Boyhood dream.

Byline: By Steve Orme

Children of the 60s, all scuffed shoes, short trousers and Mars Attacks cards, will have fond memories of rushing home from school in anticipation of those few words that excited so much: "Five, four, three, two, one ... your tea's ready."

No, sorry, that should have been Thunderbirds are go.

The story of billionaire Jeff Tracy and his too-good-to-be-true sons jetting blondly where no blond had jetted before, saving people who get their big toes stuck up impending nuclear disaster.

International Rescue - to its members it was the fourth emergency service.

Scott, Virgil, John, Gordon and Alan. A sort of Bonanza with rockets. Puppets that flew into action dressed as Brooklyn hot-dog vendors and clearly supported by fishing line borrowed from the Japanese tuna fleet.

Then there was the posh totty. Lady Penelope Crighton-Ward and her old lag chauffeur, Parker, swanning about in a pink Roller rescuing cats trapped up trees. I reckon Jeff Tracy was pulling her strings.

Anyway, they're back. At a magic lantern theatre near you from this summer. Real and without the fishing line, starring Bill Paxton, Anthony Edwards, Ben Kingsley, Ron Cook, Sophia Myles, Brady Corbet and Lex Shrapnel. A Universal production directed by Jonathan Frakes at a cost of $70m.

Every fan would have loved to fly in a real Thunderbird. Well, all these years on, I have. Well, not flown exactly.

Hand-in-hand with Pinewood Studios, Ford has built the film's FAB1 which, along with a 16-metres long Thunderbird 2 and a specially constructed Tracy Island lake, form the main attraction on the company's Birmingham Motor Show stand later this month.

At eight metres, FAB1 is not going to provide an easy answer to the age-old question: "Will if fit my garage?" It's powered by a four-litre engine and has a column shift automatic gear change. And that, truly, is where the resemblance to anything spawned in Detroit ends.

True to the original it has six wheels, four front and two rear, but unlike the original there are no rocket launchers.

It has an electrically retracting bubble canopy and features an unusual two-seater configuration more often seen in films like Pearl Harbor. And, oh boy, it is very pink and very big.

So what's it like to drive? Well, first a few rules apply. You must dress up as a complete plant pot and find a suitable Lady Penelope.

FAB 1 is noisy, it weighs 2,100kgs so is cumbersome, and even with a full perspex canopy, has the visibility qualities of a caravan.

And that same canopy heats the interior to sauna-point in no time at all. Something that isn't helped by a total lack of ventilation.

Interior trim is tasteful 21st Century fibreglass and hand-laminated formica, with the steering gear from the Millennium Falcon.

I'd always imagined that, say, the bridge of the Starship Enterprise would be a tribute to imaginative engineering. I know now it's more likely to be a tribute to AAA batteries and gaffer tape. See the working props at the NEC from May 27 to June 11.