Holy Batmobile!

BYRAM — Comic-Con is visiting the West Coast this time of year, but New Jersey residents got their own taste of the paneled pages of Batman at Wild West City last weekend.

Two batmobiles flanked the interior entrance of the western town. One modeled after the 1960’s television series with Adam West and the other after the 1995 film “Batman Forever” with Val Kilmer.

John Sbright, a 43 year old auto mechanic, built both cars in his shop, Brighton Collision of Brooklyn, taking him a total of 10 years.

“I can’t believe it isn’t just a shell,” said Jason Gonter, a visitor from Voorhees, admiring the “Batman Forever” reproduction. The car’s body is mostly fiberglass containing a Chevy V50 engine, hydraulic shocks and a sliding windshield similar to a jet plane for entrance into the driver seat. The cockpit of the car is outfitted with a wide array of both working and decorative switches, gauges and boards to replicate the look of the movie’s car.

“I favor [the 60’s version], that one will always be the Batmobile for me,” said Mike Hand, a visitor from Rockaway with his family. A sentiment shared with Sbright, who called the car his baby.

The original Batmobile from that series was a concept car called the 1955 Lincoln Futura. As the car was never distributed to the public, Sbright used the frame of a Lincoln continental to build his version, as it shared the 127 inch wheel base of the original.

All of the metal work on the body of the car was hand fabricated by Sbright to a striking resemblance, adorned with signatures from various cast members from the show, including Adam West and Burt Ward, who portrayed Batman and Robin, respectively.

“We’ve ran into Adam West at a few comic book shows,” Sbright said, “he said that [the Batmobile] was one of the best he’d ever seen.”

The interior is decked to the nines with gadgets from the show, labeled as if the caped crusader organized it himself, all hand made by Sbright, including the Batphone, a Batarang, the Emergency Bat Turn lever and more.

The cars were not built to be sold, Sbright said, they were made just for the fun of making them. Now, Sbright takes the cars around with his partner Eric Sellin of Long Valley Auto Body. The two collaborate to show the Batmobiles along with a few other replica cars (including the Batcycle from the 1960’s show, the Coop from the film American Graffiti, and the Monkee Mobile from the television series the Monkees) at both paid and charity events.

When asked if Sbright was going to attempt to replicate the Batmobile from the most recent film series, he remarked with a smile, “that’s a good possibility.”

The cars will be on display again at the Chatterbox in Sussex on Aug. 3 for a fantasy car show and Burchwood Manor in Whippany Aug. 4 for the 2kids Foundation fundraiser.