The magical story-telling prowess of Ian Fleming certainly seems to translate into film, as the automotive stars of the film adaptations of two of his most famous novels are both claimed to be the world's best known cars.
The first, the James Bond 1964 Aston Martin DB5 movie car from Goldfinger and Thunderball (fitted with the full complement of operational 'Q-Branch' gadgets) sold at auction in London last October for GBP2,912,000 (US$4,608,500).
The other is GEN 11, the fully functioning star of the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Now it too – a fully-functioning road car (no, it doesn't fly) is to go under the auctioneer's hammer.
The car was built in 1967 for the central role in the film, which was rather loosely based on Ian Fleming's childrens' novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car – the film script was a collaboration between the remarkable Roald Dahl and the film's director, Ken Hughes and differed markedly from the novel.
The car was created by the film's production designer Ken Adam, Rowland Emmett (whose job it was to create all of Caractacus Potts' inventions for the film) and the Ford racing team. Details of the construction of the car can be found on the auction site.