-
Hi Guest!
If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
There are some perks with a member upgrade!**Upgrade Now**
(PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
Share this page
Sherlock
Yoda
Offline
Neat! That would have been cool to be there to see the car at the auction... I just hope the new owner shows off the car and doesn't just hide it (like so many collectors seem to do)
Not that I'm likely to ever see it anyway, but I'll stop complaining now... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
Not that I'm likely to ever see it anyway, but I'll stop complaining now... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
OP
aerog
Guest
Guest
Offline
Roger said:
That brings up a good point. I thought the UK-based chitty that is still being driven is the only original drivable one from the movie. They made several non-driving cars for the various special scenes with the wings, hovercraft, etc. The article says this one had been in Chicago for a long time - which doesn't really fit as being the "original".
GB1
Yoda
Offline
A little wiki
Writer Ian Fleming took his inspiration for the car from a series of aero-engined racing cars built by Count Louis Zborowski in the early 1920s, christened "Chitty Bang Bang".
____________
Chitty Bang Bang was the informal name of a number of celebrated English racing cars, built and raced by Count Louis Zborowski and his engineer Clive Gallop in the 1920s, which inspired the book, film and stage musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
The Chittys were built and stored at Higham Park, Zborowski's country house at Bridge near Canterbury in Kent. The cars were so loud that Canterbury reportedly passed a by-law prohibiting them from entering within the city walls. The origin of the name "Chitty Bang Bang" is disputed, but is believed to have come from a salacious World War I song.
________________
Chitty 1 was a chain-driven customised Mercedes chassis containing a 23 litre 6 cylinder Maybach aero-engine. It won two races at its debut at Brooklands in 1921, coming second to another Zborowski car in a sprint race at the same event. Chitty 1 was fitted with four seats and a crude, over-sized exhaust pipe, in order to misguide the handicappers and spectators. Its top speed on the day was 100.75 miles per hour.
For its next outing, Chitty 1 was refitted, as a two-seater with a cowled radiator and a properly plumbed exhaust. It attained nearly 120 mph on one occasion, and had its race handicap consistently reappraised. It subsequently crashed, removing three fingers from a timing official. The car was rebuilt, and passed into the ownership of the sons of Arthur Conan Doyle, but was quickly retired as a racing car, and was later butchered for spare parts.
Chitty 2
Chitty 2 had a shorter wheelbase, and an 18.8 litre Benz Bz.IV aero-engine. It was never as successful as its predecessor, but took part in several road races, including a Sahara Desert expedition in 1922. It later became the property of the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, and is currently displayed at the National Motor Museum in England.
Chitty 3
Chitty 3 was based on a modified Mercedes chassis with a 160 hp Mercedes single overhead camshaft six cylinder aero engine, tuned to produce 180 hp. The car recorded a lap of Brooklands at 112.68 mph. Louis Zborowski later used it as his personal transport, and drove it to Stuttgart when he negotiated to join the Mercedes racing team.[1]
Chitty 4
Chitty 4 (also known as the Higham Special) was Louis Zborowski's largest car yet. Using a 450 hp V12 Liberty aero engine of 27 litres capacity, with a gearbox and chain-drive from a pre-war Blitzen Benz, it was the largest capacity racing car ever to run at Brooklands. Still not fully developed by the time of Zborowski's death in November 1924, it was purchased from his estate by J.G. Parry-Thomas for the sum of ÂŁ125.
Parry-Thomas rechristened the car Babs and rebuilt it with four Zenith carburettors and his own design of pistons.[2] In April 1926, Parry-Thomas used the car to win the Land speed record at 171.02 mph (273.6 km/h). However, he was killed in the vehicle in a later attempt on 3 March 1927. Babs was buried at Pendine Sands in Wales, but was later recovered and restored and is now on display at the Pendine Museum of Speed.
Writer Ian Fleming took his inspiration for the car from a series of aero-engined racing cars built by Count Louis Zborowski in the early 1920s, christened "Chitty Bang Bang".
____________
Chitty Bang Bang was the informal name of a number of celebrated English racing cars, built and raced by Count Louis Zborowski and his engineer Clive Gallop in the 1920s, which inspired the book, film and stage musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
The Chittys were built and stored at Higham Park, Zborowski's country house at Bridge near Canterbury in Kent. The cars were so loud that Canterbury reportedly passed a by-law prohibiting them from entering within the city walls. The origin of the name "Chitty Bang Bang" is disputed, but is believed to have come from a salacious World War I song.
________________
Chitty 1 was a chain-driven customised Mercedes chassis containing a 23 litre 6 cylinder Maybach aero-engine. It won two races at its debut at Brooklands in 1921, coming second to another Zborowski car in a sprint race at the same event. Chitty 1 was fitted with four seats and a crude, over-sized exhaust pipe, in order to misguide the handicappers and spectators. Its top speed on the day was 100.75 miles per hour.
For its next outing, Chitty 1 was refitted, as a two-seater with a cowled radiator and a properly plumbed exhaust. It attained nearly 120 mph on one occasion, and had its race handicap consistently reappraised. It subsequently crashed, removing three fingers from a timing official. The car was rebuilt, and passed into the ownership of the sons of Arthur Conan Doyle, but was quickly retired as a racing car, and was later butchered for spare parts.
Chitty 2
Chitty 2 had a shorter wheelbase, and an 18.8 litre Benz Bz.IV aero-engine. It was never as successful as its predecessor, but took part in several road races, including a Sahara Desert expedition in 1922. It later became the property of the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, and is currently displayed at the National Motor Museum in England.
Chitty 3
Chitty 3 was based on a modified Mercedes chassis with a 160 hp Mercedes single overhead camshaft six cylinder aero engine, tuned to produce 180 hp. The car recorded a lap of Brooklands at 112.68 mph. Louis Zborowski later used it as his personal transport, and drove it to Stuttgart when he negotiated to join the Mercedes racing team.[1]
Chitty 4
Chitty 4 (also known as the Higham Special) was Louis Zborowski's largest car yet. Using a 450 hp V12 Liberty aero engine of 27 litres capacity, with a gearbox and chain-drive from a pre-war Blitzen Benz, it was the largest capacity racing car ever to run at Brooklands. Still not fully developed by the time of Zborowski's death in November 1924, it was purchased from his estate by J.G. Parry-Thomas for the sum of ÂŁ125.
Parry-Thomas rechristened the car Babs and rebuilt it with four Zenith carburettors and his own design of pistons.[2] In April 1926, Parry-Thomas used the car to win the Land speed record at 171.02 mph (273.6 km/h). However, he was killed in the vehicle in a later attempt on 3 March 1927. Babs was buried at Pendine Sands in Wales, but was later recovered and restored and is now on display at the Pendine Museum of Speed.
NickMorgan
Jedi Knight
Offline
I was at a show in southern Scotland last weekend and what is claimed to be the original driving Chitty from the film was there. The owner is a great guy who spent the whole day on his feet explaining about the car or taking it for drives around an arena while comentating. It was a real thrill for all the kids there and my kids preferred it to the bouncy castle!
