Articles
Kitty May Brunell was one of a clutch of women motorsport drivers in the 1920s and 1930s. She had been born in 1911 and grew up surrounded by racing. Her father was William Joseph Brunell, known as Bill, a well-known photographer of motorsport. Her mother was Katie Meech.
Kitty Brunell officially began rallying in cars in 1928, when she was only 17. She is pictured here beside another form of transport, an early motorbike and sidecar. By 1933 it seems that she had ceased rallying. Despite her period of activity being short, it was significant in that she was the first woman to win the RAC Rally.
Photographs taken by her father in 1926 show Brunell acting as a mechanic by the age of 15. Her first recorded race, two years later, was the Monte Carlo Rally. She was only the second woman to have competed in this event. The first was Lucy O’Reilly Schell, who raced sports cars and rallied various vehicles.
Brunell competed in a Talbot 14/45, based on new designs by Georges Roesch. This new breed of six-cylinder engined Talbots made for the basis of good competition cars – both for rallying and racing – but when Rootes Group took over the company in 1935 the Roesch era came to an end.
The 1929 Talbot 14/45 was apparently part designed by Brunell. It seems that her father persuaded Clement Talbot to let her design a body for the 14/45 chassis that could be used in the rally and also put into production as the Sportsman’s Coupé.
A select version of the Coupé XV 9554 was specially built for Brunell at the Darracq factory in Acton, west London. It was adapted to her needs – it had a sunshade to protect her hair from bleaching (or from rain!). Bill Brunell’s photos provide evidence that Kitty used this coupé many times.
Talbot was so impressed with Brunell’s driving and design skills that the coupé was known as “Kitty II”. The two-door Weymann saloon she had owned earlier had also been called “Kitty,” and the name was inscribed on the driver’s door.
In 1929 and 1930 Brunell raced again in the Monte Carlo Rally, also in a Talbot. She was placed second to Schell in 1929 but 14th in 1930. Madame Dore took the Coupé des Dames in 1930. According to Motor Sport magazine, these were not Brunell’s first races. Apparently she had raced Singer Juniors before the 1928 Monte Carlo run.
In 1931 Brunell tried again at Monte Carlo, this time in a Bianchi. The change of car did not lead to a positive change of fortunes, however, and she is recorded as a non-finisher. At this time she also owned a Delage car but it is not clear if this was only for domestic use.
After this Brunell turned her attention to UK races. In 1932, she drove an MG F Magna in the Scottish Rally. She competed in the large car class. Unfortunately she was disqualified for having her father in the car as a passenger. In the same year she competed in the RAC Rally, in a Crossley, but did not win. It is not known where she was placed in this race.
Evidently 1932 was a busy year for her, as there are photographs of unknown races showing her rallying a Ford Model A. She also competed in trials during 1932, notably in the JCC Open, where she drove a Triumph and won a third-class award for her class. She also competed in the Brighton Speed Trials and drove a Rover in the 3,000cc sports car class.
Yet the best was before her and in 1933 Brunell became the first – and only – woman to win the RAC Rally at Hastings. Her win took place in a four-seater AC Ace sports car. Other Aces finished the race, including one driven by another woman, G Daniel, who came seventh. The AC Ace was the forerunner of the AC Cobra. In the same year Brunell also won the Concours d’Elegance. At the Scottish Rally she drove an Aston Martin, again as part of the larger 1,500cc and over class.
After such a successful year, Brunell’s name then dropped from the racing lists. In 1937 she married fellow racer Kenneth Hutchison, who owned a house that had once belonged to Sir Malcolm Campbell. Hutchison, who was born in 1910, died in 1986, while she died in 1993. They are buried together in Italy.
The IMechE Archive has a notebook by Talbot designer Roesch. It can be viewed online at archives.imeche.org/archive/automotive/george-henry-roesch