Warner Bros recently rolled out custom Dark Knight-model Batmobiles going for a pretty penny, but those aren’t the only rides ready to burn rubber out of the cave.
A car from further back in the past was snatched up not too long ago for a fair price. A fiberglass shell of the elongated black car from the 1989 film (known as the Burton Batmobile, as in the director Tim Burton) was sold on eBay for $23,225 after nine bids and two auction windows.
The lucky bidder didn’t just buy a husk of a prop. It’s a replica of the famous vehicle’s body that came with a C4 Corvette chassis providing the drivetrain, suspension, brakes, steering, and all the other practical accoutrements a vintage car enthusiast should desire.
However, if it’s even street-legal, it won’t be street-ready out of the gate from Wayne Manor. The brave and bold buyer is responsible for the upkeep to get this hot rod running, which is quite the task according to Silodrome, a site devoted to “gasoline culture.”
They say the ’89 Batmobile was brought to life by an English crew with Tim Burton’s input. Instead of a Corvette, they used a Chevy Impala for the chassis which had to be cut and stretched to fit a 141-inch/3.5-meter wheelbase. (Even as kids, we knew it was an absurdly long car.)
The ‘Burtmobile’ had several incarnations in the span of two films not limited to a shielded mode or a more confined rocket car that slid smoothly through a narrow space. It and its machine-gun headlights were the bane of Joker and Penguin before it was retired in favor of an HR Giger-inspired design in Batman Forever.
EBay bidders may be anonymous, but we know one of the Tumbler replicas was bought by Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.
