Have a dream 🚗? Emelia Hartford (she/her) has probs built it. Along with creating custom cars, the actress and record-breaking race car driver showcases her day-to-day on TikTok and YouTube with a combined 2.5M+ followers. Although she has a ton of fans now, being an automotive girly in a male-dominated industry hasn’t always been easy. In fact, Emelia says there’s still work to be done. Keep speed reading to learn all about it. 🏎️💨

What got you interested in cars?
I lost my dad to suicide at 15, so getting my license and being able to drive was an escape I really leaned into during those dark times. Shortly after, my family uprooted to Indiana. Moving from LA to Indiana was—for my 16-year-old self—the equivalent of a foreign country. I knew absolutely no one. By coincidence and a bit of luck, I found the car community who essentially became my newfound family. I’m very fortunate that there are gear heads all around the world, so I always feel a sense of home wherever I go.

Women obvi belong in the motorsports industry but haven’t always been welcome. How have you seen that change?
I’m happy to say that there are more women in this industry today than when I first started. I can only hope that I’ve helped to inspire some and will do everything I can to inspire more. That said, there definitely have been times of sexism, but I handle it the best way I know how: by outworking and outperforming anyone and everyone. And although there’s understanding of equality across the board on a professional level, there’s times where I have to work twice as hard to gain the respect and/or see half the success. Still, it does feel like every day gets a little bit easier.

Do you think there’s still room to grow?
Oh, absolutely. I try to always keep what I call a Day 1 mentality with professional growth, meaning approach things with the same energy and openness as you would the first day you got started. It’s extremely important in order to keep full throttle momentum and innovation over the long haul (pun intended) in this type of industry.

In terms of personal growth, I have a good/bad habit of continuing to set the bar higher, usually before I even hit the last bar. My main goals are to lead my own action films and do my own stunts, hopefully doing so with a lot of car-based content. I also strive to have a lasting impact philanthropically. So yeah, there’s still room to grow across all boards.

Now, let’s talk automobiles! What’s your dream car? What’s the fastest you’ve ever gone? What’s been the best vehicle to build?
My dream car is a Ferrari F40. I think it’s the pinnacle of classic supercars/race cars for the street. The fastest I’ve gone… not exactly sure, but definitely over 200 MPH. Haven’t hit the 300 MPH club yet—hopefully I can hit that speed soon [laughing]! I think my favorite car to build changes every year because each creation is a new challenge and typically raises the bar higher than the last.

And finally, what has been your most memorable race so far?
My most memorable race was probably breaking the world record for ¼-mile in the new generation Corvette. That was a pretty special day for me to realize we were, out of a small private garage, leading the world in speed in that category. We even did it twice!