Inspired by the 1940s and 1950s DC Comics BATMOBILE, a young man by the name Forrest Robinson would sketch out his dream car. And in 1960, the 23 year old and his friend Len Perham began work on the “BATMOBILE” in the barn of the Robinson Family farm in New England. 
The car was built using the framework of a 1956 Oldsmobile 88 and a 324 Rocket engine. Replacing the old body of the Oldsmobile with a custom designed fiberglass body. The car design consisted of a dorsal fin in the back, bat-nose front-end and pocket sliding doors.
Completed in 1963, predating even the Lincoln that was used in the classic 1960’s TV show, Robinson left it unpainted except for coat of white primer and had planned on building a glass-domed roof, but never got around to it due to being sent overseas on an Army assignment. Upon returning to the US in 1966, Batmania had taken over and the car drew interest from All Star Dairies and their affiliate Green Acres Ice Cream (a DC Comic licensee).
Robinson leased the car for the promotional campaign that All Star Dairies and Green Acres Ice Cream were running, becoming the earliest known car ever sanctioned by a DC Comics licensee. The car was painted in the official Batman colors, badged with official Batman labels and toured the Eastern US as “Batman’s BATMOBILE” until late 1966, around the time when replicas of the George Barris TV BATMOBILE were built and made available for touring.
Upon the return of the car to Robinson, he then painted it a space age silver and continued to drive it around until he sold it in 1967. And within a few years the car would lay abandoned in a New Hampshire field and would sit there for the next few decades.
In 2008, the car was discovered by Bobby Smith of Swanzey, NH and would change hands several times before landing in the hands of the Toy Car Exchange LLC in 2013. Toy Car Exchange LLC brought the car to expert car restorer Mario Borbon of Borbon Fabrications in Sacramento California. Borbon restored the car to pristine condition, retaining the original frame, parts and engine in a year long process.
Early 2014 the forgotten ’63 BATMOBILE debuted at the Sacramento Autorama car show in which it won 1st prize in the handbuilt sports class. In October of 2014, the car was invited to the Pasadena Car Classic Show, where it was displayed with three other BATMOBILES. Later in 2014, the car went up for auction, selling for much less than the expected price of $500k, due to the lack of time of promoting the vehicle properly.
The BATMOBILE will now go up for auction at the Cruisin’ the Coast Biloxi event and has already received offers substantially higher than the amount sold in 2014. The BATMOBILE will be traveling to Vicari Auction’s Nocona and New Orleans events later this year viewing.
