Buy a Batmobile for $149, 000
 

The original Batmobile from the 1960s TV series starring Adam West is still the ultimate screen car for an entire generation of caped crusader fans. Now anybody with a spare $149,999 (£95,000) can buy one.

American company Fiberglass Freaks is producing officially licensed, road-legal 1966 Batmobiles. And yes, the flamethrower works.

Each car takes six months to build and features an array of working gadgets, including a red flashing beacon, a radar screen called 'Detect-a-scope', a retractable, gold-coloured 'Batbeam' and a dashboard DVD player.

The flamethrower in the original Batmobile was the result of the car's turbine engine, but the replica uses a propane tank - mounted in the boot - to create the same effect.

The astonishing car is the brainchild of Fiberglass Freaks founder Mark Racop. He decided he wanted to build a Batmobile at two years old.

"I fell in love the show, fell in love with the action, the color, the music - everything. But the best feature was the Batmobile, speeding out of the Batcave," he said.

The Lincoln Futura on which the Batmobile is based was never actually put into production, but after finding a body shell on eBay in 2004, Racop had the basis of his replica.

The chassis and running gear come from a Lincoln Town Car, onto which a fibreglass body is placed. The licence from D.C. Comics limits the company to making just eight per year, which renders it one of the world's most exclusive production cars.

Racop says that buyers are generally in their forties and fifties and fans of the original show - some drive their cars every day. "Wealth seems to breed that eccentricity. This was their childhood dream car, just as it was for me," he commented.

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Looks pretty cool in the pics at - http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/29092010/36...100-000-0.html

Can't see how there's a market for 8 let alone 8 per year ongoing.

Just the thing for a recession.

i think i have to have one

Damn ugly. I would rather have this version...

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/...ile-resize.jpg

Hell no, the old one is much more pimp - nice find :)

However, I'm still wondering how a car with a working flame thrower on it can be road-legal :1orglaugh

only street legal in south africa ;)

comes with luggage...you'd get too may people asking you to chase their arch enemies

if I had an extra 150k i would sooooo get one.

:1orglaugh yeah they didn't say which road

Cool car, sadly I think wifey would say no... Great Lunching with you in Barcelona!

It was a good one for sure :)

It's not really a flamethrower, it is a propane-fired burner which simulates the exhaust from the jet engine by which the TV version was supposed to have been powered. It's only sort of a glorified propane torch but turning that thing on while driving would undoubtedly attract most of the police in the area, I'm sure. Really good pix and info can be found here:

http://buybatparts.com/joomla/index.php/replicas

looks like a tank got in a fight with a transformer :P

The car on which the original Batmobile was based, the 1955 Lincoln Futura:

http://www.1966batmobile.com/futura2006.jpg

http://www.1966batmobile.com/background.htm

The Futura was turned into the Batmobile by the famous George Barris who also built cars for "The Munsters" and other TV shows:

http://www.barris.com/

http://www.munsterkoach.com/images/Drag2a.jpg

When I was a kid my dad took me to the Barris showroom all the time, my dad sold Snap On Tools for a while and made friends

Replicas of batmobiles are common, here's one with working machine guns
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ic-Gxsd4eA0

Not expensive for rich enthusiasts :)

barris is a god.

That's cool and all but it doesn't hold the same sort of childhood wonder to it.