Welcome to our first Legacy Lap - a special Grit & Gas mini-episode series that spotlights the women who paved the way in motorsports, adventure, and mechanical history. Legacy Laps are shorter, focused episodes that honor the riders, racers, and rebels whose stories deserve to be remembered.

In this Legacy Lap, we dig into the life of Dorothy Levitt, the early 1900s speed icon known as the Fastest Woman on Earth. Dorothy wasn’t just a racer - she was a writer, an engineer, a record-setter on land and water, and a pioneer who challenged every expectation placed on women of her era. From breaking speed records to influencing modern driving techniques, Dorothy Levitt’s impact on motorsport is impossible to ignore.

Sources & References:

• ​The Woman and the Car by Dorothy Levitt (read free on ⁠Archive.org⁠)
• ​Bugatti Queen by Miranda Seymour
• ​East End Women’s Museum, Wikimedia Commons, Project Gutenberg, Science Museum Group
• ​Compiled and narrated by Trai Hunt — any errors are entirely hers.

Image References (Public Domain or Permitted Use):

• ​⁠Dorothy Levitt with her Napier racing car (1905) – Wikimedia Commons⁠
• ​⁠Dorothy Levitt portrait (c.1906) – East End Women’s Museum, via Wikimedia Commons⁠
• ​⁠Cover of The Woman and the Car (1909) – Project Gutenberg⁠
• ​⁠Napier 100 hp racing car (1905) – Science Museum Group Collection⁠