Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / From Screenplays to Sports Cars: Lauren Goodman’s Journey into Motorsport History

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From Screenplays to Sports Cars: Lauren Goodman’s Journey into Motorsport History · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
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all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
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designers, and everything in between.
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Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that wonder.
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How did they get that job or become that person?
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The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
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Tonight's guest received her master's in fine arts in screenwriting for
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the college of motion pictures arts at Florida state university.
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While volunteering at the Revs Institute in Naples, Florida, she encountered
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one of two Maseratis entered by Lucy Schell in the 1940 Indianapolis 500.
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Wanting to know more and diving headfirst into the research, Lauren Goodman
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became an overnight petrolhead, now owns a sports car, and finds herself
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as the supervising producer for media and exhibitions at the Revs Institute.
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And she's here with us tonight to share her story with you.
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So welcome to break fix, Lauren.
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Hello.
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I'm so happy to be here.
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Well, like all good break fix stories, there's a super heroine origin story.
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So let's talk about the who, what, where, and why of you.
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And it's a little bit of a roundabout way to CARS.
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So let's start with your career in the movies.
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I received my MFA in screenwriting from a terrific little film school headed out
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to LA as most of us do a few friends.
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Went to Atlanta, but starting out in LA, I did a little bit of
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everything that you're supposed to do.
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I did internships.
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I worked as an assistant.
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I ended up making a living in TV commercials for a while, learning about
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producing them and then getting a chance to even write a couple, not major ones.
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We're not talking about for the giant agencies, but for some smaller brands,
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looking to break into TV as a market.
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I think all of it was.
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educational for the work I do now, even though I didn't
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realize that's what was going on.
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I was just trying to find a way to make ends meet.
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Basically, L.
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A., you're always robbing Peter to pay Paul, especially when you freelance,
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which I did for quite a while.
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And by the time the pandemic rolled around, I really was kind of done.
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I had set out to become a TV writer and And even with my foot in the door
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taking a look around at the people I was working with, the environment I
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was working in, it didn't appeal to me.
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I couldn't see myself doing that for the next 20, 30 years.
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Of course, at that kind of time, I ended up moving home like so many people did.
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And like a lot of people, I decided, you know what, I don't
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think I'm going to go back.
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Then the question becomes, well, what do I do now?
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I have a degree in screenwriting.
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What am I possibly qualified to do?
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And while I was basically working a job here in my hometown, I discovered that
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my hometown, Naples, Florida, has one of the premier car museums in the world.
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Let's see, my first time at REVS, it was just after my birthday
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because my sister had gotten us tickets for a tour for my birthday.
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I gotta tell you, REVS is one of the best kept secrets in Florida because a lot of
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people who work at the higher level of car collecting or attend heritage events
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that have really incredible cars are familiar with the cars in the collection.
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But locally, it's kind of like the best kept secret in the area.
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There are a lot of people like me who grew up here or spent many years
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here and don't know it's there.
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So when my sister said, Oh, I have some tickets to this
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car museum for your birthday.
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I was kind of like, okay, it's going to be like a Model T.
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And a couple of Thunderbirds or something.
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It's just going to be a silly way to spend an afternoon before you go to lunch.
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So was there already an inkling there of being interested in cars?
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Why did she pick specifically going to Revs for your birthday?
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So I am at home during the pandemic, jobless, living in my teenage bedroom,
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feeling like an absolute winner.
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Just.
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Everything's going great around this time.
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I still love film and television.
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I love that it can introduce people to new things, either as a documentary,
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even great narrative films can get you really interested in a new topic.
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So I love Ford versus Ferrari.
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And I love the Senate documentary.
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It was the first time I'd ever heard of something called Formula One.
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And Netflix was kind of like, you, uh, want to watch some hot
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guys drive some Formula One cars.
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And I said.
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That sounds good.
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I don't have anything else to do.
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Oh, maybe I should ask you this piss stop question.
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Sexiest Formula One driver of all time?
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Ooh, ooh, all time.
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Oh, sir, I wasn't ready for that curveball.
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Here it is.
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It depends on what you go for.
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Because I gotta say, Jim Clark is up there for me.
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But he's, he's very much a gentleman.
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Like, it's almost, it feels...
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Ungentlewomanly to call him sexy because it's kind of like this
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handsomeness and this respectability.
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I do have to put Senna up there.
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Like the man just had a, a light on him.
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Just very special.
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I think the current crop of drivers, I think we're very hashtag blessed in the
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looks department there, which is nice.
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Nobody ever votes for Nigel Mansell and the push broom mustache.
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Okay.
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First of all, I do love Nigel Mansell and I do love that mustache.
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Big fan.
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So I am one of the generation of people who came to Formula one through drive
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to survive, which some people look down their noses at, but I, I'm of the opinion,
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whatever gets somebody in the door.
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And for me, it became an obsession very quickly, like watching every single
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free practice, signing up for the app.
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So I could watch old races.
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I couldn't consume enough.
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Since you're coming up to speed on Formula One over the last couple of years,
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have you attended a race in person yet?
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Do you want to attend one?
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And if so, where?
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I went to the US Grand Prix at Kota twice.
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The very first Grand Prix I went to was at Austin.
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That was 2021.
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So it was the first one after COVID.
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And I went just as a General Admission Hoi Poloi with my blanket and my
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little lawn chair, my sister and I.
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The following year, through a friend, I got tickets to some of
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the grandstand seats at turn one.
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And that was a stupendous view.
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And then I also went to the inaugural Miami Grand Prix.
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So there are many more Grand Prix on my bucket list.
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And your thoughts being there in person versus on TV.
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Okay.
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So I'm going to level with you.
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It's better to watch the racing on television.
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It just is being at your house.
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The TV broadcasts are so good.
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Now you have a much better idea of what's going on when you're at the track.
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You will have very little idea what's actually going on.
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That's been my experience.
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So really you're there for the atmosphere.
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You're there to enjoy some fellowship with crazy people who love this
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and want to spend their days baking in the sun to watch these
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cars go round and round a track.
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It's kind of ridiculous when you think about it, but we're
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all so happy to be there.
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It's infectious.
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Have you investigated any other disciplines of motorsport,
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maybe sports car and endurance, any NASCAR, anything else?
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There is no way you can spend all your time at the Rebs Institute and not
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get into sports car racing, especially because in our collection, especially
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if you're into Porsches, we have some, some pretty terrific Porsches.
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Y'all should come on down and check it out.
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These cars, not only is the history behind them incredible, but when
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I get to go to events and I get to see them still right on the track.
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That's also pretty spectacular.
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I would say that the majority of our collection is sports car focused.
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And I also, I enjoy Rally.
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I have my little WRC Plus subscription now, so I can watch my little
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onboards whenever I want, on demand.
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Love that.
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Well, that's good, because I'll have to have you on, and we'll just do a
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Rally recap, because we're the only two people on this show that like it.
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Rally's so great!
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Oh my gosh, I love the Group B stuff.
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I'm talking about like, The original Carlos Sainz.
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The old school stuff.
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Michel Mouton.
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Oh, the best.
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All the Audis.
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The launch of Delta Integrale is probably my dream car.
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I don't know why.
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I just love those boxy hot hatches.
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They're the best.
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All I'll say to that is never drive your heroes.
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Having driven a bunch of those cars from that era.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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The homologation rules were not kind to those vehicles.
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That's all I'll say.
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Yeah.
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I think a lot of it was.
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A, I was searching for something to be passionate about.
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And at that point, LA broke my heart a little bit.
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I was looking for what was the next thing that was going to spark me.
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And motorsport ended up being the perfect place for me.
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I love the camaraderie of it, especially at the upper echelons.
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The Motorsport is about being a team and it's about every member
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of that team working in unity and doing the best of their ability.
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Which a really great film said is the same way.
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It's people operating at the absolute limit of their endurance,
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of their talent, of their efforts in order to achieve one goal.
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That excited me.
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And the more I learned about it, the more I wanted to learn.
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And that's why my sister said, let's go to a car museum.
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I read it's good for people who are into F1.
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But I was thinking local museum, like it's not going to be anything that interesting.
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But lo and behold, there's a collection of almost 120 cars, which are some of
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the most beautiful examples of whatever it is they represent in the world.
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And I remember on this tour, by the time we got up to the upstairs gallery,
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which is where all the open wheel racing is, I thought I needed a paper bag.
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I thought I was going to like hyperventilate.
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I was like, I'm sorry, did you just say Sterling Moss?
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One in this car?
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Is there a different Sterling Moss?
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I don't understand.
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How could you possibly have this?
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I'm sorry, you mean Graham Hill?
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You mean Graham Hill, like Damon's dad.
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You must be confused.
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It must be a different Graham you're thinking of.
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You can't possibly have the car he won the championship in.
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And yet they did, and I remember the first time coming around a corner and seeing
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the Gurney Eagle for the first time, which Dan Gurney was driving to Oakland at Spa
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in 1967, first time an American driver in an American constructor car won a Formula
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One Grand Prix, like, just goosebumps.
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And I couldn't believe it was there, and I just thought, I have to figure
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out how to spend time with these cars.
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How to come back.
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How, how is this here?
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My tour guide, who is now one of my very good friends, and track instructor, Rock,
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said, Well, you know, we take volunteers.
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And also, if you ever want to know more about driving
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yourself, I'm a track instructor.
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Here's my card.
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It was kind of off to the races from there.
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A chance birthday gift now presents you with a job opportunity.
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So you go in as a volunteer, let's call you an intern.
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What was the Revs Institute having you do at that point?
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I think one of the most interesting parts about REVS Institute is its volunteer
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organization, which I think at last count was something like 130 people and growing.
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It's not people who just sent up for our newsletter.
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They're dedicated individuals who go through lots of training and mentorship
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in order to participate in keeping the collection open for the public.
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So one of the first things you do is you kind of shadow a mentor.
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And you get training on every single car in the collection, which, you
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know, that made me pretty nervous when I volunteered because I said,
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I'm still pretty new to cars.
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I know a lot and I, I'm learning more, but I'm by no means an expert.
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And they said, that's okay.
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Cause we can teach you everything you need to know about these cars.
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What we're looking for are people who want to engage other people with
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their excitement about whatever it is that draws them to this museum.
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So it sounds like they were gearing you up to really become what's known
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in the upper echelons of the museum and card collector world as a docent.
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That walking encyclopedia of information so you can engage
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with the audience, which you never know what that's going to be about
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anything and everything in the museum.
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Now, obviously fielding questions could challenge you in certain ways, but those
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are things you learn along the way.
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Lean over to your mentor and say, Hey.
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Uh, you know, once you step in here and help me out, what was pretty neat is
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it allowed me that, you know, I'd go in on a Saturday for a few hours and you'd
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be stationed in one of the galleries.
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You function a little bit as security because we're very unusual.
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We don't have any ropes around any of the cars.
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It's really kind of an honor system and people have tried to get into the
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cars at some point, but it's mostly being able to connect with individuals.
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As they look at the collection, people who are just their general admission,
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they're not on a tour, they're beginning to identify somebody who they seem kind
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of interested, but also maybe a little lost or sometimes I like identifying
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the person who's there has been clearly dragged along, you know, like, oh, my God,
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I'm with my car spouse or my car child.
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and I'm not a car person.
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If I can see that person and I can engage them and tell them about not
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a car, but a person behind the car, suddenly that person's engaged in a
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different way with a people's story.
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And I found that really rewarding because cars are really about people ultimately.
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But a byproduct of all this, ditching your daily driver for a sports car.
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I want to say I've been very responsible.
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I have kept the daily driver.
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It's a hybrid.
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It's very boring.
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I frequently lose it in a parking lot because I forget what it looks like.
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It's anonymous, which was perfect in Los Angeles because I never got broken
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into because I look like every other car, but the volunteer organization,
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besides being a lot of really passionate people, very knowledgeable people
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and people who also like driving.
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A few of them like to get together and we all go to Sebring to do a track day.
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And I said, Oh, I think I might like to try that.
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And they said, Oh, okay.
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Well, one Saturday we were up, just drive up and take a ride along.
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Just see if you're into it.
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Yeah.
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I think I was maybe through the first corner riding along on my buddy's Mustang.
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And I thought, Oh yeah, this is for me.
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Please put this in an Ivy bag.
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Give me a central line.
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Whatever this is.
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I need more of this and my buddies afterwards were delighted because
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they said, listen, when somebody rides along, you have one or two reactions.
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Somebody gets out and says, don't ever do that to me again.
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That was horrible.
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The other type of person says, hi, are you my dealer now?
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Do I buy from you?
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Direct from you?
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Like, how do I get this?
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Track rats are wonderful.
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I really enjoy them a lot.
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There's a camaraderie there at the track.
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Everyone's easy to talk to anything you want to know about.
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You just walk up and you're like, Hey, what's that thing on your car?
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They'll tell you.
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There's no, there's no snobbery about it.
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In fact, they're dying to tell you.
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They've just been waiting for somebody to ask.
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And that kind of education is invaluable.
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It's invaluable.
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So I said, well, I want to do this.
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And they said, well, you need to get a car.
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And of course, Miata is always the answer to everything.
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That's what it stands for.
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Miata is always the answer.
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I found one on Craigslist.
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And I called up my buddies from the museum because I said, will
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you come out and kick the tires?
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And then also test drive it because it's a manual and I
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don't know how to drive stick.
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So I also learned how to drive stick by buying this car off Craigslist.
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I put in the roll bar myself.
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First time I'd ever changed oil in my life.
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That was an adventure because the first time you do it, it's,
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you know, you make a mess.
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I think I'm making a little bit of a mess.
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At some point installing the roll bar, I took out the package tray, six
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stitches later, you know what I mean?
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I thought I was handling, I'd forgotten where I placed it and I bumped it.
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It was a whole thing.
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But, I gotta tell you, getting the car prepped and then being out on the
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track in that car, It was a level of pride I hadn't felt in a long time.
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Well, it's common in the car community, especially in the Volkswagen community,
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for owners to name their cars.
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So is this tradition upheld in the Mazda community as well?
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I think some of them do, some of them don't.
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I certainly name my car, she's a 2003, so it's the second gen NB2 Miata with the
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variable valve timing, which is broken.
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And I know that, I'm gonna fix it.
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But I call her Kitty Raikkonen.
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Oh!
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After, of course, Hello Kitty, because she's Japanese.
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but also Kimi Raikkonen because I love Kimi Raikkonen.
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That's it.
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People say, it seems like you kind of just went all in on this car thing.
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I said, yeah, that's kind of what my personality is.
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But I think also it was finding a community of people.
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And then at my first volunteering at Revs and then Essentially, they needed
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some help with some marketing writing.
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So I came on board as a contractor for a little bit, which turned into,
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would you like to just be on staff?
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And I said, yes, please.
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I already showed up for free here on Saturdays.
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Why wouldn't I want to show up Monday through Friday to make a career out of it?
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You're a full time employee at REVS now.
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So let's talk about REVS a little bit more for those of us that are
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listening to this, not in Florida, not familiar with, and as you said,
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it's sort of a best kept secret, a diamond in the rough, if you will.
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So what's the history behind the REVS Institute and some of the
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things that you're working on now that you're a part of the staff and
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you're part of media and production?
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It's a really exciting time to be part of REVS Institute.
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In short, REVS Institute is a 501c3.
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Three devoted to the exploration of the automobile as an archaeological object
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as a subject worthy of historical study.
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It comprises a museum that we're most known for.
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The museum is home to the Miles Collier collection, which is nearly
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120 cars that are really significant.
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And there's a lot of cars that are significant for motorsport history.
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It also comprises.
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A massive library and archive, which I wish more people could see because it's
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not just about the stacks and stacks of books, all devoted to automotive topics.
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We're talking about the papers and personal archives for
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former drivers, for editors, for automotive writers, for designers,
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we have old goggles and helmets.
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We have plans for all types of cars going way, way, way back.
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These are the kind of things, these little objects that are worthy of preservation.
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And unless somebody steps up and says, we're going to take care of them.
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They're the kind of things that end up in the waste bin over
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years and years and decades.
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So what's in a name I've been asked before, does Rev stand for something?
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Yeah.
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Where does the name come from?
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No, I think there was a marketing thing a while ago where they wanted
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it to stand for something, but no.
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It's just refs.
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In your new role there, what are you working on?
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This is what's really exciting.
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It's really the museum is at the point now where media is going to be such a crucial
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part of preservation of not only the cars in our collection, but cars generally.
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The reason being, media is still one of the best ways to meet
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people where they're at, to educate them, and to get them excited.
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So, for example, one of the things that's really interesting about
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the cars in the collection at REVS Institute is that they all still run.
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Streetcars are still taken out and driven on the street for
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exercise on a regular basis.
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Racecars are still raced.
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So most famously events like Goodwood and just recently Velocity Invitational
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are some of the few places where cars of historic significance, race cars,
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can come together and be exercised.
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And anyone who's a gearhead knows an engine has to be exercised.
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And for us, we have a philosophical belief that cars aren't
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really a car unless they run.
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You can't really understand them unless you hear them and smell them and see them.
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Just like a musical instrument, Just like a watch, if a watch didn't run and were
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seized up, is it still really a watch?
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Or is it a bunch of gears just stuck together?
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So what's really interesting about taking these cars out is, it's good
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for the car, but more importantly, it gets people excited about the car.
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People love attending these events, but not everybody can attend these events.
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So if we can use media to share these events and share the excitement of
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the car with a greater portion of the world, I think that's what's going to
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guarantee getting the next generation excited about maintaining these cars.
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I think in our lifetime, we're going to see the internal
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combustion engine disappear.
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So it will become a matter of the term hobbyist.
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can be a loaded one, but I mean it affectionately.
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Amateurs and hobbyists, people who do it out of love, not just out of,
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it's their profession, maintaining these cars and the culture around
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the cars to keep them alive.
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It's an interesting paradigm that you guys have put together for the museum
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and for the library as well, because It's very dynamic and I can only name
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a few museums with the same strategy of keeping objects in motion that should
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be in motion versus static displays.
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And you're like, man, that thing hasn't run in a hundred years
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and it's a hundred years old.
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So it's good that you're doing that.
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And I love that philosophy.
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I love that ideology because as everyone likes to say, cars are meant to be driven.
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They're not meant to be stored.
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If you wanted a model car, you buy a model car.
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One of the other things that you're involved with and that Revs is
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stepping up to is you guys have been named as part of the official
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heritage partners for Formula One.
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It's really exciting.
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So F1, as you know, commissioned an official exhibition that opened in
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Madrid and had a great run there.
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And now they're opening their next leg in Europe and Vienna.
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REVS Institute has been named as one of the heritage partners, along
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with names like BRM and Lotus.
20:10
The idea being, they're not only engaging present F1 teams to tell the
20:14
story of F1, but also people who are recognized as keepers of F1's heritage.
20:20
That's pretty exciting, and as the F1 exhibition continues to travel
20:24
around the world, it will present more opportunities for places like REVS to
20:28
engage with them and to offer things from our treasures to a whole new audience.
20:34
As you mentioned, you know, you've gone in it 110 percent head over heels.
20:38
You're a petrol gal now.
20:40
You're in the space with the rest of us drinking from that
20:42
IV bag right into the main vein.
20:44
And then you find yourself as part of the Society of Automotive Historians.
20:48
How did that happen?
20:49
First of all, Rose Institute is really involved generally in
20:53
the community of people who are interested in automotive history.
20:56
Which is not as big of a world as you think it might be because it's an area
20:59
that's really rich for academic study.
21:02
Any kids out there in a PhD program for history, I strongly encourage you to
21:06
think about automotive history because it's a totally untapped field where
21:11
there's just still starting to dig into, I mean, you can still go out and discover
21:15
a primary source is what I'm saying.
21:17
Like you can dig up stuff nobody else has seen.
21:20
Automotive history for a long time was kept.
21:22
By these, kind of, almost these oral histories and these legends.
21:25
It was like, oh, people are like, oh, Kars.
21:27
Like, that's not history.
21:28
That's not a, but of course it is.
21:30
A kar is an archaeological object.
21:33
Just like a pottery shard.
21:35
Just like an ancient manuscript.
21:36
Just like a building.
21:38
It's a record of human time and talent.
21:40
And by investigating it, we tell better stories about ourselves.
21:44
I think that's the big appeal.
21:45
And I think that's what's so interesting about the Society
21:48
of Autovotive Historians.
21:49
And that's where we met, was at their conference they put on in
21:53
Watkins Glen with the International Motor Racing Research Center.
21:56
I ended up presenting there only because I had been doing a research
21:58
project at REVS when I was a volunteer.
22:01
that I got really into about Lucy O'Reilly Schell.
22:04
She was many, many things, but one of the cars in our collection was a car that she
22:08
sent to the Indianapolis 500 in 1940 with Rene Dreyfus and Rene Lebesgue as drivers.
22:13
And in doing this presentation, I enjoyed it so much.
22:16
And the librarian at Rose at the time said, you should publish it.
22:20
I said, where?
22:21
This is, you know, there's a journal for the Society of Automotive Historians.
22:25
I said, there's a Society of Automotive Historians?
22:27
That sounds great.
22:28
Anyway, I get online, they're having a call for papers.
22:31
I say, Oh, don't mind if I do.
22:33
Tippy tack.
22:34
And the next thing I know, I'm on a plane to Watkins Glen.
22:36
That was a fun weekend.
22:37
And for those of you that are wondering about Lucy O'Reilly Schell and the
22:42
work that Lauren has put together, you can actually go back into the BreakFix
22:45
catalog and revisit that episode, which is the first time, but not the last time
22:49
you'll hear Lauren's voice on this show.
22:51
There's these names throughout motorsport, women's names, and
22:55
you don't hear them too often.
22:56
But when you do, they are lightning rods, just like Lucio, Riley shell,
23:01
Michelle Mouton, the queen of rally.
23:03
And so you've jumped into that side of motorsport as well,
23:08
kind of investigating more.
23:09
resurfacing some of those stories and you most recently went to
23:13
the women with drive summit.
23:15
So I wanted to give you an opportunity to tell people what that was all about.
23:18
Oh, that was fabulous.
23:20
This is a conference.
23:21
This was its third year.
23:22
It's a conference put on by women in motor sport, North America, which is in St.
23:26
James's organization, when St.
23:27
James and Beth Paretta it's growing year over year.
23:30
This year, we had to do the Phoenix raceway 450 in attendance.
23:34
I'm sure it's going to double for next year when we're at the
23:36
Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
23:38
I really enjoyed going because this is devoted to women in motorsports present
23:43
day, to making women visible and to gaining equity in terms of sponsorship,
23:47
getting the dollars needed in order to put women in the car and to make it feasible.
23:51
What I loved is having a historical perspective showing up and saying,
23:55
Hello, I'm from a car museum, and you have a long line of women who
23:59
came before you who were drivers.
24:01
You know, the very first real road race, Paris Madrid, Camille
24:04
Degas, a woman driver, was in it.
24:06
So since the very beginning, we've been here.
24:09
So as much as we talk about creating more seats at the table, which is
24:12
really, really important, I think sometimes it's also nice to know the
24:16
seat was kind of ours to begin with.
24:18
And we were shoved out.
24:20
The rules that prohibit women in racing originated because women were
24:23
racing, and they didn't want that.
24:25
If you go through some of these dusty tomes that exist in the libraries
24:29
like Rev's, one of them that jumps out at me a lot, and I reference
24:32
it quite a bit, is Chapman and His Machines, written by Cromback.
24:37
He mentions in there that Colin, in the early days, developing the original
24:41
Lotuses, he developed them for his wife.
24:44
Because they were doing hill climbs.
24:46
He was the engineer mechanic and she was the driver.
24:48
And so the original lotuses were built for her.
24:51
And so it's really kind of interesting how some of these stories just are
24:54
forgotten sort of on the winds of time.
24:57
And it's really cool to go back and read some of these older books where
25:00
they were chronicled and explained and reignite the interest in those stories
25:06
and dig a little bit deeper and give them the credence that they always deserved.
25:10
One of the things that really struck me when I started doing some research,
25:13
Into a Lucy O'Reilly show, which by the way, this is a great chance
25:16
to plug Neil Bascom's book faster, which is what got me interested.
25:20
Fabulous book that covers not only Lucy, but Rene Dreyfus in this
25:23
era, sort of the French versus the Nazis in Grand Prix racing.
25:28
A terrific book.
25:29
But I think what I found really interesting is I went through all the
25:31
French newspapers at the time, the race results, you know, it would be listed.
25:35
Monsieur, monsieur, mademoiselle, monsieur, madame, madame.
25:38
Monsieur Mademoiselle, from the very beginning, women were
25:41
participating wherever they could.
25:43
And in fact, so many women were interested in motorsport in France
25:46
that one of the newspapers sponsored a women's only championship, which
25:50
was hugely attended and had some of the finest racers of the day in it.
25:54
L.
25:54
A.
25:54
niece, for example, very famous, the Bugatti Queen, Lucy participated in the,
25:59
when Lucy transitioned from a driver of hill climbs and from rallies, she and her
26:03
husband did Monte Carlo numerous times and came P2 in 1936, which I think is bananas.
26:09
Then she decided I want to be a team owner and on her sports
26:12
car team, she included women.
26:14
So from the very beginning, women had their fingers anywhere.
26:17
Somebody didn't forbid them from being, they were.
26:20
And it wasn't until they were forbidden that they were chucked out.
26:23
Even somebody like Jill Scott, her photo portrait is in the
26:25
National Gallery of the UK.
26:27
We have one of her Bentleys at Rev's Institute.
26:29
She was the first woman inducted into the Royal Automobile Club.
26:33
And then the Royal Automobile Club decided they don't actually want to permit women.
26:37
They moved her to honorary member status.
26:39
Things like that.
26:40
I actually recently picked up and it was buried under a bunch of other
26:44
books from Vintage Motor Books.
26:46
I found a copy of Todd McCarthy's Fast Women, the legendary Ladies of Racing.
26:51
This covers McLuggage, Evelyn Mull.
26:54
And a bunch of other famous names and to go back and reread their
26:58
backstories again, kind of highlighted in this one book with other women
27:02
has been actually quite fascinating.
27:04
You know, I recommend more titles like this to people to be like,
27:07
Hey, we all know Andretti's story.
27:09
We know our Earnhardt's story.
27:11
We know a lot of the Roundy Round and dirt track guys.
27:13
But go back and discover some of these lesser known stories.
27:17
'cause they're absolutely fascinating.
27:18
They really are.
27:19
And I think.
27:20
Anyone interested in telling stories, be they academic, be they a fiction writer,
27:25
be they a screenwriter, I think this is a rich area and I can't recommend enough.
27:28
Dig it a little deeper.
27:29
You're going to be very well rewarded.
27:31
And that's a perfect segue into one of the other reasons why
27:34
you're here with us tonight.
27:35
You're going to be showing up more on break, fix in the future.
27:38
And so I wanted to give you an opportunity to kind of tell the audience, maybe
27:41
some of the things we're going to talk about, some of the guests we're going to
27:43
have on the show, what are your thoughts for your role on break, fix podcasts?
27:47
Well, I would love if I could participate not only about women in the autosphere,
27:53
but also the interesting tidbits from history that maybe get missed.
27:57
To me, the human story is always the human angle is always the one that I look for.
28:02
And cars represent such a rich field for looking for those stories.
28:06
So I think it's not only pulling in, you know, women, but also pulling in.
28:10
People have a really interesting take or really interesting.
28:13
Viewer experience on cars and motorsport and motorsports, my
28:18
particular passion, but really anything about cars interests me ultimately.
28:21
Well, we have some great guests lined up for the future and I don't want to
28:25
give out too many spoiler alerts, but I'll say soon after this episode airs,
28:29
you'll be back on quite frequently.
28:31
And so we look forward to having you on the show and co hosting with me
28:34
and maybe co hosting with Tanya and some of the other folks on break fix.
28:38
So that'll be fantastic and welcome aboard.
28:40
So thank you.
28:41
Thank you for having me.
28:42
Bye.
28:43
Well, with that, what's next, Lauren?
28:45
What else is on your horizon?
28:46
What's your five year plan, as they like to say in an interview?
28:49
Oh boy, five years.
28:51
Well, certainly working with Rev's Institute to increase
28:55
their media presence.
28:56
I'm really looking forward to right now we're working on essentially developing a
29:00
YouTube series that each episode focusing on a different car in the collection.
29:04
Being a really engaging way to take a closer look, a slightly
29:07
deeper dive into some of the cars.
29:09
And especially the people behind some of those cars.
29:12
So the first episode is actually going to be about Briggs Cunningham.
29:15
If you don't know who Briggs Cunningham is, I highly recommend you watch,
29:17
because you're going to be blown away by this incredible American and
29:20
what he attempted to do at Le Mans.
29:22
As I've made lots of connections with more and more women.
29:25
Either presently working in cars or connected some way through history.
29:29
I've been looking around to see if there's a database essentially of where
29:34
all this stuff about women in motorsports and women in the automotive sphere is.
29:38
Is there just one place I can go look and see, oh, if I want to know
29:41
where the personal paper is about, you know, Elizabeth Jennegar, and
29:44
I want to know about the women who worked in the GM design studio,
29:48
where do I go to find those things?
29:49
If there's a database.
29:50
It doesn't seem that there is.
29:52
I'm hoping that by putting out this APB, maybe somebody will either contact
29:55
us and say, Oh, I know of a database.
29:58
And if it doesn't exist, I'll just plant my flag in the sand and say, I'll do it.
30:02
I work at Rev's Institute.
30:03
Yeah, we'll do it.
30:05
Very cool.
30:05
And I think it's much needed as well, and it'll be a great resource for folks.
30:08
Doing research on these advanced topics.
30:11
Like you said, ladies that are getting their PhD in history, looking for source
30:15
material, I think this is going to be the place that they're going to want to go.
30:19
Especially because so much now I'm really looking to about figuring out how to
30:22
better record oral histories because the generation now that's passing away, they
30:27
have a whole encyclopedias in their head.
30:29
And it's disappearing.
30:29
That's one of the things that we talked about when we were at Watkins Club.
30:32
That's why it's also important to do shows like ours and others that exist
30:37
where you're capturing the living history of these people because who
30:40
better to have you tell the story than that person in their own words.
30:43
Now granted it is their perspective and sometimes time changes history
30:47
but it's still coming from the source.
30:49
Reading an autobiography versus a biography, same kind of thing.
30:53
So podcasts are a great medium for that.
30:55
There's other ways to do it.
30:56
I think what you're doing and what you're planning to do is fantastic
30:59
and really great that you have the power of Revs behind you to do it.
31:02
Incredible resources there.
31:04
Absolutely.
31:04
We've reached the point of the episode, which we like to ask our
31:07
guests any shout outs, promotions, or anything else you'd like to share
31:10
that we haven't covered thus far.
31:12
The one thing I'll mention that additionally that Revs is doing
31:14
is they've realized that there's a lack of knowledge about.
31:17
Some of the basics about how cars work and people feel uncomfortable
31:21
working on their own cars.
31:22
So they actually started something called Rev's Ed, which is essentially
31:25
like shop class for grownups.
31:27
I don't know how else to phrase it, but they've written this whole
31:30
curriculum and it's portable.
31:32
And some people can either come and study at the Rev's workshop, which is
31:36
an incredible place to study in, or they could take it to where they are.
31:40
Learn how to work on their own cars.
31:42
It's designed to be a really fun way to get people comfortable
31:45
working on their own cars.
31:47
I think that's fabulous.
31:48
That would be invaluable to a lot of people, especially even in our age
31:51
group where we're thinking about taking over the role as the custodian for
31:56
some of these more classic vehicles.
31:57
And then you get this 1940s MG and you're like, well, what do I do with it?
32:01
Well, how do I work on it?
32:02
It runs now, but when something breaks the previous owner or that
32:06
club of people, they're gone.
32:08
And you know, you're starting all over again.
32:10
It's like learning how to make fire, chronicling this, documenting it.
32:13
It's going to be super critical to the life expectancy of these classic cars.
32:18
That's actually a huge part of what we do is documenting those things.
32:21
Step by step.
32:22
So future generations say to themselves, how do you fix?
32:26
And I should know two more.
32:27
Exactly.
32:29
Well, with that, Lauren, we're going to wrap up here and I will let
32:31
people know how to get ahold of you.
32:33
And if you're interested in learning more or getting touch with Lauren and
32:37
discussing the Rev's Institute, or if you happen to be in the Naples, Florida area,
32:41
stop by the Rev's Institute for a visit.
32:43
Get a personal tour or learn more about the museum and its
32:47
collections and other services.
32:48
You can check out www.
32:50
revsinstitute.
32:52
org or follow them on social media at Revs Institute on Facebook and
32:57
Instagram, or check out their YouTube channel at The Revs Institute.
33:02
So with that, Lauren, I can't thank you enough for coming on the show,
33:05
sharing your story as a newly minted petrol head and joining the team.
33:10
So we really look forward to seeing you on future episodes of the show.
33:13
I think it's going to be okay.
33:18
That's my life motto right now.
33:19
It's going to be fine.
33:20
It's going to be fine.
33:21
Just go, just go.
33:22
It'll be fine.
33:24
This episode has been brought to you in part by the REVS Institute.
33:28
The REVS Institute is more than a car museum.
33:30
It's a place to see society through a different lens.
33:33
It's an invitation into a working educational institution dedicated
33:37
to the study, preservation, conservation, and restoration of
33:41
historically significant automobiles.
33:43
Explore the rich historical materials and images that define the automobile's
33:47
role in society and motorsport.
33:49
Step into an amazing world of meaningful cars at the Rev's Institute.
33:53
So if you're in the Naples, Florida area, stop by the Rev's Institute for a visit,
33:57
get a personal tour and learn more about the museum, its collection and services.
34:01
For more information, visit www.
34:04
revsinstitute.
34:05
org or follow them on social media at Rev's Institute on Facebook
34:09
and Instagram or their YouTube channel, the Rev's Institute.
34:17
We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Brake Fix Podcast, brought
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