Pretty Chitty-Bang-Bang, we love you
Country Life UK|October 02,2024
As our fine four-fendered friend turns 60, Mary Miers relives the adventures of the magical flying car and reveals the little-known story of its creation.
Mary Miers
Pretty Chitty-Bang-Bang, we love you

IT begins with a soft humming noise. Then the mudguards swing out and click into wing position as the radiator grille parts to allow the fan-belt propeller and petrol-pump fly-wheel to slide out from the bonnet. A green light on the dashboard blinks PULL DOWN. As Cmdr Pott gingerly pulls the lever down and presses the accelerator pedal, the car tilts up her shining green-and-silver nose and takes off.

'Don't worry! She'll look after us!' he shouts to spell-bound Mimsie and the twins as they soar over the weekend traffic jam. After circling Canterbury Cathedral, they take a short cut over Dover Castle and fly up the Kent coast looking for a place to land for a picnic.

In the hands of 'James Bond' author Ian Fleming, the crime-busting exploits of ChittyChitty-Bang-Bang cannot fail to thrill. 'Never say no to adventures... Otherwise you'll lead a very dull life,' says Cmdr Caractacus Pott RN (Rtd), the eccentric inventor who saves the 12-cylinder, eight-litre, supercharged Paragon Panther from wreckage. 'You never get real adventures without a bit of risk somewhere.' And so the Potts set off in their splendidly restored car, which does 100mph in top gear and has a mind of its own.

When they get marooned on a sandbank, stumble upon a cache of weapons in a French cave, encounter a band of gangsters who kidnap the twins and get embroiled in a heist on a Parisian sweet shop, Chitty-ChittyBang-Bang transmogrifies into an aerocar or a speed-boat and gets them out of trouble.

Named after the sneezes and explosions that erupt from her exhaust pipes and with a cryptic GEN II on her numberplates, the magical car was inspired by the 1920s aero-engined racing models built by Count Zborowski on his Kent estate, Higham Park.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 02,2024 من Country Life UK.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 02,2024 من Country Life UK.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

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