Louis Zborowski

Louis Vorow Zborowski (20 February 1895 – 19 October 1924) was an English racing driver and automobile engineer, best known for creating a series of aero-engined racing cars known as the "Chitty-Bang-Bangs", which provided the inspiration for Ian Fleming's children's story, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and culminated in the "Higham Special" which, much modified in the hands of John Godfrey Parry Thomas, broke the World Land Speed Record 18 months after the death of its creator. Background Louis Zborowski was born in 1895 in London to American parents, who had moved to England nine years earlier. His father, William Elliott Morris Zborowski (1858–1903), was also a racing driver, and died in a racing crash, in 1903 at La Turbie Hillclimb in Nice, France. His mother was a wealthy American heiress, born Margaret Laura Astor Carey (1853–1911), a granddaughter of William Backhouse Astor Sr. and Margaret Rebecca Armstrong of the prominent Astor family. She had been Madame de Stuers before her divorce and marriage in 1892 to Elliott Zborowski. On arriving in England, Elliott had assumed the title "Count" and was known generally as "Count Zborowski", although there is no firm evidence that he had any legitimate claim to any such title. Following Elliott's death, Louis assumed his father's fictitious title. Early life After the death of his father in 1903, in 1910 his mother bought the Higham Park estate at Bridge near Canterbury in Kent. Paying £17,500 to the executors of the estate of London banker William Gay, the sale included a farm, and twelve houses. Mrs. Zborowski immediately commissioned a £50,000 refurbishment of the house from the architect Joseph Sawyer.