Those interested in unique stories and tons of details would likely gravitate to the Batmobile—it’s an astonishing tale of glamour and stardom forgotten to storage to a total reinvention of self to become an icon. In a way, it’s kind of like Madonna. Built on a Ford chassis and powered by a 460 CI V-8 engine with a 3-speed automatic controlled by a B&M shifter, this Batmobile was built to replicate the original Batmobile built in 1965 by Hollywood car “kustomizer” George Barris. Packed to the wings with all the Bat toys, including the Detect- A-Scope, dual parachutes, Batphone and a Pioneer radio, this tribute to the most famous car in television history will certainly be the star anywhere it arrives. And what an arrival it makes. In fact, it’s not really an arrival, it’s an event. It appears as if the builder has tended to every detail imaginable including the mag wheels with bat-logo center caps, emergency beacon light, compass, Batscope, radar and, of course, the Bat Black paint and upholstery with red pinstriping and piping. Interestingly, the original Batmobile was constructed from a prototype 1955 Lincoln Futura, which Ford used for a number of years to promote “The Car of Tomorrow.” In 1959, Ford leased the Futura to Metro Goldwyn Mayer for the Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford film, “It Started with a Kiss,” after which George Barris began storing the car for Ford, simply keeping it out of sight and off the road. When 20th Century Fox approached Barris about building a car suitable for Batman, Barris bought the Futura from Ford for $1 and began transforming it into the Batmobile in 1965. Considering Ford paid Ghia in Turin, Italy $250,000 to craft the steel body for the prototype, a buck seems pretty fair. Interestingly, a lot of the original Ghia body and William Schmidt Futura design was carried over into the Batmobile— massive, gently rising tailfins at the rear, a long flat rear deck with reverse “V” end section, a complex front end, the bubble-top roof with open center section and parallel bar dividing the two spaces, and the steel dashboard with compartments all survived with minor changes. It’s likely the most altered element would be the front end, which was modified enough to resemble the face of Batman himself. The compass situated atop the dashboard surrounded in a half circle by lights is also a Futura feature, and the colorful lights aren’t just fun, spacey details, as they indicated what gear Futura was in: red for park, blue for reverse, white for neutral, green for drive, and yellow for low. Looking futuristic and mysterious, it was perfect for the Batmobile. The Futura was colored entirely different from the Batmobile, sporting unique Pearlescent Frost Blue-White lacquer paint made with ground fish scales, which lent it an ultra-shiny, pearl-metallic edge. For the movie, the Futura would be sprayed red, Barris later stripping the body to the metal, starting over with flat black primer and a semi-gloss black paint, which would be color sanded and buffed to achieve a unique flat-gloss appearance. Interestingly, this wouldn’t appear in the show for very long, though exactly why is a mystery, with their only being a few ideas, one being the flatter paint was uninspiring and hopeless—can’t have that as Batman and Robin offered hope to Gotham City. Another idea was that the flatish black paint simply didn’t translate well to the camera, some saying it had a chalkboard appearance. Thus, in the episodes, the Batmobile usually appears with a gloss finish, just like this one.
