Batmobile Sold

Here's a blast from the past: the original Batmobile from the camp 1960s TV series Batman, which had Adam West skipping about in grey long johns with his cute buddy Robin, the boy wonder (Burt Ward). The Batmobile - a work of art in its own right - was created from a 1955 Lincoln Futura, a concept car built in Italy by the Ford Motor Company, back in the days when tail fins were the in-thing, American cars handled like sick camels and were "Unsafe at Any Speed" (Ralph Nader, 1965, CLICK). The 20ft-long Batmobile needed parachutes to turn tight corners! Car-customiser George Barris bought the Futura in 1965 and spent $15,000 (£9,400) transforming it into the Batmobile for the TV show. He recently put it up for sale at the Barrett-Jackson auction house in Scottsdale, Arizona, and yesterday Rick Champagne snapped it up for $4.2m (£2.6m). CLICK for a brief video.