From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian.
THE REAL 'CHITTY BANG BANGS': Despite the adoption of their name by a successful 1968 Disney film, the series of racing cars known as Chitty Bang Bang were amongst the most interesting cars to race on the European circuits in the 1920s.
Their originator was one Louis Zborowski, the wealthy son of Eliot Zborowski, of whom we have written in this column. Eliot inherited not only his father's wealth but also his passion for fast cars.
Living the life of a wealthy dilettant in the 1920s, Louis or 'Lou' as he was invariably known, acquired a splendid manor at Higham equipped with a particularly fine machine-shop. There he installed a Captain Clive Gallop who had a acquired a knowledge of racing car design while working with Peugeot in France.
Gallop was responsible for building 'Chitty I' which came into being around the time of the opening of the 1921 season at the Brooklands track, and consisted of a lengthened pre-war chain-drive Mercedes chassis into which had been inserted a 23 litre Maybach four-valve pushrod in-line six cylinder engine.
The 300 hp monster promptly won its first race and set the pattern for future 'Chittys' - a large very powerful engine in a modified chassis. The gargantuan Chitty I instantly caught the public's imagination, and Lou Zborowski and his outlandish racing car found themselves public celebrities.
Chitty II appeared at Brooklands at the end of the same year, 1921, lapping like its predecessor at 108 mph. But Chitty II was designed as the ultimate Gran Turismo car, intended to take Lou and his passengers in rapid luxury over the roads of Europe.
With a 19 litre 230 hp Benz engine, again fitted to a pre-war stretched Mercedes chassis and the fairly minimal brakes of the period, Chitty II, like Chitty I was not for the faint-hearted.
In early 1922, Lou and his wife, the former actress Violet Leichester, drove Chitty II to Nice, then sailed for Algeria, from where they intended to make a crossing of the Sahara. Wisely, the authorities learned of the plan and forbade it, not wishing to have to go to the considerable expense of mounting a rescue mission.
Early in 1923, Chitty III appeared and around the same time Lou sold Chitty II, thereafter using Hispanos for his personal road transport.
Chitty III was another monster, once again based on a modified Mercedes chassis which embraced a 160 hp Mercedes sohc six cylinder aircraft engine which had been tuned to give 180 hp. Lou was still racing Chitty I and Chitty III's lap of Brooklands at 112.68 mph was a disappointment to him.
In 1924 arrangements were being made for Lou to join the Mercedes Grand Prix team and he drove Chitty III to Stuttgart on at least one occasion.
Following the disappointing performance of Chitty III a new project, Chitty IV or the 'Higham Special' was commenced. Chitty IV surpassed all previous Chittys for size and was fitted with a 450 hp Liberty engine of some 27 litres.
As such it became the largest capacity racing car ever to run at Brooklands, and employed a gearbox and chain-drive from a pre-war Blitzen Benz. Chitty IV did not get developed during Lou's lifetime and the final Chitty, Chitty V, remained at the planning stage.
Louis Zborowski duly joined the Mercedes Grand prix team and met his fate while practising for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 1924 when he left the track having skidded on an oil spill on the Lesmo Curve and was killed instantly.
Following his death, Lou's large-engined racing cars became the prototypes for a whole generation of Land Speed Record cars. No doubt he would have been surprised - and probably amused - at how the name of his famous series of giant racing cars is remembered today.