Lady Penelope's car

Lady Penelope's car
Type:	Heavily-modified car
Made by:	Rolls-Royce
Used by:	Lady Penelope, Parker, Jeff, Brains
First appearance:	Mr. Steelman
Appearances:	see list

Lady Penelope's car was a heavily-modified pink Rolls-Royce called FAB 1, also styled FAB1 and Fab One, which was also the number plate of the vehicle. It was usually driver by Parker, Penelope's butler and chauffeur.

Capabilities

The Rolls-Royce was heavily-modified to better suit Lady Penelope's profession as a special agent. (COMIC: Mr. Steelman, The Return of Mr. Steelman, The Vanishing Ray et al.) As she noted, there was only one FAB 1 and it was for this reason that the garage of her yacht Seabird I was bomb-proof. (COMIC: Mr. Steelman)

It could travel at a fantastic speed, up to two hundred miles per hour, and had a "sophisticated" automatic pilot drive which could be activated by a homing signal with a combination of movements enacted on one of Penelope's shoes. She described its remote guidance as "very good but a little risky" when the vehicle was occupied. (COMIC: The Vanishing Ray) FAB 1 also had "superior road-holding" meaning it was well-suited to winding roads on high hills.

The car was bullet-proof and could withstand sustained gunfire from handguns (COMIC: Desert Drama) and automatic rifles (COMIC: Mr. Steelman) although after a fleet of Mr Steelman's robots had attacked the vehicle for a prolonged period, its pink paint began to scrape off in the first signs of visible damage. (COMIC: The Return of Mr. Steelman) A "travelling arsenal", FAB 1 could retaliate with firepower of its own. Two guns could be revealed and fired by pressing a button on the car's dashboard. (COMIC: Mr. Steelman) A single gun, capable of firing a large rocket, could also be revealed from under the number plate by pressing the "fifth" button on the dashboard. (COMIC: The Return of Mr. Steelman) There was a switch labelled "oil slip" which, when pressed released jets of oil from the back of the car, inevitably causing any pursuing vehicles to crash. (COMIC: The Vanishing Ray, The Assassination Threat)

Another device on the dashboard was the automatic signal map. It tracked the location of Roger Lyon's car, an agent of Lady Penelope's, and alerted her when he was in danger. It was also linked to a homing device which told Penelope the location of Roger himself. (COMIC: Mr. Steelman) The map could also display the location of homing devices which Penelope and Parker could carry about their person, as it did with the one attached to Paul Carson's car in California. (COMIC: Desert Drama)

In addition to travelling on land, FAB 1 could also traverse the water by enabling its hydrofoils. (COMIC: Mr. Steelman)

From the back passenger seat of the car, Lady Penelope could make tele-calls, as she once did to arrange a meeting with Jimmy Bondson. (TV: The Man from MI.5)

An elevator platform extended from the boot of FAB 1 and could reach such heights as to get Penelope and Parker onto the roof of the Trans-Europe Monorail Headquarters (COMIC: The Return of Mr. Steelman) or the second floor of the hotel Scores-Vaneau. (COMIC: The Assassination Threat)

History

Just after they had first met, Parker drove Lady Penelope from a house he had been burgling to the Luthvian Embassy in FAB 1. On the way they were shot at but Parker returned fire and their assailants' vehicle was sent crashing into a lamppost. They returned to Creighton-Ward Manor soon after retrieving some important blueprints. The next day, the car alerted Penelope to the danger which Roger Lyon was in and led them to the site of his crashed car. They followed the signal further until it went out to sea at which point FAB 1 was loaded onto Seabird I. The yacht was destroyed but the car's hydrofoils were used to transport its occupants to Naples. The duo then drove to Mr Steelman's base in Pompeii with the car and, after the adventure was over, FAB 1 was loaded onto a Fireflash and returned to England. (COMIC: Mr. Steelman)

Lady Penelope and Parker used FAB 1 to reach an airport so that they could get on a Fireflash bound for Unity City and help catch the Kaplan's killer. (COMIC: Assassination!, On the Trail of the Kaplan's Killer...)

Lady Penelope and Parker drove in FAB 1 to London Airport in preperation for Penelope writing an article for TV 21 on the rebuilding of Paris. After escaping from French jail, they fled from the city in FAB 1, and, moving on to Strasbourg, while there they used the elevator platform of the vehicle to aid them in breaking into the Trans-Europe Monorail Headquarters. Penelope and Parker retrieved FAB 1 from Strasbourg once they had spent a day trapped in the bullion train and discovered the location of Mr Steelman's hideout in the Black Forest. The battle with Steelman's robots commenced when Parker fired a rocket above the hideout and a brief skirmish subsequently ensued in which FAB 1 was able to penetrate the frames of the robots but sustained some cosmetic damage in the process. It was ultimately ended by Penelope dropping an explosive cigarette case from the car, forcing Mr Steelman to leave the area without any of the gold he had stolen. After calling the authorities and speaking to a police officer, Penelope and Parker departed Germany in their car. (COMIC: The Return of Mr. Steelman)

Lady Penelope summoned FAB 1 after her interrogation by the British Secret Service so that it could carry her home. During the journey back to her mansion, the Hood identified her and attempted to cause a crash by shooting at the car. However, Parker activated its oil slip and it was instead the Hood himself who was sent careering into a tree. Later, with Jeff Tracy and Brains as passengers, she and Parker made a return journey to the Secret Service building in FAB 1, and then to London Airport. (COMIC: The Vanishing Ray)

Parker used FAB 1 when shopping in London and, after he was arrested, Lady Penelope drove it to the police station. They then rode on to the London Silver Vaults, back to the Manor, and to the Law Stationers Company so they could follow a lead as to Mr Steelman's hideout. It carried them there and was ferried to Monte Carlo with Lady Penelope and Parker in FAB 2, after which they drove it to Charles Legrane's casino. With Parker exploring other clues, Lady Penelope pursued Mr Steelman from his room in Hotel Majestica to his base, an old chateu thirty miles from the coast. Soon after she arrived, however, Steelman escaped and destroyed the house in an aeroplane crash. Penelope rescued the Prince of Monaco's governess, who was trapped in the fire, and they both resumed the pursuit back towards Monte Carlo. When Steelman drove his car into the ocean, Penelope returned the governess to the palace in FAB 1 and, after the whole affair was over, she afforded the same courtesy to the Prince himself. (COMIC: The Great Silver Robbery!)

As they were preparing to head back to England, Lady Penelope received an emergency call signal from Roger Lyon but after the transmission was cut during his report that the Bereznik agent Hermutt Clinger was embroiled in an assassination plot, they travelled to Paris to help him, first to the hotel Scores-Vaneau where he was staying. They then followed a clue to the Roof Top Club after Parker used the boot to aid Penelope in her escape from a fire which Clinger started. Finally discovering the location of Clinger's hideout, the duo took FAB 1 there, with Parker defeating Clinger by pushing him over a balcony and Penelope rescuing a kidnapped Roger. All three set off for Monte Carlo and FAB 2 but they soon found themselves chased by Clinger, who had survived. Parker deployed the oil slip which forced Clinger's to crash. After Penelope was seriously wounded by a shot from Clinger while inspecting the crash site, Parker and Roger rushed her to the Reinstat Clinic in FAB 1, seventy kilometres south of their current location. She made a speedy recovery and the trio returned to England using her yacht. (COMIC: The Assassination Threat)

When they were sent to Monte Carlo to meet with MI5 agent Jimmy Bondson regarding a stolen nuclear device, Lady Penelope and Parker rode FAB 1 from Nice airport to the meeting place in the Forest of Digne. While there, Parker fired a warning shot at Bondson when he attempted to turn around and discover Penelope's identity but the rest of the conversation proceeded without incident. After International Rescue retrieved the plans, Penelope and Parker returned to the forest in the vehicle to hand them over and then set off for home. (TV: The Man from MI.5)

Parker returned Lady Penelope to Creighton-Ward Manor in FAB 1 after their adventures in Australia, as well as to the Century 21 Film Productions studios to meet Digby Short. During a meeting with Mr Andershill, MI5 agent Jimmy Bondson told her to take the acting job she was offered. She and Parker followed Bondson in FAB 1 to a meeting with Colonel Thomas in a secluded forest, who explained that they wanted proof her co-star Paul Carson was a Bereznik spy. After the first meeting of the cast in London, Parker drove Penelope to the London Hilton Hotel to confront Carson about his absence. FAB 1 went with the cast and crew to California for location work. Penelope and Parker drove it away from the Los Angeles airport and, as night approached, to the World Government research plant in the Borrego Desert which they had previously discovered Carson had an interest in. Later, after sometime of filming, Penelope and Parker used FAB 1 and a homing device to pursue Carson to a meeting with a security guard during which he received the plans to a top secret aerial car. Carson eventually noticed them and attempted to catch up with FAB 1 to conceal his treachery, after unsuccessfully shooting the vehicle. The chase led to the winding roads of the high hills where Parker's driving skill and FAB 1's superior road-holding prevailed where Carson's car failed, resulting in the spy crashing to his death. (COMIC: Desert Drama)

External links

• FAB 1 at the Thunderbirds Wiki