In recent times, the Batmobile has been overhauled again and again – until it has turned into a self-aware, 21st century death-dealer, capable of balancing the odds in any armed conflict. But that's not where it started. Now the actual, original Batmobile has been sold for almost £3 million. KitGuru suits up and paints some ‘Pow', ‘Blam', ‘Ka-Splat' signs.

While Batman's original DC cartoon incarnation had him driving a Batmobile as early as May 1939, you wouldn't recognise the bright red vehicle.

In the Spring of 1966, Adam West began to fight crime in a much more sophisticated Batmobile – and this is the car that has just sold to American collector Rick Champagne, over in Arizona.

The underlying car was a 1955 Lincoln Futura, which then had around £9,000 worth of work on it – adding nail and oil guns etc to a gorgeous jet black exterior with red trim.

Strangely enough, this new sale does not set a world record in its own right. In fact the sale of the Batmobile over the weekend could only tie with the Aston Martin DB5 that Seaon Connery drove in Goldfinger – and which was sold in 2010.

Rick's 1966/1955 Batmobile won't, sadly, match the specifications printed for the car in the 2008 Batmobile Owner's Manual, which lists the engine output at 1,700 horsepower – but it will probably still be a babe magnet for any Golden Girls that he happens across when he drives it around his home streets in Phoenix.

KitGuru says: Who knows, one day, when Gotham really needs it – the old girl might chug out of retirement to spray the streets with oily gloop again.

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