Vantage Point: Aston Martin Getaway Cars
To close out the year, a group of women writers headed to the California desert to scope out and test a fleet of Aston Martin vehicles. These women are top automotive journalists in the field — and the cars they drove spanned nearly the entire Aston model lineup. Two days of driving Astons offered a brief reprieve and job satisfaction — who doesn’t love driving ridiculous sports cars on fantastic roads in blazing sunshine? It was the perfect laid-back way to get back to the fun of being an automotive journalist, deep into the pandemic, which largely shut down these sort of events.
Why frivolous sports car driving matters: Women in automotive are largely underrepresented — making up about 25% of the workforce and 8% of the leadership roles. Journalism is no exception. Study after study shows that the pandemic adversely affected women from loss of income, to child care shortages, to elevated levels of stress. The advent of COVID-19 could set women back half a decade, according to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace report. Fun driving events like these support the existence of women’s voices in the field through access and community building, and are a step to ensure the number of women journalists doesn’t further decline.
The event was the brainchild of a comms pro Christine Overstreet. She’s worked in automotive PR since she started at a Kia agency in the late '90s. I first met Christine when she was running an event for an off-roading luxe brand way back. I picture her in a parka, galoshes, unfazed by bands of heavy rain whipping, as she kept everyone moving along, ticking off cars on a clipboard. Overstreet has organized Heels and Wheels, a ride-and-drive series bringing together women in automotive media and comms together for over a decade.
“I have always been deep on the event side and have watched these press programs evolve over time — the programs though — not the outnumbering of men verse women in attendance. As time went on, I was meeting more women that were dipping their toe in automotive editorial, but not as many as I would have like to seen, and mostly, in the back of the room asking questions to eye rolls and comments from the other attendees under their breath.”
Overstreet sets intentional goals for her Heels and Wheels events. “Our organization was formed to honor women as a major force in the automotive industry,” she said. “The networking, the talking, the questions, the involvement — it was incredible.” In the weird modern era, instead of organizing a large scale in-person or virtual event, Overstreet partnered with Aston Martin to bring a small group together to test drive the brand’s dreamy super cars. In addition to the time I spent zipping around in a super fly DBX and a wicked fast Aston Martin DBS Superleggera, I met several journalists for the first time. I hadn’t realized how disconnected I’d become from others in my field in the past two years. After a few deep dinner discussions, I asked some of the participants to share their hot takes on Overstreet’s Heels and Wheels event.
“It’s not every day one has the chance to drive an Aston Martin”
Nicole Wakelin writes for a host of publications and is a juror for the North American Car of the Year. Wakelin focused on the DBX and the power of attending an all-women’s event.
It’s not every day one has the chance to drive an Aston Martin, making the opportunity to drive the full lineup out in Palm Springs a rare treat. It’s also not every day that you attend an event with an exclusively female list of attendees, but that’s the norm when the event is run by Heels and Wheels. In an industry where women are a minority, it was an amazing opportunity to share our combined experiences, learn from each other, and enjoy some drive time with an incredible range of luxury cars. Attending a Heels and Wheels event is a reminder that women are an important part of the automotive landscape with unique perspectives to share with their audiences.
“The Aston Martin Vantage gets a zhuzz with the F1 edition.”
Lyn Woodward reviews cars for Kelley Blue Book. She zeroed in on her time in the Aston Martin Vantage F1.
“The Aston Martin Vantage gets a zhuzz with the F1 edition. Did it need one? Maybe not, but this guy sees improvements in horsepower, now 527, but same 505 lb-ft of torque. I didn’t really feel that much difference in the power, but where you will 110% notice changes are with the stiffer rear springs, revised/improved damping rates, more robust exhaust sounds, and snappier shifts. I tip my hat to all of those. It also gets a tweak in the e-diff software taming some of the squirrel in the rear when hitting turns at an aggressive pace. On a twisty mountain road with other vehicles I was grateful for that, but on a track I might miss that OG Vantage snap. Driving this, based on the official F1 safety car, is a spit-in-the-eye great time.”
“The lessons I learned and the kindness I received will guide me long after I’d tossed the keys to my carbon-black DBS back. ”
Victoria Scott writes for The Drive. She explored the road from the driver’s seat of the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera.
The map shows the route ahead - switchback after switchback, looks to be almost a thousand feet of vertical elevation change downhill before the next flat section. I pull off to an open area to let the cars ahead gain some distance. Step out of the scissor-hinged doors, survey the territory: The most beautiful swath of the San Bernardino National Forest I’ve ever seen, winding through the foothills of the sacred Weal um mo, the defining peak of the region that the indigenous Cahuilla tribal leaders would visit for divine guidance and power from their deities.
Parked before me is my ride for the day, a brand-new Aston Martin DBS Superleggera. Seven hundred and fifteen horsepower, more than the last five cars I’ve owned combined, are controlled with my right foot. Six hundred and sixty three foot-pounds of torque on tap from an obscene 1,800 RPM; I don’t dare turn off the traction control, but it could assuredly paint twin stripes of rubber on the blacktop in fifth gear. This machine costs more than every object I’ve ever purchased in my entire life. From the womb of the cockpit, swaddled in materials I can’t pronounce, treated to the finest soundtrack Britain’s craft engine builders can compose, it seems like a downright steal. The traffic has put some distance on my grand-touring cruise missile, and it is time to head out once more.
I am still in my very first year as a full-time automotive writer; I went very rapidly from sitting in a fabric-covered cube pecking out lines of code that no one would care about to what I can only describe as a jet-set lifestyle, with a visible platform and people who are genuinely excited when a new story of mine drops. What felt like overnight, I was transformed from a nobody with a blog to a byline that people read. The whole experience has been surreal.
I am attending an event for influential women in automotive writing; they are titans among (almost entirely) men. I have been reading some of them since long before I was a woman myself. This is more surreal.
There is finally no traffic ahead and the V12 has all of its exhaust silencers opened, and I’ve kicked everything into Sport mode. The Aston —my Aston, today — is screaming in second gear as I head into the first of the sequential hairpins, a quick stab of the brakes and throttle on exit and the bolstered seats and the G’s turn my insides to liquid as my jaw drops at the power in front of me. I’ve been fortunate already to drive many spectacular cars, but this one is above and beyond all.
An Aston Martin is the car of prestige and power; Rick Ross doesn’t have a song called Toyota Supra Music, and I understand why when I pull off at the next overlook and men trip over themselves as I step out of my DBS. This car is designer on four wheels, with the presence of decades of film and celebrity and prestige that only James Bond’s chosen marque can offer. The whole experience is blindingly new; I was daily-driving an old Honda Accord a year ago and now I have control over 715 horsepower with a badge on the front that commands respect. Normally, when I review a car, I pay attention to its poise or torque curve or standard features list. Reviewing an Aston, I take note of how not only is it inhumanly fast and ungodly comfortable, but how people react to it - and me - in a way that is utterly alien to me. I wield power of both the verifiable dyno-curve and the intangible in a way that I never have before.
The women I attended with understand this intangible power much better than I do; there is no way to survive any industry this homogeneously male as a woman without grasping it. Driving a car of this speed and poise is still alien to me, and they gave me guidance despite my awe that I was here among them, invited to the same table they all sat at. The overtones of wealth and importance the car bestowed upon me were irrelevant here, and yet I was still an equal among them, treated with grace.
Visiting a place of beauty and finding unspeakable power, whether from the V12 itself or from the aura of the car around it, is an unforgettable experience, and one I deeply enjoyed as an automotive enthusiast. But that undersells the real appeal of the event to me. The Astons were a fun treat, a way to let myself inhabit a different world for an afternoon. The lessons I learned and the kindness I received will guide me long after I'd tossed the keys to my carbon-black DBS back. That is the true power of Heels and Wheels.
“ There’s no beating the roar of the V12 and the plush interior.”
Kristin Shaw is the Weeekend Editor for The Drive. We drove to Palm Springs together and after the event she was also obsessed with the DBS.
“Having the opportunity to drive the entire Aston Martin lineup over the course of two days was incredible. And it was even more so in the company of a top-tier group of women in automotive journalism. When we stopped midday for a break, people were entranced by the cars and wanted to talk to us about them; they had stories about the cars they love too. And we were able to contribute our experiences with the supercars we were driving and share that passion with everyone we came across. Each car is spectacular in its own way, of course, but my favorite is the DBS. There’s no beating the roar of the V12 and the plush interior.”
“Up to 715 horses! ”
Mercedes Lilienthal writes for the New York Times, among many publications, and covered the event for Auto Conduct.
The latest Heels & Wheels and Aston Martin event offered a gorgeous setting, kind camaraderie, and amazing vehicles. Driving high-horsepower luxury cars isn't a normal affair for me, but having the chance to drive Aston Martin's finest was exhilarating. Up to 715 horses! The 2021 DBS Volante, 2022 Vantage F1 Edition, 2021 DB11 Coupe, and 2021 DBX SUV boasted beautiful silhouettes, eye-catching colors, and driving experiences soon not to be forgotten. I'm honored to work alongside amazing female journalists in the automotive industry, some which attended this event.
Photography by Jess Walker.