Tall and blond, Betty Ann Westlund wears her mechanic’s jacket with ease. And why not? The 30-year-old founder of Oakland, CA’s Lady Luck Car Club (LLCC for short)—a women-only collective of vintage auto enthusiasts—more than proved her automotive acumen when she completely rebuilt her 1949 Kaiser Traveler. “I found the Kaiser in a junkyard,” she says. “It was stripped, no steering wheel, no brakes. When I got it, I was feeling pretty broken as an individual, so rebuilding the car was kind of like rebuilding my life. It took me four years.”
(Left to right) Duchess, Arizona V.P.; Ace, SoCal V.P.; and Betty Ann Westlund, President
When LLCC launched in 2009, it joined the ranks of a number of other all-girl car clubs springing up across the U.S., like the Black Widows and the Gasoline Girls in L.A., Chassis Lassies in Westminster, CO, and Hell’s Belles in L.A., San Francisco, and Seattle. LLCC members meet monthly to work on their wheels, and together attend up to six car shows per year. The club’s rules are straightforward: own your own pre-1969 car and know what’s going on under the hood. No drama queens allowed, and no crying about your club nickname. Members’ rides include a ’53 Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe, a ’56 Chevy Stepside, a ’64 Ford Fairlane wagon, a ’65 Corvette, a ’67 Barracuda, and a ’68 Cougar, to name a few. And although it’s certainly not required for membership, many of LLCC’s members are also single moms—including Westlund—so even if vintage cars are their passion, they’ve all got day jobs, too. “Our club is about real women working on real cars,” Westlund says. “It’s not glamorous, but we love it.” –By Kate Madden Yee
Top photo: Matthew Leland; bottom photo: Heady Vintage Photography
This article appears in our Oct/Nov issue, on newsstands now!
