In 1955, the Lincoln division of Ford Motor Company designed and built a concept ‘car of the future"’, named ‘The Futura’. It was a two-seat grand touring car with instruments housed in the steering wheel, a push-button transmission, exterior microphones to pick up and transmit traffic sounds and a host of other innovative devices. It was a ‘rolling laboratory’ from which Ford would learn about new technology to apply to their production automobiles. The car was built entirely by hand in Turin, Italy and like many concept cars, was never put into production. In the mid 1960's, George Barris of Barris Kustom City acquired the car directly from Ford.
The story goes that years later, when he heard that Fox was going to be doing a BATMAN TV Series and needed an exotic car, he sketched out a version of the Futura with suitable ‘Bat’ alterations, and presented it to the producers. George felt it was the perfect answer considering the bat-like qualities his Futura already had and the fact that the car had to be ready for action in a mere three weeks.
Some time later in October of 1965, the BATMOBILE was born.
As not everyone can have the chance to drive an actual Batmobile, owning one of these beautifully-executed Hot Wheels EliteTM reproductions fuels a collector imagination to go faster and faster.
The model is also available in chrome paint (limited edition: no more than 3,000 pieces) and matte black and is part of the 1966 TV Series Batmobile collection celebrating the 75th Anniversary of DC Comics!