This genuine screen-used car is road-legal and looking for a new home
When thinking of some of the world’s most famous movie cars, it’s all too easy to name Bandit’s Pontiac Trans Am, or James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5. But what about THE movie car, a machine that arguably introduced most children to the notion of a four-wheeled star. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is known the world over, and thanks to the Orlando Auto Museum, you can own a genuine screen-used car.
Yes, we’ve started to hum the theme music in our heads too… This fictitious automobile captured the imaginations of millions when the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang launched in 1968 starring Dick Van Dyke and Sally Ann Howes. The musical picture was written by Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes, based on Ian Fleming's 1964 novel ‘Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car’.
The car being offered is one of six ‘GEN 11’ cars created for the late 1960s movie, and one of only two road-legal examples in the world. Its design was conceptualised by Ian Fleming and inspired by aero-engined racing cars of the early 1920s.
This design philosophy perfectly fitted the plot that saw a wrecked racer restored to ‘better than new’ condition. On the subject of driving Chitty Chitty, Dick Van Dyke once commented ‘the car was a little difficult to maneuver, with the turning radius of a battleship’.
There was a 1920’s aero car built by Count Louis Zborowski known as Chitty Bang Bang. This genuine racer was powered by a motor from a German Zeppelin airship. The 1960s movie car that it inspired uses a more conventional powerplant, although the advert doesn’t list exactly what this is. The screen cars were originally fitted with Ford 3000 V6 units.
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This particular example might have only seen 12 seconds of on-screen action, but it is a genuine movie car with a connection to one of the most famous pictures of all time. Amusingly listed with its make as ‘Chitty Chitty’ and model as ‘Bang Bang’, the characterful car’s price is by appointment.
Could you give this fine four-fendered friend a new home?
Source: Orlando Auto Museum
