Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - From flying classic car to Camper Van

Childhood classic car memories came flooding back to me this week, memories of The Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, voted the “scariest villain” in children's books by CBBC Newsround in 2005.

Specifically, a scene where, as the children in the film version of the book are hiding from The Child Catcher, he suddenly appears at the window looking in. It was the unusual angle that he appeared at that scared me most – plus the fact that he could “smell children” - how could you hide..?

But it was a series of coincidently related events in the car & literary world that opened the door on that particular memory..

Classic Car Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Sold For A Fortune

I guess it was with a mixture of curiosity and a deep desire to watch the film again that I heard that everyone's favourite classic car sold for £500,000 at auction in America last week. It had lovingly been looked after by Pierre Picton for 35 years, but at 76, Pierre said he was starting to feel his age and decided to sell.

Built by Ford Racing Team and powered by a Ford 3.0 litre V6 engine, this vintage car was one of 6 versions made, though this is (allegedly) the only one that actually drives. Other versions of the classic automobile include a hover car, and of course the famous flying car, all made for the 1968 movie.

The First Flying Classic Car

You may well have seen cars that can transform into water going amphibious vehicles, but you would never look up and expect to see a car flying overhead now – would you?

Well, in a modern world where a flip-up mobile phone can bear an uncanny resemblance to a device used in Star Trek to “beam me up” you just might have to think again.

For this month also saw US company, Terrafugia announce that they are to start manufacturing a flying car called the Transition Roadable Light Sport Aircraft, which they say will transform from a car to a plane in just 30 seconds. Potentially, this is could be on sale as soon as 2012.

Although an aircraft first and foremost, with the wings folded the Transition is able to drive to and from the airport and refuel at a normal petrol station. It will also fit an average sized garage. Costing between £125,000 and £165,000, it's a bargain compared to the original flying car and who knows, you may soon be able to literally jump the traffic queues on the M25..

When I walked home from the cinema with my mum as a nervous little boy that dark night many years ago, I was constantly checking the reflection in shop windows to make sure she hadn't got a big net to catch me in. And maybe soon, just like me, a whole new generation of kids can experience paranoia for the first time in a similar fashion. For it has also just been announced that author and screen-writer, Frank Cottrell Boyce, has been asked by the family of that rather well-known petrolhead, Ian Fleming, who wrote the original book, to write a sequel.

This sequel will be called Chitty Flies Again and will be the first of 3 new titles. This time though, the old car has been replaced by a VW Camper Van.  The story centres on a redundant father who sets about rebuilding an old Veedub Camper,  but when he decides to use the original engine from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, things start to take on a life of their own.

While I might easily find classic car insurance for a splitty, I'm not so confident about the flying car I will no doubt want next year.