{"id":493760,"date":"2014-04-01T00:16:49","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T00:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=12266"},"modified":"2024-12-27T01:26:38","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T01:26:38","slug":"count-louis-zborowski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/count-louis-zborowski\/","title":{"rendered":"Count Louis Zborowski"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For the 1924 French Grand Prix at Lyon, Count Zborowski raced an American MIller 122 (#6), but completed only 16 of the race\u2019s 35 laps before retiring when the front axle broke. He\u2019s shown here being chased by Henry Seagrave\u2019s Sunbeam, which finished 5th as Giuseppe Campari won for Alfa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Forget about Dick Van Dyke driving old bangers through the sky sitting next to the delectable Sally Ann Howes. That was in a film based on an Ian Fleming novel, and the book was based very loosely on the cars Polish American Count Louis Zborowski drove in the Twenties. They were the real Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs. Yes, plural, because there were four of the monsters, nearly five.<\/p>\n

The huge great cars were all designed and built by engineer and Bentley Boy Captain Clive Gallop, and their driver, the eccentric but courageous Count Louis. He became wealthy beyond most people\u2019s wildest dreams when his mother, American heiress Margaret Astor Carey, died in 1911. Like she left him \u00a311 million, plus real estate\u2014 including seven acres of Manhattan and blocks on Fifth Avenue in New York. So you might say he could afford to go motor racing! And he was good at it. So good that many thought he would become one of the period\u2019s crack drivers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n