Ash, hey im doing a case study at work, trying to find out what would pull more women to the Suibaru Challenge? I know that in the past when we got togehter for G2G's it was all guys and when the ladies come with us they are bored stiff. Any ideas on how we can make it a good time for them and maybe learn more about Subaru's, WRX ETc...? Thanks
Are you talking about autox? The subaru challenge is an autox not really a G2G ie go to quiznos, varisity etc. To tell you the truth there are not very many women that autox in general. I can only maybe 10-15 women I see autoxing regularly either at SCCA or BMW CCA events. Personally I find your statement about how to make it a "good time" for women kinda of sexist. If women aren't into cars, they shouldn't have to go a car event. I kinda doubt that subaru's marketing demographic is women for the WRX or STi; I'd imagine for the Forrester and Legacy/Outback the marketing is completely different. Maybe you can get Randy to bring some Forresters and Legacys to the challenge for the only "semi" interested girlfriends/wifes etc to come out and test drive. Edit: At the subaru challenge (gainsville fl) last year they were going to automatically put in the top few paxing women into the superstar challenge.... well I paxed 10th or 11th overall anyways. Quotas are lame.
I don't know if its sexist as much as its reality. My wife isn't into cars, not remotely. I would wager, simple statistics would indicate the VAST majority of women are not interested in cars as more than a means of transportation. Finding a way to interest women in a car oriented event is just a logical thing to do. Statistically, women spend the majority of a household income, or control the household budget, again, not sexist, statistics. Why not try to find a way to encourage female participation in a classically male centric (statistically) activity. Plus, it makes it easier for the guys to attend!!! I would love for Celine to have a reason to come out to more events, subbie challenge or otherwise.
What I didn't like about the above statement was that we should change "autox" to make it more interesting to women. I just think that if women aren't interested, they aren't interested; I personally wouldn't be interested in any sort of knitting circle or what have you at an autox... If people really want to get their female SOs into autox or motorsports I would suggest dropping them off at an autox school or pdx/HDPE and leave them with their instructors, alone. I doubt any semi-interested women having her first motorsport experience wants critical remarks from her husband or boyfriend. I know some other regions have "Women only" novice schools where the instructors and students are all women (I don't think we would have enough instructors in Atlanta for this). If there are a group of subaru wives/girl friends that would be interested in this maybe something can be arranged in the future. My main point was about autox not about general G2Gs; having some more inclusive G2Gs for women is fine by me. However fluffing up an autox to get more only "semi" interested women out there is really lame, motorsports is motorsports. SCCA already does some fluffing of their own by offereing ladies class which I personally think are totally lame.... except for when Kumho, SCCA and SOA offer contingency money for national ladies classes. If there was no money in ladies classes, I would never run ladies class at the national level.
I have one for you. She has an Integra and wants to get into racing. I'm going to bring her to the next few events so she can ride along. She's not going to be touching my keys though. So you'll have to let cars other than Subys into the club. Wait, what the crap am I talking about? Only 10% of your cars are Subarus...
I don't know. While I agree that I wouldn't like to see the auto-x format itself fluffed, having some type of side event for wives/girlfriends ( or boyfriends/husbands for that matter) who aren't interested in the auto-x itself doesn't really bother me. However, this thread is intended for something different, if we want to dicsuss this more, I will gladly start a new thread and pull these posts over there....
Sorry for the semi thread jack; no I totally agree if their are some ride alongs in less male-demographic cars or what have you that maybe one thing to do. Just please don't have a Subaru Umbrella girl or bikini challenge, I think that would only attract more guys
Yes please start another thread for this debate; hence the reason for the PM. I like how there are so many Ashley's out there too. Side bar...dropping someone off at a school who is not already interested, male or female, is a sure fire way to bore the hell out of them. When was the last time you enjoyed spending all day doing something that you weren't interested in?
Most women I've talked to autox don't want to autox cause they feel intimated by their SO level of skill nor do they want their SO tell them what they do wrong. That really turned me off when I drove with brian, and I know it's still a issue with other women at autoxes. For women that want to "give it a try" be it track days or autoxing it's best to have outside instruction. The way you described it would make me imagine somebody waking up their wife in the early morning and driving them to Road Atlanta and throwing them out of the car saying "Go race" . I've help edinstruct a few people's SOs because they didn't want to have a heated arugment about driving; things are less up to debate with a stranger. Also I think we are more critical of our SOs then we are of random people.
When did we start allowing teh womenzzz to drivez z automobilez. Z next thing you knowz we will be letting themz vote....
I don't instruct family members period...they don't listen well. When I'm instructing things can't be up for debate at all, you are going to do what I tell you when I tell you or chances are we are going to wreck a car. If you wreck the car because you didn't listen I might kick youre ass when I get out. On subject. I hate it when people get all gung ho and bring their wife\boyfriend to the track, it makes it not fun for everybody. Let people do what they want to do. Beth has been around the track with me and she will probally even do it again, if she continues to show interest then I'll get someone to instruct her. Matt
Exactly my feelings...... if they are not interested, they are not interested. Maybe some pink wheels would help sweeten the deal
hahaha, missed this earlier... IMO, I could encourage other members to drop them bitches off, and if they enjoy it, they will come back, and if they hate it, then fine.. it wasn't meant for them and they can stay home knitting instead of attending future events. I just really enjoy having a hobby that I can enjoy with my wife, and not have to deal with leaving her home on the weekends while I go out and have fun. -- Brian
Although I agree that it makes life much more enjoyable that my husband and I enjoy the same hobby, I disagree with the first part of you post...very derogatory.
Sorry.. I didn't mean to imply that all woman enjoy knitting. They can spend their time doing other activities, like cooking their husbands dinner, cleaning the house, making pie, etc. On a side note, if woman do enjoy knitting, I talked to one woman at the last event, who brought along her knitting stuff, and was doing it there at the event while her husband was autocrossing. She was making a cool looking beach handbag. -- Brian
I was serious.. did you see it? She said that she would bring it to the next event to show me what how it came out when she was done. -- Brian
I did see someone knitting, yes. My bad. I take back my ":rofl:". You should ask her to make you a helmet bag.