The former Grand Prix racer that came from the mind of Ian Fleming, the author that created James Bond. Photos from web.archive.org

We know that many of our readers are not going to agree with this selection on the surface, but the more you know about this car, the more you will like it. For instance, the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car was launched from the imagination of Ian Fleming, the same man that wrote all of the James Bond books. Inspired by the aerodynamic race cars built by Louis Zborowski in the early days of auto racing, Fleming wrote about this old Grand Prix racecar that developed magical powers.

The dash panel is an actual panel from a British World War I fighter.

Three things that give this selection automatic credit as a badass movie car: Generated from the mind of the author that created James Bond, it is a 1920s Grand Prix racer and the car is built with an actual WW I fighter plane dash. 

In the book, the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car sported an engine from a Zeppelin dirigible. The old engine made a struggling sound as it turned over to start that the author named the car after the groan.

As for the movie, six cars were made, the original car with a Ford engine, a smaller road-going version, a transforming car to produce some of the movie magic, a hover car, a flying car and an engineless version for trailer work.The hover-car was simply a car shell mounted on a speedboat, was destroyed after filming.

The original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car was registered with the same plates as Ian Fleming described in the novel: Gen 11. If you read the ones as the letter “i,” the name spells out the latin word for magical being. Genii, which has become genie in modern useage, is a magical being that takes the form of a human, usually living in a lamp or bottle.

The original Gen 11 car creates its own magic and has a website where fans can follow the appearances that the the magical little car makes. The original car was auctioned off in May of 2011 where it brought a tidy sum of $805,000.

As a sidenote, a car that was built for the stage version of the book holds the Guinness Book of Records as the  most expensive stage prop ever used.

Specs:

• Rolled out of the workshop in June 1967
• Built on a custom ladder frame chassis
• The hood is crafted of polished aluminum
• The boat deck is hand-crafted of red and white cedar built by boat builders in Buckinghamshire
• Brass fittings were obtained from Edwardian cars
• Alloy dashboard is from a British World War I fighter plane
• The car weighs approximately 2-tons
• Measures 17 ½-feet in length
• Powered by a Ford 3-litre V-6 engine mated to an automatic transmission