Wheels Women Melt Over
Jim Henry 06.06.07, 12:01 AM ET
They're usually expensive and therefore exclusive; sporty, never boring. A babe magnet can be a car or even a truck. It can have a thundering V-12 engine or a motor that merely hums. A babe magnet's effectiveness depends on different tastes, even different locations.Jim Henry 06.06.07, 12:01 AM ET
But most of all, it depends on the woman.
For instance a "green babe" might be turned on, so to speak, by a gas-electric hybrid that other women would find too wimpy.
The hypothetical "Las Vegas babe" would prefer something like the Lamborghini Gallardo. Good news, guys: You can rent one in Las Vegas for "only" $1,600 a day.
On thing is for sure: Babe magnets get you noticed.
Watch-Me Wheels
"I was driving a [Bentley] Continental GT to Saratoga Springs," says Ken Gross, a freelance auto editor for Playboy magazine, about a trip to the thoroughbred-racing resort town in upstate New York. "This not-unattractive woman pulls up next to me on the highway. She's in front of me, in back of me. She's waving, gesticulating madly, indicating she wants me to get off the highway at the same exit where she's going. ... It's a good thing I'm happily married."
Our friend is a dapper, good-looking guy, but you get the feeling he would not have gotten the same reaction if he had been driving, say, a Ford Taurus.
No, babe magnets tend to be more exotic.
Italian Stallions
In that area, "I don't think you can top Ferraris," says Joe Oldham, author of the recently published book Muscle Car Confidential.
They meet all the criteria for most hypothetical women: six-figure price tag; strictly limited production and a long waiting list; race-track-inspired performance and features; and to-die-for Italian styling, most often from the benchmark in to-die-for styling, Pininfarina.
German Genes
Interestingly, some of the brands that are least likely to be owned by women are most likely to produce babe magnets, like Porsche.
Among luxury brands, Porsche 911 Coupe owners are the most overwhelmingly male owner group, at 96%, according to survey data from San Diego-based Strategic Vision. The company's survey data is widely used in the auto industry.
This leads to another line of thought: The 4% female 911 owners must be a really interesting group. In our list, the 911 Coupe is a "Car Nut Babe Magnet."
"As nice as they are to look at, our cars are pretty spartan inside," says Porsche spokesman Bob Carlson. "They don't have the soft comfort features that a lot of luxury cars have. Our owners really do buy these cars because they love to drive them."
Of course, it doesn't hurt if the cars make the drivers look good while behind the wheel.
