Penelope Pitstop

Penelope Pitstop is of the damsel in stress stereotype who competes in the Wacky Races in the Wacky Races animated TV series. Her voice was originated by Janet Waldo.

In the races, Penelope drives the Compact Pussycat, designated 5.

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 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 boots from Wacky Races, her gloves are now white.

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

 * Wacky Races Forever
 * MetLife's "Everyone" commercial (no lines)

Comics

 * Wacky Races
 * Laff-A-Lympics
 * #13 No Laff-A-Lympics Today!"
 * Hanna-Barbera Presents
 * #2A "Madcap Manhattan Motoring"
 * #2B "Trekking to Tanzania"
 * #7A "Drag Racing"
 * #11A "Fair Play"
 * Cartoon Network Presents
 * #15A "Drive and Driveability"
 * #15B "Media Madness"
 * Wacky Raceland
 * Scooby-Doo! Team-Up
 * #41 Perils Before Swine"

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.

Development
Penelope Pitstop was the only female driver on Wacky Races. She drove car #5: the Compact Pussycat, which was essentially a beauty salon on wheels. Iwao Takamoto said in an interview that he and Jerry Eisenberg created her as an afterthought, as Joseph Barbera had suggested that a woman be included in the Wacky Races cast.

In popular culture

 * Penelope makes a cameo in the 2020 reboot of the Animaniacs episode called "Suffragette City".
 * She was also among the WB characters to appear in "Space Jam: A New Legacy" watching the basketball game. She watches while sitting in her Compact Pussycat.