Penelope Pitstop

Penelope Pitstop is one of the main characters in the Wacky Races animated franchise. Her voice was originated by Janet Waldo.

The only female driver in the series, Penelope is of the Southern belle archetype who competes in the Wacky Races. She is known for her femininity, and being the driver of the Compact Pussycat (designated #5), which was essentially a beauty salon on wheels.

Character description
In Wacky Races, Penelope Pitstop has a long blond hair in a full fringe. She wears a purple racer helmet with goggles. She also wears a dark pink rider jacket with a purple turtleneck and purple gloves, pink skirt with red pants underneath and white high-heel boots.

In The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Penelope's eyes resemble those of Daphne Blake, and despite having white sclerae, she wears red lipstick. Her helmet is replaced by a magenta pilot helmet with matching white goggles. She now wears a hot pink long-sleeved jacket with a matching belt and long magenta scarf, which is hanging loose on the right side. Even though she still wears her red pants and white high-heel boots, her gloves are now white.

In the online short Penelope Pitstop GT, the character received a radical makeover. She wears a sleek, pink racing outfit with shoulder pads and a white neckline. She has pink heart tattoo on her cheek, earrings at one side, and a sci-fi inspired racing helmet. Penelope's personality also took on a new angle, as she is depicted as a dependable action heroine, but still retains signs of her feminine charm.

In the unsold Wacky Races Forever pilot, Penelope is married to Peter Perfect and has two kids, Parker and Piper. She appears via hologram at Piper's car having a conversation on the latter's brother. Though seen without her helmet and goggles, her outfit is reminiscent to the one she had in the original series, but with white gloves and highlights.

In the 2017 Wacky Races reboot, her original appearance was updated once again. Her jacket was given extra detail, which include the purple "W"s on her sleeves. Her helmet does not include the goggles, but has a big pink heart etched on front. Additionally, her outfit has stripes in the helmet, torso, and leg areas. Penelope is shown to have martial arts skills.

TV series

 * Wacky Races (1968)
 * The Perils of Penelope Pitstop
 * Yogi's Treasure Hunt
 * 2.5 "Snow White & the 7 Treasure Hunters"
 * 2.9 "Goodbye, Mr. Chump" (no lines)
 * Wacky Races (2017)

Movies

 * Scoob!

Shorts

 * Web Premiere Toons
 * Penelope Pitstop GT
 * Wacky Races Forever
 * "Everyone" (no lines)

Comics

 * Wacky Races
 * Hanna-Barbera Presents
 * #2A "Madcap Manhattan Motoring"
 * #2B "Trekking to Tanzania"
 * #7A "Desert Victory"
 * #7B "The Jaded Japanese Jaunt!"
 * Cartoon Network Presents
 * #7A "Drag Racing"
 * #11A "Fair Play"
 * #11B "Penelope's Perplexity"
 * #15A "Drive and Driveability"
 * #15B "Media Madness"
 * Wacky Raceland
 * Scooby-Doo! Team-Up
 * #41 "Perils Before Swine"

Books

 * How to Be Dastardly by Dick Dastardly
 * The Wacky Races Handbook
 * The Official Guide: Penelope Pitstop

Video games

 * Wacky Races: The Video Game

Funtastic Treasure Hunt
In the Yogi's Treasure Hunt episode "Snow White & the 7 Treasure Hunters", Penelope takes on the role of Snow White from the titular fairy tale. While the Seven Dwarfs are on vacation, she is protected Yogi's treasure hunting crew, who guard her from Dick Dastardly, Muttley, and the Evil Queen.

In "Goodbye, Mr. Chump", Penelope had a non-speaking role as a Vanna in the game show, College Bowl Quizerooni!, with Hokey Wolf as the game's host.

Pitstop by Penelope
A billboard advertised a perfume called Pitstop with Penelope referred to as the creator. Later, when Muttley broke Dick Dastardly out of jail, he had pictures of the Wacky Racers all over the wall that he had apparently drawn himself, which included Penelope in the Compact Pussycat.

New Animaniacs Cameo
Penelope makes a cameo in the 2020 reboot of the Animaniacs episode "Suffragette City."

Into the ServerVerse
She was also among the Warner Bros.-owned characters that appeared in Space Jam: A New Legacy, watching the basketball game from her Compact Pussycat.

Development
Animator Iwao Takamoto explained in an interview that he and Jerry Eisenberg created Penelope Pitstop as an afterthought, as Joseph Barbera had suggested a woman to be included in the Wacky Races cast.

“I remember Joe coming to my office and saying, ‘I’m in the middle of a meeting.’ We were going over the Wacky Races and we came to the realization that there were no females in the show. And he said, ‘It would help if we got at least one in there,’ and we said ‘Just put together a car and the girl.’ She was designed in about two hours, I think.

- Iwao Takamoto, Rearend Mirror: A Look Back at Wacky Races (2004)

Since the 1965 comedy film The Great Race was a major influence on the show, Penelope's appearance is based similarly on the character of Maggie DuBois (played by Natalie Wood).

In popular culture

 * During the Super Bowl XLIII game in 2012, Penelope appeared alongside a few other Wacky Races characters in MetLife's "Everyone" commercial.

Behind the scenes

 * Penelope was originally planned to appear in the Yogi's Treasure Hunt episode "Yogi Bear in the Air" along with Maw Rugg and Winnie Witch, but it was scrapped for unknown reasons. A model cel of the three suggests this, depicting them in exercise outfits.