Chitty chitty bang bang

merlin · 16 Jan 2009 at 23:16

Greatest car movie ever, but we're not here to talk about that.

Question is: is it/was it an actual car - as in a production car that one could buy at the time, or was it just created for the movie?

jr1104 · 16 Jan 2009 at 23:18

Yes, for a brief period in the 60's anyone could buy a flying car.

Jokester · 16 Jan 2009 at 23:18

Yes, it was an actual car you could buy at the time, but following several mid air collisions they were banned from the market.

merlin · 16 Jan 2009 at 23:20

And the bit that turns it into a hovercraft; is that part of the comfort pack, or the sport pack?

jr1104 · 16 Jan 2009 at 23:20

Sport pack, but you can retrofit it if you find somewhere that sells it.

Muban · 16 Jan 2009 at 23:50

The engine was from a Ford Zodiac but they were custom built for the movie.

shifty_uk · 17 Jan 2009 at 00:10

Google is a wonderful thing:

Wikipedia said:
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the car of the film, was not a pre-1930s car at all. Four cars of this type were purpose-built in 1967 for the film, and these, due to using Ford Zodiac Essex 3.0L V6s, would easily keep up with the fastest vehicles of the day. Different Chittys did different duties (i.e. one was set up for floating out at sea - it was mounted on a speed boat and was remote controlled), and Chitty did actually fly (a partial car – hood only – being mounted underneath a helicopter in certain scenes).