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Batmobile. 18.06.05 (Image
courtesy Warner Bros)
courtesy Warner Bros)
The first civilians to see the new Batmobile
were a couple of kids who stumbled onto
the Chicago set last year. Armed with a
digital video camera, they spy what looks
like Mad Max’s lawnmower hammering
towards them, chased by a film car.
Suddenly it swerves at 50-odd mph down a
sidestreet and the yowl of the 5.7-litre
Chevy V8 is silenced on the internet-posted
video clip by the disbelieving cries of “no
way” and “awesome!”
Even the most indifferent students of the
past three Batman movies could tell
something was off kilter: here was a
Batmobile that didn’t look like a land-
speed-record car with batwings. Even
stranger to those who keep track of
superhero film cars, this bastard son of an
SUV and a sports car could actually drive.
How well? Stunt driver George Cottle boasts
that the film car tracking the Batmobile on
the Chicago set was an ML55, the swiftest
V8-verison of Mercedes’ SUV. “The ML
drivers had seen the Batmobile, but not
seen it moving, and they told us ‘don’t
worry, we’ll slow down’. On the first run, it
was them saying slow down, slow down,
because they couldn’t keep up with us.
They were shocked.”
Costing £300,000 each (they needed five
of them), the Batmobile is as much of a
character as Christian Bale’s Dark Knight or
Michael Caine’s butler Alfred in this new,
grittier episode of the Batman soap opera.
And that means, according to the
production team, that not one second of
Batmobile screentime in Batman Begins is
digitally created. There’s a bit of model
work in some scenes, but chiefly the 2.8m-
wide car you see jetting across gaps or
making an unholy mess by driving over
Gotham City’s finest police cars is the real
thing.
Perhaps real is too strong a word for a car
that was built entirely from scratch and
looks like nothing on earth. The fact it
strays several time zones away from the
bewinged US sports cars of previous bat
movies was a conscious decision, says
production designer Nathan Crowley: “This
time it’s not about decoration, it’s about
function and muscle. This is the Dark
Knight, this is what he drives. It had to be
tough.”
So he envisaged a marriage between “a
Hummer and a Lamborghini” to create what
he calls a mid-engined sports tank. There’s
no front axle, just two 28in race wheels
spinning on the inside of two projecting
arms. The powered wheels are at the back:
four 44inchers taken from a monster truck
and arranged as though ripped from an off-
road drag racer. The bodywork, such as it
is, consists of fractured panels that lift to
help the car achieve its jet-powered jumps
(aerodynamicists, please suspend your
disbelief). Crowley says he was inspired by
such angular car designs as the Audi
Quattro.
And it really is mid-engined. The 253Kw
Chevy V8 (all of them bought new) sits
right behind the two-seat cockpit, allowing
the driver to sit low in the front. If it wasn’t
for the appalling visibility in the real-world
version, you’d feel only excitement
strapping yourself into the Sparco raceseats
and grabbing the racecar-intended steering
wheel. An estimated 5.5-sec 0-100khm
time and an 177km/h top speed (achieved
by Cottle) seals its sports car credentials.
Batman’s interior is slightly different of
course. Apart from a bank of screens to
monitor, his chair also shifts in jet mode so
he straddles a central pivoting seat as
though on a sportsbike. Sadly for Christian
Bale, all that excitement occurred at
precisely zero miles an hour.
Not so for Cottle, who had to draw on all his
experience as ex-Bond stunt driver to
create realistic chases. Which, according to
construction supervisor Chris Corbould, was
the whole point. “It’s a performance car,
not a looks car. We shot a whole sequence
at 80-90mph, as opposed to 40-50mph
and undercranking (ie speeding up) the
camera to make it look faster.”
And how does 2.5-tonnes worth of sports
tank go around a corner? “It really sticks,”
says Cottle, although he did say they
purposely softened the adjustable
suspension to give it more wallow for the
appearance of greater speed. One of the
five Batmobiles was also an oversteer
special, complete with shaved-down tread
on the rear tyres. “There was no problem
getting the back end out,” says Cottle.
Needless to say, it also sounds awesome,
thanks to a combination of Yank V8 and a
straight-through exhaust.
It’s perhaps a good thing Robin isn’t
around to ride shotgun. Famously cut down
to size when Batman told him he was too
young to drive the original Batmobile, this
time you feel the baby-faced sidekick
wouldn’t even make the grade as a
passenger.
Box
Batmobile’s history
1966
Batman
Batman’s automotive standard was set
back in 1966, when he took delivery of the
most famous Batmobile of all for the TV
show and a movie. The car start out as a
1955 Lincoln Futura, a showboating concept
that proved too much for the car-buying
American public, but just right for the Dark
Knight’s ride. Designer George Barris
reputedly bought the car from Ford for a
dollar, then set about adding extras like
the Bat-terring ram and the chain slicer.
The double bubble cockpit was a perfect fit
for Adam West and Burt Ward (Robin), but
the “atomic power” was just a Ford 7.0-litre.
1989
Batman Returns
Hugely successful Tim Burton film sticks
Michael Keaton into the first of the land-
speed-record cars (or so they look like),
complete with jet intake where a grille would
have a been. In “Batmissile” mode
everything is stripped bar the central
fuselage.
1995
Batman Forever
This time it’s Val Kilmer who steps into the
Batmobile, which looks more plane than
car. Eventually destroyed by Jim Carrey’s
Riddler, it nonetheless showcased a hip set
of spinners on the wheels – bat-logos that
stayed stationary as the car moved.
1997
Batman and Robin
This vast Batmobile was driven by George
Clooney alone; Robin got a motorbike.
Sleek, if not as gadget laden as previously,
it still survives a chilling attack from Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze.
were a couple of kids who stumbled onto
the Chicago set last year. Armed with a
digital video camera, they spy what looks
like Mad Max’s lawnmower hammering
towards them, chased by a film car.
Suddenly it swerves at 50-odd mph down a
sidestreet and the yowl of the 5.7-litre
Chevy V8 is silenced on the internet-posted
video clip by the disbelieving cries of “no
way” and “awesome!”
Even the most indifferent students of the
past three Batman movies could tell
something was off kilter: here was a
Batmobile that didn’t look like a land-
speed-record car with batwings. Even
stranger to those who keep track of
superhero film cars, this bastard son of an
SUV and a sports car could actually drive.
How well? Stunt driver George Cottle boasts
that the film car tracking the Batmobile on
the Chicago set was an ML55, the swiftest
V8-verison of Mercedes’ SUV. “The ML
drivers had seen the Batmobile, but not
seen it moving, and they told us ‘don’t
worry, we’ll slow down’. On the first run, it
was them saying slow down, slow down,
because they couldn’t keep up with us.
They were shocked.”
Costing £300,000 each (they needed five
of them), the Batmobile is as much of a
character as Christian Bale’s Dark Knight or
Michael Caine’s butler Alfred in this new,
grittier episode of the Batman soap opera.
And that means, according to the
production team, that not one second of
Batmobile screentime in Batman Begins is
digitally created. There’s a bit of model
work in some scenes, but chiefly the 2.8m-
wide car you see jetting across gaps or
making an unholy mess by driving over
Gotham City’s finest police cars is the real
thing.
Perhaps real is too strong a word for a car
that was built entirely from scratch and
looks like nothing on earth. The fact it
strays several time zones away from the
bewinged US sports cars of previous bat
movies was a conscious decision, says
production designer Nathan Crowley: “This
time it’s not about decoration, it’s about
function and muscle. This is the Dark
Knight, this is what he drives. It had to be
tough.”
So he envisaged a marriage between “a
Hummer and a Lamborghini” to create what
he calls a mid-engined sports tank. There’s
no front axle, just two 28in race wheels
spinning on the inside of two projecting
arms. The powered wheels are at the back:
four 44inchers taken from a monster truck
and arranged as though ripped from an off-
road drag racer. The bodywork, such as it
is, consists of fractured panels that lift to
help the car achieve its jet-powered jumps
(aerodynamicists, please suspend your
disbelief). Crowley says he was inspired by
such angular car designs as the Audi
Quattro.
And it really is mid-engined. The 253Kw
Chevy V8 (all of them bought new) sits
right behind the two-seat cockpit, allowing
the driver to sit low in the front. If it wasn’t
for the appalling visibility in the real-world
version, you’d feel only excitement
strapping yourself into the Sparco raceseats
and grabbing the racecar-intended steering
wheel. An estimated 5.5-sec 0-100khm
time and an 177km/h top speed (achieved
by Cottle) seals its sports car credentials.
Batman’s interior is slightly different of
course. Apart from a bank of screens to
monitor, his chair also shifts in jet mode so
he straddles a central pivoting seat as
though on a sportsbike. Sadly for Christian
Bale, all that excitement occurred at
precisely zero miles an hour.
Not so for Cottle, who had to draw on all his
experience as ex-Bond stunt driver to
create realistic chases. Which, according to
construction supervisor Chris Corbould, was
the whole point. “It’s a performance car,
not a looks car. We shot a whole sequence
at 80-90mph, as opposed to 40-50mph
and undercranking (ie speeding up) the
camera to make it look faster.”
And how does 2.5-tonnes worth of sports
tank go around a corner? “It really sticks,”
says Cottle, although he did say they
purposely softened the adjustable
suspension to give it more wallow for the
appearance of greater speed. One of the
five Batmobiles was also an oversteer
special, complete with shaved-down tread
on the rear tyres. “There was no problem
getting the back end out,” says Cottle.
Needless to say, it also sounds awesome,
thanks to a combination of Yank V8 and a
straight-through exhaust.
It’s perhaps a good thing Robin isn’t
around to ride shotgun. Famously cut down
to size when Batman told him he was too
young to drive the original Batmobile, this
time you feel the baby-faced sidekick
wouldn’t even make the grade as a
passenger.
Box
Batmobile’s history
1966
Batman
Batman’s automotive standard was set
back in 1966, when he took delivery of the
most famous Batmobile of all for the TV
show and a movie. The car start out as a
1955 Lincoln Futura, a showboating concept
that proved too much for the car-buying
American public, but just right for the Dark
Knight’s ride. Designer George Barris
reputedly bought the car from Ford for a
dollar, then set about adding extras like
the Bat-terring ram and the chain slicer.
The double bubble cockpit was a perfect fit
for Adam West and Burt Ward (Robin), but
the “atomic power” was just a Ford 7.0-litre.
1989
Batman Returns
Hugely successful Tim Burton film sticks
Michael Keaton into the first of the land-
speed-record cars (or so they look like),
complete with jet intake where a grille would
have a been. In “Batmissile” mode
everything is stripped bar the central
fuselage.
1995
Batman Forever
This time it’s Val Kilmer who steps into the
Batmobile, which looks more plane than
car. Eventually destroyed by Jim Carrey’s
Riddler, it nonetheless showcased a hip set
of spinners on the wheels – bat-logos that
stayed stationary as the car moved.
1997
Batman and Robin
This vast Batmobile was driven by George
Clooney alone; Robin got a motorbike.
Sleek, if not as gadget laden as previously,
it still survives a chilling attack from Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze.