Our fine four-fendered friend

Plenty of people who saw the touring production in Aberdeen this year will share Colene McKessick’s fascination with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

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WHAT was your dream car when you were little? Top of my list was a Mini Cooper (still is, actually) but the further down my list you went the more ridiculous it got. Postman Pat’s van, Herbie, Brum, even Noddy’s little red car got a look-in. But, every Christmas, all these cars were automatically trumped. As soon as I saw Dick Van Dyke climb into GEN 11, my mind was made up. I wanted Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Earlier this year, those feelings came flooding back when the UK tour came to His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen. Taking centre stage, and definitely stealing the show, the full-size replica was unbelievable.

Of course, what many people may not know is that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was not a pretend motor dreamed up for the film. It was very much a car in its own right before James Bond author Ian Fleming stumbled across it and wrote his wonderful children’s story.

The first Chitty, known as Chitty One, was built in 1921 by Count Louis Zborowski, an eccentric gentleman who owned and raced many cars in Europe and the US. It has been suggested that Caractacus Potts was partly based on the count, who was known for his fun approach to life and his wild dress sense.

Chitty was not named because of its noisy exhaust, either. In fact, Chitty has a much less wholesome name. A chit, or “chitty”, was the slip soldiers needed to have leave during World War I. Once obtained, the soldiers would spend a weekend in Paris, sampling the favours of ladies of the night – hence the name, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Chitty One was the first amateur aero-engined machine to achieve fame at the Brooklands racing circuit. It featured a 23-litre six-cylinder Maybach Gotha bomber engine in a pre-1914 Mercedes chassis, which had to be lengthened to accommodate it. It was described as a “brutal car put together by a madman”.

It may have been ridiculed, but Chitty One went on to clock 120mph. The count even went on to build Chitty 2, a shorter, less powerful replica which he kept for personal use.

Chitty One did not meet a happy ending, though. During a race at Brooklands, it shed a tyre and left the banking at high speed, smashing through the timing box and trapping a track official, who lost three fingers as a result. Chitty was rebuilt, but never raced again.

After the count’s death, the Conan Doyle brothers bought Chitty and ran it at a speed trial before having it displayed as part of an exhibition. Sadly, Chitty ended up abandoned outside at Brooklands and was eventually sawed in half and its parts put to use in another car.

Obviously, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang creator Ian Fleming put all the glitz and glamour of Chitty back into his story, which was then picked up by Disney – and the rest, as they say, is history.

The film’s car was 17ft long, with alloy wheels painted to look like timber, and featured a Ford 3000 V6 automatic engine, and the number plate, GEN 11, was acquired so that the car could be driven on UK roads for driving sequences.

The original car from the film now belongs to Pierre Picton, who uses it for events, car shows and even weddings. Thankfully, today, it runs on unleaded petrol.

The car which theatregoers saw in Aberdeen this October isn’t quite roadworthy. It’s no less impressive than those that came before it, though.

The car was built by Howard Eaton Lighting and engineered by Delstar Engineering and Stage Technologies, which was responsible for making it “fly”. Planning the mechanisms used to make a car which weighs tons fly took the company nine months, but the overall effect is stunning.

In fact, the planning and building of the car got it a place in the Guinness World Records as the most expensive stage prop ever, costing £750,000 – just slightly more than the original car.

Although the car is not roadworthy, its specification is still impressive.

According to the manual, it has an ejector seat with a built-in parachute and a reinforced, triple-plated, shock-resistant, glare-flare-aware, see-through windscreen. It has an aluminium engine cowling incorporating 10-pitch noise-reduction technology and an anti-corrosive cooling system.

Among its more unusual features are a chassis-mounted hover-skirt, rotating, friend-seeking headlamps and, of course, retractable wings and propellers. Even the environmentally conscious will be impressed by its air and sea-friendly emissions system, and the engine being fuelled by atmospherically appropriate fuel.

Actress Katie Ray is in the lucky position of going out for a spin in Chitty nearly every night, playing the aptly named Truly Scrumptious. She says sitting in the four-seater is the ride of a lifetime.

“Being in the car is incredible,” she said.

“It’s great fun and the only thing I can compare it to is being in a rollercoaster. I have to sit back and brace my feet as the car does tilt very far forward, almost to the point of being vertical, so you have to hold on with all your might.

“The car is something else. It brings the show to life. It even comes out and has its own curtain call and bows. It’s fab.”

And that’s why, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, we love you.