What is a Spokane Hot Rod Girl?

Models and hot rods have been around since the early 60’s. Initially, models were used in marketing by the big motorsports businesses back then to help bring attention to their products.

Most of the older hot rodders of today would probably remember one of the most famous models, Linda Vaughn, the iconic Miss Hurst Golden Shifter.

Today, we call that “brand marketing”. It is being used in every corner of the ad industry. Just turn on your TV and watch all the commercials. Just about every other one has a pretty girl in it. Today, the role of modeling within the hot rod community has changed. The models are much more involved as “spokesmodels” and representatives to the businesses they work with.

The Spokane Hot Rod Association started working with models back in January of 2014. The initial idea with us was to start out having a few models that would award trophies at car shows like the races used to have back in the day.

So, we went to a few of our friend’s daughters (Amber & Jet) who just happened to be doing some modeling and asked them if they wanted to help put all this together with us. From there, the “Hot Rod Girls” were born. The team quickly grew to 14 models for the 2014 season.

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Today, the opportunities for the models have also grown as well. They have been on live TV helping to advertise the car shows. They have been to car club meetings and been involved within the organization.

The SHRGs now have access to the photography studio (Rock ranch Studio) for free. We shoot all sorts of “projects” year around. From portraits to special idea shoots adding in some car photography as well.

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Usually, our “model candidates” are younger gals (average age around mid 20’s), most aren’t even models. (This allows us to attract the younger generation into the hot rod world, helping keep the hobby alive.) We provide training and an environment to have a lot of fun learning the modeling skills and some “spokesmodel” opportunities within our organization to those models that wanted the experience and challenge.

We have several experienced and published models, of all ages, on the SHRG team that have been with us several years. They help mentor, train and guide the new gals coming into the SHRA. Without them, we couldn’t do all this.

The team utilizes “family friendly” uniforms to help promote themselves, our association, and hot rodding
in general. Most car people in Spokane now know what a Spokane Hot Rod Girl is.

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If you have ever been to a car show with the models, you definitely know it brings attention to our hot rod hobby. Have a few Spokane Hot Rod Girls there and even the “tuners” want to be involved.

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Being a Spokane Hot Rod Girl can be a rewarding and positive experience. Members of the team get a huge amount of attention and get to work with photographers for free. They get to be involved with some very rare and expensive cars and great people. They get media experience and some notoriety.

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All this does come at a price. It takes a lot of commitment to be on the team. They do this all as a volunteer, as with every member of the SHRA. The ultimate goal is to become a “Jacketed” SHRG, allowing you to write your name in the history books forever like 31 other models have done as of 2024. Being Jacketed, allows you to come and go as “Inactive” or “Active” team members as you please.

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Our hot rodding season runs from March to October. Typically, each model attends an average of 4+ car events a season and several studio events too. From a model’s standpoint, there aren’t too many model groups in Spokane that can do all this.

We treat them like our hot rod daughters, just like an overprotective parent. If we see any inappropriate behavior at the shows and events, us hot rod dads get to step in.

Is being a Spokane Hot Rod Girl for every model? No. It is hard to be on a team of models, mixed with different ages, modeling styles, and even a Mopar lover or two. For those that can make it work, they love it.

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