Women in Hot Rodding

I love seeing girls that are truely into cars, not just the ones who think buying a fancy new one makes them a car girl. The ones who'll come into the garage and get dirty with ya, and the one's who don't think the exhaust is too loud...

 

Veda Orr, the film, someone oughta make it.

 

Cool write-up, indeed.
I'll definitely be sending a link of it out to a couple hot rod girls that I've gotten to know better lately....
They've spent a bunch of time out on the salt and in the shop, themselves.

Malcolm

 

Awesome blog, Ryan!!!

 

Please tell her I said "hi" and I'm waiting patiently for her to intro on the HAMB. Also mention to her to let her Dad know there are cookies being delivered to Bill's office tomorrow and John should pop in there for a few.

 

I might be a little bit in love with the girl in the picture. Who knows what she might have have been like in real life, but she's just about perfect in this picture.

 

Does anybody know anything about Peggy Brendel pictured above?
I met an elderly lady once and she told me at one time she was one of the top woman racers...I cant remember her name though and I wished I could but I know she lives/lived in Glendora Ca.
She told me she was well known for screaming at the top of her lungs all the way down the drag strip, and that people knew her for that. Anybody know who Im talking about?

 

Here she is ,again !! LOVE THAT PIC !

 

You got it, Denise. I figured you'd know exactly who I was talking about. I'll give her a little nudge to see if she'll join and do an intro.

They were kind enough to invite me out to their house/shop for the family Thanksgiving and a shop tour. They are the real deal, the best, every one of them. More on that later....

Malcolm

 

Thanks boss.
I've never quite figured out the fishnet stocking, roller derby chicks with cars Schtick.
Give me a woman with a little grease under her nails and I'm a happy guy.
My ex used to work side by side with me on engine swaps.

 

I was born in the wrong era

They don't make em like that anymore

 

Wow...you hit the nail right on the head with that one. Awesome.

 

Yeah they do, only these do it for the money too.
Its still not the same though
http://www.hotrod.com/racers/index.html

 

Someday I want to write a book about Women in Hot Rodding. Surprisingly the subject really hasn't been covered that much.

Even though in a lot of places we (hot rod girls) totally aren't accepted yet I can only imagine how it would be without Veda and the others before us.

I know for me personally I try not to make it into a big deal that I am a girl and into cars. I don't want to be treated any better or any worse, just equal.

I have really thought a lot about this subject and wish I had a time machine to travel through the ages and see how women in the hobby have been perceived. I wonder if there was a pin up girl strutting around the lakes that Veda just couldn't stand. I wonder how many boyfriends she lost over her car habit. I wonder if she ever let the guys get to her and hurt her feelings. And most importantly I wonder if she ever felt truly accepted.

I guess I've always found my biggest challenge is to live in the balance. I want to be the girl who will rebuild your flattie then pose with it in a calendar (of course not blocking it!). My dad, who has always been and will always be my biggest hot rod influence, always made it a point to make sure I always stayed a girl. I can remember him harping on me time after time to wash my hands when I came in from the garage. I can also remember when he wouldn't repaint my drag car until I agreed to go the homecoming with a nice guy down the road. It is weird the things you remember after someone is gone.

I think it is really important for the hot rod girls of today, the REAL hot rod girls, to continue on the legacy laid before us.

 

Thanks for the new perspective Rox. It's great that you had that amazing influence from your father. Keep those memories close to your heart.

So... did you go to homecoming with Billy Football Player?

 

MY, MY, MY!!!

Real women.

Real car.

What a concept!

Thanks from an old guy.

 

Good points to think about, ChevyGirlRox. You definetly should write that book.

 

Nice perspective ChevyGirlRox! I believe women were important too! On the Custom side, Carol Lewis and Marcia Campbell were involved big time. Owning and driving their cars and contributing to the mags. It's nice to see these photos and imagine what was going thru their minds and such. One thing about this passion in the Hot Rod or Custom car group was the diversity that made them up, just from what I've read and saw.

Ken

 

I picked up "The Birth Of Hot Rodding" two months ago at Borders for like $7.99. It really contains some really nice photos of days that have passed.

 

Took the words right out of my mouth. I am all about breaking stereotypes, who says you can't dress up and look good next to a car and then dress down and wrench on it huh? Glad to see the gals before us getting some respect, I'm sure they walked a hard road and I'm really into reading more about them, great thread! ok and now I have to completly embarrase my friend Angela its probably my favorite photo of a female hotrodder. She is nine months prego driving the truck she built. Talk about awsome.

 

Who's to say that some of the girls in the old pics weren't just hanging around for the "scene" back then????? I bet the dry lakes were a very exciting time and girls went along for the adventure, not necessarily the cars per say.....Just because a chick is hanging out with the car guys, doesn't make her a hotrod (or car) girl......kinda like these days with the girls at shows (not all of them mind you)? Hmmmmmmm......

Now a girl WORKING on an old car.....different deal altogether.......

 

You're wrong man! They are few and far between, but I somehow got one hooked on me!


Hell man, she drug my ass out of bed and made me go racin' at the Turkey Trot the morning after Thanksgiving where it was 20-something degrees! And she shot video for me!

 

Sweet!

 

ahh back before chicks were thin as sticks.. cool pics

 

Pretty much sums it up.......

Been married 40 years to the same wonderful gal. She cleans parts, helps with the heavy stuff, and has been supportive of all my insanity all these years.

Our current project is an HA/GR rail and she will be crew chief on it. Keeps me focused and smiling and has a smile that makes it all worth while.

 

Very cool!!

 

My wife knows more about cars and is more of a "car guy" than most guys. I love nothing better than to stand back at a car show and listen to her hold court telling guys about our car and how we built it. She loves old cars, prefers driving a manual trans, and her favorite thing in the whole world is going to auto swap meets.



She also like to restore old pedal cars.



She's the best.

 

Nice blog

Here you have a non typical wrenching girl with a wrench that probably never wrenched.

.......or she just had a rattlin' wheel to take care of on her way to a date.

Paul

 

This whole thing about "models" and Betty Paige look-alikes is what convinced my wife (Flower) to build her own hot rod. Three years ago we drove my sedan over 300 miles to participate in a show. This was the very day the sedan was made road worthy and was a little risky to go that far on it's maiden voyage. Flower had worked side by side with me on that car, welding, cutting and fabricating as well as stitching the interior. We get to the show and see a whole flock of media types and phographers clustered around a couple of "hot rod babes" in the '50s attire posing in a couple of rat rods....Betty Paige hair etc.. The whole crowd was oogling these young ladies pretty seriously. As the crowd diminished and finally moved on my wife wandered over to check out the cars. As she looked one car over and asked a couple simple questions of the one young lady......she got the "deer in the headlights" look, a really shitty "leave me alone" response and didn't have a clue about the cars. Later that weeekend, the two models were driving away in the rat rods, once again causing a crowd to form........they were seen to drive from the venue to a spot a couple blocks away to a waiting TRAILER. At that point Flower made a decision to build her OWN car and drive it to any event we attended.

I guess I'm pointing out that there is room for all here in this sport (?), just some seem more genuine than others.

 

Rox,
I would love to see a book on this subject. There was a great book a few years ago called Bugatti Queen and it was a truly facinating portrait of a woman getting into the – then new – world of racing and driving. But with women out there like Veda, and others it would be great to have a perspective on this. It is very similar to the lack of coverage of the Japanese- Americans who were heavy into hot rodding. When you read about it - you just say 'WOW'.