1989 Batmobile
Famous Cars
Anton Furst's Batmobile for Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns: a long black Art Deco car built on Chevrolet Impala bones.
The 1989 Batmobile is the car Michael Keaton drove in Tim Burton's Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). Production designer Anton Furst designed it to match the film's dark Art Deco version of Gotham City, and Furst won an Academy Award for work on Batman. Underneath is Chevrolet hardware. The Batman Returns hero car rides on two Chevrolet Impala chassis spliced together, wears a hand-built fiberglass body just under 20 feet long, and runs a Chevrolet V8 with a three-speed automatic.
The design
Furst drew the car to fit the city around it. Smithsonian magazine wrote that Furst developed the Batmobile's sleek, slender look with the larger city in mind, so the two would work together. The result is a long, low car with a turbine-style intake in the nose and tall, bat-wing fins at the back.
The same design returned for Batman Returns in 1992, three years after the first film.
What's underneath
The Batman Returns hero car is built on two Chevrolet Impala chassis spliced together. Its fiberglass body measures 19 feet, 8 inches from bumper to bumper, and all of the bodywork was done by hand. Power comes from a Chevrolet V8 through a three-speed automatic transmission.
What it could do on screen
In the films, the car carried rockets, smoke grenades, and body armor, plus arms that swung out from the sides to trip up villains. It could also lift itself on a center jack and spin around 180 degrees.
Where the cars are now
Warner Bros. loaned a Batmobile from the 1989 film to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History for a three-year display.
The Batman Returns hero car, matched by Julien's Auctions to most of the film's driving scenes, goes to auction on November 23, 2026, in a sale run by Julien's and Turner Classic Movies. Julien's estimates $5 million to $7 million. The current record for a screen-used Batmobile is the $4.2 million paid in 2013 for the 1966 car from the TV series.
Sources
Design, Furst's Academy Award, the Smithsonian loan, and the 1941 name: Smithsonian. Chassis, length, drivetrain, and the auction: Motor1 and Julien's Auctions. Bodywork, gadgets, and the 1966 record: The Drive.
