Cartoon Car Toons!

Help! Help! That’s most popular line ever said by Penelope Pitstop in a highly southern tone in every episode of the Wacky Races and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop! In the hit TV series Wacky Races, she drives the Compact Pussycat - a pink, stereotypically feminine car with exclusive grooming amenities. She was named by the race announcer as the “Glamour Gal of the Gas Pedal”. Wacky Races was inspired by The Great Race and Penelope was inspired by the Maggie DuBois character (played by Natalie Wood in the film) as well.

Penelope Pitstop is the only female racer, driving a pink feminine car with personal grooming facilities which would sometimes backfire on the other racers - like shampoo foam striking the faces of the other racers. She always has time to relax and be anxious about her looks because her car is like a beauty salon. Peter Perfect had a crush on her - a feeling that was kind of mutual and so he is always there to help her. In one episode, they almost end up marrying each other. Unlike other race cars, the Compact Pussycat was not an often target by the other racers as it seems they also liked and tried to help her like Peter and the Ant Hill Mob. Penelope also had her own cartoon show which was entitled The Perils of Penelope Pitstop in which it featured the Ant Hill mob as well.

Penelope was an late addition in the growth of Wacky Races according to Iwao Takamoto. Joseph Barbera asked for a woman to be added among the racers. Takamoto and Jerry Eisenberg designed Penelope and her car in about two hours because of Mr. Barbera’s request.

The Perils of Penelope Pitstop was apparently based from the Wacky Races which featured Penelope as the lead character and this was set in the 1920s. Penelope was a usual “damsel in distress” stock personality as in the old serial The Perils of Pauline. Her catchphrase was “Help, help!” which is spoken in an exaggerated upper-class U.S. South accent. In this show, Penelope displayed a nosy combination of cleverness and vulnerability. She frequently figured out bright ways to get out of perils, and was very athletic - if any sport happened to be brought up, it was revealed that she was the women’s champion in said sport in college. However, when the Hooded Claw grabbed her, she would somehow be incapable of doing anything other than screaming for help!

The Wacky Races… one of my all-time favorite cartoons show back during my childhood years! The characters and the vehicles they drive is one of a kind… they’re classics! It’s the best racing cartoon show during that period! My favorite characters are Dick Dastardly and his ally pet Muttley, Penelope Pitstop and of course, the Ant Hill Mob! The latter were the cutest team to join the Wacky races - the classic midget mobster!

One of the “lethal” competitors of the Wacky races is the Ant Hill Mob squad led by Clyde, with Danny, Kurby, Mac, Ring-A-Ding, Rug Bug Benny, and Willy. They are apparently gangsters in a 1920s saloon car called the Bulletproof Bomb also known as the Roaring Plenty.

Clyde, the leader of the mob, can be mean to his members at times but actually, he cares for them so much. I remember one time on one of the Wacky Races episodes, when the rest of the gang was stuck in the Creepy Coupe, Clyde was threatening the Gruesomes and said, “Alright, you Creeps, where are my boys?!”

The Ant Hill Mob drove in car number 7 and were pint-sized characters - a reference to the seven dwarfs. Their typical manner of improving the speed of their car was “getaway” power which was attained by extending their feet through the floor of the car and running! That’s how Fred Flintstone exactly accelerates his own prehistoric vehicle.

Clyde’s name most likely inspired from car gangster Clyde Barrow. When broadcasted in French, his name was changed to “Al Carbone”, a spoof character of Al Capone. They came back with the wingmen dressed in blue outfits (silver for Clyde) and had name changes and a new living car, Chugga-Boom, in the spin-off series The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.