In an interview with CNBC that was published around that time, Friedlinghaus opined that building a real-life Batmobile would cost around $9 million, excluding the cost of munitions.
After many years on display at Gatlinburg's Guinness World Records Museum, The 1966 Barris TV Show Batmobile has moved a couple of blocks and is now part of the Hollywood Star Cars Collection.
Eight years ago, the iconic Batmobile that George Barris built for the 1966–68 Batman television series sold at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale for an astounding $4.62M. When it comes to replicas, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell put it best: “There ain't nothin' like the real thing, baby.”
The Batmobile used by actor Adam West in the original TV series of Batman has sold for $4.2m (£2.6m) at a US auction. The car was bought by Rick Champagne, a logistics company owner from Phoenix, Arizona. The 56-year-old, who was just 10 when the high-camp TV series began in 1966, said it "was a dream come true".
What was the highest price paid for the Batmobile?
Hosted at the Barrett-Jackson classic car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, on 19 January 2013, businessman Rick Champagne's winning bid of $4.6 million (more than R84 million by today's money) secured his ownership of the original Batmobile.
Michael Keaton's 1989 Batmobile Just Hit the Market for $1.5 Million. It wasn't built for speed, maxing out at just 30 mph, but it does come with a working flamethrower. The Batmobile from Tim Burton's Batman movies.
The Batmobile was built upon a Chevrolet Impala chasis with a Chevy V8 engine, and was based on and modified from a 1970 Corvette body when previous development with a Jaguar and Ford Mustang failed.
(There are even more detailed in published accounts, dating back to 1939 when Batman made his first comic book appearance.) But for purists, there is only one true Batmobile. The rest are just imitations of the original. What we have come to recognize in popular culture as the Batmobile was built in 1966.
Driven by the legendary Adam West and lightyears ahead of its 1940s counterparts, the 1966 Batmobile was based on the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car. The car was owned and customized by renowned designer George Barris, who'd bought it from Ford for a dollar. In 2013, it was auctioned off for $4.62 million.
In 2013, a George Barris-designed Batmobile from the original TV series sold at a Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona for a hammer price of $US4. 2 million – equivalent to $AU6. 3 million today.
This is a street-legal replica of the Batmobile used in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. It costs $1 million, which is around £600k in real money, and is therefore more expensive than a pair of Lamborghini Aventadors.
It doesn't take a billionaire playboy vigilante to own a Batmobile, but it does take a multi-millionaire. And what rich Batman fan wouldn't want a replica of the best live-action Batmobile in history?
Jack Nicholson was the highest-paid actor for a single movie for his role as Joker in 1989's Batman, earning around $90 million. Nicholson's contract included a $6 million upfront payment and a percentage of the final box office gross and profits from Joker-related merchandise.
1. The Tim Burton Batmobile. A vehicle so good they could have gotten away with never designing another. The “car,” as Batman likes to call it, from Tim Burton's two films is the platonic ideal of a Batmobile as far as we're concerned.
The Batmobile Can Reach Thruster Speeds Over 300 Miles Per Hour. In fact, later in this same story, Batman and Robin team up with Kid Flash to help build a new Batmobile that Robin dubs the Bat-Bolt, making the 230 mph and 350 mph top speed of the regular Batmobile model look utterly tame in comparison.
Good news, Batman lovers! A fully functional Batmobile replica exists — and you can even drive it outside of Gotham City. Led by architect and artist Nguyen Dac Chung, the Vietnam-based Macro Studios used blueprints from Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy to faithfully recreate the movie's Tumbler vehicle.
