Batmobile: Show us what you’re made of
Author: Chris Barker
Published: 21 August 2008
Billy-Joe: “Hi. My name is Billy-Joe and I’ve just returned home after going to my local picture house to see The Dark Knight, starring Batman and his Batmobile. Which I like very much, and often draw pictures of anywhere I can get away with it. Like bus-stops and diner tables mostly. I love the way it looks and have lots of photos. The Tumbler model is my all-time favourite. The thought of this often keeps me lying awake at night. Or whenever else I find myself in bed thinking about the Batmobile. And how I would look in the Batsuit.Anyway, I’m thinking about building a life-size replica of the Batmobile out of The Dark Knight, because I want to. Plus my ’68 Lincoln Towncar is looking pretty long in the tooth nowadays and is starting to smell a bit funny again.I’ve looked around my house and gathered up anything I think might be useful. This wasn’t much – some toilet rolls, few cans of gasoline, various frozen road kill, a collection of old NASCAR programmes and a shed-load of pipe-cleaners mainly - so I went out into my back yard and upturned my bin and started shaking it. This didn’t return much either – apart from some threats on my life from my neighbour - so I went out into the street under the cover of darkness and rooted through other peoples bins instead, and a skip full of rubble.This was much better. I uncovered a box of fuzzy felt, a dead dolphin (at least it looked pretty much dead, and tasted kinda dead too), a bell from a bicycle, issue no.567 of Playboy magazine (which I hadn’t got so I might keep that to one side), an artificial leg, a Bruce Springsteen CD, a homeless guy, 2/3rds of a Rubik’s Cube and a bottle of Savlon. Thinking that although this was a good haul by anyone’s standard, I did however realise that it wouldn’t be nearly enough to start construction of my very own Tumbler any time soon.So, I wondered if any of you posters might have any ideas as to what materials I could use, where I could get them and how much they might cost. Please bear in mind I’m working to a tight budget. Working in a diner, having a flock of roosters to feed and expensive medication to find the money for, I know I’ll have to keep the overheads down if you get my drift.”FoxyPhilly; “Hi there Billy-Joe - lol just need the materials eh? Have you ever used machines before? As in for metal fabrication? Have you ever layed up materials like carbon fiber or fiberglass, and have you ever welded anything?”DazeyDuke; “Hey Billy-Joe, although I admire your ambition I cannot help but wonder if this is sounds like a guy who has ever designed via a CAD package and make machine drawings so you can even build the parts? I could be wrong mind.”Christopher Nolan: “No offense meant buddy, but the odds of you building a life size one are pretty much zero.”TampaBayBunch; “Yo Billy-Joe, perhaps you need to see how much work it is to build a DESK first.”Laura123; “Cool idea Billy-Joe, go for it man! That sounds well nice. I just got a kids radio control Tumbler, pretty cool, although it can't steer, only goes forward in a straight line and in auto mode and just reverse in a big circle...which sucks a bit. If you want any help my number is 99848372727”TomTom: “Hey there Billy-Joe, I’ve a question for you man. Just how many times have you seen a UFO?”BatFanOne; “Yeah dude, like how many time you seen Elvis? What about Elvis in a UFO?”ChuckNorris; “Billy-Joe, could you tell me just how far your home is from a paved road, and do you currently have any vehicles supported by cement blocks where the wheels used to be? Just this disturbing thought I had, right.”Batoutofhell; “Awesome idea big guy, go for it! Oh yeah, and are you coming squirrel blasting at the weekend still???”Dave; “Well Billy-Joe, I’ve gotten some good and some bad news buddy. The good news is I think I’ve found you all the information you require. The bad news is, it might go over your provisional budget. The Batmobile Tumbler is powered by a 5.7-litre V8 Chevy engine which is tuned up just so it can move the 2.5 tonne vehicle from nought to sixty in 5 seconds flat. You could take the engine outta the Lincoln, but I’m guessing your Tumbler wont move very far. Or possibly as fast.You might fare better on the rear axle bit though, as it’s off a truck, as is the gearbox and all the linkage. But this adds a lot of weight to the vehicle and again might hamper its movements. Hollywood wanted Batman’s Tumbler to be as light as possible so it would jump better, and after initial tests this axle was deemed to be the root cause of jumping issues.The rear tyres are 37” in diameter and you can get them off the shelf of any good tyre shop, and the 4X4 mud rubbers are made by Interco and called ‘Super Swampers’. The front tyres are more racing tyres and are manufactured by Hoosier. Just Google them or something I guess. The front wheels have independent suspension elements and inspired by the long travel suspensions of Baja racing trucks. Apparently when the Tumbler flies through the air the front wheels pop out some 30” on their suspensions to absorb the impact of a 30 foot drop. I’m thinking this may not be as important to you and your vehicle’s purposes. Hope this has been of some help to you. Good luck fella.”Space1999fan; “They made four Tumblers Billy-Joe, and they cost $250,000 each after development. They were all built in Britain by IIRC/Land Rover basically because none of the US firms thought it was possible to build such a vehicle. Not that I’m trying to put you off or anything cos I think what you’re trying to do is freaking ace. They say that nearly $5million of the film’s budget was used to develop the Tumbler. And most of that was spent on trying to get a 2.5 ton car to jump 30 feet and not collapse when it landed. You don’t want your Tumbler to jump do you?”Paulscatsdead; “I heard a guy say the Tumbler is a cross between a Lamborghini and a Hummer. Don’t know if this helps you at all.”BattyOne; “The Batmobile is 9 foot wide and 15 foot long and has multiple layers of armour plating. It would take a dumb ass to try and recreate all this. Good luck Billy-Joe.”CapedCrusader1; “There’s no steering wheel in it. It uses hand levers to turn left and right.”VanityFair; “Some bloke’s already done it Billy-Joe. He’s called Bob Dullam and he’s made himself a fully-working Tumbler using nothing more than pictures and DVD extra features. He said he built it all from scratch – although he stops short of saying what from - except the tyres, alloys, brakes and engine. So that’ll be all the bodywork and brackets I suppose. May you need to speak to him Billy-Joe.”VoiceOfGotham; “It cost him $50 - $70,000 to build.”GothamKnights; “Didn’t that weirdo make his own Batsuit too??”VoiceOfGotham; “Hey less of the weirdo – I have batwings tattooed on my eyelids and I thought I was hardcore.”GothamKnights; “I’ve heard it’s meant to resemble a crouching bat.”Batsinthebelfry; “You’re all wrong. The Tumbler is based on a military vehicle, and there were six of them made in total. Each vehicle was built with a specific film stunt in mind. There was two full-size, fully driveable Batmobiles for exterior shots, the one full-size model for jumping scenes with like proper trick hydraulics, another full-size one just for the rocket blast sequences that had propane tanks on, and a one third scale radio controlled Batmobile for most of the major stunts, like the roof top scenes.“Butugly; “Yeah, I heard the Tumbler scenes were all filmed on a massive film set in England, and that it took 9 weeks to complete.”Nolanscrusaders; “Billy-Joe. Are you some sort of nutter?”DCcomicsone; “Did you actually watch all the film Billy-Joe? Don’t you remember that the Batmobile Tumbler is damaged beyond repair by a massive grenade and that Batty ejects himself from the Tumbler in the Batpod?!”Foolsgold; “Batman destroys the Batmobile himself! That Batpod rocks! Why don’t you try and make one of those Billy-Joe??”Christianbalerulz; “Actually, the Batpod is formed out of the Batmobile’s front wheels and struts. And it’s wicked man. Build me one of those Billy-Joe!”Cliopetra; “The tumbler is made by Wayne Industries you idiots”Pinballwizard; “I have it on good authroity that the Batmobile Tumbler weighs as much as a Hummer H2. Fact. The Batmobile's body is made out of 65 separate carbon fibre panels, which might smash your budget alone Billy-Joe”TumblerTim; “The driver and one passenger can sit in the Batmobile’s cabin. Under none crime fighting circumstances Batman sits on the left, his passenger on the right. But in attack mode the driver’s seat slides to the centre, and the driver is realigned to lie face down with his head in the centre section between the front wheels.”Batfunk; “I know that safety isn’t a consideration in the Tumbler. There’s not a single airbag and the visibility out of the side and back is woeful.”Batmobilia; “There’s side and rear video cameras, and Batman uses a monitor to see what’s going on if you look carefully.”Batswhaticallmovies; “Formula One driver Jarno Trulli took the Tumbler round the Silverstone GP circuit in the UK ahead of the British Grand Prix. Although he didn’t use the machine guns and nor did he hit the Batmobile’s 110mph top whack.”BATtleaxe1; “A kinetics researcher and probability bloke has calculated that if you multiplied the percentage of worldwide billionaires by the percentage of people who become Olympic Decathletes you would get close to determining who does and who doesn’t has the funded lifestyle, expertise, physical and emotional attributes and mindset to become a modern day Batman. Bad luck Billy-Joe.”Trent1; “My ex-best friend built a replica of the Batmobile that Michael Keaton drove when he was Batman, complete with a rocket launcher. Sadly the car blew up whilst he was still in it. I loved Hank. His Ma and Pa didn't know mind.”
Here's a video of Bob Dullam's home-made Batmobile Tumbler.
Published: 21 August 2008See Also:
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