Batmobile

The Batmobile is Batman & Robin's main transportation taking them from the Batcave to Gotham City.

The gadget-laden car has survived Batman & Robin's many adventures and several hijackings have been attempted.

History

Gadgets and Equipment

Bat-glove Compartment
Infrared Bat-dust (glows in light and in dark, but only visible when viewed through the Batmobile's specially tinted windshield)
Emergency Bat-turn Lever (releases the Batmobile's parachute that enables quick turns)
Bat-deflector (diverts a criminal tracking signal, leading them to a miniature Batcave in the middle of nowhere)
Bat-ray (can do many things, such as open van doors)
Super-powered Bat-magnet (for opening steel doors from a distance)
Odor Sensitometer Radar Circuit (puts a certain scent on the radar screen)
Ultrasonic Recorder (also records regular sounds)
Batmobile Parachute Pickup Service Signal (calls forementioned service to pick the Batmobile's parachute off the city street)
Emergency Bat-trunk Lock
Bat-zooka (can fire explosive blasts, or is used to fire bat-ropes to tops of very tall buildings)
Anti Mechanical Bat-ray (renders mechanical apparati useless)
Bat-tering Ram (also known as the Bat-ram, used for knocking down reinforced doors)
Library Paste Bat-dissolving Switch
Bat-safety Belt
Bat-radarscope
Bat-alert Buzzer (in all Bruce's cars, indicates when the Batphone in the Batcave is ringing)
Bat-scope (tv screen that can be used to monitor someone's movements)
Anti-theft Activator (can be disguised as the Start button, fires fireworks from the car)
Anti-fire Activator (fills Batmobile with extinguishing foam)
Bat-ray Projector (fires blue ray from headlights that shut down a car's ignition)
Hidden Bat-laser Beam
Homing Receiver Scope
Inflatable Batmobile (kept in Batmobile for use as a decoy)
Mobile Batphone (First ever car phone)
Bat-chutes - Parachutes used to stop the car in a hurry.
Bat-turn - A device that allows the Batmobile to make a 180 degree turn.
Emergency Automatic Bat-tire Inflater

Behind the Scenes

Creating a Batmobile

The car was a customized vehicle that originated as a one-off 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car, originally created by William M. Schmidt and his design team at the Lincoln Styling Department. It was customized to resemble a design made by Art Director Eddie Stakes's concept drawing.

In late 1965 20th Century Fox Television and William Dozier's Greenway Productions contracted renowned Hollywood car customizer Dean Jeffries to design and build a "Batmobile" for their upcoming series. He started customizing a 1959 Cadillac, but when the studio wanted the program on the air in January 1966, and therefore filming sooner than he could provide the car, Jeffries was paid off, and the project went to George Barris. He was trying to get Hollywood's attention with the Futura, but aside from "It Started With a Kiss" in 1959, the Futura had been languishing in his Hollywood shop for several years. With only three weeks to finish the Batmobile (although in recent years Jeffries says that his car was dropped because he was told it was needed in "a week and a half",he was quoted in 1988 as saying "three weeks" as well), Barris decided that, rather than building a car from scratch, it would be relatively easy to transform the distinctive Futura into the famous crime-fighting vehicle.

End of the series

Even though George Barris built four Batmobiles, and later acquired a fifth that was built by a fan, there is only one occurrence during the entire series where a replica was used instead of the original #1 car, during a Mad Hatter episode, when the #4 dragster replica was used in the background in the Batcave while the #1 car was being repaired.