There have been a lot of Batmobiles over the years. From the aerodynamic coupe of the early Forties through to the “tumbler” of the Nolan films and the muscle car of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, each generation seems to have had its own take on the Dark Knight’s signature vehicle. But for me, it’s this one: the Batmobile from the 1966 television series starring Adam West. This replica is located in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is listed here on eBay. With less than two days to go at the time of writing, the bid has already climbed to $19,800.
The car has been a critical component of Batman’s world almost from the very beginning, and there was no question that the television show would need a suitable custom vehicle. Fortunately, by the mid-Sixties Hollywood knew a guy: legendary hot-rodder and customizer George Barris. Barris’ firm had recently completed work on vehicles for The Munsters and The Beverly Hillbillies when they accepted the assignment. Barris had picked up the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car several years prior; he now handed it over to Bill Cushenbery to be re-worked into the car seen in the show. Barris later pulled molds from this all-steel car to build three exhibition vehicles, but the original stayed in his collection until January of 2013, when it was sold for $4,620,000.
From the VIN supplied in the listing, we can see that this Batmobile began life as a 1972 four-door Lincoln sedan boasting a 460 cu.in. V8 with a four-barrel. This was rated at 212 horsepower at 4400 RPM with 342 lb.ft. of torque at 2600 RPM– plenty to pull you away from the curb, but not what I’d want to chase down the Joker. The powerplant remains with the car, which is a plus since the jet engine appears to be out of commission. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a picture of the 460, and since the seller states that it’s not stuck, it’s safe to assume it’s also not running. As to the kit, the seller refers to it as a “Currie Gen 2.” It’s possible that this means that it was produced by Don Currie, who built several replicas in the late Eighties. There doesn’t seem to be much to go on with this one– though it would not be surprising to learn that Warner Brothers had something to say about a custom kit built around their intellectual property. Maybe one of our readers has some insight on this part of the story?
Regardless, the seller gives a pretty long to-do list in the description, and from just looking at the package here, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the list doesn’t begin to cover it. From what I can see, the buyer is going to take home a fiberglass shell, a Lexan windscreen, a fair chunk of ’72 Lincoln, and not much more. That’s not to say that it’s not worth consideration: the officially licensed Batmobile replicas can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. So if you’ve got a cowl, a dream, a Bat-welder, and some fiberglass know-how, this might be the perfect car to bring out your inner Caped Crusader!
I customize 1/64 scale hot wheels etc. I made a batmobile Gasser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnZXlYMrMjQ
Yeah, screams Vegas! Half assed and incomplete.
Bidding is now at $20,000 with 8 hours left. My question is…Why?
I really don’t have much to say about this except, regarding Chuck Barris. I always found his customs to be super tacky but that aside, about 10 years ago, maybe, I had an appointment to fly out to interview him about a 13-hour documentary on Elvis. I had interviewed over 300 very famous music people and interestingly enough, before I moved to NC, I have lived on Riverside Dr., right down the street from Barris shop, so I knew the location well. Anyway, the day of the interview I actually arrived about 15 minutes early out of courtesy and when I got there with all the camera equipment and his had still not arrived one of the workers told me to take a seat in George’s office as he should be in soon, Two hours later, George rolled in and when he saw me sitting there asked me what the hell I wanted. I reminded him very nicely that we’d had an appointment for over 6 months and that’s why I was there. He told me I was wasting my time and to get the F out. He’ll always be an a hole to me.
Clearly, you didn’t mean Chuck Barris, the creator of the Dating Game and the Newlywed Game.
You are correct about the man’s taste. Every now and again he had a huge win, but his every day “creations” were usually a swing and a miss.
Meh, caught him on a bad day. Think of all the a-holes in Hollywood he had to deal with. Sure, the money is there, but with those folks thinking the world revolves around them, I’ve seen it, couldn’t have been easy. People said that about Don Garlits too. During a race, he was all business, and wouldn’t even talk to you, but get him at his museum, just the nicest guy.
Obviuosly, a Freudian slip, “Chuck” Barris’ last Gong show was quite a memory. Google it, as it’s too raw for this here site, I laughed so hard, almost pee’d in my pants. “The popsicle twins”,,,
I wouldn’t drop $20k on it but it looks like a fun project.
This needs a lot!!
Nothing to do with this car or GEORGE Barris but Chuck Barris also created and starred in the all time classic game show parody The GONG show loved the unknown comic!!
I met George (Chuck…lol) Barris at the Chicago World of Wheels Show in 1995. He was very cordial and even complimented me on my Street Rod ’40 Plymouth 2-door sedan that was in the show.
Quick Robin- “to the Batmobile” …eeerr maybe we should take the Batbus
I have met George Barris on a number of occasions. I found him to be a nice Person!
SOLD for $25,300!!!???
This, the 1966 Batmobile, is the only Batmobile that matters!!
In the ’70’s, I had a Custom Corvette in the World of Wheels car show in Phoenix, AZ. The promoter had advertised that the Bat Mobile would be there for the duration of the show. When I finally had time to go have a look, my emotions ran the gamut from disappointment, nausea, to feeling cheap and used. There, on a reserved section, surrounded by velvet crowd control ropes was… Damned if I know to this day! It had the familiar shape… but something was very wrong. The body was one-piece (+doors and stuff) fiberglass. But in place of that mile deep shiny black paint was heinous fuzzy flocking that some used to put on (among other places) their dashes back in the ’70’s. It wasn’t powered by the racing Lincoln engine, in fact there was clearly no engine or transmission. Nothing. Empty. In place of the totally camp interior that Adam West and Burt Ward used to use to track bad guys, launch rockets, and deploy the bat chutes among many other cool gadget wonders, there was a mishmash of cheesy gauges and oddly scattered, randomly flashing lights that signified nothing in particular. Hugely disappointed, but recovered when back among the real machines that were proudly displayed by their creators (Or at least their current owners). Truly, my Batmobile experience was a mar on an otherwise straight up car show dream.