Holy heritage Batman! First-ever Batmobile is crusading toward auction

By Andrew Hard Published November 18, 2014

Attention all crime fighters, cosplayers, and caped crusaders: now’s your chance to dispense some four-wheeled justice.

The earliest known officially licensed Batmobile is currently up for sale at Heritage Auctions, so if you’ve got Bruce Wayne levels of disposable income lying around, this could be your shot to score the ultimate ride.

The iconic vehicle is a heavily modified version of a 1956 Oldsmobile 88 frame, one that took 23-year-old Forrest Robinson three years to perfect in the early 1960s.

“The ’63 Batmobile was custom-built from the ground up,” reads Heritage Auction’s statement. “Starting with a 1956 Oldsmobile 88 frame and the famous 324 Rocket engine — a predecessor of 1960s muscle cars — Robinson replaced the Oldsmobile body with his custom-designed body, measuring 17 feet by 83 inches, sporting the Batmobile’s iconic dorsal fin, bat-nose front end and pocket sliding doors.”

Batmobile

Batmobile

Batmobile

The Oldmobile may not have the 330-mph jet turbine of the Burton-era films, but the 324 Rocket engine is still a pretty potent one. The 5.3-liter powerplant makes 230 horsepower and 4400 rpm and 340 pound-feet of torque at 2400 rpm.

After Robinson finished the car in 1963, he leased it to Green Acres Ice Cream, a DC Comics licensee, for a promotional campaign. It stoked the ‘Batmania’ craze in the Eastern U.S. for a few years, but Robinson eventually sold it for $200 to start a fabricating business. The Batmobile was eventually purchased by Toy Car Exchange, who restored the ‘Bat Car’ to its original glory.

The current opening bid? $90,000, but Heritage expects the car to go for $180,000 or more.

Internet bidding for the car ends on December 5^th, and the official auction date is December 6^th.

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Andrew first started writing in middle school and hasn't put the pen down since. Whether it's technology, music, sports, or…

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