The showstopping 2025 McLaren Artura Spider © Kelsi Pich
All-women drive occasion Heels and Wheels has blossomed right into a staple of the West Coast automotive scene. Showcasing vehicles from main producers and that includes distinguished feminine figures from the business, this yr’s gathering in Portland marked an important day: its twelfth anniversary and proud milestone for founder Christine Overstreet, whose background in automotive PR, which included heading up seller coaching packages for Nissan and public relations for Kia Motors America (the place she supported media overlaying the Kia Motors Group Paris-Dakar 2000 run), impressed her to create a substitute for the standard typically male-dominated automotive present.
Heels & Wheels: By Ladies, For Ladies
Heels & Wheels started as a platform to encourage discussions about vehicles from a feminine perspective, specializing in what girls search in autos—whether or not a family-friendly XUV or a sporty convertible—and convey collectively professionals with a shared automotive focus for real-world, on-road testing. It additionally acknowledges girls as a major pressure in automotive buying. A 2021 Vehicles.com examine discovered that ladies influenced 85 % of family car-buying selections and accounted for 62 % of consumers, but girls make up solely 1 / 4 of dealership gross sales workers. Overstreet notes that members not solely provide useful insights amongst business friends but in addition share data on autos, empowering their audiences and feminine shoppers with better information and shopping for confidence.
The author getting acquainted with the V90 Cross Nation
Catching up with acquainted faces and forging new friendships and connections with girls throughout the business is one other main draw for beginner and veteran attendees. Plus, the chance to community with an rising variety of girls in key roles at North American automotive producers. This yr, Volvo’s model and way of life communications lead Amanda Ignatius, Mazda public affairs supervisor Tamara Mlynarczyk, and product communications specialist at Toyota North America Breanne McCallop attended alongside representatives from Audi, Cadillac, and Rivian.
The Automotive Listing
No stranger to coordinating the myriad particulars that go into such occasions, since 2010, Overstreet and the workforce at her firm Overstreet Occasions have dealt with logistics for nationwide and international drives with prime automakers, from Aston Martin and Jaguar Land Rover to Maserati. Tending to be “hands-off” concerning the Heels & Wheels automotive listing, she as an alternative lets producers choose fleet autos to supply attendees a broad mixture of drive experiences relying on protection pursuits and focus, and the lineup this yr didn’t disappoint.
Lined up exterior The Porter Portland
There was all-weather hybrid the 2025 Toyota Camry XSE AWD, and a KIA EV9 GT-Line AWD, whose spectacular vary, spacious three-row design and high-tech inside made it a prime contender in its class and 2024 World Automotive of The Yr award winner. One other three-row, and a private all-round favourite the Mazda CX-90, appeared too alongside observe toys everybody needed to attempt: a Nissan Z Nismo and McLaren Artura Spider.
Heels & Wheels 2024 kicked off at The Porter Portland in downtown Portland with a reception sponsored by Nissan and a presentation by Vehicles.com analysis and insights director Amie Lindaas that checked out how Gen Z is redrawing the roadmap for automotive shopping for. Key takeaways have been way of life match resonates greater than model loyalty (Toyota, Mazda and KIA amongst a number of the most trusted) with affordability a key decider. Maybe most surprisingly, although, Gen Z values the nice old school dealership as their go-to for automotive buying over apps like Carvana and Cazoo. Subsequent morning, the Overstreet workforce and lodge valet had their work reduce out lining up 14 autos for our morning route out to The Allison Inn & Spa for a full and fast-paced day of take a look at drives in a really bucolic and verging on autumnal Oregon Wine Nation.
Luxurious Wagons to the ‘Supercar of SUVs’
Station wagons might not be as fashionable in America as they’re in Europe, however Volvo is shifting perceptions with its adventure-ready V90 Cross Nation B6 AWD Extremely. From an aesthetic perspective, I used to be instantly obsessed on its sporty silhouette, darkish wooden trim, and stylish crystal shifter by Swedish glassware specialists Orrefors. Volvo’s top-spec mannequin is full of options, too, together with the now-standard massaging seats. The automotive dealt with superbly on the street, delivering spectacular acceleration and stable freeway gas financial system as we traveled south in direction of Willamette Valley. I awarded additional factors for the cargo area, which, as a “DINK” one that likes heading to the mountains, seemed excellent for loading up the skis.
Daybreak Gibson-Thigpen aka Sassy Auto Chick within the DBX707
Subsequent up was the Audi A6 Avant, a powerhouse of practicality with a powerful 621 horsepower and an exhilarating 0-60 mph in 3.3 seconds. This twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 efficiency wagon was a pleasure to drive, even when the nine-mile Bald Peak Loop provided only a 17-minute glimpse of its capabilities, leaving me – and everybody else who drove it that day – anticipating extra. Inside, the 2024 mannequin had luxurious particulars galore and featured an intuitive tech-savvy infotainment system, together with a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster, twin touchscreens, plus a Bang & Olufsen stereo as customary. Beginning at $125,800, optionally available upgrades just like the heads-up show and a motion-activated rear liftgate would push the worth to simply over $144,000.
For these with a style for extravagance, the 2025 Aston Martin DBX707—a real celebration of extra—stood out in a placing Synapse Orange exterior-interior mixture. With a price ticket of $352,200, the costliest automotive examined that day, it narrowly edged out the McLaren by $21,900. This super-SUV packs a 697-horsepower twin-turbo V8 engine and a nine-speed computerized transmission, providing each excessive energy and surprisingly easy dealing with in comparison with the Cadillac Lyriq AWD Sport 3. The Lyriq was a pleasure to drive, however its LED touchscreen, serving as each the infotainment system and driver gauge show, was a problem to navigate at first. As for the Aston drive expertise, Daybreak Gibson-Thigpen (aka Sassy Auto Chick) put it finest: “The DBX707 is an SUV with a sportscar soul.”
The EVs
Arnie would approve. The Hummer EV3 © Keri Bridgwater/JustLuxe
Arnold Schwarzenegger bought the primary civilian Hummer to roll off the meeting line in 1992, however below GMC, Hummer is again with a robust all-electric model. Effectively-engineered and well-designed, the Hummer EV SUV felt like a broad shouldered luxurious beast. I didn’t get to play with the crab-walk mode or take away any of the T-top roof panels, however the 35-inch off-road tires and four-wheel steering made it really feel equally manageable on the freeway because it did on nation roads round The Alison Inn. And about as far faraway from its gas-guzzling older sibling as you might get, I used to be floored to be taught its Ultium battery tech supplies an estimated vary of 300-plus miles.
Having admired a rising variety of Rivians round San Diego, I used to be thrilled to get behind the wheel of a 2025 R1S Efficiency Twin Max. A way of life model whose adventure-centric EVs are related to the outside, it is smart a former gasoline station close to Yosemite Nationwide Park has grow to be its latest charging outpost. Aesthetically, the R1S is a complete head turner and, though weighing in at 7000lbs, felt agile on each part of the drive loop. The cabin was impressively quiet, too. Much more spectacular? Its 410-mile vary on a full cost.
The Observe Toys
Keri Bridgwater/JustLuxe
Observe-ready efficiency automotive, the 2024 Nissan Z Nismo, was on the prime of my ‘want to drive’ listing for the day, and by late afternoon, I had my likelihood. There was no handbook transmission (just like the Nissan Z, which I fortunately drove again into Santa Barbara throughout Heels & Wheels 2022); nonetheless, the 9-speed auto is specifically tuned for exact shifts that driving fanatics (aka purists) will take pleasure in. As a Datsun 240Z fan woman, I cherished the two-seaters’ retro-modern exterior styling, though, on this mannequin, design parts have been impressed by the GT500 race automotive. Contained in the cabin, a cockpit-like inside and sports activities seats ramped up the racetrack vibes. To make issues honest, Overstreet allotted 30-minute drive occasions per automotive, however with the twin-turbo 3L V6 making it such a visceral expertise, it will have been implausible to get just a little higher acquainted with the paddle shifters. With an EPA gas financial system of 17mpg round city, it is not the kind of motor you’d pop to the outlets in, however when you did, you’d little doubt have a good time and switch lots of heads alongside the way in which.
McLaren press officer Natalie Riordan within the Artura Spider
The buzziest drive of the day was undoubtedly the 2025 McLaren Artura Spider: an agile, lightning-fast supercar in Volcano Blue with a $330,300 MSRP that idled deep. Its twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6 engine paired with an electrical motor produces 690 horses and boasts a 0-60 mph time of round 3 seconds. The gullwing doorways (the inside handles resemble a can opener) took a minute to determine, so by the point I set off for my six-minute loop across the block – in consolation mode, albeit with the retractable hardtop down – all that data flew straight out of my head. However maybe as all first supercar experiences go, the second I climbed out of the cockpit, coronary heart racing, it left me wanting extra. Till Heels & Wheels 2026, then.
All photographs courtesy Kelsi Pich/Heels & Wheels except in any other case famous.
Amelia Dalgaard aka MotorHead Mama scopes out the McLaren
