Green curly cable from evcables

EV Cable Shop has written a guide to protecting your electric cables from theft click here

Would you leave bicycle in a public place without a lock? No? So why would you leave an expensive item like an electric charging cable exposed in a public car park unprotected?

Debbie Gillespie from accessory specialist EV Cable Shop alerted me to the surprising fact that electric car cables are not locked to the car. A trawl through some forums turned up a number of stories about people who’d had their cables stolen, including one poor man who’d then been fined £70 for using an electric charging spot without charging. People can sell them, them use them, or they could just sell the metal for scrap.

A standard locking mechanism is surely on the way  – pertol or diesel vehicle has a locking filler cap these days, not only to prevent syphoning fuel but also because towrags used to pinch the caps. In the meantime EV owners  are using padlocks – and bike locks to protect their cables. One chap on a forum always parks with one wheel on the cable.

Debbie tells me other reasons for buying a replacement cable are that cables can be damaged (I wonder what being parked on does for a cable?) and people drive off while they are still plugged in. (I would do that.) Some people buy a spare cable just in case of the above.

And whatever the niche, an accessory industry bursts into flower around it.  Take bikes – all the helmets, lycra and carrying devices, or camping – folding everything from beds to saucepans. If the Once-Ler created a thneed these days in the land of the Lorax, someone would have made a neat carrying case for it.

So it is with EV cables, you can now buy not only plain old replacement cables either from your dealer or an accessory specialist (possibly at a lower price) but also extension cables, different coloured cables, curly cables (ideal for keeping cables off the ground says evcables.co.uk, pictured) and yes, cute carrying cases.
There are also myriad charging stations, boosters  and other bits of hardware to make home charging convenient and efficient.

We’re heading for a new world where you have to work out number of phases the voltage and amperage of your power connector, at least you get to chose the colour of your cable.

Two British friends of mine, below, didn't have to wait patiently like many women in Chris Lezote's book – they've been driving muscle cars since their twenties.

UK motoring journalist Sarah Bradley says: "My 1969 Plymouth Road Runner, with its 383 cu in V8 is big, loud and in-your-face, and its elegant yet muscle-bound styling is sheer perfection."

Jenny Griesel above, in her 1969 Chevy  Camaro, says of driving muscle cars: “It’s different and cool. A big thing is the sound, it’s great when a V8 has just started and tickin’ over, oh yeah, and speed, that power - awesome.”

Jenny enjoys a good burn-out – you can hardly see her Plymouth Cuda, below:

Or entertaining the crowd in her Pontiac Formula 400, below.

This Superbirds shoot for Classic & Sport Car will be treasured in my memory forever. I have to admit I was happy to let the owner perform this burn-out. But I did get to drive one the yellow one at 103mph down a private desert road. Zowie.

Chris Lezotte interviewed 88 muscle-mad ladies living around the American mid-west for her book Power Under Her Foot (Women Enthusiasts of Muscle Cars). Chris has worked as a copy writer and art director on Buick account, and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan where I spent four extremely enjoyable years.
   I didn’t think muscle cars were my thing until I visited the extremely generous owner of an impressive collection just outside Palm Springs. I was there for a feature on the Plymouth Road Runner Superbird for Classic & Sports Car magazine with snapper Andrew Yeadon. As the wonderful chap handed me key after key to compare his Mach 1 Mustang, 383 ‘Cuda Convertible and Charger R/T with Police Interceptor package (as featured in the Bullitt car chase), before we even got to the sublime Superbird, I heard the roars and rumbles, felt the power and fell under the spell.
   The voices of the female owners in this book speak of joy freedom, power and empowerment. When men talk about their cars, they tend to reel off the numbers, eager to talk about the horsepower, the tyres and the shocks. These women talk about relationships, and how their car makes them feel. Chris takes her title from a 1968 Plymouth Satellite owner who said: “When I’m in my car I feel free, no stress and so much power under my foot, I can’t get enough of it.”
   There’s often a wistfulness, because most had to wait until their 50s – some until their 70s – to get behind the wheel, for many reasons Chris sets out to explore.
   The evocative reminiscences of their teenage days take the reader back to the golden era of cruising and racing on Detroit’s Woodward Avenue, where engineers from the Big Three auto manufacturers often rolled up to give hot rodders a sneak peek of their next cars, to get their reaction and maybe learn a few tips from the street. Girls who got to borrow a car from a brother or boyfriend were lucky. Most simply watched or rode along.
   Cindy who remembers a Mustang she coveted as a teen: “I wanted to buy it so bad, but I wouldn’t even presume that that would have been appropriate.” Jean, now the proud owner of a 1964 ½ Mustang, used to cut pictures out of magazines and paste them into a scrapbook. Adrienne, who now owns a Plymouth Barracuda says: “They told us you’re not supposed to be in it [the scene] girls aren’t supposed to interested in cars and engines.”
   I found the voices of these women compelling, appearing as quotes throughout the books, or as picture captions of proud owner and car. Each quote tells a story, some joyous, but many tinted with blue.
   These women did what was expected of them. They ran homes, worked as teachers, therapists and real estate agents and drove kids around in minivans. But once the kids could look after themselves, and they got a bit of money, they realised their dream.
   Or there was Helen from Sioux City Iowa, who was discouraged from getting a 2003 red Mustang convertible by her controlling husband. Once her divorce came through, she not only bought the car, but had the hood decorated with flames and the slogan “Super Bitch”.
    Now I’ve been a bit naughty here. I made up all those names because I found it hard to feel emotionally involved reading about a 48-year-old massage therapist, a 65-year-old retired interior decorator, or a 55-year-old CPA. (What is a CPA?). Some of the ladies Chris interviewed preferred to remain anonymous, but I feel an alias would have helped readers identify with them, and get to know them as they are clearly quoted in several different chapters.
   The book has its roots a university thesis and feels like it. There’s a lot of methodology, repetition and proof points. Chris observes that these middle-aged gas-guzzler-owning ladies from the mid west tend to be socially conservative (N.S.) She also asserts that the advertising industry had a machiavellian strategy to push women into family cars “as a means to construct women’s driving experience as less than their male counterparts” and keep muscle cars for men.
   Working in the advertising and marketing world as Chris did and I still do, I’m surprised she believes those mad man had any agenda other than flogging cars. Personally I believe society pushes people into roles - advertising only reflects and reinforces the social norms.
   As now, the wonderfully patronising ads Chris includes in the pages try to make female buyers feel better about owning that minivan. The Aerostar “can haul kids to school in the morning and turn around and tow a two-ton boat to the lake at night”. Yeah, right. Or AMC’s ad proclaims “She doesn’t mind the Pacer Wagon’s unique wide design makes it look a little different. That’s the way a woman with her own style likes to look.” (The Pacer became the wrong kind of icon as the car in which Wayne and his crew get their heads down to appreciate Bohemian Rhapsody in Wayne's World.)
   In a lot of cases, owning a car has improved the social life of the women Chris spoke to. Margie (not her name) a retired teacher, never drove her husband’s 1994 Z/28 Camaro while he was alive, but found that driving it helped her adjust to life without him and have fun, often inviting friends for a ride. She says: “I just feel so good, especially on these beautiful nights to be out with this car.”
   Others enjoy the social side of attending events and local meets. Kids think Gran is cool if she picks them up in a muscle car. Some have met first or second husbands through the scene, or feel the shared enthusiasm makes their marriage stronger. Susan is thrilled her loving husband has restored a Road Runner for her.
   The final chapter concludes: “Ownership of a muscle car, the women collectively argue, provides the opportunity for a different, more exhilarating driving experience. It encourages female motorists to try new things, participate in racing and track days, develop new skills, take challenging road trips and test their limits. It helps to change perceptions of a woman driver from passive to passionate.”
   The book aims to fill a gap in the automotive record, which concentrates on men. It does that, and makes a powerful case that given the opportunity, women get a real kick out of owning a muscle car.
   To me, and my car-crazy friends, that comes as no surprise. A bigger question, which needs continuing scrutiny is why it would be surprising. Owner of a 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner, UK motoring journalist Sarah Bradley says: “I both love and loathe the fact that – even in today's supposedly more enlightened times – people still do a double-take when they see a woman behind the wheel."
   It would also have been interesting to talk to those women who attend club meetings with their husband but find he’s always at the wheel. Or the women who lust after a Shelby Mustang, a sports car, an M-series BMW or anything regarded as a ‘boys’ car’ but still feel it would somehow be wrong, or too self-indulgent, or who don’t want heads to turn. Society has moved on, but in terms of the car (and the TV remote) women are still not equal.

Jessica is a traveler by heart. She loves to pen her thoughts related to her travel experiences and her knowledge about motorcycle adventure products to keep you safe and enjoy the ride. Jessica loves to meet new people during her trips.

Read Jessica's feature on B&B Off-Road Engineering about choosing the ideal tyres for your adventure bike here.

They say that age is just a number: and Mardelle Peck proves it. She began racing a motor bike at the age of 65, surrounded by racers in their 20s and 30s, and has inspired many other women to get on their bikes and race.

Mardelle met her husband Ron when she was 18 and he was 21. They had a number of things in common, but their love of motorbikes topped the list. While Ron was a motorbike enthusiast, Peck worked as a fleet manager for Chevrolet in Chico, California, and rode and tested bikes in order to choose the ideal bikes, tyres and accessories, as part of her job.

Mardelle and Ron have owned quite a few bikes, including Hondas and Harley Sportsters, and they have enjoyed frequent road trips around the US, but in her fifties, Mardelle decided it was time to tick off an item on her bucket list and take her 2001 Honda CBR 929 to the track.

She attended the SuperBike School in California, set up by Keith Code, and being among the oldest students in the school, didn’t deter her one bit. In fact, she enjoyed it so much, she kept coming back to complete all three levels.

For the next 11 years, Mardelle raced on the track, practising and training for her next goal. In 2012, at the age of 65, she debuted in the American Federation of Motorcyclists’ annual all-women Afemme race at Thunderhill Raceway Park, near Willows in  California.

The AFM, founded in 1954 by a group of sport riding enthusiasts in the North Bay Area, had seen famous motorcyclists such as Kenny Roberts, Randy Mamola and Wayne Rainey race in its ranks. It was also rare in its inclusion of an all-women’s class.

Over the next few years, Mardelle continued racing in all the tracks she could, with Ron cheering her on from the sidelines. Quickly, Peck graduated from the novice  to the expert class. Age was never a factor; her single-minded aim was to enjoy the thrill of the moment and to relish the focus and dedication motorcycling racing demands.

In 2014, she was racing at Afemme again. This time she was riding in the expert class, and landed a cool third on her Yamaha R6.

Even before getting to the start line, however, Mardelle knew that this would be her last race. She had suffered only one mishap as a motorcycle racer so far, when she came off her Suzuki GSX-R on a track day, bruising herself badly and damaging the bike. However, she had seen five racers come off in the expert class, and it scared her. She wanted to  continue riding, but she knew the time had come to bid farewell to her brief and exhilarating racing career.

With her trademark twinkling eyes and in her forever-young style, Mardelle said goodbye to racing, happy with the experience it had given her. She had learned a lot, and touched many lives. In her brief career, she managed to inspire a lot of women to take up motorcycle racing and had gathered a significant fan base. It gratified her immensely when fans came up to tell her how she had inspired them.

Now in her 70s, continues riding and experiencing the thrill of being on the road. Just as they did 50 years ago, she and Ron continue to take trips across Canada to Wyoming and Montana on their customised BMW G8 1200 motorcycles. And Mardelle continues to inspire her fans, telling them that their time is now, and they can go out and accomplish everything they want.

Once, when a girl told Mardelle that she wanted to be like her when she grew up, she told her simply that she shouldn’t ever grow up. It’s sound advice.

See more images in the gallery here

Bond girl cars take star billing at the Bond in Motion exhibit at the London Museum as three vehicles driven by the female stars have been added to the permanent collection.

Once Bond himself was established as mainly an Aston man, the cars that showed off the fashions of the day were always driven by the women, or the baddies.

In Goldfinger (1964) Tilly Masterson (Tania Mallet) roars around the serpentine bends of the Furka Pass in a Ford Mustang Convertible, when that iconic pony car had only just been released. Of course, being a woman in 1960s, she drives like an idiot and if I’d had a scythe on my wheels I’d have burst her tyre, too.

Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi), looks like a Japanese Audrey Hepburn in You Only Live Twice (1967). She swoops in to rescue Bond in a chic Toyota 2000 roadster and as the bad guys give chase, to a soundtrack of tyre squeal and gunfire, she calmly gets on the radio to request ‘the usual reception’ (a helicopter and a large electro-magnet).

The Toyota was only ever sold as a coupe - unless you count the Corgi version – two cars had their lids snipped specially off for the film.

Another skillful Bond-lady driver was Diana Rigg, having followed her fellow leather-clad, karate-chopping Avengers’ star Honor Blackman to the Bond franchise in 1969. Playing  Tracy di Vicenzo in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Rigg drives a 1969 Mercury Cougar and, like Aki, she rescues Bond and whisks him away for a serious car chase to escape pursuing SPECTRE agents. This involved veering off the road, mixing it with rally cars and driving on ice – and Diana did a great deal of the driving herself.

Roger Moore’s Bond was a bit of a MCP when it came to women drivers. In The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) he was exceedingly snippy with Agent Goodnight (Britt Eckland) as she picked him up at the airport in her MGB Roadster (painted a period vomit colour).

That famous eyebrow rises as Any Amasova (Barbara Bach) struggles with the gears of a van that’s being eaten by a man with metal teeth in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

In For Your Eyes Only (1981) his “I think I’d better drive” to Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) as he takes over her 2CV should have earned him a swift stiletto in the backside.

As Pierce Brosnan took over for Golden Eye (1995), the nasty Xenie Onotopp (Famke Jansson) was given a Ferrari 355. Of course, even 30 years after Goldfinger, she’s still driving like a maniac, but somehow his 1960s’ Aston manages to catch her 1990s’ Italian stallion.

There’s never been a better driving double-act than the motorbike sequence in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Bond (still Pierce) and Chinese agent Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) manage to dodge a helicopter while handcuffed together and operating one set of controls each. It’s even quite sexy, as she has to hold him tight to stay on.

The cars arriving at the London Museum are all post-millenium. There’s the Thunderbird driven by Halle Berry in Die Another Day (2002) opposite Pierce. Her character Jinx was seen driving the coral pink car  just long justify Ford releasing a Bond special edition.

Then there’s a Ford Ka driven by Camille (Olga Kurylenko) from Quantum of whatever the hell that was about (full title, 2008 starring Daniel Craig).
Finally there a Land Rover Defender Double Cab drive by Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) in 2012’s Skyfall – or Skyfaw according to Adele, to rhyme with Rumbaw.

Her character is clearly a fine driver, but she still has to put up sarcy remarks from Bond about her loss of wing mirrors (“You weren’t using it,”  “or that one”) Then he calmly leans over to yank the steering wheel. Maybe shooting him was a bit harsh. Then again, maybe not.

The Bond in Motion exhibition has more than 100 individual items including the Aston Martin DB5 from GoldenEye, the underwater Lotus Esprit S1 from The Spy Who Loved Me, the Rolls-Royce Phantom III from Goldfinger, and the ‘Little Nellie’ Wallis WA-116 Agile Autogyro from You Only Live Twice, plus masses of props, costumes and posters. See www.londonfilmmuseum.com

I've just added this fine book to my Authors' Community page (click here). It may seem a bit off piste, but I was sent a free copy because I interviewed Jon Lord for Autocar's Me & My Car page, and contributed some comments for the next book.

Me and My Car interviews were often fun. Driving around Blackheath with Jools Holland in his Corvette was one of the best, and drinking champagne with Jon Lord was definitely time well spent.

The problem with this feature, however, was that it's quite hard to find someone who's not only well known, but also available for an interview and – the really tricky part – has something to say about cars.

Again, the two above were the perfect interviewees. Perhaps the worst was Bonnie Langford. She was a lovely girl, and did her best, but her car was a Vauxhall Nova, and we might as well have been talking about her dishwasher. It was useful and did what she needed it to do, but that was it.

I've also been involved in a few projects where celebrities have been given cars to try. If they live in London, the agent will casually say. Of course, it's residents' parking only here... Or, once delivered, the celeb may simply hate the car. Even worse, they nothing to say about it as per Miss Langford. The fury of the editor is hard to escape.