Russian engineers at the company FastBoomPro have created a replica of the Batmobile from 2016’s Batman v Superman. Taking a bodykit, they stuffed it with real automobile innards that matched the vehicle’s impressive exterior.
“I saw it in the movie, and just had to recreate it. It had to ‘shoot,’ ‘fly,’ and ‘roar’ like a real superhero ride,” FastBoomPro founder Alisher told Russia Beyond (declining to give his surname).
Alisher says that he bought the bodykit in the US. Initially it was a chassis with an engine that couldn’t go more than 30 km, since it could only move in first gear.
“All the chase scenes in the movie are shot at a speed of 20 km/h, and then special effects are added in the studio. We had to do a lot of things [to turn the bodykit into a real car]. We inserted a 502-hp V8 engine and made a number of technical modifications so that it wouldn’t fall apart on the move,” said the FastBoomPro founder.
To start with, the company’s engineers rewelded the chassis and installed new axles made of different metal alloys so that the Batmobile wheels remained on the road and didn’t fly up at the slightest bump.
“We carried out several unsuccessful experiments that shattered the car. Then we found some smart engineers who made a multi-metal alloy able to withstand 1.5 tons of steel and an engine inertia of 500 horsepower,” explained Alisher.
As a result, the Batmobile’s top speed hit 100 km/hour. According to Alisher, “it’s possible to squeeze even more out of the engine, but it’s scary.”
“There’s no aerodynamics. The car shakes like hell. Despite the new axles, the wheels still jump up when going over bumps. The Batmobile is a toy, not a racing car. So we’re not about to set any road records,” said its creator.
Does it come in black?
Despite the fact that the car, like Batman, doesn’t officially exist (FastBoomPro has not registered it with Russia’s traffic police), its creators have done several test drives on the streets of Moscow and St Petersburg, and are planning to shoot a full-blown video of it cruising around the city.
Alisher says that driving in Moscow is a pain — the field of vision is minimal, and turning corners and parking are almost impossible (the Batmobile is 4x6 meters in size and occupies almost two lanes).
“We normally ride it outside the city. Out in the ‘field’ and on the minor roads you can drive anything,” explains Alisher.
FastBoomPro is currently looking for a buyer for its brainchild. The starting price is a cool 55 million rubles (about $900,000).
“We’ve got three potential customers. We ran them through the databases to be sure of their solvency and not waste time on people who just want to gawp at the Batmobile,” he adds.
The Batmobile comes with a 250x-zoom thermal imager for night riding and a joystick from a F-18 fighter to control the “laser gun” on the hood.
The gun, of course, is not real. It’s for “shooting” passers-by and other vehicles displayed on the car’s monitor — in augmented reality.