Fast And Furious | Auto Performance

While today we have women racing in Indy, NASCAR and avariety of different racing venues, years ago this wasn'tthe case.

In fact, during the era I grew up in women were lookedupon in a very different light. If you deviated from thenorm you were labeled as a "tomboy". However, there weremany, like myself who loved to drive, work on cars and gota lot of satisfaction in doing so. Just because we didhowever, didn't mean we weren't women, girls, ladies,whatever you wish to be called.

Many of us so called "tomboys" were the product of beingfirst born girls with dads who wanted the prodigal sonfirst, but got a daughter instead. My dad and I watchedsports together, baseball, football, basketball. In fact,my dad was the neighborhood dad (those who grew up when Idid will understand) and played with all the kids in theneighborhood. We would have touch football games, kickball,baseball, t-ball and even badminton and volleyball games.

I developed an avid interest in cars, because my dadworked for Rolls Royce and was always bringing some greatcars home. He brought home Joe Namath's Jaguar, a SilverCloud Rolls Royce (owned by one of the builders in the areaI grew up). In fact I got to drive it, which was a thrillto say the least.

Cars had character back then, you could tell them apart.While my dad for years drove a Ford Station wagon (forbusiness), he also owned Dodge's and some Chevy's. Mymother loved the Mustang and got one in 1965. I liked thembigger, so my first car was a 1962 Chevy Belair (2 door). Inicknamed her "The Black Beauty" she was a great car.

My dad showed me how to change my oil and filter, and totake care of my car. We also worked on the brakes and muchmore together. I would spend a whole day, cleaning, washingand waxing that car. It was the perfect car for my "leadfoot". I can't count the number of cars that would pull upnext to me, and reeve up their engines thinking "It's agirl, she'll never beat me off the line"! Well, how wrongthey were. I can count on one hand those that took me offthe line!

I hung around with a group of friends, mostly guys, butsome girls also. The cars were varied, Mustangs, Vettes,Chargers, Chevelle's and a multitude of street cars. We allloved cars and driving them, and especially driving them totheir limits. Which we did! Did us girls always beat theguys, nah, but it was sure fun when we did!

So remember, next time you come up next to a lady driver,"Girls like them Fast and Furious Too!

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