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CHITTY
CHITTY BANG BANG Car Auctioned
By Rich Drees
June 4, 2007-
The vintage roadster that could sprout red and yellow wings to fly
in the 1968 children’s classic
Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang
has been sold at auction for just over half a million dollars on
Saturday, June 2.
Ralph Spencer of Jacksonville, Florida bought the car for
$505,000.00 during a sale at the 16th Annual Auburn
Spring Motorfair in Auburn, Indiana. Spencer, who also reportedly
owns one of the Batmobiles used in the campy 1960s Batman
television series, stated that he has always been a fan of the film.
The car had been a prominent display at the Chicago restaurant JR’s
Retreat. Restaurant owner Jim Rich had been forced by a bankruptcy
debt to sell off the car. Two other versions of the car made for the
film’s production are currently on display in a automotive museum in
Keswick, United Kingdom.
Dean Kruse, president of Kruse International, the firm which handled
the auction, had appraised the car in 1998 at $980,000.00. However,
its value may have depreciated due to it requiring some restoration
work after a term in storage.
In the 1968 film, the car was created by Dick Van Dyke’s eccentric
inventor Caractacus Potts and named Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by his
children. The car could drive by itself, float like a boat and in
the film’s finale, fly. The car’s miraculous devices should come as
no surprise, as the original children’s book author was super spy
James Bond creator Ian Fleming and the film was produced by Bond
franchise producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli.
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