Libby Jane Charleston
Molly Taylor is Australia’s fastest female rally driver and recently made history by becoming the first female to win the Australian Rally Championship 2016. She’s also the youngest person to ever win.
Molly, now 28, started her driving career when she was still at school.
She made her debut in the Australian Rally Championship in 2007 where she won the F16 class before going on to place highly in and win several other series.
Molly is now the Australian Subaru Ambassador and she has filled Women Love Tech in on how technology has played a part in her incredible journey.
You’ve had an incredible career so far, what are some of the highlights?
Thank you! It’s certainly been a rollercoaster journey over the past 10 years, however my goal was always to make rally driving my career. So, to have the opportunity to do this with Subaru is certainly a highlight. To win the Australian Championship was the next goal, so to win that last year was also a huge highlight.
How did you get involved in racing?
Both my parents are involved in the sport, so I was introduced to it from a young age, although at first I never thought I’d get involved myself. It wasn’t until I got my learners driving licence that my Dad took me to the rally school he was running to learn how to drive a car in a safe environment off the public road. I’ll always remember my first experience of driving a rally car on gravel and from that point I was addicted!
What are your favourite models of cars and why?
I love the older world rally championship cars of the 1980’s. They were incredible machines with huge horsepower and spectacular to watch. I’m also a huge fan of the Subaru rally cars during the 1990’s and early 2000’s, particularly the 22B model. So as a Subaru rally fan, it’s pretty exciting to have the opportunity now to work with the brand.
What are some of your favourite gadgets and tech and apps?
I do a lot of physical training in preparation for rallies and have recently competed in my first triathlon, so I’m a fan of all the fitness technology that’s now out there. I’m addicted to the TrainingPeaks app which syncs to my heart rate monitor. I also travel a lot, so my Bose noise cancelling headphones are one of my favourite things that I own!
In what ways has technology impacted on the car/racing industry?
Technology has a huge influence on motorsport. Our engine is managed electronically and we record all the data from the car – from temperatures, the tuning of the engine, speeds, steering angles – everything!
We are always developing the car to go faster and technology allows us to do that.
The cars are becoming more and more sophisticated and reliant on the latest tech. It’s pretty impressive what we can make our cars do these days.
What are some of your goals for the future?
Our immediate goal is to defend our Australian Rally Championship title, so we are working very hard on that! From there, we have built a great team with Subaru do Motorsport and we have lots of potential to grow and achieve even more in the future.
Follow Molly Taylor’s latest news on her website, Instagram and Youtube.
