THE CLASSIC BATMOBILE REIMAGINED AS A £4M ELECTRIC HYPERCAR
Pity poor Batman. Unlike all the other comic book heroes, he doesn’t possess any special powers, relying instead upon his guile and bravery. This means he can’t fly or swing on a web to get to the scenes of wrongdoing, instead relying on a car like the rest of us.
This has meant that the character has driven some interesting vehicles on screen and has also inspired plenty of other cars which those of us in the real world can drive.
The latest in a long line of these specials is the most exotic. The Pininfarina Battista B95 Gotham, revealed during the recent Monterey Car Week in California, is a £4m electric hypercar which is said to be a tribute to Bruce Wayne and his crime-fighting alter ego Batman.
The 1,900hp roadster is designed to highlight how the famed Italian styling house of Pininfarina can tailor its cars to suit the demands of its well-heeled clients, by imagining how fictional billionaire Bruce Wayne would specify his own car.
Special touches mean the B95 closely follows the style of the most famous Batmobile, the original used by actor Adam West in the 1966 TV series. This includes the trademark gloss black paint and twin aero screens, although these can’t claim to be bulletproof like the original’s.
In the 1960s, the Batmobile’s features such as mobile messaging and a “Detect-a-Scope” location tracker were pure science fiction, but in the new B95 they are real and taken to the next level. The Pininfarina even features a bespoke Wayne Enterprises-inspired infotainment screen, with a “virtual assistant” voice inspired by Batman’s loyal butler Alfred Pennyworth.
The car’s finishing touch is a plaque laser-engraved with a famous comic book quote from Bruce Wayne: “All men have limits... I ignore mine.”
Dave Amantea, chief design officer at Automobili Pininfarina, said: “The first time I was told about the collaboration I practically jumped out of my chair. I was so thrilled because in the early stages of the Battista’s development the character of Bruce Wayne and Batman, specifically Christian Bale in The Dark Knight, served as the inspiration for our mood boards, sketches and design concepts.
“I have to admit that I was already a huge Batman fan, so crafting hypercars inspired by Bruce Wayne has been a thrilling project for everyone in our team.”
The original Batmobile from 1966 was built by car customiser George Barris, who based it on a 1955 concept car called the Lincoln Futura which he had picked up cheaply. Barris designed and rebuilt the car as the Batmobile in only 15 days and kept it in his personal collection after filming until it was sold at auction in 2013 for $4.6m.
Since that original series, the Batmobile has evolved in both the comics and on screen with ever more extreme styling and technology that seems fanciful – for now. It has even appeared in blockier form in Lego movies.
Pininfarina isn’t the only car company to have gone batty for Batman. Nissan has had a decade-long relationship with film production company Warner Brothers. This led to a pair of one-off Jukes being made in 2012 and 2016 as part of co-promotions which were given away as competition prizes. A bigger promotion in 2022 around The Batman film saw new special edition Juke and Micra models called Kiiro which had special grey paint, black wheels and yellow trim. Nissan said: “The film finds The Caped Crusader on a journey from vengeance toward hope. We at Nissan feel that the Nissan Juke Kiiro embodies the same sort of spirit that celebrates a journey of discovery.” It’s not known whether any were bought by secretive billionaires on anti-crime crusades.
While these cars are officially linked to Batman, there are plenty of others which have been influenced by the caped crusader, and his taste for wild wings and advanced aerodynamics. These are some of the most striking.
Five real cars worthy of a place in Batman’s garage
McMurtry Spéirling
This pure electric, 1,000bhp single-seater hypercar is the creation of a man who shares some Bruce Wayne characteristics – billionaire inventor Sir David McMurtry. But this car’s Batmobile looks are mostly coincidental, says the company’s head of styling, Andries van Overbeeke: “The characteristics of the rearward closed cockpit and the long nose overlap with the Batmobile. Add in the fins for aerodynamic purposes and it’s easy to find associations between the two vehicles. We were inspired by the cultural impact of automotive icons like the Batmobile, but the similarities in design are more a result of engineering than direct design inspiration.”
BMW i8
With its combination of sharp-edged styling, dramatic wings and upward-opening “scissor” doors, BMW’s short-lived i8 hybrid supercar would not look out of place on a film set. The advanced hybrid powertrain is the sort of propulsion system Bruce Wayne would choose, too. Although there was never an official Batman link with BMW, a Japanese tuning company created its own Dark Knight Edition as a tribute to the 2017 film.
Lamborghini Murciélago
Bruce Wayne’s character drives a Murciélago in two films – Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Besides the car’s outrageous styling being befitting of a Batmobile it is also something of an in joke for Spanish speakers, as the name Murciélago translates as “bat”.
Dodge Challenger/Charger
The design of this car wasn’t influenced by the Batmobile – the Batmobile was influenced by it. In an interview with GQ, Matt Reeves, the director of the 2022 film The Batman, said: “I wanted the car to look somehow retro and familiar, like a Dodge Charger or Challenger.” To achieve this, the actual vehicle used in the film uses several Dodge parts, including the distinctive roof from a 1969 Charger muscle car.
Alfa Romeo BAT
The BAT name used in these early 1950s concept cars has nothing to do with Bob Kane and Bill Finger’s brainchild or the nocturnal flying creatures – instead it’s an abbreviation of Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica. The three concept cars were the work of Alfa Romeo and Italian coachbuilder Bertone, who wanted to see what effect streamlining could have on a car’s performance and style. It’s not known if designer Franco Scaglione was a fan of Batman, the comic book character having debuted in 1939, but the cars were hugely influential. The pointed noses and dramatic rear wings of this Alfa trio certainly seem to have influenced George Barris’ TV Batmobile of just over a decade later. They turned out to be valuable, too. Sotheby’s sold the three BAT cars together in 2020 for US$14.840 million.
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