Women Drivers!

[/quote]The first series was hosted by Catie Munnings wiki link who left to pursue her career in motorsport.

Theme tune by the Darkness for extra amusement value!

My 2 sons love watching it too
[/quote]



Funny thing is I just saw her on the news as she is one of the drivers for the Extreme E series for all electric motorsport with equal male and female drivers for each team.
Jenson ?Button and Lewis Hamilton both have a team.

What a life eh?

I'll add the Simmonite sisters to the list - rallying/comp safari fame.
Related to them, the Simmbugghini was a mad creation in its time. I loved watching those mental V8 off roaders destroy the Highland hills as a youngster.

I recall Louise Atkins Walker had a big crash into water, that must have been a proper clenching moment!

How about dragracer Leah Pruett

www.nhra.com/drivers/leah-pruett/886


And ofcourse "the fastest woman on four wheels" Jessi Combs

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessi_Combs

Arisa Mizuhara, drifter and rally driver in Japan.

Getting back to the OP's question of how much things have changed, things have changed a lot. For a start automatic "women drivers eh?" comments are no longer regarded as either funny or in fact remotely true.
Car culture is infinitely more welcoming of all types of people now, and while women drivers may have been the first incarnation of this I think it's really just a reflection of a more open and tolerant society in general. By making women less excluded, less are driven away by displays of toxic masculinity.

That said I (and thankfully a handful of others) recently got ourselves blocked form a large FB classic cars spotted group after an awful display of online mysoginy directed at a woman in a photo with a rather nice car. After a selection of truly awful comments a few voices raised objections. We were immediately labelled SJW snowflakes who couldn't stand to see "banter" on the internet. We were all promptly banned from the page for being "too libtard". The group has since had several warnings from FB regarding hate speech towards women so I guess some corners of the internet still have a fair way to go.

Thankfully I feel these attitudes are more likely seen in the pure online (that's you FB) forums than places like here which also promote and nurture real world relationships.

Hi, Jodie Kidd beating Jay Kay on top gear's fastest star, which prompted some wag to write "Jodie was faster" in the dust of Jay Kay's car at Goodwood the following year.



Colin

My first wife was always a confident driver when we were together and later, with her second husband, an active participant in motorsport. On one occasion some years after we had both remarried she followed me through a series of unsealed back roads. I was in a Falcon wagon with half a ton of bagged grain on board, she and our younger son in a near new Daihatsu Sirion. I wasn't consciously hurrying and she should have been able to stay with me through all the twisty bits but did not and I often found myself slowing down to see if she was still following. Upon arrival at our destination I questioned her on that, pointing to her experience of rallying as justification. Her reply was along the lines of, "But usually on roads like that we've done a recce first and I've got pace notes."

Wow she must have been a proper maverick back then. The car world version of Amelia Earhart