![\"Daphne](\"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/trailblazing-engineer-daphne-arnott-broke-barriers-and-innovated-motorsport-with-her-pioneering-car-company.jpg\" "\\"Daphne")
<\/a><\/p>\nDaphne Arnott\u2019s company only lasted a decade, but its short existence is notable and possibly unique<\/p>\n
Of all the many thousands of car makers that have ever\u00a0existed, it seems probable that only one was created and operated by a woman.<\/p>\n
Daphne Arnott\u2019s eponymous company lasted for only a decade or so, but its short existence was an exciting and noteworthy one \u2013 and not just because of gender norms.<\/p>\n
Arnott was born in 1926 to a father who was a third-generation automotive engineer and she was first exposed to motorsport at a young age, when he took her to Brooklands to watch a customer race using a supercharger of his.<\/p>\n
She joined the London-based family business after a magazine publishing venture failed and became friendly with its general manager, wartime aircraft engineer George Thornton.<\/p>\n
In 1951, the pair ventured to build a car for Formula 3, a new category for single-seaters powered by 500cc motorbike engines that had arisen from post-war austerity in Britain.<\/p>\n
Autocar took notice when the little Arnott 500 \u201cproved very fast\u201d on its debut at Brands Hatch that October. It had independent suspension, partly donated by a Morris Minor, but most notable was Arnott\u2019s focus on safety: it was the first F3 car with an integrated roll hoop and a seatbelt \u2013 not common even in Formula 1<\/a> for another 20 years.<\/p>\n When our sister title Classic & Sports Car caught up with Arnott in later years, she recalled: \u201cAnyone who drove for the works team was required to use belts. Nobody was ever killed in one of our cars, and Dennis Taylor perhaps owes his life to our belts. He rolled a car at Brands Hatch but stayed in it, and when it landed on all four wheels, he continued. Had he been thrown out, he could have been seriously hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n Arnott had wanted to try racing herself but \u201cat the time there were so many restrictions on women and I wanted to compete on equal terms with the men. Most of those ladies\u2019 races were really for the girlfriends of drivers and mechanics, and I thought they were a bit sissy.\u201d<\/p>\n Naturally, her exploits caught the attention of London\u2019s press. The Evening News wrote in 1952: \u201cArnott is a real mechanic. She is frequently to be seen in the pits changing a plug or helping in some other way, her white overalls grimy with grease, her blackened hands pushing carelessly through her blonde curls.\u201d When asked if she had a romantic link to driver John Brise, she pointed to her car with a grin and said: \u201cThis is my boyfriend, and he takes up all my spare time.\u201d<\/p>\n
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