By Edsel Rollin
One of my biggest thrills this year had to be when I got a chance to drive the original Batmobile. It’s a big car with a lot of power, but it’s also very old school in many ways. From afar, it appears to be fairly hi-tech (when you consider when it was built), but, when you get to study the vehicle up close, the instrument panel, dash and interior look fairly low-tech.
I grew up on the Batman TV series and even though it was very corny, I loved it. So, when I got an opportunity to interview George Barris, I jumped at the chance. Barris is a collector of what I call “celebrity vehicles” – famous cars that make gearheads like me drool and wax nostalgic.
When I first got behind the wheel of the original Batmobile, I was reluctant to gun the engine or drive fast. But, after I began to feel comfortable behind the wheel, I really opened it up. I was in Sacramento at the time talking to a company that restores many of Barris’s vehicles. People were smiling and waving to me as I drove by and it was a rush. If you can’t get women with the Batmobile, it means you have absolutely no game.
