Called the “Fastest Girl on Earth”‘ and the “Champion Lady Motorist of the World, Dorothy Levitt (1882-1922) was Britain’s first female racing car driver. At a time when women were supposed to marry and stay at home, the unmarried Levitt offered a role model for the new independent Edwardian woman.
Her opportunity to race came in 1902 when she was a secretary for the car-maker Napier and Son. The director, Selwyn Edge had a car salesman teach her to drive as a publicity stunt. But he didn’t reckon on her success as a race car driver. With her petite figure and stylish feminine dress, she captured the attention of the press. She also won races, becoming the first woman to win several championships and hold the world speed record for women of 96 mph. For many years Napier supplied her with cars, such as the four-seater, 12 horse power Gladiator, in which she won her first race in 1903.
Dorothy Levitt loved going fast. Known as a “scorcher,” she enjoyed steeplechase-style horseback riding, and speed boat racing, winning the Championship of the Sea in 1904 and achieving the water speed record for women. She even took up flying.
She was adept at racing alone and doing her own repairs. However, she often took her black Pomeranian called Dodo with her on long races as her companion, sitting him in her lap as she drove.
She believed all women should drive, and as such, wrote a weekly column for The Graphic as well as lectured on her experiences. Her book, The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for all Women who Motor or Who Want to Motor (1909,) was full of practical tips specifically for women. Her most well-known advice was that a lady traveling alone should always carry a pistol.
Here is a tidbit about maps from her book.
Twenty or thirty years ago, two of the essentials to a motorist–some acquaintance with mechanics and the ability to understand local topography–were supposed to be beyond the capacity of a woman’s brain. The supposition was simply due to the fact that a woman’s brain had never had occasion to approach these subjects. Fifty years ago a satirical writer–a man–of course–averred that although instruction in “the use of the globe” was part of the curriculum of every girl’s school, no woman could understand, or would try to understand, a road map. If the remark was true when it was written it is certainly not true today. The school-room globes have long been buried in the dust of disuse, but the pastimes of cycling and motoring have made the understanding of maps a necessity to every active gentlewoman: indeed the average woman is probably quicker than the average man in gathering from a map the information it has to offer. (pp 86-87)
Works by Dorothy Levitt
The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for the Edwardian Motoriste 1909
“Touring” Pearson’s Magazine, vol 23, p. 516 1907
More about Dorothy Levitt
Advice for Driver by Kat Eshner
Dorothy Levitt: A Pioneer of Motoring by Rachel Harris-Gardiner
Fast Ladies: Female Racing Drivers 1888 to 1970 by Jean François Bouzanquet
The Fastest Girl on Earth. excerpt from Louise Peskett’s forthcoming book, Brighton Women, the Notable and the Notorious: A Guided Walk
Bear in mind that when riding or driving a horse it is only partially under your control. As it has a brain and will of its own, it can bolt when it wishes to–but with a motor-car you rely on yourself alone–you are master–(or should I say mistress?) of the situation.
Dorothy Levitt