"Vintage" Models For Film

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31753, 9 August 1968, Page 9

"Vintage" Models For Film

QIX special “vintage" cars ° have been made in England by the Alan Mann racing organisation for a film on the series of children’s stories written by lan Fleming around “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” the famous car built by Count Zborowski in 1920, and later raced at Brooklands. The original “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” was powered by a huge six-cylinder Maybach aero engine of the type used to power Zeppelins. The complete car, ready to race, weighed more than five tons.

MAGICAL In Fleming's story, the car acquired magical properties, and in the film it is required not only to race, but also to fly, skim across water, and develop a mind of its own and drive itself.

The Alan Mann company was given the job of building the cars for the film—four tourers, and two racing models. The Alan Mann racing team runs the Ford Escort

twin cam in both the British and European saloon car championships, and collaborated in the development and racing of the 200 m.p.h. Ford Sports Prototype. The film cars had not only to look right, but had to withstand driving over cobblestones in Bavaria, across a beach and into the sea in the South of France, leaping off ramps on the South Downs, and driving up and down flights of steps at a mock castle at Pinewood Studios. One of the touring models was fitted with wings, and another was fitted with a hovercraft skirt so it would cross water.

All the models have the traditional ladder frame chassis, but are much stronger, and lighter, than the original. The tourers have vast boatshaped bodies in red and white cedar, and a boatbuilder had to be commissioned to build the bodies and give them their high-gloss finish. One of only three men in

Britain who is able to construct brass lamps to the correct detail was commissioned to make the lights for all the vehicles. Each car is powered by a 3litre Ford Zodiac engine driving through an automatic transmission, and the “wooden spoked” wheels are actually cast from aluminium. The brakes, on the rear wheels only for authenticity, appear to be cable-operated but are actually hydraulic. The tyreS were specially made by Goodyear from racing compounds. The cars are nearly 18 feet long and are capable of 100 m.p.h. TESTED

The Australian racing driver Frank Gardner tested all the cars before they were delivered to the film company.

The modern construction and tyres have given them roadholding the original certainly did not enjoy, he said. “The suspension is so firm that you can feel a cigarette paper if you run over it,” Gardner said. Although the cars will reach 100 m.p.h., with rear-wheel brakes only this is not recommended. “They take a long time to stop.” On the racing models a Cortina rear axle is mounted under the chassis frame four feet in front of the rear road wheels, and the power is transmitted through vintagelooking chains on either side of the car.

The film will be shown overseas in December, and already the production company has been offered up to $20,000 for one of the cars. So far, however, it has refused all offers.