The original Batmobile is coming to Barrett-Jackson headquarters in Scottsdale.

The 1966 car was featured in the original Batman TV series that starred Adam West. It will be auctioned off January 19, 2013 at the 42nd Annual Barrett-Jackson auction held at WestWorld.

It's based on the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car originally created by Ford Motor Company and a design team at the Lincoln Styling Department. The 19-foot long, two-seat, bubble-topped grand touring car prototype was entirely hand-built in 1954 by Ghia Body Works in Turin, Italy, and unveiled in its original pearlescent Frost-Blue white paint finish in 1955 at the Chicago Auto Show.

The car featured instruments housed in the steering wheel, as well as a push-button transmission, exterior microphones to pick up and transmit the sounds of traffic to the occupants inside, and a host of other innovative devices. According to several reports, it was described as a "rolling laboratory" from which Ford would learn about new technology to apply to their production automobiles. In 1959, sporting a fresh red paint job, the Futura was featured in the film, It Started with a Kiss, starring Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford.

Custom car designer George Barris acquired the vehicle from Ford Motor Company and kept it in his garage for several years. In late 1965, 20th Century Fox Television and William Dozier's Greenway Productions contacted him to produce a Batmobile for the upcoming TV series. With only 15 days and $15,000 budget to build a Batmobile, Barris decided to transform the Lincoln Futura concept car into what is now widely recognized as the original and iconic crime-fighting vehicle.

The car includes a 390-in 1956 Lincoln V-8 engine and a B&M Hydro Automatic transmission. Gadgets include a nose-mounted aluminum Cable Cutter Blade, Bat Ray Projector, Anti-Theft Device, Detect-a-scope, Batscope, Bat Eye Switch, Antenna Activator, Police Band Cut-In Switch, Automatic Tire Inflation Device, Remote Batcomputer, the Batphone, Emergency Bat Turn Lever, Anti-Fire Activator, Bat Smoke, Bat Photoscope, and many other Bat gadgets. If needed, the Batmobile was capable of a quick 180° "bat-turn" thanks to two rear-mounted ten-foot Deist parachutes.


For more information about Barrett-Jackson and to purchase tickets to the event, visit http://www.barrett-jackson.com or call (480) 421-6694.