Auctions: Original TV Series Batmobile Goes For An Unholy Amount

The Batmobile from the hilariously camp 60s TV series Batman went under the hammer over the weekend, selling for an eye-watering $4.2 million. (Kapow! - Ed.)

The car was sold by its original owner and designer, eighty-six year-old George Barris, who was present at the auction.

It wasn't just the car he was selling, however - Barris threw in the original paperwork and some memorabilia.

Technically, the car was a star even before appearing in the TV show. It started life as a Lincoln Futura concept car in 1955 before Barris purchased it for the princely sum of $1, when the studio presented him with too-tight a deadline for an original design.

Two weeks and $15,000 later, the Batmobile rolled out of the garage and into a life of pop culture royalty.

The gloss black sheetmetal with its distinctive red piping and double-bubble canopy sit over the top of a 6.4 litre Lincoln V8, mated to a B&M Hydro Automatic transmission. It measures almost 5.7 metres.

Not included in the auction were some of the oddly prescient features used in the TV series; self-inflating tyres, Batscope radar, the Batphone (it was a little before GSM) and in-car computers that didn't require their own rooms.

Barris founded Barris Kustom with his late brother Sam, and the pair went into business in Los Angeles after the Second World War - although their first creation sold before they'd even left high shool.