Linda Vaughn – Hurst Shifters | ACME Hi-Performance Laboratories

One of the most iconic spokespeople in the automotive world is Linda Vaughn. Not just another pretty face, Linda, the longtime, “Miss Hurst Golden Shifter” earned her job from the moment she went to work for George Hurst. It is said that on her first day at work, she introduced herself with “Hi, I’m Linda, I’m not George’s girlfriend.”. She wanted to be taken seriously, and that outlook is exactly why she endures as a spokesperson to this day. She was more of an expert on Hurst products than many of their distributors, and she worked hard to learn about the marketing and warehouse distribution part of the business. Due to her intelligence, incredible personality, and product knowledge, she was readily accepted as “one of the boys” at the various race events where Hurst had promotions.

Linda is well known for her compassion and heart for the people involved in motorsports and automotive customizing. In the mid-60’s, Linda, Richard Petty and Don Garlits even toured military bases in Vietnam, supporting our troops through the USO. She’s always been there to support injured racers and other worthwhile causes. Her charity donations are too numerous to mention, and she’s worked hard to contribute to most of the causes without any fanfare.

Now appropriately dubbed “The First Lady of Motorsports”, Linda helped to popularize the Hurst brand. Anybody that drove cars in the early days of hot-rodding know that factory shifters were a huge liability. They just didn’t hold up to the high-performance applications the world was now using them to manage. George Hurst developed a much more reliable shifter for street racers as well as legitimate motorsports. The Hurst brand became synonymous with performance, and Linda’s presence as a legitimate spokesperson put them on the map. Linda helped build Hurst as much as their products did, and the two created the brand hand-in-hand. She became so popular, Hurst hired a group of spokespeople to support her named the “Hurstettes” who were all trained and supervised by Linda herself.

Here are some photos of Hurst cars and Linda from throughout the years: