A US company is producing road-legal replicas of the original 1960s Batmobile, complete with flame exhausts.
The original Batmobile from the 1960s TV series starring Adam West is still the ultimate screen car for an entire generation of caped crusader fans. Now anybody with a spare $149,999 (£95,000) can buy one.
American company Fiberglass Freaks is producing officially licensed, road-legal 1966 Batmobiles. And yes, the flamethrower works.
Each car takes six months to build and features an array of working gadgets, including a red flashing beacon, a radar screen called 'Detect-a-scope', a retractable, gold-coloured 'Batbeam' and a dashboard DVD player.
The flamethrower in the original Batmobile was the result of the car's turbine engine, but the replica uses a propane tank - mounted in the boot - to create the same effect.
The astonishing car is the brainchild of Fiberglass Freaks founder Mark Racop. He decided he wanted to build a Batmobile at two years old.
"I fell in love the show, fell in love with the action, the color, the music - everything. But the best feature was the Batmobile, speeding out of the Batcave," he said.
The Lincoln Futura on which the Batmobile is based was never actually put into production, but after finding a body shell on eBay in 2004, Racop had the basis of his replica.
The chassis and running gear come from a Lincoln Town Car, onto which a fibreglass body is placed. The licence from D.C. Comics limits the company to making just eight per year, which renders it one of the world's most exclusive production cars.
Racop says that buyers are generally in their forties and fifties and fans of the original show - some drive their cars every day. "Wealth seems to breed that eccentricity. This was their childhood dream car, just as it was for me," he commented.
Mark Nichol
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