Ladies, start your engines

Sonia McConnachie says son Charlie loves her Pontiac V8 too. Photo / Richard Robinson

Women have a long-standing connection with muscle cars. Traditionally they've graced the glossy calendars hanging in testosterone-filled workshops, often sprawled fetchingly over the bonnet of sporty automobiles wearing bikinis and strappy sandals.

But Kiwi women are increasingly claiming these iconic vehicles for themselves, as both owner and driver.

Opinions vary as to the strict definition of a muscle car. Wikipedia says it's an American, two-door, mid-size car with a V8 engine that was manufactured in the late 1960s and early 1970s. New Zealand's American Muscle Car Club states that the cars of its 102 members must date from between 1961 and 1971 because that was when "the factory horsepower wars" were raging. Australia car manufacturers developed their own versions of muscle cars at around the same time.

Regardless of the intricacies and the finer points argued over by aficionados, a muscle car, in its simplest incarnation, seems to be a close to 40-year-old, usually not-overly-big, American or Australian two-door with a massive engine.

Here, we talk to four local women who, despite their sensible day jobs, slip on high heels, strap their child carseats in the back and drive muscle cars - and love every powerful moment of it.

Sonia McConnachie
1972 Pontiac Grand Prix

Sonia McConnachie bought her 1972 Pontiac Grand Prix through Trade Me about a year ago. "I've always loved cars. I think it's more about appreciation for their quirkiness. I'm just a firm believer that ... if you're going to invest in a car you might as well invest wisely," she says. "Some people are into antiques and some people are into collecting bugs ... but I just like interesting cars."

In fact, the 38-year-old director of an Auckland marketing agency has a list of interesting cars she hopes to own one day. "The next on my list was an American muscle car. I searched for about a year to find just the right one. There's a lot of people out there who are hotting them up and putting on bonnet scoops ... That's not what I see as keeping the essence of a classic vehicle."

Fully restored and originally sourced from a collector in New York, McConnachie's black Pontiac hasn't had any work done to it since she bought it, except for the installation of a tether-strap in the back for her 21-month-old son's carseat. "Charlie loves the V8. He sits in the back and first word that he learnt was 'race'. But we don't speed; it just sounds like it is." The vehicle attracts a lot of attention around the streets of Auckland.

"Whenever we pull up to the lights or whenever we are at the supermarket or anything like that, it's definitely a man magnet. Guys come up and they want to know all about it and there's a lot of testosterone being thrown around. It's all like: 'Yeah, yeah, what's it got under the hood'."

If McConnachie's husband, Matt Kennedy, is with her it's often assumed he's the car's owner and the questions are frequently directed to him. "He loves turning around and saying: 'You'll have to ask my wife'."

Leanne Murphy
1968 Chevrolet RS Camaro

Leanne Murphy has owned her 1968 Chevrolet RS Camaro, with a 327 cubic inch engine and Powerglide transmission, for nearly 12 years. "I've always liked cars. I kind of like the noise and the sound," says the 36-year-old. "I've always been drawn to them - more the Chevvies than the Fords, though."

A few years ago Murphy, who works part-time as a hairdresser, and her girlfriends used to cruise up and down Auckland's Queen Street in the Camaro on Friday nights. "Been there, done that," she says. "I've had so much fun in it." Murphy, who describes the car as "my first baby" and its colour as "Heineken bottle-green", admits she mollycoddles it. Because she fears the rust that may result from rain, she uses it mainly in the summer, driving it to work on fine days as well as picking up her 6-year-old son Liam from school. It's kept under a dust-cover in the three-car garage beside her partner's two American cars.

Despite the multiple vehicles 2-year old daughter Brooke knows exactly who the Camaro belongs to. "Pete was warming my car up on Monday for me to go to work and she said: 'Daddy, get out. Mummy's car'," says Murphy. She's still as enamoured with the vehicle as she was all those years ago when she bought it. "It's awesome, it's so cool; it gives you, like, butterflies and a bit of a buzz," she says.

"People always look at you, especially younger guys. They'll look at the car and go: 'Ooooh, choice car' and then they'll see a chick behind the wheel and they go: 'Far out'."

Liz Stewart
1971 Ford Torino GT

Liz Stewart imported her 1971 Ford Torino GT with a 429 Super Cobra Jet engine from the United States. There's a similar vehicle currently for sale in Auckland with an $80,000 asking price but she says she paid "a fraction of that".

Stewart, an office administrator, remembers thinking: "Wow, what an awesome car" when she first saw one about eight years ago. Between her older brother picking her up from primary school in his Triumph Spitfire and her first boyfriend being "really into" his Ford Escort, she was always destined to be something of a car girl, and as a teenager even trained as an automotive mechanic.

The 33-year-old drives the Torino, affectionately named Emily, mainly in the weekends - to car shows or to take her 10-year-old twin daughters, Holley and Kendall, up the road for icecreams. She wants to minimise wear-and-tear and she's careful where she parks it since sourcing replacement parts from overseas is a time-consuming and expensive process. Stewart's car for daily use is a V8 Holden Caprice which she appreciates for its ease of handling. In comparison, the Torino is demanding on its driver. "With this particular car, I've got to think about my driving the whole time. It was never created to be a nice easy car to drive," she says.

"It's got an incredible amount of steel in it. It's definitely a 'bygone era'. It was when they built big, heavy cars but put massive engines in them to make them go fast." Just how fast the Torino will go isn't known at the moment. Stewart would like to take it to Pukekohe racetrack to find out but there are "some mods" she must do first. "I want to do a little bit of work suspension-wise with it and I've got a few bolt-on goodies I want to put on to the engine."

Michelle Buckler
1973 Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1

Legal executive Michelle Buckler discovered her 1973 Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1 in an Onehunga factory about five years ago while trawling for parts for a car she was rebuilding. A keen fan of motorsport, she admires this particular vehicle because it was the model in which Peter Brock won Bathurst in 1972.

"There is a little bit of that West Auckland thing for me, too, because it's a Holden," she says. The Torana is driven out of its Hobsonville garage just once or twice a month, for special occasions such as car shows and the Whangamata beach hop - a popular event for motoring enthusiasts. Buckler's everyday car is a Toyota Corolla station-wagon.

"[The Torana's] got a very heavy clutch in it so after I've driven that then go back to the Corolla I just about put my foot through the floor," she says. There's plenty of grunt in the Torana's triple-carburettored six-cylinder engine. So how fast has she driven it? "Ooh, I don't know. I get a bit confused between the miles and the kilometres sometimes."

Because she's not particularly mechanically-minded, her partner Carl Dallow helps out if the Torana needs work. "Even though he's a Ford fan, he can handle that okay." There's much good-natured debate in the Buckler-Dallow household as to what car affiliation 2-year-old son Reuben will eventually have: Ford or Holden.

Buckler, 38, likes the Torana's chrome bumpers, the rarity of the model, the "big thumbs-up" signs from passersby and the fact that, as a collector's car, it's an appreciating asset.

Although it will sell for more than she paid for it, Buckler won't be putting it on the market any time soon. "When I bought it I said I was still going to have it when I was 60. I'd like to be able to do that."