Chitty Chitty Bang Bang*    

These stories are affectionately dedicated to the memory of the original CHITTY–CHITTY–BANG–BANG, built in 1920 by Count Zborowski on his estate near Canterbury.

She had a pre–1914 War, chain–drive, 75 horse–power Mercedes chassis, in which was installed a six–cylinder Zeppelin–Maybach aeroplane engine—the military type used by the Germans in their Gotha bombers.

Four vertical overhead valves per cylinder were operated by exposed push–rods and rockers from a cam–shaft on each side of the crank–case, and two Zenith carburettors were attached, one at each end of a long induction–pipe.

She had a grey, torpedo–shaped four–seater body built by Blythe Brothers of Canterbury.

In 1921 she won the Hundred M.P.H. Short Handicap at Brooklands at 101 miles per hour, and in 1922, again at Brooklands, the Lightning Short Handicap. But in that year she was involved in an accident and never raced again.

I.F.