Our friend Andrew, who lives in the UK, dug up this old Vintage Car Magazine with an amazing color photo of the original 1966 Batmobile on the cover! Thanks for sending the great pic Andrew! Oh yeah, this is what he wrote:
Hello Tommy,
I found the classic car magazine I mentioned. It's from Oct 1989 when the Michael Keaton film was released, because the 1966 Batmobile they tested was about to do a tour in UK & Europe. The magazine interviewed the owner Scott Chinery, who said he bought this car - the TV show's 5th 'stunt' car - for $180,000 in 1988 + $60,000 for the Batcycle. In 1989, he was offered $2m for the car overseas, but wouldn't sell it because he wanted the car to stay in US.
He says "I use the Batmobile for a lot of charitable things, to raise money for the Epilepsy and Make a Wish foundations. We take it to schools and use it in anti-drugs programs. It drives kids nuts. It's out all the time. On the TV show, the Batmobile was used to fight crime and the evils in our society, and I use it for the same purpose in real life. I really believe that we have to give something back. That's what it's all about".
Of actual car itself, they say that it's built off a 1958 Thunderbird chassis, and being all metal, weighs in at 5500lbs. It has a fresh Cleveland 351 engine with a race-prepared 3-speed automatic gearbox. It has no power steering nor power brakes. Acceleration is somewhat brisk but with rather small drum brakes on all four corners, one dare not test the Batmobile's stopping power.
The paragraph I find amusing is this: "Chinery is not afraid of something happening to his Batmobile on one of its road trips. In fact he's pretty blasé about the whole thing. It's only a car. The purpose that I use this car for is much more important than the car itself" which to me sounds like a line from Batman Begins...about being more than a car, a symbol. Haha.
I hope you find this interesting.
Best wishes,
Andrew
