UK NEWS

CHITTY REBORN FOR MAGICAL JOURNEY

Nick and Caroline in their replica

Wednesday March 5,2008

By Jo Willey

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It was built from a £100 Land Rover, a sewing machine and fragments of a boat.

But a replica of film car Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has made it to Australia from Britain six months and 12,000 miles later without a single breakdown.

When creator Nick Pointing and wife Carolyn announced plans to drive the car – with fold-out wings – to Oz for charity, people thought they were mad. But yesterday they completed their adventure across 17 countries after landing in Sydney.

We can’t believe we’re here in something we knocked up in the garage

Carolyn Pointing

The fairytale trip began at their home on the Isle of Wight last September and took them through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Italy and Greece.

They even managed to visit the Neuschwanstein castle, near Munich, used in the original film.

They drove through Turkey, Iran, United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Singapore, before shipping the car to Australia.

Mother-of-two Carolyn, 43, a police officer, said: “We can’t believe we’re here in something we knocked up in the garage.

“The big celebration will come once we get to Brisbane to see friends who migrated two years ago.”

Nick, 42, a Marks & Spencer manager, built the car for Chitty fan Carolyn after buying her the 1968 movie DVD and tickets for the London stage show.

The 80mph Chitty was built using a Corgi toy car and movie stills as a guide. The chassis is that of a 1973 Land Rover.

Chitty grew from vintage cars, boatyard odds-and-ends and a Singer sewing machine.

The trip raised £5,000 for the Earl Mountbatten Hospice, the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the World Wildlife Fund.

The couple will ship Chitty home and follow by plane in June.