'Batmobile' replica turns up on eBay, selling for $620K

Gotham City may be a fictional part of DC Comics' Batman universe but this recent item up for bid on auction site eBay may give fans of the caped crusader a real-life feel of driving a Batmobile. Putsch Racing, maker of what is touted as the "world's only turbine-powered Bat Car," has put up the replica of the 1989 batmobile used in the first ever Batman film up for sale on eBay for a price of a whopping $620,000 (P26.2 million).

The street-registered replica is powered by a 365-horsepower engine which, according to the New York Daily News, was sourced from a decommissioned helicopter. According to the car's eBay page, the batmobile weighs approximately 2,800 pounds and is decked with fiberglass and aluminum coachwork, a steel tubular monocoque chassis, a digital avionics system and a centrally mounted iPad 3G. The vehicle can go up to speeds of as much as 180 miles per hour and runs on either Jet A, kerosene or diesel fuel. The manufacturer claimed that though it is powered by a military-grade engine, "it drives just as well on the highway as it does on city streets" and that "it exhausts gases that do not have a destructive force." Asked on their YouTube page why they are selling the car, the car-maker responded with "I have game-changing prototypes to build." Completed only this year, the batmobile has already made the rounds of various US media outlets such as MSNBC, Fox News, Discovery Channel and NBC, and has reportedly won the "People's Choice Award" at the Ault Park Concours d’Elegance, a prestigious car show in the state of Ohio. Despite the multi-million peso price tag, the manufacturer of the batmobile has opened the car up for offers from interested sources, so it remains to be seen how much the vehicle would eventually go for after the auction, which ends in about 19 hours as of posting time. — RSJ, GMA News