The Home-Built Dark Knight Batmobile

ElectricSteve writes "RM Auctions recently declared James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 to be 'the world's most famous car,' but there's no doubt that there is another contender for that title — the Batmobile. One thing that muddies the waters a bit is the fact that the term 'Batmobile' actually describes at least three different vehicles: the modified Lincoln Futura concept car from the '60s TV series, the vaguely Corvette-shaped 1989-and-beyond movie cars, and now the car from the most recent two movies, the military-spec Tumbler. Michigan-based movie props artist Bob Dullam really likes the Tumbler, so he did what any of us would do in his position — he built one of his own from scratch."

Re:Street Legality: Nope!

[confused one]

It could be handled like a kit car. Most of those (kit cars) wouldn't pass modern crash testing because they're based on older designs. But, you can get them titled, inspected & certified for use on the road and insured.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

It's easy in Illinois...

[name_already_taken]

You made it hard on yourself by starting with a mass-produced vehicle. In that case the State wants to make it hard to make sure you're not trying to pull something like re-titling a stolen vehicle.

In Illinois, it's pretty easy and not expensive at all. It doesn't even cost any more than titling and registering a normal mass-manufactured car.

Here's what you need to title a homebuilt or kit vehicle in Illinois:

• Three photos of the completed vehicle showing front, side, and rear views.
• Title for the chassis and all bills of sale or other ownership documents for any essential parts of the vehicles, or a certificate of origin from the manufacturer if the vehicle was assembled entirely from a kit. (Now, this could be interesting. Bill of sale for the presumably used engine, or title from an existing car's chassis or floorpan usually works)
• Completed title (or title and registration) application. (Same form you use to title and register a normal car)
• Check made out to the Secretary of State for $65 (title only) or $143 (title and registration). (Same fees as a titling and registering a normal car)
• Sales tax form with a check made out to the Illinois Department of Revenue for the amount of sales tax due. (Presumably this would be $0 for a homebuilt vehicle)

There's also an inspection by the State, which doesn't sound any worse than the normal safety inspection people have in places like NY State. (Illinois doesn't routinely inspect cars)

Re:wait....

[Jbcarpen]

That's to make pure aluminum transparent. There are alloys that are transparent all the time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride [wikipedia.org]