Rolls-Royce tried to destroy it, but FAB 1 survives

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Almost four years ago we wrote about a real-life replica of ‘FAB 1’ – the bright pink coloured fantasy Rolls-Royce car used by the character of Lady Penelope in the 1960s cult series ‘The Thunderbirds’. We then wrote: “You’d think it is impossible to loose sight of a 22 feet and six inches (6 metres 86) long car, bright pink in colour and with bubble top roof, weighing over three tons and carrying a wide range of most remarkable gadgets of which a machine gun was just one. Still, it’s exactly what happened to the vehicle seen here.”

We asked what on earth could have happened to the vehicle – ‘Or should we really be seeking beyond this earth?’ (see the article here). Well, there was no need for that, as it turned out the huge 1966-built creature, based on a six-wheeled Bedford Duple Vega coach, did survive after all, just on our own beloved planet. After being used to promote the ‘Thunderbirds are go’ movie in 1966, Rolls-Royce attempted to buy the vehicle in order to have it destroyed. They didn’t succeed though and the car was bought by “the owner of a small safari park and motor museum, who let it gradually decay.”

In 1989 Cars of the Stars museum-owner Peter Nelson tracked it down and managed to buy it in a state of total disrepair. A coachbuilder brave enough to tackle a full restoration was found, and a year later the car was revamped. Again, Rolls-Royce objected and tried to take it over with plans to destroy it, but again they were unsuccessful. When the Cars of the Stars museum closed its doors in 2013, the car was sold to the Dezer Car Museum in Florida where it remains to this day. Meanwhile, we were surprised to see this picture of the car in London traffic kindly shared by Henk van den Brakel. You can just notice the car’s real registration number “CPP 1F” below the fake FAB1 plate on the back.

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