Dorothy Levitt

Who was Dorothy Levitt?

Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt, was a motorina, sporting motoriste and scorcher. Levitt was a renowned pioneer of female independence, female motoring, motor racing, the most successful female competitor in Great Britain, victorious speedboat driver, holder of the water speed record, and holder of the Ladies World Land speed record. She was described as the first English woman ever to compete in a motor race, even though the French woman Camille du Gast had raced from Paris to Berlin two years earlier.

Levitt was well known as a motoring writer, journalist and activist, and she taught Queen Alexandra and the Royal Princesses how to drive. In 1905 she established the record for the longest drive achieved by a lady driver by driving a De Dion-Bouton from London to Liverpool and back over two days. Later that year she set the Ladies World Land speed record at Brighton and the following year she increased it to 90.88 mph at the Blackpool Speed Trial. Hence she received the soubriquets in the press of the Fastest Girl on Earth, and the Champion Lady Motorist of the World.

I never think of the danger. That sort of thing won't do. But I know it is omnipresent.