I’m going to press (X) for Doubt.
I’ve been watching F1 for decades, and I can’t remember there ever being a chief mechanic who is female. In addition, there was a lot of press a year ago about the first female mechanic in F1. Not chief mechanic, just mechanic.
Also, for those who don’t know, the mechanics in F1 are also the pit crew. The person who decides when it’s safe for the car to leave the box after the tires are changed is typically the chief mechanic. They used to be known as “the lollipop man” because they carried a sign at the end of a long pole that they used to tell the driver when to leave the pit box. These days they use a digital stoplight sort of device, so they’re not literally standing out in front of the car anymore, but they’re still near the front holding a signalling box. The lollipop man / chief mechanic is a very visible position in F1, and a female chief mechanic would have definitely drawn a lot of attention.
This guy says that he knows nothing about cars. Could he have been referring to someone who was an important mechanic but not the chief mechanic? Sure. Could he have meant Formula 2 or some other racing formula instead of Formula 1? Sure. Could this just be a bullshit story made up for internet points? Yes. I really don’t think there has been a female chief mechanic of an F1 team yet. But, if I’m wrong, I’m certainly interested in who it is/was.
I’ve seen this loads of times and it’s a really funny meme. Everyone in the know says it’s not true sadly, but I’m glad OP posted it
Years ago, I had a Jetta and while stopped at a red light someone rear ended me. Ficked the trunk up and the muffler was dragging on the ground. Insurance couldn’t pay for the entire thing to be fixed but I hella needed the muffler to not drag on the street so I went to a shop to see what they could do. I just wanted a quote. They instead took the liberty of tack welding it to the frame, then tried to charge $300 for it. It took less than 10 minutes of time and used no parts. Told them I wouldn’t pay more than $25 for that; I may not know cars, but I know how easy (and shitty) a tack weld is.
Her name is Mona Lisa Vito and she was in My Cousin Vinny.
I used to work at a petrol station, that used to be part of an auto-shop.
I was young and could barely a thing about cars. My boss, a grown woman, had worked there for several years, knew every item we had in stock, what they are used for and all the different names people have for them.
Whenever we worked together, people would still ask me for help even though I was busy doing something else. They’d rather stand and wait for me to be free, than ask her for help.
I’d make a point out of asking my boss for help with finding the items they needed.
deleted by creator
In case, like me, you don’t/didn’t know:
The MOT test (or simply MOT) is an annual test of vehicle safety, roadworthiness aspects and exhaust emissions required in the United Kingdom for most vehicles over three years old.
It’s still wild to me that any developed nation DOESNT have mandatory road worthiness inspections.
Annual tho? That’s a bit much.
A lot can happen in a year
We also have this regular inspection. Doesn’t apply to new cars, the first time is when the car is 4 years old, then every 2 years until 8, then its every year.
There’s a nice benefit to it - they keep the history of how many km the car has in total at that point. You can check this when buying a used car to see if anyone fiddled with the odometer, any big changes should be really obvious.
Wait, they have this here in Australia too? I have never heard of this.
Seems for EU it’s mandatory for all members
The EU Directive 2014/45 of April 3, 2014 mandates all member states to carry out periodic safety and emission (roadworthiness) inspections for most types of motor vehicles including passenger cars, light and heavy goods vehicles, trailers, tractors with designed speed exceeding 40 km/h and, from 1 January 2022, motorcycles with engine displacement over 125 cm3
You should check out some of the state rules in the US. Some are strict, others don’t even exist
My state use to have emissions and safety inspections. It was like a 600 page pdf for all the safety stuff that had pretty annual updates. People would consistently work around it though. A handful of years ago they voted to kill off the safety part under the guise that it would be cheaper for residents. What really happened is everybody and I mean everybody just raised their emissions testing price to what it used to be for both. Safety took 15-30 minutes to do as they had to crawl around and poke and prod a ton of places. Emissions they just plug in the computer and 2-3 minutes later you’re done. So workload decreased and the price stayed exactly the same…
Sure, now residents don’t have to swap wheels(tires that extend past the body is a super common mod that was an instant fail) and other things to pass safety every year so that surely saves cost if they were paying somebody to do it. Also the cost of actually fixing things like replacing bald tires and burnt out lights.
The amount of cars with no brake lights, treadless tires, etc. is so much higher. Was walking through my work parking lot and one car’s tire had the steel cords showing…oof.
And some of them vary wildly county to county!
In the US they’re normally called car inspections, if the state/county even has them (yes, we’re monsters over here more and more).
Why would you need to talk to anyone for an annual test? Is it typical to try and upsell a repair, like in the cheap oil change places? All the inspection centers I’ve ever used they want you in and out, and the most they’ll try to sell is a replacement wiper or bulb because what you have won’t pass. They just ask if you want to pay for it installed now to pass or come back later after you do it.
In Finland the places doing the inspections only do that, they don’t offer any car repair services.
No conflict of interest.
Not really. In California it’s called a smog check
And many American states do not have any kind of mandatory inspection
The UK MOT covers a lot more than just emissions. The vehicle needs to have appropriate tyre tread, windscreen in safe working order, no check engine light, etc. And mileage is recorded to reduce potential for fraud. Many other things are checked.
US state inspections are all that too. Emissions is actually the first thing to expire being checked on older cars, since it becomes impossible to maintain the standards as parts age. Also new cars (3 years or less) are exempt from the emissions check/charge (in my state anyway) I guess because it’s assumed they are working as designed.
Again, this is if they even do them. And while I don’t agree with it, I can see some areas eliminating emissions for some reasons. But you can tell places that don’t do inspections at all, because the cars on the road can be very questionable from even a novice if they are safe to be around at speed. Why basic safety issues isn’t a federal thing mandated to all is beyond me.
Also new cars (3 years or less) are exempt from the emissions check/charge
This might sound obvious but: EVs and motorcycles (without modded exhausts) are also exempt from SMOG. The former for hopefully obvious reasons, the later because motorcycles pollute so much less than cars that it’s not worth the bother
So those don’t ever have to go in for any kind of looky-loo at all
Maybe it’s state-specific, but both of them in my state still require a safety inspection (which is obviously less cost).
Looking up California, that’s where the confusion on my part is. All they care about is emissions. I guess you can have bald tires and only one light working, as long as you don’t emit too much CO. That’s ridiculous.
In my memory, they will get you to try and do a brake fluid change, a transmission fluid change (if your car does those), steering fluid, expensively change your air filters, swap brake pads, pay for rotor something-or-other, bla bla bla.
Some people drop money because they don’t want to NOT do something important, and they don’t know any better.
Ah, so an APK!
I was wondering how a car could get a Message Of The Day. I use Arch btw.
Melted: Over-Toasty
?Apparently,
The name derives from the Ministry of Transport,[5] a defunct government department, which was one of several ancestors of the current Department for Transport, but is still officially used.
My brain immediately 1984’d that to MiniTrans and then immediately imagined trans mini me from Austin Powers
This wasn’t useful information to anyone but I figured at least one other poor soul needed to go on that journey with me
i hate this shit. when its my wife’s decision to get/do something, she always starts the conversation but the person regularly turns and talks to me.
i dont know what the fuck my wife wants, im here as arm candy. you deal with her.
i had to tell the same salesman this 4 times in the same 2 minute conversation when we went to pep boys.
just pull out your phone and play a videogame when they start ignoring your wife. Give them the same treatment as they give your wife and never make eye contact. Then just go “bruh my wife is talking to you, I don’t know shit” while you stare at your screen.
There’s a test my job does where during a interview, if the candidate doesn’t address the woman at the table or answer her questions, they don’t get hired.
That experience really gave insights to those subtle red flags.
Wife and I do that now to every single service we meet. We both walk up to the counter, I don’t say a god damn thing and my wife starts speaking. And if they start responding only to me, we leave.
Your first mistake was going to Pep Boys. Maybe just me (I have a longstanding vendetta against them), but they are the worst of the auto parts chains.
Napa or O’Reilly’s. AutoZone and AAP only exist for me if I can abuse their online coupons. Pep boys may as well not exist.
I work in cyber security and have gotten to work with some very talented female engineers. It’s always shocking to me the amount of disrespect some third party will display towards them. Like talking down or whatever.
What’s also entertaining is watching my coworkers absolutely destroy these ass hats.
I’m studying cybersecurity and there are barely any women, but our directors are always encouraging them to participate and speak more. I’m friends with some of them and they hardly encounter anyone hostile. There are some men that speak behind their backs, but I’m glad a lot of people defend them and are open about their stance against sexism and misogyny. It’d always funny when anyone says something sexist and everyone around responds making fun of them or just ignoring them and leaving them alone on their comments.
Of course, it’s not perfect, but I’m glad that it’s getting better. Also, women were the whole top 3 or 5 of all students in our faculty lol
Yea I’ve never understood the negative reaction to working with women in cyber security but those people are losers anyway.
On another note, how are you liking cyber security? Any questions? Concerns? Areas you’re interested in?
Yea I’ve never understood the negative reaction to working with women in cyber security
The ND boys who got bullied by girls for being little creepy weirdos got into tech as a replacement for a sex life, grew up creepy about it, can’t be normal when the thing that they replaced in their lives is suddenly back and fucking with said replacement
Source: I was one of the ND boys getting bullied for being a creepy little weirdo and got into tech, but I learned how not to be such a creepy little weirdo from the bullying and managed to make a friend and learn and grow. Others… Don’t. Having known many of them closely, only some of them can be forgiven for this lack of decency
As an older woman studying cybersecurity as well, it is very good to hear this from y’all.
Not who you asked but, I’m still early on and have heard I should go ahead and start some certifications on my own. Suggestions on the first few possibly from someone in the field?
I found certifications to be a waste of time and money, honestly. I literally had HR at multiple places tell me it was entirely irrelevant to their decision to even interview me when it was a job requirement to have
Im rather convinced it was once useful as I knew someone who did it, but at some point it swapped to the same fucking scam colleges are in the US: pay to be sub-entry-level in their eyes
Certificates when you first start are good for getting your foot in the door but the best way to learn in a real world experience. To answer your question, 99.88% of people would said Security+, but that cert is nothing compared to actually dealing with actual real world BS. Certain types of attacks don’t follow a pattern and being able to adapt to that isn’t going to be taught in Security+
once some middle aged lady came up to me in public and asked me for help to pick what oil she should buy at a gas station for her car. I have never driven a car in my life so I asked why she wouldnt just ask the person workin in the gas station and her answer was: “cuz shes a woman”.
“personally, I like to run my camy on Peanut oil, it’s got a high smoke point and fairly neutral smell.”
This is such a common story that when you get trained to sell cars they frequently stress asking whom the vehicle is for and then directing your focus to them unless it is a child and the parents are buying the car.
Whilst I 100% believe this situation can happen and people working around cars are sometimes very sexist, it’s total BS.
ALL the friends I have that work on cars, be it for work or for pleasure, do their own MOT. Not like literally do it yourself, only certified shops and people can do it. But you take it to the guy you know. Beforehand you know what needs to be done, cause everyone knows the regulations and what to look out for. Then when that’s done, you take it to the guy, give him a case of beers and you have your MOT right there. If the chief mechanic wants to go get MOT for their car, she would take it to a shop where she knows everyone and everyone will know her.
My father in law used to be a mechanic (now retired) and my brother in law is an engineer. They always get mad at me if I let some local shop work on my car. They say just bring it to us, we can do it for you. But they are about an hour and a half away from me and anything we do on my car involves me figuring out on my driveway exactly what needs to be done, taking everything apart and taking pictures and then buying the components. Then driving to them once I get the components in and spend all day drinking, talking and if I’m lucky we get the car done as well. It’s a lot of fun, but sometimes I just want to get the car fixed without thinking about it. A local mechanic I know lives 2 streets over, so he picks up my car and uses it to go to work. Fixes what needs to be fixed and drops off the car when he gets home. My father in law says just drop off the car at his place and drive his car for a while, so he can work on my car. But his car is a restored vintage Mercedes and it’s his baby, I absolutely hate driving in that because I’m scared I will break something. I’m a pretty good driver and I know how to handle old cars, and I haven’t damaged it yet, but driving that car gets my butt clenched all the way.
“This wouldn’t happen because they would just take it to someone they know”
“I don’t take my car to the people I know because they’re far from me”
Difference being I’m not a car guy, all the car people I know do their own MOT. I think a chief mechanic for an F1 team qualifies as a car person. And I still take it to people I know, I said the mechanic lives 2 streets over.
Honestly that sounds like a really annoying personal relationship issue that you have.
I have in but past been the “computer guy” in my family and it’s the opposite. Family members wanting computer help drove me to recommend iPads for them.
I’m glad no one in my family is a “car guy.” In general I don’t like doing favours for people and don’t want people trying to do favours for me. My dad has had a car guy friend for a long time and has to deal with so much frustrating extra travel to get his car fixed.
I much prefer the transactional nature of dealing with a business. Sometimes businesses are dishonest and that really sucks. But I’d much rather drop off and pick up than have to deal with other logistics and conflicting schedules.
Yeah it is kind of the opposite. If you are the computer guy in your friend group or family, everyone asks you about it and expects you to help and know everything. No I design machines for factories, I don’t know how to fix your printer.
But with car people it’s the other way around it seems, they always want to fix shit for you, even if it isn’t really the best option.
She could also have been the mechanic for e. g. a university racing team, plenty of those around. Doesn’t mean knowing anyone certified to do the job.
