It’s not everyday you get to buy 2/3rds of the Batcave in one fell swoop. These two immaculate Batmobiles are heading to the auction block on the 1st of December this year with an estimated cost of $125,000 – $175,000 USD, which is less than a new Ferrari 458 Italia and an order of magnitude cooler.
The Batcycle is the original from 1966 and was used in both the movie and tv series, it’s based on a Yamaha Catalina 250 and was built by Kustomotive specifically for 20th Century Fox. The Batcycle shows 8,250 original miles on the odometer and retains almost all of its original, functioning components.
The Batmobile is a recreation that was built to match the original down to the last bolt, it’s been autographed by the cast of the ’66 series – Adam West, Burt Ward, Lee Merriweather, and Julie Newmar. It’s packing a 350 cubic inch Chevy V8 with an Edelbrock manifold and Weber dual-carbs, it’s fitted with a Turbo 350 automatic GM transmission, four-wheel independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes.
Since being acquired by the John Staluppi Collection it was fitted with subtle turn signals and a few other touches to make it road legal. Interestingly, the original 1966 Batmobile was actually a concept car originally built in 1954 in Italy by Ghia. It was based on a 1955 Lincoln Futura and after being displayed at the Chicago Auto Show it fell into a private collection, over 10 years later 20th Century Fox were rushing the production of the ’66 TV series so they had the Ghia Futura modified by George Barris.
Barris had the Batmobile ready in just under 3 weeks having added a Bat Ray projector, an anti-theft device, a Detect-A-Scope, a Batscope, a Bat Eye switch, an antenna activator, a police band cut-in switch, an automatic tire inflation device, a remote Batcomputer, a radio linked to the main Batcomputer in the Batcave, the Batphone, an emergency Bat-turn lever, an anti-fire activator, Bat smoke; a Bat photoscope, and a stack of other Bat-gadgets.
If, like me you’d like to bid on these vehicles but unlike me, you have the money to do so, you can click the link here to visit RM Auctions and take a look at the official listing. If you do end up buying them….call me.
Photo Credit: Teddy Pieper ©2012 Courtesy of RM Auctions
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
