Michael Satterfield
TGR Staff
The iconic Land Speed Record breaker Babs that inspired Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has joined the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 50 years exhibition at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.
The incredible machine, known as Chitty Bang Bang IV, was the creation of racing driver Count Louis Zborowski and inspired Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang story.
Babs joins an original screen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the Humber 8hp driven by Truly Scrumptious, the original Child Catcher carriage, Coggins Garage recreated in the museum to house the inventive machines of Rowland Emett and a replica of Grandpa Potts’ hut in Beaulieu’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 50 years which celebrates the film’s golden anniversary.
Babs started life in 1923 as the Higham Special and was even more extreme in its design than the Count’s previous three Chitty. When he died a year later, it was bought for £125 by talented racing driver John Godfrey Parry-Thomas who re-christened it, Babs. After boosting power to 500 bhp by adding new pistons to its American Liberty V12 airplane engine, Parry-Thomas beat the Land Speed Record by more than 20mph by reaching 171mph.
When Sir Malcolm Campbell raised the record again the following year, Parry-Thomas made an attempt to regain the title which ended in disaster and he was killed. The wrecked car was buried at Pendine Sands, where it remained for more than 40 years.
In 1969 Babs was excavated by university lecturer and car restorer Owen Wyn Owen, who discovered that the car was not as badly decayed as expected and embarked on bringing it back to its former glory. Today, the fully-restored Babs is a fitting tribute to the airplane-engine racing cars and their fearless drivers whose exploits inspired Ian Fleming.
Other Chitty memorabilia on show at Beaulieu includes the leather bonnet strap from the Count’s original Mercedes Chitty, a solid silver Chitty model bought for producer Cubby Broccoli by his wife Dana and original film concept art by Sir Ken Adam, storyboard watercolor artwork by Robert Laing and technical drawings by Peter Lamont which have never been previously exhibited.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 50 years can be seen as part of the general admission to Beaulieu, which includes entrance to the National Motor Museum, World of Top Gear, On Screen Cars, the ancestral Montagu family home of Palace House, 13thcentury Beaulieu Abbey and the grounds and gardens. To buy tickets in advance online or for more information see www.beaulieu.co.uk
