Welcome to another pseudo-mini-rant by yours truly! 
And another one on girls and cars, too. How lucky are you?! (Perhaps not very, but that depends on how you are I guess.)
Girls and Cars
Okay, so we all know that girls and cars aren’t often put together to form “car girl.” There aren’t many girls like this out there… I really don’t know many myself, and definitely none my own age. They’re all older, either got into racing young or with their husband/boyfriend/whatever, and have been doing it for years now.
When I do find girls around my age, they’re into cars completely different from me… At least around here, the girls are absolutely car-retarded and into rice. Like a lot of the guys, surprise surprise. They just irk me to no end. Either that, or they try to say they’re “car girls” if they go to autocrosses to sit and watch. Um…. No.
And then there are those of us girls who are truly into cars. Who sacrifice and build just like the guys do, sometimes better. But even then, there are differences in this small group.
The Go Camp
I’m pretty firmly in the “go” crowd. I do not care about the paint on my Miata, as long as she’s up to racing. I picked out my modifications based on the performance increase, not because of who made it or how the car looks. Well…. Not purely for looks anyhow. Even the carbon fiber side mirrors are proven to reduce drag. 
My "go" car pretending to be a "show" car. (We still won a trophy... Haha.)
Sadly, this is the smallest sub-set of car girls. Most fall into the other camp…
The Show Camp
Now, do NOT get me wrong: I am NOT opposed to show cars, or cars built taking form into careful consideration. May I remind you, I am definitely pulling out all of the stops to transform my 240SX into a stunner in her own right, but we’re starting with the go parts: her SR20DET.
However, most car girls are into cars this way… I suppose on some level it makes sense. Girls are into fashion, and fashion is really about looks. Girls are usually concerned with appearances, so yeah, it would make sense for a car girl to still be concerned with the appearance of her car. Follow me?
This is what I mean... A girl's car that is ALL looks – Stock KA & Auto tranny inside.
What disappoints me so much is how seamlessly show and go can go together. Yes, I could paint my Miata and she may look better… But paint will just chip when I take her racing. That’s why I have my 240SX — I want to go drifting with her, but not very often, if ever more than once. But I don’t want her to be all looks either… That’s just awful. I want her to back up her good looks with some performance. She doesn’t have to be exclusively in either camp, but to blend both together in a way that I like.
To me, it just seems that if a girl’s in the show camp, she completely forgets about performance. Which is fine, as long as she doesn’t claim any performance… But there are some that will, when it’s not right for her to do so.
I’m all for support
In the end, I want to do my best to support any other girl who’s into cars, whether that be go, show, imports, domestics, etc. There are too few of us to not support each other in all that we can, which is sometimes hard because girls can be really competitive with each other. (In fact, I’m just as skeptical of other “car girls” as guys are of them and me.)
Really, what we need are some nicely done cars that blend performance and looks. We need to show that we aren’t just about pretty exteriors, but we can kick ass in our own right. You can park hard, sure, but we need to show we’re pretty capable out driving too.
Anyone with me?
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I agree many MANY girls that are so called into cars have a riced out car, but ido know of 2 or 3 girls that are into cars and autox too.
I think drift cars are the cross breed between show and go… before they get some battle scrapes, scars, and bruises
“There aren’t many girls like this out there… I really don’t know many myself, and definitely none my own age.”
Amen. My friends act embarrassed when I read Car & Driver when we’re at the book store. Excuse me, but I’d rather see the 2010 Trans Am concept cars that could have been more than I’d like to read abut Martha Stewart’s list of 1,000 things you can do with a gourd.
That’s funny, I never thought I’d meet another girl in the blogamasphere who understands car gender.
Well, I know a few girls who autocross… But certainly not my age! They’re older and have been doing it for YEARS. I get a lot of support from them, though, for being younger and getting into it, which is nice.
Drift cars are a breed apart, for sure. Most people who don’t understand them think they’re ricey, but they’re some of the most functional cars out there… Just built for a different purpose than many, and combine form flawlessly with their function. (Usually.)
LOL, nice to meetcha, thanks for stopping by!
I’ve found one or two of the real sort that I’ve chatted with before, but sadly I never know how to keep a good conversation started. Most don’t even have their own blogs, so it seems. There is Randomness of Jade, though. Her car is damn fine, well used & loved.
I think where I currently live is just awful for it… All the girls are either ricers, or the kind that hang around the street racers and wanna pretend it’s like in the movies or something stupid. (They usually end up trying to instigate fights, retards.)
Another thing that can be blamed on the fast and the furious I mean really what kind of example did this set?
http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/features/fastandfurious/ff2-2.jpg
Sheeeesh.
However I do know a few girls who are schooling the guys around here. I wonder if the ratio of ricer/real enthusiast ratio for girls is really worse than that with males or of it just seems so because there are less females in the scene? ‘
Hmmmm.
Ugh, please…. I’ve gagged enough over that car. There was one guy from S2ki that bought one of those cars from the movie and actually reverted it back to a proper S2000. He’s a hero.
That’s a good question, though I don’t know how you could go about collecting fairly unbiased data on that one… In my personal experience, I’ve seen way more ricer girls than true enthusiasts, mostly because you don’t have to know a lot about cars to be a ricer, but you have to prove that you know your stuff to be considered an enthusiast, guy or girl.
To be a ricer, all you need to know is how to get to your local AutoZone or look your car up on eBay, and have a tiny bit of cash. Real car builds, show or go, take serious cash to invest. Ricer barrier to entry is much, much lower than an enthusiast barrier to entry.
Really? I want to see that thread lol looks like I have some googling ahead of me.
Best of luck, I can’t seem to sift through S2ki to drag it up…. I’m pretty positive I heard about that, though. Just can’t seem to find anything. :/