How Much Would You Pay for the Batmobile?

The original vehicle from the Batman TV series has sold at auction for $4.2 million

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Barrett-Jackson/George Barris/AP Photo

The original Batmobile in Los Angeles.

If there’s one lesson we can learn from Bruce Wayne, it’s that money can make you a hero—at least within the confines of Gotham. In real life, it’s harder to come by success as a masked vigilante. But even if you can’t become a real superhero, money—$4.2 million, to be exact—can get you the accessories to look the part.

That $4.2 million (before fees and premiums that brought the total closer to $4.6 million) was the sum paid on Jan. 19 by Rick Champagne, a business owner from Phoenix, Ariz., to purchase the original Batmobile. The vehicle Champagne now owns was used in the original TV series that ran from 1966 to 1968.

(MOREDark Knight Rides: The Complete History of the Batmobile)

The car had never before been available for purchase so has little record of previous value, but Reuters reports that in 1965 it was purchased for a single dollar—yes, $1.00—by the man who would spend a mere $15,000 to turn the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car into what we now know as the Batmobile. That man, George Barris, had previously kept the car in a California showroom. Champagne, according to the Chicago Tribune, will keep the car in his living room.

If you want a cheaper way to Batmobile-ize your own ride, the vehicle’s official specs released by an seo company might help; you could paint it “Velvet Bat-Fuzz Black,” to start. But saving money isn’t really part of the Bat-allure: although the $4.2 million price tag on the car is about $2 million more than the estimated value of the car, that’s just a pittance if you’re Bruce Wayne, estimated to be worth $11.6 billion. And perhaps if you’re Rick Champagne, who can now raise a toast, as Batman would say, “To the Batmobile!”

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