Product Code Database
Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt (born Elizabeth Levi; 5 January 1882 – 17 May 1922) was a British racing driver and journalist. She was the first British woman racing driver, holder of the world's first water speed record, the women's world land speed record holder, and an author. She was a pioneer of female independence and female motoring and 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, receiving the sobriquet in the press of the Fastest Girl on Earth, and the Champion Lady Motorist of the World.
Levitt's book (1909), recommended 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." She also advised women travelling alone to carry a handgun; her recommendation was an automatic Colt, as, in her opinion, its relative lack of recoil made it particularly suitable for women.
Levitt's 1903 court case against a GPO van driver who had hit her car was another landmark, the first legal case in England won by the driver of a self-propelled vehicle.
Scant information is available about Levitt's life except indications that she was an experienced horse rider. She described remaining astride a galloping horse while it negotiated jumps in a steeplechase as easier than retaining a seat in a car being driven at speed. In 1902 she was employed as a secretary at the Napier & Son works in Vine Street, Lambeth, where she was engaged initially on a temporary basis. The Napier engineering company had been purchased by Montague Napier from the executors of his father's estate. After undertaking work for Selwyn Edge on his Panhard racing car, Napiers diversified to manufacturing cars in 1899. At this time the British motor industry was only beginning to develop; even the suggestion of motor races on public roads caused an outcry with hill climbs and speed tests having to be undertaken on private land.
When or how Levitt met Edge is unclear, as several versions and nuances are reported and both she and Edge appear to have been "orientated towards self-publicity". Napier cars were driven by Edge in motor races and he piloted one to win the 1902 Gordon Bennett Cup, a race from Paris to Austria; while competing there he noticed the influence Camille du Gast's participation had in drawing media attention to French racing cars. One suggestion was that Edge was seeking an English version of du Gast to enhance the sale of British cars. Jean Williams, British sports historian, hypothesises it may also have been to initiate a similar strategy to that employed by Kodak to infer "even women" could manage it. Edge noticed Levitt, who was described by author Jean Francois Bouzanquet as a "beautiful secretary with long legs and eyes like pools", working in the Napier office and promoted her to become his personal assistant, as she fulfilled almost all of his criteria for a suitable woman to attract extra publicity for the company.
Later newspaper accounts paint a "romantic history" for Levitt by reporting that when she was twenty her parents moved to the countryside and tried to arrange a marriage for her. Unhappy about their choice of prospective husband, she absconded. While her parents searched fruitlessly for her, she became acquainted with Edge, who advised her to develop a career.
Edge's influence on her career was enormous, having recognised her spirit he instigated her career in motoring, arranged her training in Paris, provided her cars in order to promote his dealerships and supplied her motor boats. She is presumed to have also been his mistress for a time.
Typically, Edwardian women interested or involved in any mechanical disciplines were perceived to be masculine in outlook, temperament and style, who would also dress in utilitarian male type clothing. When du Gast competed in the ~1300km long Paris to Madrid 1903 road race, her face was almost entirely obscured by a mask and she wore a hat that featured ear flaps; her coat was leather and double breasted and she was assumed to be male until her voice revealed her gender. with regard to this, it must be considered that the driving conditions for the early long distance inter city races was appalling. The roads invariably being covered with rocks and loose stones and as protection from these and the dust clouds these fast cars also raised, all competitors wore face masks and heavy protective clothing, as period photographs confirm. Levitt, however, competing in perhaps less gruelling races dressed in flattering feminine outfits complete with co-ordinating hat and veil; a loose, lightweight coat, which became popularly known as a dust coat, afforded overall protection to her fashionable clothes.
Both Levitt's book and newspaper column in The Graphic described her atypical lifestyle for the Edwardian era: an independent, privileged, "bachelor girl", living with friends in the West End of London and waited on by two servants.
In the vernacular of the 1900s Levitt was a scorcher, a motorist who delighted in exceeding the speed limit and who therefore came to the attention of the police. On 6 November 1903, she was summonsed to appear at Marlborough Street Assizes for speeding in Hyde Park. According to the reported statement by the police she was said to have driven at a "terrific pace" and, when stopped, reportedly said that "she ... would like to drive over every policeman and wished she had run over the sergeant and killed him." Although she did not appear personally, the magistrate, Mr Denman, fined her £5 with 2s costs. The other six motoring defendants that day were only fined £2 plus costs. In November 1903, Levitt and her friend Hena Frankton claimed damages against a GPO van driver who had hit their car. In two discrete cases they received compensation of £35 each. This was celebrated as the first legal case in England which was won by the driver of a self-propelled vehicle.
In September Levitt drove an officially entered 8 horse-power de Dion-Bouton car in the Hereford Light Car Trial, entirely alone, without mechanics. Her diary records that she "did everything myself, Had non-stop for five days." Only mechanical problems on the final day, which she repaired herself, prevented her from winning a gold medal.
The Times of 5 September 1904 reported:
In October she won two medals at the Southport Speed Trials (Blackpool) driving a 50 horse-power Napier (or 20 hp). (Touring cars £750-£1200, second place behind Leon Bollee Syndicate (40 hp Léon Bolllée).
According to a November 1906 interview with the Penny Illustrated Paper Levitt balanced "the fearful excitement of automobile racing by quietly going fishing, and described trout fishing as her favourite sport. She also described poker as her favourite game and claimed significant expertise at roulette. Outlining her "most wonderful secret system with which she is going this winter to attempt to break the bank at Monte Carlo."
Levitt was noted for her ever-present, yappy, black Pomeranian dog called Dodo. A gift from Mademoiselle Marie Cornelle around 1903, he had been smuggled into England by being drugged and then hidden in the repair box of an automobile.
Levitt sometimes mixed at the highest social levels, such that her appearances were reported in advance in the Court Circulars of The Times. To wit her attendance at Major General Sir Alfred Turner's "Salon reception" at the Picadilly Hotel on 14 July 1909.
In the book The car and British society: class, gender and motoring, 1896–1939, Sean O'Connell described Levitt as "arguably the best known of the early women drivers" in an age when male prejudices against women drivers were typified by a 1905 item in Autocar that opined the hope that "the controlling of motor cars will be wrested from the hands of ... these would be men". Thus, in the preface to the first edition of her book The Woman and the Car: A chatty little handbook for all women who motor or who want to motor, the editor, C. Byng-Hall, stated that:
She was described as "slight in nature, shy and shrinking, almost timid". Her book went on to state that "there be pleasure in being whisked around the country by your friends and relatives, or ... chauffeur, but the real intense pleasure only comes when you drive your own car."
On 8 August 1903, Levitt drove the Napier motor-boat at Cowes and won the race. She was then commanded to the Royal yacht Albert & Victoria by King Edward VII where he congratulated her on her pluck and skill, and they discussed, among other things, the performance of the boat and its potential for British government despatch work.
Later in August she went to Trouville, France, and won the Menier Chocolate. This was reported as "a very competitive race, 'against the world's cracks, and she won what was described as the "five-mile world's championship of the sea" and the $1,750 prize.
In October 1903 she returned to Trouville with the Napier motor-boat and won the Championship of the Seas. The French government, like King Edward VII, saw the merit of the design, so went ahead and bought the boat for £1,000.
In May she won a Non-stop Certificate at the Scottish Trials driving her eight horse-power De Dion. In her diary she noted that these trials "Ran over very rough and hilly roads in the Highlands."
In July Levitt set her first Ladies World Speed record when competing at the inaugural Brighton Speed Trials, in which she drove an 80 hp Napier at a speed of 79.75 miles per hour. She won her class, the Brighton Sweepstakes and the Autocar Challenge Trophy. Her diary records that she "Beat a great many professional drivers .... Drove at rate of 77.75 miles in Daily Mail Cup."
She also drove a 100 hp (74.6 kW) development of the Napier K5 at the Blackpool Speed Trials.
Her success and skills meant that she was offered a works drive in a French Mors in the inaugural RAC Tourist Trophy Race on the Isle of Man, but she was prohibited from accepting by Selwyn Edge, to protect the reputation of his Napier marque. Ironically the 1905 event was won by Mr. J. S. Napier in his Arrol Johnson car, ahead of 40 competitors.
Dorothy's diary records : June 1906 – Shelsey Walsh Hill Climb Worcestershire. Was only sixth at finish. Fifty horse-power Napier. Mine was only car competing which was not fitted with non-skids tyres. Car nearly went over embankment owing to this and greasy state of roads. In the Open Class she set the Ladies' Record in a 50 hp Napier (7790 cc), making the climb in 92.4 seconds, 12 seconds faster than the male winner and around three minutes faster than the previous record set by Miss Larkins. Her record stood until 1913.
In July she competed at the Aston Clinton Hillclimb, near Tring in Buckinghamshire, finishing third on a 50 horse-power Napier.
She was unsuccessful in a challenge run against a White Motor Company steam car driven by Frederic A. Coleman of Camden, London.
In November 1906, after setting her new world record, Levitt was the subject of a full page profile in the national Penny Illustrated Paper that was headlined – The Sensational Adventures of Miss Dorothy Levitt, – Champion Lady Motorist of the World. In the article she described her career and spoke of the sensations of travelling at the "awful pace" of world record speeds.
In May, she finished second in the Appearance Competition at the Bexhill on Sea Speed Trial along the sea front. She was driving her Eight horse-power De Dion.
In June, she won a Gold Medal at the Herkomer Trophy Race (1,818 kilometres) in Germany (founded by Sir Hubert von Herkomer Britain by Car, Bushey: The Herkomer Trophy), finishing fourth out of 172 competitors, and the first of all women in all competitions. Her diary records that she drove a "Sixty horse-power six-cylinder Napier. There were 42 cars with much larger engines than I had."
In October, she won her class in the Gaillon Hillclimb in France, driving a 40 hp 6-cylinder Napier. In her diary she noted that "Won in my class by 20 seconds. Gradient of hill 1 in 10 average."
In July, her 60 hp Napier was second fastest of over 50 competitors at the Aston Clinton Hillclimbing in Buckinghamshire.
In August, she competed at La Côte du Calvaire hill climb at Trouville, France.
She tried to counter the clichés about mechanically ignorant females:
In 1912 she received a byline for a column in the Yorkshire Evening Post on Saturday 3 August 1912 entitled "Motoring for Ladies : Some Commonsense Hints to Amateurs."
|
|
