This little kitty went within a whisker of cat-astrophe after hitching a 76 mile lift in a sports car.

The sleepy tabby crawled into the spare wheel compartment of a BMW in Adelaide Mansions, Hove, but failed to wake up when the engine purred into life.

The sixth month old kitten was only discovered after the driver saw a tail hanging down by the back wheel and heard plaintive mews to “let miaow-t”.

The BMW driver, who had stopped at the M40’s Beaconsfield services in Buckinghamshire on his way to Manchester, was unable to free the female tabby and called out the local fire rescue service.

Danny Whitelock, station manager at Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, was first on the scene.

He said: “I stroked it to gain its trust, then she manoevred herself into a cavity near the wheel arch and I was able to pull her to safety from there.”

He added: “It took about 10 minutes to free her, and she was fine.”

The kitten was handed over to the RSPCA in Oxfordshire and a hunt is now underway to find her owner.

Douglas Davidson, an RSPCA inspector in Oxfordshire, said: “There's probably a very frantic owner out there – probably in Hove. The kitten wasn't wearing a collar and she wasn't microchipped. If she had been, we would have been able to reunite her with her owner straightaway.”

He added: “The kitten was completely unscathed but she must have used up one of her nine lives.”

Mr Davidson said that the kitten was being cared for at an RSPCA shelter but that she would be rehomed after seven to 10 days if her owner was not found.

If you are the kitten's owner, you can contact the RSPCA on 0300 1234 999 and quote log number 630 14/16 or call news desk on 01273 544516.