For £2.3 Million, You Can Have Your Very Own ‘Tumbler’ Batmobile

Batman, everyone’s favourite crime fighter inspired by a frequently-inverted flying mammal, has driven many different versions of the Batmobile since it first appeared in issue #48 of Detective Comics in 1941. If you’re of a certain generation, though, the first one that springs to mind will inevitably be the Tumbler.

Created for Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movie trilogy, for which the words ‘dark and gritty’ may as well have been invented, in-universe, it’s a prototype military vehicle outfitted with all the gadgetry a nocturnal cape-wearing vigilante could possibly want.

While, naturally, several Tumbler stunt cars were built for the various films it appeared in, there’s never been one that Batman enthusiasts have actually been able to go and buy – until now. Assuming those Batman enthusiasts are very wealthy, anyway.

Wayne Enterprises – the de-fictionalised ‘lifestyle brand’ version of Bruce Wayne’s company, which also oversaw the creation of those Batman-inspired Pininfarina Battistas a few months ago – has commissioned 10 fully functional Tumblers that it’s selling to wealthy collectors.

A one-to-one replica of the one driven by Christian Bale’s gravelly-voiced interpretation of Batman, these real-life Tumblers are based around tube-frame steel chassis, and powered by a 6.2-litre GM LS3 V8, good for 525bhp and 486lb ft of torque. That goes through a four-speed automatic gearbox, also sourced from GM.

The use of kevlar, carbon fibre and fibreglass for the body keeps weight to a lower-than-expected, but still beefy, 2500kg, and four-wheel disc brakes help keep everything under control.

The sort of person buying one of these probably already owns one of the 25 Goldfinger continuation Aston Martin DB5s, replete with functioning gadgets, and will be hoping the Tumbler delivers in this department too. There’s good news here because, faithful to the films, it has gun turrets (imitation), a jet engine (imitation), and a smoke screen (not imitation, surprisingly).

That last thing is one of likely many reasons this thing’s not road legal, although it still does have such niceties as air conditioning and a GPS system, should you get lost in some distant corner of your vast private estate.

And you probably will have a vast private estate worthy of Bruce Wayne himself, because the Tumbler ain’t cheap: it costs $2,990,000, or about £2.3 million at current exchange rates. What’s more, only 10 are being made, so you’d better stump up that cash quickly, because applications are open now. Still, if you miss out, you could always console yourself with one of Wayne Enterprises’ £23,000 e-bikes.