This Stunt Woman’s Secret: Her Ford Fiesta ST is a Beast!

[Overland History]

A colleague of mine just sent me this article:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-s...6g0epqf7utjb14t&reflink=article_copyURL_share

What’s funny, is that my company is currently supporting an off-road rally that she’s competing in this week called the Rebelle Rally! My marketing assistant is sitting at the same dinner table as her at the event as I type this. I would’ve attended the Rally that she’s competing in, however I’m currently in VA at another industry related event! Small world!

 

[Mikey456]

A colleague of mine just sent me this article:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-s...6g0epqf7utjb14t&reflink=article_copyURL_share

What’s funny, is that my company is currently supporting an off-road rally that she’s competing in this week called the Rebelle Rally! My marketing assistant is sitting at the same dinner table as her at the event as I type this. I would’ve attended the Rally that she’s competing in, however I’m currently in VA at another industry related event! Small world!

Sounds interesting. The article needs a subscription to read though

 

[XR650R]

It's good to know this car can still get press. That's quite an endorsement.

 

[XR650R]

Sounds interesting. The article needs a subscription to read though

Worked for me.

 

[green_henry]

Sounds interesting. The article needs a subscription to read though

Delete your cookies (or, at least, the wsj.com cookie) and it should work for you.

 

[Overland History]

Sounds interesting. The article needs a subscription to read though

You're right, and I don't have a subscription either, however I can view all of it on my phone, so here's my best attempt at copying and pasting the pictures and text of the article :


Verena Mei, a stunt and racing driver, outside Seattle with her modified 2014 Ford Fiesta ST. It may look like a simple hatchback, but she calls it her ‘beast.’

This Stunt Woman’s Secret: Her Ford Fiesta ST Is a Beast

When Verena Mei isn’t in drifting competitions, rally-car races or hosting a show on Twitch, she’s behind the wheel of her one-of-a-kind ‘superhot hatchback’

By A.J. Baime | Photographs by Brooke Fitts for The Wall Street Journal
Oct. 9, 2021 8:00 am ET

Verena Mei of greater Seattle, a performance and stunt driver who hosts a show on Twitch.TV playing the Forza Horizon videogame, on her 2014 Ford Fiesta ST, as told to A.J. Baime.

When I was younger, I decided that I wanted to learn to drive really well. I went to stunt-driving school, rally-racing school and high-performance driving school. I started driving professionally in drift competitions and drag racing. In 2012, I won the Rally America B-Spec National Championship with my co-driver (we were the first all-female team to win this title). People ask me all the time: What is your daily driver?


The Ford Fiesta ST enjoys a cult following among rally-racing fans. Ms. Mei’s is modified with aftermarket performance parts for more speed and more noise.

The story starts in 2013. I was competing in a Ford Fiesta rally car, and at this time Ford was coming out with a higher-performance version of the production Fiesta in the U.S., called the Fiesta ST (it was already on the market in Europe).

I knew I wanted to buy a hatchback, and I test-drove the competition. But none compared to the Fiesta ST. The model year 2014 was the first for the Fiesta ST, in the U.S. There were so few in the country, but I found mine in Illinois. I flew out, bought it and drove it home.


‘The car is a bit of a sleeper,’ says Ms. Mei. ‘You would have no idea what this car can do, just by looking at it.’

The car was still new when a company called Mountune USA came to me, asking if they could use my car to test aftermarket high-performance parts they were developing for the Fiesta ST. I said yes. Already my Fiesta ST had considerably more power than the Fiesta rally car I had raced. But now the car had a custom tune, sport springs, an even bigger turbo that I could adjust, bigger exhaust, and all this other stuff. It had become a beast, and one of a kind. If you did not know what this car was and heard it go full throttle, you would think you were watching “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” (a movie I appeared in). But it’s not. It’s just a superhot hatchback.


This 2014 Fiesta ST is from the first model year that Ford offered this high-performance hatchback in the U.S.


Ms. Mei’s 2014 Ford Fiesta ST from the point-of-view of the driver’s seat. The speedometer goes up to 160 mph.


The 2014 Fiesta ST in profile. The wheels are another of the aftermarket modifications.

Not everyone likes my car as much as I do. Some people do not like to ride in it because it is so loud and obnoxious. The thing about it is, you can’t drive this car casually. It’s not a Sunday take-it-to-the-grocery-store car. It wants to go, go, go. Also, I am 5-foot-2. I love the way the seat holds me when I am cornering. But for a lot of other people, the car is too small. To me, it’s my daily driver, and I love it.

Ford doesn’t offer this car in the U.S. anymore, which makes mine all the more special to me. I have driven many new cars from many manufacturers, cars worth over $100,000. But no car makes me feel the way this one does. To me it feels alive, and it makes me come alive at the wheel.


Ms. Mei out on the road in her 2014 Ford Fiesta ST.

 

[Magnetic]

A colleague of mine just sent me this article:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-s...6g0epqf7utjb14t&reflink=article_copyURL_share

What’s funny, is that my company is currently supporting an off-road rally that she’s competing in this week called the Rebelle Rally! My marketing assistant is sitting at the same dinner table as her at the event as I type this. I would’ve attended the Rally that she’s competing in, however I’m currently in VA at another industry related event! Small world!

View attachment 44067

The question is, is she single? Put in a good word for me lol

 

[RubenZZZ]

I met Verena back in 2005 when she used to drift for BC Ethic clothing. She seemed pretty cool when I spoke to her. Glad to see she still is involved in motorsports.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dpro]

Ya I remember back when Nadine ran Drifting Pretty. That is going back. I believe Verena was part of Drifting Pretty for a minute but then went solo. Anyways it was cool to see girls in drifting here as it was a pretty male dominated sport. I was aware that she had moved on to Rally. Its cool she digs the car. She feels the same way I do about mine.

 

[Thirty-Two]

Nice article. I love the captions, "The speedometer goes up to 160 mph."

 

[GreenenvyFiST]

Awesome! I feel the same way about my 2014 green envy. Just need enough $ for an S280 and bigger IC lol.

 

[Old Mike Emerson]

Nice article, to bad it had all the "woke" commentary in it. Well it is the Wall Street Urinal after all.

 

[gtx3076]

Nice article, to bad it had all the "woke" commentary in it. Well it is the Wall Street Urinal after all.

There wasn’t any “woke” commentary.

 

[Old Mike Emerson]

There wasn’t any “woke” commentary.

How many times did they use Ms. Ms. Mei out on the road in her 2014 Ford Fiesta ST, . ‘The car is a bit of a sleeper,’ says Ms. Mei. ‘You would have no idea what this car can do, just by looking at it.’ The Ford Fiesta ST enjoys a cult following among rally-racing fans. Ms. Mei’s is modified with aftermarket performance parts for more speed and more noise. Never in all my years of reading car articles have I seen the owner of a car referred to by a pronoun. Next (we were the first all-female team to win this title). Have you ever seen the fraise (we were the first- all-male team to win what ever) and have it high lighted? No, it's a team win. She was on a race team good for her, wish I could say the same. She has a cool car, so do a lot of people. It was modified by Mountune as their test car. Again wish I could say the same. The article as I said was nice, I enjoy seeing someone with a car like mine gets some press. What I don't need is the fact she is a woman stated over and over again, her name and picture made that quite clear. With the Wall Street Urinal it's no surprise.

 

[mockobject]

Addressing someone as Ms., Mr., Mrs., Dr., Sgt., Lt. etc. are the formal ways of titling a person (not a pronoun but a title) as an alternate to using their full first and last name. It is common practice in writing news articles to use full names or to shorten them by way of title. In this case her full name was given at the beginning so you know who the writer was writing about then later addresses as Ms. Mei (her proper formal titling) for brevity while maintaining formality. It doesn't seem as common in journalism anymore but it also seems journalism has become more informal in general. That being said this particular writer appears to use this formality as a common practice regardless of gender. Here is an article where he uses Mr. Bell to shorten the owner of the car in the article Todd Stephen Bell in the exact same way: Meet the Classic Cadillac With a Whale of a Tail Fin - WSJ .

As for the quote where she expressed her pride in representing females as the first female time to win the title, would you be equally offended if another article used the phrase "we were the first all-Ohioan team to win this title" or if it was "we were the first all-U.S. team to win this title"? Here's one:




I don't care one way or another about the Wall Street Journal or how you think about people or entities being woke but objectively gtx is correct and there is nothing woke in this article.

 

[mockobject]

In order to hopefully keep this thread on topic I would also like to add that one of my favorite parts of this article is this section of the first picture:



I'd like to think that is a battle scar from some hard driving. I suppose it could've been from someone hitting it in a parking lot but that is not as fun to imagine though.

 

[Boosty McBoostface]

Yep, that scuff, the wheels, and the obligatory front bumper sag all mean this story checks out completely...

 

[Old Mike Emerson]

Addressing someone as Ms., Mr., Mrs., Dr., Sgt., Lt. etc. are the formal ways of titling a person (not a pronoun but a title) as an alternate to using their full first and last name. It is common practice in writing news articles to use full names or to shorten them by way of title. In this case her full name was given at the beginning so you know who the writer was writing about then later addresses as Ms. Mei (her proper formal titling) for brevity while maintaining formality. It doesn't seem as common in journalism anymore but it also seems journalism has become more informal in general. That being said this particular writer appears to use this formality as a common practice regardless of gender. Here is an article where he uses Mr. Bell to shorten the owner of the car in the article Todd Stephen Bell in the exact same way: Meet the Classic Cadillac With a Whale of a Tail Fin - WSJ .

As for the quote where she expressed her pride in representing females as the first female time to win the title, would you be equally offended if another article used the phrase "we were the first all-Ohioan team to win this title" or if it was "we were the first all-U.S. team to win this title"? Here's one:


View attachment 44211

I don't care one way or another about the Wall Street Journal or how you think about people or entities being woke but objectively gtx is correct and there is nothing woke in this article.

I'm old school, I don't care what gender some body is or race or sexual orientation. She did something that brought the spot light to our particular type of car. That's great! Younger people 50 or younger I think are more acclimated to this writer's style of writing. So I see "woke", you don't. Lets agree to disagree.

 

[Magnetic]

I'm old school, I don't care what gender some body is or race or sexual orientation. She did something that brought the spot light to our particular type of car. That's great! Younger people 50 or younger I think are more acclimated to this writer's style of writing. So I see "woke", you don't. Lets agree to disagree.

In all honesty I saw it too as well as it was disguised.

 

[thecman02]

Maybe it was a woke draw, but you had to expect from the title of the article what you were getting into. For that publication it was about as un-offensive as you are going to get. I mean.... they didn't even mention the fact that she is multiracial. Looks like the published paper article isn't as clickbaity. It seems as though she mentioned the female driver/codriver fact herself. Its a worthwhile fact IMO.