Autoblog

Single-engine jet-powered dragster seeking female companion for thrilling adventure across salt flats. Petite build. Background in motorsports or aviation. With sponsors. Interested parties please contact Eric Ahlstrom (eahlstrom@pyramid.net), program manager, Steve Fossett World Land Speed Racing Team.

It's not exactly the kind of personal add you'd normally find in your local newspaper, but those are the criteria required by a team mounting the latest attempt at the land speed record. The 48-foot-long land-bound jet is powered by a 40,000-hp S&S LM-1500 turbine mounted in a sleek, aerodynamic body that is claimed to have less than a quarter the drag coefficient of the Trust SSC, the – ahem – "vehicle", if you could call it that, which currently holds the record.

Unfortunately, the design of the jetmobile necessitated a tiny cockpit, so they need a tiny driver to operate the thing. The pilot will be involved in each step along the road to the record attempt, including feedback on developmental runs and system tests slated for the next couple of months before they finally make a run at the record. Anyone have Danica Patrick's number? Oh wait, we do!

[Source: Inside Line]

During the development of General Motors' new GMT900 SUVs, the team in charge of design was taken out to the company's Milford Proving Grounds and made to dress in drag as an exercise. They wore high-heels, fake press-on nails and garbage bag skirts to simulate what The Car Connection refers to as "female handicaps" (are we really calling them that?) while operating various features of their new 'utes. The result was at least three features on GM's new SUVs that wouldn't have been there otherwise: retractable running boards for easier entry/exit in a skirt, a larger center console that can hold a purse and an easier to operate rear lift gate.

The idea for this excursion into androgyny came from Mary Sipes, a vehicle line director at GM and a woman with a mission to make her company's vehicles more user friendly for females. Since women comprise more than 50-percent of the buying public, she realized it would only help the company's bottom line to consider them more when designing new vehicles. Since the design teams are still very male dominated, Sipes decided to dress her teams in drag to force them to consider their vehicles from a female perspective. Hmmm... perhaps a better solution than playing dress up would be to just hire more women. Regardless, the intent was commendable, but we're wondering if our female readers can think of any other missing features that might make their lives a little easier.

[Source: The Car Connection]

Equal rights activists note that, with few exceptions, motor racing is an almost entirely male-dominated sport. In fact, the vast majority of racing drivers are white men, with only a handful of pioneers like Narayan Karthikeyan, Danica Patrick and Lewis Hamilton breaking through the grid. But this year, the Indianapolis 500, one of the most prominent races in the world (certainly in America) will feature, for the first time in motorsport history, three female drivers.

Lynn St. James and Sarah Fisher made history in 2000 when they became the first two women to line up together at the event, but this year Citgo-sponsored Milka Duno (pictured, right) of Venezuela will be driving a Dallara-Honda for the Samax team, along with Patrick and Fisher. Duno becomes the fifth woman to compete in the Indy 500.

The Indy Racing League is struggling, however, to fill the rest of the field. At the last reporting, only 27 entries have been received for this year's race, and seven of those don't even have drivers assigned to them yet. That's a far cry from the traditional starting grid of 33. Among the 27 currently registered for the race are five from Andretti-Green Racing, four from Vision Racing (owned by Indy chief Tony George), three from AJ Foyt, and three cars from Penske. It has not yet been revealed who will drive the third Penske car, and similar question marks loom over drivers from Vision, Foyt, Beck and Sam Schmidt's Indy Pro Series team. Meanwhile, although neither the Cheever nor Fernandez teams competed in the Indy Racing Series this season, insiders were still surprised the neither filed entries for the Indy 500.

[Source: GrandPrix.com]

click on image to enlarge

The French are known for their fine food, fine wine and as we've just seen this past week, their fine automobiles. But nary a vehicle we passed at the 2006 Paris Motor Show stood on that turntable alone; each was accompanied by an equally fine female accent. We would never dream of objectifyng those born without a Y chromosome, so thankfully more than a few automakers at this year's Paris show were willing to step in and do the job for us. We submit these images for your viewing pleasure, although hopefully not too much pleasure. Follow the jump for more lovely lady pics, all high resolution, of course.

Ford Motor Company has decided it would like to see more women driving race cars, so it's doing something about it. The Blue Oval has begun the Ford Female Driver Development Program, which currently counts 18-year-old Stephanie Mockler (shown) and 17-year-old Alison MacLeod as participants. Ford's ultimate goal is to these young ladies progress into more competitive series and someday win the Holy Grail of racing for female drivers in the U.S. – a NASCAR Nextel Cup race. Can you believe it hasn't happened yet?

More and more women are joining the ranks of racing, as this Wikipedia page that hosts 47 names attest to, but it hasn't been fast nor easy for any one of them. Just like Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball, these females have had to work extremely hard to crossover from fan to female racer and owe a lot those who went before them like Janet Guthrie, Shirley Muldowney and Lyn St. James, among others.

While Danica Patrick is every racing fan's favorite femme fatale at the moment, we're fairly certain she won't be the only lady in pit row for long. There is, however, a slim chance that she might be the first female to win a NASCAR race.

(For Ford's press release on its new program, follow the jump)

[Source: Ford]