When Frank Cottrell Boyce wrote the follow-up to Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, he uncovered a little known chapter of motoring history. He talked to Chris Price about the next chapter in the story of the car that could fly.

Nearly 50 years after it last took to the skies, Ian Fleming's classic children's tale Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has taken flight once more.

Fleming, who lived in St Margaret's Bay, near Dover, wrote the book for his son Casper when he was recovering from a heart attack. He intended to write a series but died just before the story was published in 1964.

The new chapter in the James Bond creator's much-loved children's story has been written by Liverpudlian author Frank Cottrell Boyce.

When Frank was asked to rekindle the series by the Fleming family almost half a century later, a slice of Kentish motor racing history became his main resource.

"My big stroke of luck was I found out Ian Fleming wrote it after seeing a real car called Chitty Bang Bang," said Frank, 50.

Fleming based the story on a racing car he saw as a boy at Brooklands racetrack in Surrey.

That car was Chitty Bang Bang and built by racing driver and automobile engineer Count Louis Zborowski, who lived on the Higham Park country estate at Bridge, near Canterbury, in the early 1920s.

Count Zborowski made three cars of the same name at his Kent home. He raced them at Brooklands and there is a photo of Fleming with the car at the circuit aged about 14.

Zborowski died racing for the Mercedes team in the 1924 Italian Grand Prix, aged 29.

"I found out as much as I could about the real car," said Frank. "I went to Brooklands and Canterbury.

"The car was so loud because of its massive engine that Canterbury council passed a law banning the car. I guess that means the first Asbo was given out in Canterbury."

Frank's Merseyside charm is not the only reason the Fleming family chose him to write the story.

His children's book Millions won the 2004 Carnegie Medal, while his 2005 novel Framed was turned into a BBC television film in 2009. He is also part of the team designing the opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympic Games, put together by his friend Danny Boyle, the director of Slumdog Millionaire.

Frank's story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again sees a new family unwittingly place the original Chitty engine in a VW camper van, taking them on a 21st century adventure around the globe.

"My big thing is to write books that children like but their parents can share with them," said Frank.

"What is interesting is that when Fleming wanted to write something for his son he went back to something he remembered as a little boy. So I went back to my incredible memories of the film and my feelings as a child in a car. I wanted to capture that lovely safe feeling of being with your parents in the back of the car."

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again is available on October 7 in hardback and ebook, priced £10.99 and £7.49 respectively.