Top five Batmobiles
Kapow! Our caped crusader Batman and his sidekick Robin are back thanks to an AutoMuse fan.
No, the Joker isn’t on the loose in Gotham City, and Penguin is still in hiding. Instead the mystery they are solving is, what is the best Batmobile ever?
Check out the top five creations below, and I’ll see you same bat-time, same bat-channel folks!
Na na na na na na na … Batman!
5. Tim Burton: Batman
To the Batmobile! And this one by Tim Burton had a jet turbine. Photos: Supplied
You wouldn't expect anything less than an absolutely crackerjacks Batmobile from Burton, the man responsible for such cinematic slices of craziness as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Sleepy Hollow. This late 1980s Batmobile doesn't disappoint. Supposedly powered by a jet turbine with afterburner, Batman could rocket from 0-100km/h in 3.7 seconds. As you'd expect, the truth was less exotic; the movie car was based on a Corvette chassis and most stunt examples were only fitted with a dummy jet, but that doesn't really matter.
4. Chris Nolan: The Dark Knight
The Tumbler looks more like a vehicle suitable to use on Mars.
Chris Nolan's Batman reboot is a dark and gritty series, so it needs a no-nonsense Batmobile. Meet the Tumbler. No CGI for Nolan and for his Batman (Christian Bale) this was a real crime fighting vehicle. The Tumbler weighed two-and-a-half tonnes, but hit 100k/h in 5.6 seconds, thanks to its trusty 5.7-litre GM V8. Its rear tyres alone stood over a metre tall, but wasn’t not just a big, black bulldozer. There were air brakes, a rocket launcher, and the ability to split into the Batpod motorbike.
3. Zack Snyder: Batman v Superman
It’s a gritty version of the Batmobile for this 2016 film.
This Batmobile had a grittier edge to it and looked like it could be dropped on Mars and fight crime there! With variable ride heights for battle and cruising, front-mounted machine guns and armour-plated panels this was a leaner, meaner evolution of the Tumbler. Snyder wanted a machine that could do it for real, likening his Batmobile to an actor who can do their own stunts. The cars for the film were built accordingly, designed from scratch using a mid-mounted engine, monster truck transmission, variable height airbag suspension and shaved down tractor tyres at the back.
2. Joel Schumacher: Batman and Robin
It’s back to the original Batmobile for George Clooney’s caped crusader.
This isn’t so far down the list due to Geroge Clooney (okay, maybe a bit), but it’s the Batmobile that sees it as runner-up (truly). The Batmobile created for Clooney combined the organic shapes of the Batman Forever car and mixed it with the more brash and classic comic book style. Accordingly, it returned to the open cockpit theme and a more garish appearance than the increasingly gothic Batmobiles seen in previous films. The gadget count remained high, with rocket launchers, the inevitable grappling hooks and various bomb dispensers. It even starred on the red carpet at the film’s premiere in LA.
1. George Barris: Batman TV series
You needed a cave to park the TV series Batmobile.
Are the old ones the best? They are when it comes to Batmobiles. This enormous bat-on-wheels was created for the 1960s Batman TV series by Barris, who based it on the glassy 1956 Lincoln Futura concept car. It had gadgets like the on-board Bat-computer, Bat-tering Ram, and Bat-ray, to remotely shut down criminal cars and catch the thieving scum inside. The best thing about this Batmobile though, is that you can have your very own. Fiberglass Freaks of Indiana will build one of these V8 monsters for you to order, to live out your Batman (or in my case Batgirl) fantasies on the road
