The Newest Batmobile Looks Like a Mid-Engine Muscle Car with a Twin-Turbo V8
Another Batman reboot means a new Batmobile, and this one looks terrific.
When Batman takes the silver screen again in 2021, he'll do so behind the wheel of an entirely new Batmobile. Not because the last one ended up in a Moscow impound lot, but because DC Films is again rebooting its Batman film franchise, this time with Robert Pattinson in the titular role, and a monumentally modified muscle car as his trusty steed.
Photos of the hero car surfaced on Twitter this Wednesday by way of Matt Reeves, director of 2021's The Batman. Photos showing the rear of the car confirm a mid-mounted, twin-turbo engine—seemingly a V8, though some on social media are seeing a fifth coil pack on each side that would make it a V-10. It takes some hunting to locate the turbos—look between the roll cage and bodywork in the back and you'll find two snails with short exhaust pipes expelling waste gases directly into the atmosphere.
We've also lightened it a bit and zoomed in on the engine to give you a better look:
Either way, there's also at least a partial roll cage. Meanwhile, shadowy lighting and bulbous, cape-like custom fenders make it difficult to determine exactly what car this Batmobile is based on. But we've done a bit of Encyclopedia Brown work for you to take our best guess.
Going by the shape of this Batmobile's side windows, we think it may have started life as a Chrysler E-body, specifically a 1970-1971 Plymouth Barracuda—a Bat-rracuda—if the lateral, three-bar taillights mean anything. At the same time, there's a lot about this car that's distinctly un-Barracuda. The taillight design itself isn't factory, the rear window cutout is larger than those seen on period E-body cars, and the windshield wipers seem higher than normal.
Much of this can be explained away by the extensive custom work required to make each Batmobile, but we'd rather not lean on "it's custom" to explain why this car doesn't perfectly resemble the Plymouth.
If you think you've found a dead ringer for this Batmobile, chime in below. If you don't care and just want to see Bruce Wayne's alter ego behind the wheel, you'll have to wait until DC Films' The Batman hits theaters on June 25, 2021.
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