Born to be wild!  Last month our own Jody DeVere had the pleasure of visiting the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, WI and was shown around by some pretty great people at Harley-Davidson Motorcycles.  This video offers a recap of the tour with Jody, Julie Scroggins, VP of Waukegan Tire, Amanda Lee, Manager Product Communication, and Claudia GarberDirector, Women's Outreach Marketing Harley-Davidson Motor Company.  

Join them for this special peek into the history of Harley-Davidson, including a look at some of the ladies who have had a hand in making them the greatest American motorcycle manufacturer.

Last weekend I was the guest of Sylvania for the NASCAR Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to enjoy the races, tour the RCR Haulers, be on Pit Road when the green flag dropped, take in all the excitment and fun at the track up close to learn more about Sylvania automotive lighting products and watch a demo of their headlamp restoration kit.

Here is a YouTube video collage to share all the sights and sounds of my NASCAR weekend experience with you, enjoy!

I was invited to participate on a panel discussion for local business and community leaders breakfast sponsored by Cal Lutheran University at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley.The first of the 2011-12 Corporate Leaders Breakfast Series hosted by California Lutheran University explored how using Facebook and Twitter and other online tools can help businesses grow and build their brands. Speakers were Beth Mansfield, public relations director for CKE Restaurants; Shawn Mulchay, founder of Socialmash Media, and myself, CEO of AskPatty.com.

Beth Mansfield, public relations director for CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, said the most important thing is for a brand is to find its voice online. My voice of course is about giving help and advice to women and giving them a safe place to come. Women spend three times more per day in social sites than guys do. You either join the conversation or you get buried by the conversation. I spend a lot of time on Twitter just listening to my users to understand what's important to them now. It was a wonderful panel with over 300 business leaders in attendance.

I could not resist taking a tour while I was there of the new display called, "Start Your Engines: American Race Cars" at the Reagan Presidential Library, on view from May 27 through October 23, 2011.  The exhibit features a wide array of storied vehicles from the history of American auto racing from the 1930s to today, including those from NASCAR and IndyCar.  Visitors will view historic cars driven by legends such as Dale Earnhardt, Sr. and Richard Petty, as well as cars by current racers Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Austin Dillon, who will make his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut later this year.

The world has lost one of its pioneer women in the aerobatic and auto racing worlds:  Betty Skelton, the so-called "First Lady of Firsts" lost her battle with cancer on August 31 at the age of 85.  She was truly, truly an amazing lady, and if you've never heard of her, allow me to introduce you to some of her accomplishments.  Betty is primarily known as a pilot, but she has the distinction of holding more combined aircraft and automotive records than anyone in history.  She was a three-time international aerobatics champion, set two world light plane altitude records, became the first female test driver in the auto industry and the first woman to drive an Indy car.  Get this:  she set a land speed record in 1956, hitting 145 mph in a Corvette.

Yeah, this lady was amazing.  She was the first woman inducted into the International Aerobatic Hall of Fame and the NASCAR International Motorsports Hall of Fame, and you can see her biplane, a little red and white Pitts Special named "Little Stinker" at the Air & Space Museum at the Smithsonian.  I could type about her for hours, but you can head past the jump for her full obituary courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, which sums up her amazing acheivements up with less blubbering than anything I'd write.  To Betty, and to her family and friends, the Ask Patty Nation salutes you.  We have truly lost one of the great ones.

It's Friday, Ask Patty Nation, and today I'd like to kickstart your weekend with something that the good folks at GM sent to me.  It's part of their "Faces of GM" series highlighting GM employees, and this one is particularly amazing to me.  Meet Suzy Cody - she's an aerodynamic engineer who worked on the 2013 Malibu, among other things. She also happens to be a mom, and a roller derby girl.  That's right - by day she puts cars through their paces inside a wind tunnel in command of a 43-foot wide fan capable of producing winds in excess of 125mph, and by night she is the scourge of the skating rink as her alter ego:  "Shovey Camaro."  That's almost too much awesome to squeeze into one video, but they sure tried.  I'll share the video after the jump, but I leave you with this quote from Suzy: "I'm not like the other girls.  I'm a blue-haired, derby skating, Camaro driving, mother of two, engineer.  There is no other one like me"   

Suzy: rock on, girl.  Rock on.  

Have a great weekend, everyone.  Hit the jump for the video.

Ralph Lauren is an American icon, indisputably.  The most recognizable US fashion designer has a passion beyond the runway, though, and that's his cars.  He has a fabled collection of classic, rare, and exotic automobiles that is the envy of many an aficionado, and some gems from his auto collection are currently on display in Paris at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which has 17 of the designer’s classic vehicles on display through Aug. 28.  

Known more for polo shirts and country elegance, the quintessential American designer confesses to taking inspiration from his personal collection of 64 classic cars.  So much so, in fact, that recent collections have focused surprisingly on leather, including not only leather jackets but classic driving attire, including leather hoods with goggles and stylish driving gloves, a fashion sentiment now that echoes a time when driving a car was a more demanding and dirty affair - but the clash of masculine textures with feminine curves warrants a historical discussion worthy of the AskPatty blog, I believe.  Follow me past the jump to take part.

We've told you a little about the Rallye AÏcha des Gazelles here on the Ask Patty blog before, but for those of you who are unfamiliar, it's a pretty amazing thing.  Imagine a classic off-road auto rally - this one takes place in the desert of Morocco - sand swirling, sun blazing.  Racers start their engines and speed off into the lurid desert heat, with only an outdated map and a navigator in the passenger seat to help them find their way.  There is no GPS, no cell phones, no support crew, and - get this - no prize money for the winner.  Here, the only prize is the pride of accomplishment. The whole event has an aura of tradition and nostalgia, recalling the old rallys of Monte Carlo in an age gone by.

Now, imagine that all the competitors - 220 of them in this case - are women.

I know, right?  Hit the jump for details.

Pam Oakes, owner of Pam’s Motor City Automotive, is pleased to announce the publication of her latest car care book, “Car Care for the Clueless (or How You Can Make Money While Maintaining Your Vehicle)”.  She's been an author writing for consumer car care since 1999, and she's also the proud owner of an AskPatty.com Certified Female Friendly service center!

“This is not a “How to Fix It” manual, but a consumer car care awareness book. This easy to read, non-technical text helps the everyday consumer avoid the pitfalls of car care maintenance – and ‘make some money’ while maintaining their vehicle,” says author Pam Oakes. Pam is an ASE certified technician and owner of Pam’s Motor City Automotive since 1995.

Copies of “Car Care for the Clueless” are available for sale in at Pam's Motor City.  For more information, stop by or call Pam at 239-278-0086.  Congratulations, Pam!

Kaeli Gardner AskPatty.com, Inc.

Connect with Us View Our Compliance Statement Subscribe to our RSS Feed Subscribe to our E-News

AskPatty® and Certified Female Friendly® are U.S. registered trademarks owned by AskPatty.com, Inc.

AskPatty.com CEO Jody DeVere appears in a new book, along with several friends and partners in the industry.  It's called Entrepreneurial Insanity in the Tire Industry, and if you're in the tire industry that title may feel familiar to you.

The book asks tire businesses owners to look at whether they are behaving like a "small business" or an entrepreneur.  Author Roger McManus, with input from some significant players in the tire business, defines the question and lays out a road map of Entrepreneurial Insanity - a guidebook for the small business owner to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit and truly shine. As you'd expect, this isn't a book about money - it's a book about attitude, and we're proud to be part of it.