolia by car.

We all begin to think of an exit strategy. Parag looks for flights out to Mongolia. I debate asking my new husband if he wants to accompany me on a trip to Kazakhstan. Mikhail just looks worried – he has committed to get this car to Mongolia one way or another, and it is in his name. He decides he’d have to leave the car here temporarily and when a part came in, he’d have Land Rover fix it and then it would be ready to go to Mongolia. The only problem is that there will be no one to drive it.

The call comes in and they say the car is good to go. We’ve been down this road before and although none of us say this to each other we’re all rather sceptical.  For all of us, our exit strategies linger in the back of our minds.

Andrey greets us at the dealership and tells us the car is ready. But he insists we go for a comprehensive test drive first. I can tell that this is not just about fixing a car and handing us a bill, this is a personal source of pride for them to fix the car correctly and get us to our destination.

Parag does a test drive with Andrey that includes going off-road.

“Dudes, seriously I think the car is better than before.” Well, that’s a good sign. They just need to wait for the car to cool down and then we’re off.

Vladimir arrives, again on his day off, to make sure everything goes smoothly. The first thing he does is ask me if I’d like a coffee. He makes it for me personally and gives me chocolates—he most certainly knows what makes me happy.

The boys decide they want to go for lunch at a Chinese restaurant across the street but I decide to relax at the dealership. Before leaving, Mikhail comes over with a translation.

“Vladimir wants to know if you want to drive a soviet car.” He points outside to a Lada. I accept the challenge.

I’m used to these sorts of challenges as it often happens to me in foreign countries; guys find great humor in getting me to perform typically masculine tasks. I’ve ridden a donkey in a little village in Mexico, practiced blowing poison darts in the Amazon (it’s really hard) and swam with a dolphin in the wild in the Red Sea.

Vladimir, Andrey and I get in the car and I take it pretty easy. I have no need to show off and given everything I do not want do any harm minutes prior to taking off. Even driving at a normal pace around the block, they find it quite hilarious and I’m happy to oblige. We get back and Vladimir points to the Land Rover.

“Alright, I guess it would be fun to take a modern Land Rover around the block.” The two of us get in and off we go. It’s strange driving this car. I look for the clutch but don’t find one, it’s automatic. I hit the brakes hard and nearly throw us through the window because our brakes are extremely heavy and in the modern Rover my foot only has to graze the brakes and it comes to a screeching halt.

He leads me through the city and in broken English gives me a tour: the local hospital, the university, the city tram, his military academy. There’s a lot of traffic as we head back. I’ve still been driving conservatively but the traffic is beginning to irritate me. I decide to overtake a car after a red light.

“That’s my boss.” Vladimir informs me.

“Oh, sorry.” I say and smile. He smiles back.

When we arrive back at the dealership they say the car is ready. My heart drops and suddenly I’m actually quite sad to be leaving. Even though we don’t speak the same language I feel like these guys have become friends. I tell the boys, thinking they feel the same way, and of course Parag never misses an opportunity to make fun of me.

In a fake Russian accent he says, “You are going to miss your new Russian husband.” And then he laughs to himself hysterically.

Vladimir hands me a bottle of water. Then a minute later he hands me two more. I hand them to Parag.

“This is for the car?” Parag inquires.

To which Vladimir and I respond in unison, “No this is for the people!”

Vladimir leaves and returns again, this time with three more bottles of vodka.

“For the police…and for you.”

Parag looks at me. “You know what, I really am kind of sad to leave this place.”

“Mikhail, can you ask them to bring out all the guys so we can thank them.” I desperately want to convey how thankful I am and am very frustrated not to speak the language.

“Already asked, they’re all coming out right now.”

All the mechanics come out and we thank them and take photos with them in front of the car.

I take a photo with Andrey and Vladimir and there is definitely a part of me that has grown used to Chelyabinsk, our hotel, the fried potatoes and chicken in a light mushroom cream sauce, my new friends at Land Rover, my new (very polite) husband, his mother’s cooking and the banya.

I try to linger and stall the inevitable departure.

“Mikhail, can you ask them that if I decide to leave New York will they give me a job here.” Vladimir smiles and shakes his head, a definitive yes.

“That’s it! Let’s get the show on the road.” Yells Parag.

I look at Andrey and kiss him on both cheeks. I look at Vladimir and he just hugs me goodbye.

He tells Andrey to lead us out of town and that we should call him when we get to our next stop. He is still looking after us.

Parag’s at the wheel, Mikhail in the co-driver’s seat and I jump in back. I have terrible separation anxiety and I want to stay behind.

The team runs into yet more problems, click Read More to find out what happens next…

At the edge of town, Andrey rolls down his window to say goodbye and hands us a cd, Russian rock music. We put it in and it sounds like the Red Hot Chili Peppers “Give-it-away, give-it-away-now” song. Mikhail starts laughing.

“It’s not a cover song. It’s Russian and it translates into ‘fuck the police.’”

We’re back into our rhythm; Parag drives the first half in the morning and I drive the second half in the afternoon.

We get a late start and as I begin to drive the sun is beginning to go down. This is my favourite time to drive. Once in the driver’s seat my sadness disappears and the excitement of the long roads ahead comes to the forefront again.

The sun sets and we turn onto the unpaved road Allen had warned us about. No problem, it is a bit bumpy but nothing I hadn’t driven before. Honestly, I am loving a little off-road action.

The car and I are as happy as can be travelling at a steady pace when suddenly it starts to cough and buck.

“Uh, Mikhail. The car’s not happy.”

The car seems to lose all power and I pull it over as much as I can given there is no shoulder and on both sides of us there is a drop off.

“All of a sudden, she just lost power.” I tell them.

“Dude, it sounds like the problem we first had in Europe.”

We get out and inspect the car. The guys try spraying it with the can they were given in TK and we try re-starting it. Nothing. We are in a precarious position—it’s midnight, it’s dark, we’re on a dirt road, there are no lights, there is a ton of dust from the construction, there are trucks passing—we need to move the car.  Mikhail keeps trying to flag down passing trucks but no one has a towing hook. We think about having a truck tow us out when a guy in an SUV stops. He looks under the hood, poking and prodding and miraculously, it starts!

“Guys, get in! Let’s go!”

At this point it’s about 2 am and we’re exhausted, so we cross our fingers and hope to make it to the next town so we can sleep for the night.

The town of Ishim is close by and it’s small so we reason that there must be one hotel in the center of town and it will be easy to find.

I drive down the main road and see an old man on a bike. Then, we pass some drunk guys in the middle of the street. Then we pass a couple on the left and a group of kids on the right. There are people everywhere. What in the world are all these people doing up at 2:30 am? It’s busier here than most of the towns we’ve passed during the day.

“Hey, why don’t you ask the taxi driver?” I tell Mikhail.

“Which one?”

Sure enough there are taxis all over the place. The taxis are coming from the other direction, they’re behind me, and they’re stopped on the side of the road; it looks like the streets of New York.

“Guys, this is like some odd Fellini town.”

We ask some people who tell us the hotel is on the main street. Only the main street is blocked off from both ends for no apparent reason. Who blocks off the entire main street in town? We don’t want to walk because Mikhail’s foot is hurt, we have all our bags and we’re exhausted.

Mikhail then stops and asks a taxi driver who says he’ll help take us to another hotel. We follow him and he pulls over so we pull over. Another taxi swoops in and they begin fighting. Although we’d only driven a few meters it seems as if the taxi driver has roamed into the other taxi driver’s territory. Who has territories in a small village?

Parag jumps in the driver’s seat as I have been driving since 4 pm, I’m beyond tired and cannot deal with the strange Fellini town. The taxi driver takes us to the hotel but the guys don’t like it.

“Let’s drive to the next town.” Parag suggests.

“No guys, it’s already 2:30 and we need rest.” But I am overruled.

Parag drives on and I believe it’s a bad decision to drive all day, only get 4 hours of sleep, and expect to drive another long day; especially after already having a bad crash.

At the next town we find a truck stop motel, park, and stop for the night. We sleep in a large room with 6 single beds. It’s pretty terrible but given how tired we are we all fall asleep quickly.

August 16th, 2010

Ferrari Hair Dryer: From 0-Sexy as Fast as Possible

Ferrari has teamed up with BaByliss Pro, a hair care company, to bring us the first ever Ferrari hair dryer. Called the Volare, it boasts a “Ferrari designed engine” and it was developed in collaboration with the Ferrari Challenge team.

The Volare comes in two sizes and two colors—black and Ferrari red, naturally. The hair dryer can run up to 2000 hours, in hair-speak that’s 3-4 times longer than most hair dryers. Technically, the dryer is designed for professionals not individuals, but here’s a list of resellers where you might be able to purchase as an individual. The cost for this much power is $400.

Leandro Rizzuto, founder of Conair Corporation, says the product is exceeding their expectations. “When we introduced Volare this spring at the Ferrari Headquarters in Maranello, Italy, we expected to sell 10,000.  We sold 55,000.”

We have visions of Felipe Massa dressed in his red firesuit in a wind tunnel with multiple red hair dryers pointed at him. Listen, he’s got some good hair, now we know why.

August 14th, 2010

Buy a Hyundai and Help Fight Childhood Cancer

Hyundai’s charity, Hope on Wheels, has just donated $80,000 to the Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. The charity has donated over $14 million to help fight children’s cancer since 1998.

The 2010 Hope on Wheels Tour is traveling the country and will visit 42 children’s hospitals and donate $2.1 million dollars to various childhood cancer research centers.

Hope on Wheels is an initiative supported by the 780 Hyundai dealers across America. Every time a Hyundai is sold $5 is donated to Hope on Wheels.

So, get on out there and buy a Hyundai! If you would like to donate directly to Hope on Wheels, click here.

August 13th, 2010

Nicole Kidman’s New York Pad Has a Sky Garage

Nicole Kidman and hubby Keith Urban just bought a new apartment in New York for a reported $10 mil (a deal considering the asking price was $12.5). Their neighbors include Dolce & Gabbana who live in the penthouse, reportedly bought for $29.5 mil.

The piece de resistance is the first ever “en-suite sky garage” TM (yup, it’s trademarked). Yes, that’s right, they have a 300 sq ft parking space/private elevator that you can drive into from the street that brings you right into your apartment. Oh, why haven’t they invented this sooner?

The New York Times just printed a story about a new parking garage that “adds glamour to South Beach.”

The story quotes Cathy Leff, director of the Wolfsonian-F.I.U., the design, culture and history museum as saying that “developer Robert Wennett and the architects have demonstrated that a traditionally banal building type — the parking garage — can be elevated to an art form.” The garage is a rather expensive piece of art with a price tag $65 million.

We at DriveLikeAWoman.com believe that parking spaces for too long have been utilitarian and predictable. It’s about time cars and the spaces that house them earn their proper place in the architectural world. We predict that parking spaces will become the new “it” structure of the architecture/design world. You heard it here first!