Dorothy Levitt

Dorothy Levitt

Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt, (born Dorothy Elizabeth Levi, c. 1882 or 1883, died 18 May 1922) 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, albeit that 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, plus she instructed Queen Alexandra and the Royal Princesses on 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 raised it to 90.88 mph (146.26 km/h) 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. The slightest touch of the hand and the car swerves, and swerves are usually fatal. But I am a good gambler, and always willing to take the chance. —Dorothy Levitt. Nov 1906

Her book The Woman and the Car: A chatty little handbook for all women who motor or who want to motor, noted that women should "carry a little hand-mirror in a convenient place when driving" so they may "hold the mirror aloft from time to time in order to see behind while driving in traffic", thus inventing the rear view mirror before it was introduced by manufacturers in 1914. She also advised women travelling alone to carry a revolver.