Building The Batmobile For The Batman TV Series

Article by Lynn Julian
























The mysterious mode of transportation used by the Superheroes, Batman and Robin, practically flew out of the hidden entrance of their secret Bat Cave, racing the caped crusaders to their adventures all over Gotham City. Columbia Pictures made two Batman Superhero serials in the 1940’s, but neither featured the now famous Batmobile, which was already familiar to the Superhero’s comic book fans. In the serial, Batman and Robin drove a plain, unmarked car. It would be a whole 20 years later, before they would get the full Bat-treatment, when television introduced the colorful crime-fighting of the “Dynamic Duo” to a much wider audience.

The character of Batman first appeared in May of 1939, in Detective Comics #27. Even though the first real Batmobile did not appear for another two years, it quickly became one of the Superhero’s best known weapons. The Batmobile debuted in Batman #5, then made it’s first comic cover appearance in Batman #20. Because of different artists’ interpretations, it changed size, shape, and features a lot at first. As the car was later marketed beyond the comic books, the final forms of the Batmobile appeared based on practical and aesthetic considerations. The design of the original Batmobile would soon be modified for use in the “Superfriends” Superhero cartoon series, with the unique considerations of making a car that could be easily drawn repeatedly for animation.

BAT-FACTS: The Batmobile was difficult to drive and rarely went faster than 25 mph, claims Adam West, 81, original actor who portrayed Batman in the TV series. The car was big and unbalanced, making for difficult steering and poor suspension…and the brakes failed far too often. “So poor Burt Ward, who played Robin, sitting beside me, was always white knuckled,” West said. “It’s probably the world’s most famous car, and it’s so beautifully designed for film,” West added, “but when you have to drive in it on a daily basis, it’s hard to push it over 30 mph because then they can’t photograph it the way the want to. They make it look like it’s going faster.”

BAT-GADGETS: The Batmobile sported a car phone long before cell phones existed. “It was a car ahead of its time,” West proclaims. “We also had the first navigation system and the first system that enabled us to make a 180-degree turn at a high speed. They were mostly props…but the flame out of the back of the car worked. The parachute actually did come out. I had several bruises on my shins getting in and out of the car, trying to look heroic.” More fun Batmobile gadgets were radar, on board computer and a rear camera.

In 1955, the Lincoln division of Ford Motor Company designed and built a unique, experimental, concept car called the Lincoln Ford Futura. (It previously appeared on-screen in the Glenn Ford/Debbie Reynolds comedy film, ‘It Started With A Kiss’ in 1959.) The futuristic looking vehicle was built entirely by hand in Turin, Italy, costing a whopping 0,000. (At the time, that was a, um…BOATLOAD of money!) As is the nature of concept cars, the Futura was never put into production.

In the mid 1960’s, George Barris of Barris Kustom City acquired the car for directly from Ford. Motion picture and television had proved to be an outlet for Barris Kustom Industries as far back as the first episode of Jack Webb’s Dragnet in 1952. By far the most well known television car remains the original Batmobile, which debuted in the first episode of Batman in 1966… before both Batman and Robin. In mid Sept. of 1965, the Batman TV show producers approached George to have him build a new Batmobile for their upcoming show. The only catch was the car had to be ready for action in only three weeks. Seeing the bat-like qualities of his Futura, such as the long fins and bubble canopies, George felt it was a perfect fit for the 20th Century Fox’s new caped crusaders.

The Batmobile on the set of the TV show, 1966

“The Futura was built way back in the Fifties,” Barris recalls today, “It’s not a production car. The Futura was the product of designer William Schmidt and the car was released to me when I was with the Ford Custom Caravan. I would take these experimental cars that come from the division and use them for film work In this case, I wanted to use the Futura because it already had the double bubbles (bubble canopies). All I had to do was remove a part of the central section and keep the fore and aft. Then I put in the arches, lights and everything else. Using the Futura enabled me to save a lot of time and I only had three weeks to build the car!”

According to Barris, he further enhanced the theme by converting the nose into an integrated bat mask, opening the wheel wells, and modifying fins into bat wings by extending their leading edges into the doors and scalloping the trailing edges. Other work on the car included extending the drive train eleven inches to compensate for the specially sculpted 23 foot aerodynamic’ body, The engine is a moon-equipt 429 racing Ford, with dual Granitelli Paxton super chargers and nitro oxide thrust control. It also has a hydro-trans mounted into a locked positraction rear end. Once the car’s bodywork was complete, it was painted gloss black with red trim to accentuate it’s body lines.

“There were five Batmobiles made (for the 1966-68 Batman TV show),” Barris reveals, “the #1 and #5 were metal cars, with the stunt car being #5 (Trivia: #5 has never appeared on film and was not built by Barris) #2 & #3 are fibreglass cars, and I still own #2. I’ve got the #1 car, and it’s in Australia on a world tour, the #2 car is also on tour” The other three cars have all been sold to museums and private collectors. “The #3 car is in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in a permanent museum [this car may actually be #4]. It’s the drag race car which had the bigger engine and locked rear end. It was sold out of the Chicago museum for more than 0.000,” Barris explains.

“The #4 car [actually #3…even I’m a little confused now!] was the exhibition car which went out on tour in the United States in the 60’s, and it’s owned by a private collector in New Jersey. It was sold by me in my auction in 1983, also for more than 0 000. The #5 car, Barris continues, was sold six months ago [1989] to a man in New Jersey [Scott Chinery] for 5 thousand. His wife bought it for him for his 28th birthday.”

The #2 Batmobile was also undergoing a restoration to refurbish it for a June 23rd, 1989 Los Angeles benefit screening of the 1966 Batman movie. It was a gala event, with appearances scheduled by original Batman TV series stars. Barris had also had the Batmobile and the Bat-cycle out to film new promos for the Fall re-syndication push of the 1966 series being engineered by 20th Century Fox Television [and #2 was sold by Barris].

Nearly three decades after the TV series, Batman returned to live action with Warner Brothers Batman movies. About this time, Batman: The Animated series was introduced as well, with yet another new design of Batman and his universe. “We’ve been filming for two weeks with the cast at the Culver City Studios, which is the original studio we filmed at in the Sixties,” George Barris explained. “We used the actual sound stage that we filmed at except that now we did interviews and wraparounds. We had the original Cat set, the original Pharaoh set, the original Gotham City signs and some of the skylight of the background. So we were fortunate to reuse that for the re-release of the TV series as well as to promote the home videos.” Barris Kustom remained active in film and television vehicle production for decades, designing vehicles seen on Knight Rider, Stingray, The A-Team, Street Hawk, Dukes Of Hazzard and Miami Vice.

Barris Kustom Industries also built the the less famous Bat-cycle and Bat-boat for the 1966 Batman movie. Although both were made to debut in the film, the Bat-cycle was finished early enough for an episode late in the first season of the Batman TV show. Barris has followed the the history of all of these vehicles as well. ”There were four Bat-cycles,” Barris states, ”one of them is in San Diego at Fantasy Cars, Another is in the museum in Gatlinburg and one is in Chicago, We also have one of them out here.” As for the fate of the sporty Bat-boat, Barris says that there were two built, but only one remains. “One of them was dismantled, The other one is at the boat yard where we’re restoring it right now.”

Fast-forward Twentieth Century Fox’s Batmobile to the Twenty First Century, and… Houston, we have a problem. I think David Campbell of ArenaNet summed it up best in this funny Batrant: “[Batman] has two primary modes of transportation: swinging from gothic clock towers on his Batline, and cruising around Gotham in the Batmobile. Sure, he’s got a Batwing and a Batjet and a Batcopter and even a Bat-Segway, but mostly Batman relies on his ride to get from point A to point B. Now, the Batmobile is a seriously tricked-out car…but it must be a serious pain in the ass dealing with the Batmobile every night. Urban driving can be a maddening experience. Heavy traffic, one-way streets, swerving buses, crazy-ass taxi drivers, potholes, inadequate signage, kamikaze bike messengers, oblivious pedestrians — don’t even get me going about parking…Now just imagine trying to navigate Gotham City’s rat nest of streets and alleys in an extra-wide custom hot rod with a wonky torque converter and limited visibility. But what about parking? Can that thing even fit into a standard parking spot?”

See my articles on all the Batmobiles at http://GearheadDIVA.com.

1966 BATMOBILE HISTORY

Year built October 1965Original car used 1955 Lincoln Futura concept carOriginal sale price & date Sold to George Barris for .00 in December 21, 1965Designed by George Barris with input from Eddie Graves from 20th Century FoxCustomized by George Barris with Gale Black, Bill Cushenbery, Richard “Korky” Korkes, Les Tompkins & Roy “Tubs” JohnsonContractual owners (1965) George Barris, Irvin Kuns, Lester E. Tompkins, individuals d/b/a/ Barris Kustom CityTime to build 3 weeksCost to modify Futura ,000Approx. value in 1966 5,000

SPECIFICATIONS

Curb weight 5500 lbWheelbase 126 in.Length 225 in.Width (Front) 84 in.Width (Rear) 79 in.Height 48 in.Fins 84 in.Owner George BarrisCurrent location North Hollywood, CA Current estimated value ,000,000+

ENGINE & DRIVETRAIN

Engine 390ci, V-8Transmission B&M Hydro Automatic (2nd transmission)

CHASSIS & BODY

Layout Front engine/rear driveBody Construction SteelTires Used Firestone Wide-Oval, Mickey Thompson and U.S. RoyalWheels 15×7 single rib Rader cast-alloy five spokeBat knock-off Cast aluminum material and screwed to the Rader’s hub

INTERIOR & EXTERIOR DETAILS

Exterior paint color “Velvet Bat-Fuzz Black” from Metalflake, Inc. Trim color 3/4″ Fluorescent Cerise Safety belts Cumming & Sander impact safety beltsEmergency Bat-turn lever Ansen “T” handle in “Candy Red”Power Accelerator T-Arm Ansen “T” handle in “Candy Silver”Gas tank Moon Aluminum tankExhaust turbine Made from a 5 gallon paint canParachute info 2 Deist parachute packs with 10ft. in diameter parachutesCalifornia License plate Temporary Registration Plate 037Gotham License plates 4 quantity used during the TV show: TP-6597, BAT-1, 2F-3567, ZEF 451’65-’66 Steering wheel A modified “U”-shaped steering wheel (originally from the Lincoln Futura)’67-’68 Steering wheel In April 1967, an uncut 1958 Edsel wheel replaced the original

BATMOBILE TIMELINE

August 20, 1965 Meeting with George Barris, Charles FitzSimons (from Fox), and Ike Danning (from Fox Transportation Dpt.) to discuss building a BatmobileAugust 25, 1965 Batmobile proposal submitted by Barris Kustom City, including 2 sketches. IIISeptember 1, 1965 Contract signed to build the BatmobileOctober 11, 1965 “Batmobile I” completed and deliveredOctober 15, 1965 Mechanical issues (headlights, battery, exhaust, ignition and tire) with Batmobile December 21, 1965 “Futura Show Car” aka the Batmobile, officially sold to George Barris for.00.January 12, 1966 Batman airs on ABC TV. Original Batmobile “News Release”February 3, 1966 First Exhibition of the Batmobile at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in CA.August 3, 1966 The Batman movie premieresAugust 15, 1966 Contract to “construct two copies of the Batmobile.”September 15, 1966 Expiration of the option to either continue renting Batmobile I or to require Barris Kustom City to construct Batmobile IISeptember 21, 1966 Amended contract regarding exhibition of copies of the Batmobile, and refurbishing of Batmobile I. October 18, 1966 Patented by George Barris. Patent # Des. 205998November 1966 Barris Kustom City replicated Batmobile I and created 3 fiberglass copiesJanuary 11, 1967 Barris in “process of acquiring a fourth Batmobile”March 9, 1967 Delivered to Barris Kustom City to be “refurbished.” Refurbishment included, “put Batmobile I in first-class operating condition by completely refurbishing the interior and exterior of the body…and all mechanical moving parts therein, including the installation of a new engine and drive train.” April 15, 1967 Batmobile due back to 20th Century Fox fully refurbishedJune 16, 1967 Barris requesting the intention to acquire an additional Batmobile …”known as Batmobile #5″January 23, 1968 “Prop-return time on the Batman Series. This is the property of George Barris and must be returned to him. Fox has the right to remove any props installed by the studio. This may be more expensive than to return the car intact.” March 14, 1968 Last episode of Batman airs

About the Author

Lynn Julian resides in Boston as Senior Editor for Gearhead Diva at http://GearheadDiva.com. Cookie Cutter Girl, 21st Century Pop Superhero, her alter ego, performed her Power Pop music on 30+ CDs. http://CookieCutterGirl.com. Lynn’s creative passion as a Jewelry Designer found her pieces displayed Internationally via http://VelvetChokers.com.












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