In Which Xolo wanders at random...
Jan. 31st, 2004 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rain_gryphonToday I moved house in a sort of desultory manner, and watched parts of the 24 Hours of Daytona at other times. Porsche has redesigated their venerable 911 series as the GT3 series. I can understand their motivation, but it's annoying. Those cars have raced with only minor changes since the early 70s as the 911 type. I've had years and years of fun watching the 911s blast around the track, and now the Arabs have ruined that as well.
Last night I watched "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" for the first time in some years. I liked it better than I recalled. I may have been just the wrong age to enjoy it the first time around. It's neat how they colour-coordinated the scenes - I'd not noticed that before. It's an entertaining film, but, all in all, it's one of those movies that's almost great. The songs almost stick in your mind, the plot twists are almost surprising, etc.
The antique racing cars in the opening sequences are perhaps the best part of the show, although there's a horrible mismatch in periods and capabilities there, from a 1902 Renault roadracer to the 1911 Fiat 'Mondiale' which ought to be capable of running away and leaving all the others in the dust. It looks like they just sort of gathered up anything they could get their hands on that looked pre-WWI, and went with it. They're always shown just sort of pottering along during the racing scenes too, although considering the range of cars involved they might have been holding them back to let the Renault keep up.
I'd imagine that most people don't realize that there actually was a marque of racing cars during the 1920s named 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. They were built by a maniacal Polish count named Louis Zborowski. He used (by and large) old Mercedes bodies, some of which had already managed to kill one or two drivers before falling into Zborowski's hands, retro-fitted with huge airplane engines. The result were demanding, dangerously overpowered cars that had no room for forgiveness or error. They were, however, for a few brief years, the fastest racing cars in the world. Here's a picture of Zborowski in the first Chitty http://www.hartlana.co.uk/bphoto/c108.htm. You can see a painting of the last Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the one that killed Perry Thomas, here http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ensgwo/carsv2.htm#Babs. After the crash they just dug a hole and dumped it in and forgot about it. During the publicity that followed the release of the movie, it was found, dug up and restored.
The Chitty in the movie was a friendly, protective car that always kept its occupants safe in any emergency, which forms something of a contrast to the ravening Deathmobiles that originally bore the name. I suppose that might have been some sort of British joke, like naming a solid white Dog 'Spot'.
Last night I watched "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" for the first time in some years. I liked it better than I recalled. I may have been just the wrong age to enjoy it the first time around. It's neat how they colour-coordinated the scenes - I'd not noticed that before. It's an entertaining film, but, all in all, it's one of those movies that's almost great. The songs almost stick in your mind, the plot twists are almost surprising, etc.
The antique racing cars in the opening sequences are perhaps the best part of the show, although there's a horrible mismatch in periods and capabilities there, from a 1902 Renault roadracer to the 1911 Fiat 'Mondiale' which ought to be capable of running away and leaving all the others in the dust. It looks like they just sort of gathered up anything they could get their hands on that looked pre-WWI, and went with it. They're always shown just sort of pottering along during the racing scenes too, although considering the range of cars involved they might have been holding them back to let the Renault keep up.
I'd imagine that most people don't realize that there actually was a marque of racing cars during the 1920s named 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. They were built by a maniacal Polish count named Louis Zborowski. He used (by and large) old Mercedes bodies, some of which had already managed to kill one or two drivers before falling into Zborowski's hands, retro-fitted with huge airplane engines. The result were demanding, dangerously overpowered cars that had no room for forgiveness or error. They were, however, for a few brief years, the fastest racing cars in the world. Here's a picture of Zborowski in the first Chitty http://www.hartlana.co.uk/bphoto/c108.htm. You can see a painting of the last Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the one that killed Perry Thomas, here http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ensgwo/carsv2.htm#Babs. After the crash they just dug a hole and dumped it in and forgot about it. During the publicity that followed the release of the movie, it was found, dug up and restored.
The Chitty in the movie was a friendly, protective car that always kept its occupants safe in any emergency, which forms something of a contrast to the ravening Deathmobiles that originally bore the name. I suppose that might have been some sort of British joke, like naming a solid white Dog 'Spot'.
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Date: 2004-02-01 12:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-02 12:38 am (UTC)