Halina Regulska: First Lady of Polish Automobilism

zjazd_gwiazdzisty_automobilistow_nac.jpg, default, The end of the Motorists' Star Congress in Katowice. Visible from the left: president of the sports committee of the Polish Automobile Club, Janusz Re

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She drives a car with more virtuosity than she plays the piano. Despite the petite built of this elegant woman, many men could envy her skill and technique. She wins in both the small Fiat 509 and the 6-cylinder Steyr 120 at a time when Polish roads are mostly paved with cobblestones and are still most frequently used by horses.

The test

Envy sprouted within her when she watched her husband competing in car rallies. Janusz Regulski, at that time the director of the company Siła i Światło (Power and Light), which was to electrify the country, did not give way to such master drivers as Henryk Liefeldt (owner of an engine factory) or Wilhelm and Jan Ripper (father owned a car repair shop in Krakow, son was a rising star of the steering wheel). Halina Regulska also wanted to taste the thrill of a sports competition. She wouldn’t be the first woman behind the wheel, anyway. As early as August 1888 – that is, eleven years before the birth of the future star of Polish motoring – Bertha Benz and her sons embarked on a journey to visit their mother, taking a 100-kilometre-long route in a car they co-construed. She refuelled at roadside pharmacies, unclogged a blocked fuel line with a hatpin, had a blacksmith deal with a faulty drive chain, and asked a shoemaker to line the brakes with leather – this is how the first brake pads were created. She came back richer with the experience of the first successful car ride in history (earlier attempts by men usually ended with a few laps around the square or parking in a fence). Regulska also wanted to write the history of automobilism.

Thumbnail — Automobilist Halina Regulska at the wheel. A dog sits on the doorstep of a car, 1938, photo: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe / https://audiovis.nac.gov.pl

The family thought she’d gone crazy. Especially her husband, who considered her too delicate for such feats, and after the test drive, yelled that she was not fit to drive a car. After this, she continued practicing driving in secret, keeping it from her beloved. After a few lessons with a representative of the Tatra company (who sold the Regulskis a car), she took the exam. With the examiner by her side and the teacher in the back seat – and her husband, who got into the car at the very last moment – she reached the square in front of the Belweder Palace and hit the rails with impetus. ‘It was bad luck that the tram had just jumped off the Avenue [Ujazdowskie, ed.]’ – he would later write in the book By Car Through the dInterwar Period (Samochodem przez Dwudziestolecie). The men threw themselves at the woman behind the wheel and braked at the last moment. While they shook off the shock, she adjusted her crumpled hat.

Was that the end of her dreams of a career as a driver? Not at all. The Polish Automobile Club, which was reviving after the country’s independence was regained, wanted as many people as possible to have a driving license, so the examiner turned a blind eye to the tram incident. He stated that Regulska had demonstrated the ability to start the engine and maneuver the gears, and that she would master the art of driving a car with practice. Theoretically, she had seven years to do it because, according to Swiss psychologists, it is only after such practice and 100,000 kilometres that one becomes a real driver. And each year has an appropriate name of its own.

A period of disbelief

Her uncle liked risk, so he was one of the few family members to get into her four-cylinder, well-sprung Tatra. Although the speedometer needle did not exceed 50 kilometres per hour, Halina was exceptionally unable to keep a steady course on the road. Her uncle got off shouting: ‘I’m not ready to die just yet!’

The men associated with the Polish Automobile Club raced to the best of their ability, but June 1926 was bound to belong to women – specifically, to the eight participants of the 1st Ladies Car Rally, who had to race the 305-kilometre route from Warsaw to Łomża and back. Regulski, himself an active member of the club, persuaded his wife to go to Saxon Square to see the start. Those impressions would come back to life in a book written several decades later:

In the middle of the square, rally cars were lined up, marked with large starting numbers, and next to them stood the competitors. They were wearing hats and glasses, colourful scarves and gloves. They looked combative and reminded me of the legendary Amazons, ancient heroines, and their cars – of enchanted steeds. I was suddenly overcome with a desire to be among them.

Regulska wanted to be like Ludmiła Bogusławska, who was driving a Lancia Lambda. A Russian by birth, she was the gold medal winner in the first women’s car race in the history of the Polish automotive industry. Or at least like the sportswoman from Poznań Klementyna Śliwińska, who was driving a Praga Piccolo. A well-known journalist writing columns for Auto and Samochód magazines (both meaning ‘car’ in Polish, trans.), she was the first woman from the Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) region with a driving license, obtained despite hitting a cow.

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Halina Regulska during the start of the race. Women’s car rally on the route Warsaw – Gdynia – Warsaw, 1937, photo: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe / https://audiovis.nac.gov.pl

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But first the gymkhana. In the second half of September 1926, the stadium in Dynasy turned into a demanding obstacle course: thirteen tasks to be completed, some while standing; the need to drive left-handed so as to hold rings or burning torches in their right hand essential for performing the next exercises – such as, for example, driving up a half-story staircase with a football-sized ball in your hand. The participants of this agility tournament would face equally strict regulations: the engine on all the time, stopping and reversing forbidden. Regulska rode like a storm, she overcame twelve obstacles without losing any points. The last competition (knocking a ball with a diameter of one and a half metres into the goal with three car pushes) seemed easy. First hit – no complaints. The second – the object placed in front of the goal. Before the last maneuver, the competitor was carried away by whimsy:

I wanted to finish the run with ‘style’ – so I accelerated. The ball rolled sharply, but instead of going into the goal, it hit the crossbar and, pressed by the car, stretched into a long thin egg. My ridiculous situation amused the audience a great deal.

Regulska ranked fifth in the final classification. In a few years, she’d be unrivalled in driving a car with one hand while holding a spoon with an egg in the other, even among men.

The lesson

Meanwhile, she entered the new automotive season in a now solid Métallurgique limousine M (her husband was in a sports Bugatti Type 37). In September 1927, the 2nd Ladies Car Rally took place. Fourteen competitors applied to participate, almost all of them associated with the automotive industry: members of car clubs, sports journalists, partners of car manufacturers or driving-school owners. There was also our Amazon on her steed – Halina Regulska, wife of the president of the Sports Committee of the Polish Automobile Club. She was accompanied by Olo – that is, engineer Aleksander Seńkowski – as her mechanic and mentor. They have to drive 660 kilometres from Warsaw through Poznań (with accommodation) and back to the capital. The first day didn’t go according to plan. Olo did not spare words of criticism (wrong starting, bad cornering, bad braking). In the hotel room, the ambitious driver burst into tears. On the second day, she was more focused, controlled the thick and heavy steering wheel (cars did not yet have power steering) and obeyed commands. She would later say that her first agility tournament taught her to get things done, while the race: how to focus.

In her first rally, she was among the best competitors, and the order was determined by fuel-tank capacity. Marchlewska with a Fiat, Turnau and Jabłońska with Citroens and Sadowska with a Steyr came before her. Regulska closed the top five with her two-litre Métallurgique. Journalist Marian Krynicki would write in Auto that the participant delighted everyone, because ‘it's hard to believe that such a delicate person drove a huge and heavy limousine to its destination in perfect condition.’ After the race, the awards ceremony took place, and Regulska impressed again – this time in a long evening dress. Anyway, she looked elegant every day, although she adopted a more casual style when behind the wheel. She emulated a female racer from the West, and in the next season she went for a casual scarf instead of her previous choice of a flattering hat, and switched from an elegant coat to a jumpsuit that did not restrict her movement. And once again, she was on everyone’s lips.

Rebellious times

Swiss psychologists would say that the ‘period of disbelief’ came to an end and the rebellious ‘sturm und drang’ period had begun. Regulska put it this way:

drove with verve and risk. I revelled in devouring space and speed. I was ready to kill myself just to make a turn as fast as possible.

Third Ladies Rally, 8-11 September 1928,y change of regulations. The women felt aggrieved by the too-lenient conditions of the previous races and were seeking more serious treatment. So the club’s authorities organized an event that was ‘grand, on a truly “male” scale’ – as reported by Auto: three days, 1,211 kilometres, including a mountain-speed and flat-speed test. There was a minimum of ten names of female drivers on the entry list. They took off. Regulska in a Fiat 509 overcame the consecutive stages of the race without penalty points, breaking records in the speed measurement sections; there were no collisions or failures. She was the expected winner. At the finish line at Saxon Square, cheering crowds were waiting for the competitors. Just summing up the points and announcing the results remained. Negative points: Jędrzejewiczowa – 117.04; Gebethnerowa – 46.57; Marchlewska – 16.40. Positive points: Sadowska – 3.03; Jabłońska – 11.63 (finally disqualified due to failure to have the prescribed vehicle load on part of the route); Podhorodeńska – 12.60; Hallerowa – 23.20; Koźmianowa – 23.23; Regulska – 36.36. De Laveaux did not finish the rally due to a faulty ‘oil pump’, as reported by Auto. The winner was euphoric, as was the press. Italian journalists noted the triumph of their car, German ones also mentioned the best competitor, in French newspapers you could read a more extensive report. In the September issue of Auto, Marian Krynicki reported:

First place in the Rally classification was won by Mrs. Regulska, in a Fiat 509 car, and she won it very deservedly because her driving was the model and ideal of rally driving, contained strictly within the framework outlined by the regulations and common sense. The winner covered all three stages with the regularity of a watch and never abused her pace, while gaining her advantage in positive points in the speed tests, where she was able to use the full power of the unexhausted engine.

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Halina Regulska behind the wheel of the award-winning Steyr 220 car. Car show and beauty contest organised by the Automobilklub Polski in Ignacy Jan Paderewski Park in Warsaw, 1939, photo: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe / https://audiovis.nac.gov.pl

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A month later, another competition took place – the Motorcar Beauty Contest. Polished, flowery limousines paraded on Na Rozdrożu Square, including the Fiat driven by the winner of the last rally in ivoryr with red wings and bonnet. The owner (and her accompanying daughter) was also alluring in a red coat from Paris and a hat of the same colour. Patriotic colours gassured Regulska sixth place in the competition for the most beautiful car line, but in the competition for the most beautiful totality (the woman and the car), she was unrivalled, ahead of Sztembart, a gentleman with an Alfa Romeo, and Grodzieńska, a lady with a Cadillac.

In distress

According to researchers, the third year of driving is critical, the fourth brings the most breakdowns, the fifth and sixth bring more careful driving, but the seventh is the crisis. That would more or less fit our story. The third rally ended in a disaster for Regulska and her beloved Fiat. At first, nothing suggested trouble:

The first turn left went at a straight angle to the right. There was loose gravel in the middle. The machine jumped. I went straight to the outside of the road toward the ditch where my husband was sitting, camera in hand. My husband froze in shock and did not take the picture. Keeping my foot on the accelerator, I straightened the machine and brought it back into the middle of the road. The turns followed one after the other. I took them a bit more carefully, but at full speed. The pace was perfect.

The finish line was already visible in the distance. Taking the advice of her mechanic, she did not switch to third gear, and a fire broke out in the front of her car. A hole gaped where the engine should have been, showing asphalt. The dream of winning ended in a fiasco, and the next chance would come after overcoming the economic crisis that expanded across the world. During this time, the Regulskis continued their travels around Europe and Africa, writing for industry newspapers. In the autumn of 1936, the rallies were suspended. Regulska had only a large and disliked Chrysler at hand, and yet she took first place and three other prizes as a bonus. The 1937 season was no worse – the Steyr company provided the automobilist with a model 120, which was the first to cross the finish line of the women’s race. A year later, she got a Lancia Aprilia from her husband – a car worthy of the first lady of Polish automobilism. Unfortunately, the political atmosphere in Europe was already too heavy to think about any rallies.

At the bend

Regulska wore her tank driver’s uniform as proudly as she used to wear her fox scarf. During the defence of Warsaw, she worked as a paramedic and was a member of the Civic Guard, commanded by her husband. In Zarybie, where they used to live, they organized a boarding house for people involved in the Resistance (Czesław Miłosz, among others, found shelter there). In the Warsaw Uprising, the motorist became a soldiers’ aide (peżetka). After the capitulation of the capital, she escaped from the convoy and returned to Zarybie, where she became the head of the family for several years – her husband was arrested for fourteen years (he would serve sevens) for opposition activity. At the end of the 1960s, the Regulski family moved to Warsaw. There, Halina would publish two volumes of memoirs from the time of the occupation: Dziennik z Oblężonej Warszawy (Diary from Besieged Warsaw) and Tamte Lata, Tamte Czasy: Wspomnienia z II Wojny Światowej (Those Years, Those Times. Memories of World War II). In November 1994, a month before her death, she would receive her last book Samochodem przez Dwudziestolecie (By Car Through the Interwar Period) from the publishing house. The figure of the automobilist was immortalized in the novel Centenary of the Guilty (Stulecie Winnych) by Albena Grabowska, and in the TV series of the same title, her character was played by Marta Ojrzyńska.

Translated from Polish by Michał Pelczar

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