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Warbirds and Wheels to display winged wonder — Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

7 February, 2015

Even though we’re in the futuristic year of 2015, any mention of flying cars is still more likely to bring to mind memories of a certain childhood movie, rather than any winged automobile available off a showroom floor.

That car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, will be on display at Wanaka’s Warbirds and Wheels museum for the month of April, on loan from its owner, Sir Peter Jackson. During the month, Warbirds & Wheels will raise funds for the Upper Clutha Children’s Medical Trust, a local charity assisting sick children and their families.

The Warbirds and Wheel exhibit will be the first time the car has been on display for such a time period. Originally owned by Pierre Picton of the UK, the car was bought by Sir Peter Jackson in 2011, before he shipped it to New Zealand.

Though there were several Chitty Chitty Bang Bang cars made for the 1968 movie, only one of them actually worked — this is that car, known as GEN11.

GEN11 was designed by Ken Adam and built by the Ford Racing Team. It is powered by a Ford three-litre V6 engine and has a dashboard plate from a British World War I fighter plane.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was completed in 1967 and registered with the number plate GEN11, given to her by Ian Fleming, who wrote the novel the film was based on. The registration spells the Latin word ‘genii’, meaning magical person or being.

The exhibit coincides with the Easter school holidays, making it a perfect event for the family. There will be many exciting and interactive ways for locals and visitors to get up close with Chitty during the month, including an artist-in-residence week, movie showings, dress-up ‘cars over coffee’ day, kids colouring competition, as well as movie memorabilia for sale. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang will be on display from April 1–30, and the museum is open seven days a week, from 9am to 5pm.

ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Tradie’s Choice

30 August, 2024

Clint Wheeler purchased this 1962 Holden FJ Panelvan as an unfinished project, or as he says “a complete basket case”. Collected as nothing more than a bare shell, the rotisserie-mounted and primed shell travelled the length of the country from the Rangiora garage where it had sat dormant for six years to Clint’s Ruakaka workshop. “Mike, the previous owner, was awesome. He stacked the van and parts nicely. I was pretty excited to get the van up north. We cut the locks and got her out to enjoy the northland sun,” says Clint. “The panelvan also came with boxes of assorted parts, some good, some not so good, but they all helped.”