Original Batmobile Sells For USD 1,37,000 At Auction

By Rajkamal

Updated: Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 17:16 [IST]

The original Batmobile, a 1956 Oldsmobile 88 fetched USD 137,000 at an auction organized by Heritage Auctions.

The car was originally created and built by Batman fans, Forrest Robinson and Len Perham. It took three years to customise the car with a 324 rocket engine to make it look like the single-fin vehicle that was depicted in DC's Batman Comics in the 1940s and 1950s.

The car actually started its life as a 1956 Oldsmobile 88.

The car was modded heavily with a custom body, that increased the overall length of the car to 5181 mm and the width to 2108 mm.

This original version of the Batmobile was built and used for promotional events was later left to rot in the hands of mother nature in a field in New Hampshire for decades.

It was then taken and restored before it went up for auction.

In spite of being the original and the first of its kind, the Batmobiles that featured in TV shows and movies faded the car away from existence.

The 1966 Batmobile however, a Lincoln Futura, that was built by George Barris and driven by Adam West in the late 60s TV show managed to grab USD 4.62 million at an auction organized in January, a year ago by Barrett-Jackson.

The 1955 Lincoln Futura concept used for the TV show was bought from Ford and was converted and redesigned to be the Batmobile. The work was done in 15 days, costing USD 15,000.