VIN: 1G1BN51H4HX131911
Although vehicles for the Batman films have been custom built for the purpose, perhaps the most famous Batmobile, the one from the 1966-1968 live action television show, began life as a Ford concept car called the Lincoln Futura, built over a decade earlier in 1954. The body of the Futura was fabricated by Ghia of Italy, whose artisans hammered the car's panels over logs and tree stumps carved as forms to create the sleek manta ray-like car. In 1959, the Futura was featured sporting a fresh red paint job in the film, It Started With A Kiss, starring Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford. After six years of dormancy, ABC-TV chose famed Hollywood customizer George Barris to design a "Batmobile" for their soon-to-go-into production Batman show. Dean Jeffries worked on the design and initial fabrication for the Batmobile, using a 1959 Cadillac, but when the studio wanted the car faster than he could deliver, he turned it back to George Barris. With only three weeks to finish, Barris decided that rather than build a car from scratch, it would be best to transform the Lincoln Futura (bought from Ford for $1.00) into the famous crime-fighting vehicle of TV's caped crusader. Barris hired Bill Cushenberry to do the metal modifications to the car. When filming for the series began, several problems arose due to the age of the car: It overheated, the battery went dead, and the expensive Mickey Thompson tires kept blowing. By mid season, the engine and transmission were replaced with one from a Ford Galaxie.
Barris built three fiberglass copies of the original Batmobile for exhibition on the car show circuit. Eventually, the three copies were covered with a black velvet "fuzz" paint, presumably to hide stress cracks in the fiberglass bodies. Later, all three were restored to their gloss black paint jobs.
In the summer of 1989, Batman came to the big screen for the first time since 1966. Thanks to the work of comic artists like Frank Miller, the public was ready for a new, darker take on the caped crusader. Warner Brothers had Tim Burton bring his unique style to the movie, and Anton Furst was hired as production designer for Gotham City and the Batmobile. He wanted the car to be unlike any previous incarnation, a combination of brute force and classic design aesthetics. To build the car, the production team spliced together two Impala chassis, and the car was powered by a Chevrolet 350 ci V-8. The body was a custom-built fabrication, and the whole thing rides on a set of Mickey Thompson racing tires on custom wheels. In his design, Furst managed to capture the essence of a Batmobile while providing all-new design elements. The bat-mask was gone entirely from his design. In its place, the nose featured a large jet turbine intake flanked by sweeping, mandible-like front fenders. Cold air intakes for the afterburner were mounted ahead of the rear fenders. The rear of the car had a rounded, heavy look that was influenced by cars of the 1930s, set between a pair of relatively short sculpted fins. Inside, the two-seat cockpit featured aircraft-like instrumentation, a passengers' side monitor, self-diagnostics system, CD recorder, and voice-command recognition system.
Offered for sale is one of the most recognizable and desirable automobiles in motion picture history. This street-legal replica with California titlei is the only complete and fully operational example of the 1989 Batman movie Batmobile known to exist. While not used in the movie, the extensive fiberglass body was pulled from the molds used in the creation of the movie cars by one of the original creators. The remaining fabrication was done by a Southern California company entrusted with the regular creation of special movie cars and the extensive working systems were designed and installed by the vendor to most closely replicate those used in the film. Featuring extensive additional extras to make this idea for use in car shows, museums and parades, this Batmobile conveys with a full operational manual and can be driven with relative ease and impress all who view it at the locale of your choice.
Sale is subject to execution of licensing agreement with Warner Brothers.
"This is way more fun than any of those other auctions…I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else. They can have their Bugattis. Gimme this any day."
- AutoWeek
- AutoWeek
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