Pretty Chitty-Bang-Bang, we love you

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

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.