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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.

Motorman: When New Zealand built the Model T Ford

21 March, 2025

History has a way of surrounding us, hidden in plain sight. I was one of a group who had been working for years in an editorial office in Augustus Terrace in the Auckland city fringe suburb of Parnell who had no idea that motoring history had been made right around the corner. Our premises actually backed onto a century-old brick building in adjacent Fox Street that had seen the wonder of the age, brand-new Model T Fords, rolling out the front door seven decades earlier.
Today, the building is an award-winning two-level office building, comprehensively refurbished in 2012. Happily, 6 Fox Street honours its one time claim to motoring fame. Next door are eight upmarket loft apartments, also on the site where the Fords were completed. Elsewhere, at 89 Courtenay Place, Wellington, and Sophia Street, Timaru, semi-knocked-down Model Ts were also being put together, completing a motor vehicle that would later become known as the Car of the Century.

Lancia Stratos – building a winner

12 March, 2025

On his own, and later with his wife Suzie, Craig Tickle has built and raced many rally cars. Starting in 1988, Craig went half shares in a Mk1 Escort and took it rallying. Apart from a few years in the US studying how to be a nuclear engineer, he has always had a rally car in the garage. When he is not playing with cars, he works as an engineer for his design consulting company.
Naturally, anybody interested in rallying has heard of the Lancia Stratos, the poster child and winner of the World Rally circuit in 1974, ’75, and ’76. Just as the Lamborghini Countach rebranded the world of supercars, so, too, did the Lancia Stratos when it came to getting down and dirty in the rally world.