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Forum Member
 
Last Login: 2/21/2009 6:39:31 PM
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Thanks Jimmy!!!
When DH posts the article all will be revealed!!!!
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Yipee-ki-yay...
Last Login: 8/14/2013 8:15:11 PM
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| That article used to be online somewhere already translated from Austrailian to English.
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Forum Member
Last Login: 2/21/2009 6:39:31 PM
Posts: 165,
Visits: 188
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Yeah - but its funnier in our bastardised version of english. What's even funnier is being with people who have never heard an Aussie speak or reading an article like this.
Boy I used to have fun when I lived in CA!!! 
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You reap what you sow
Last Login: 2/21/2023 10:23:31 AM
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The one he sent me is a different article.
But poorly scanned.
I'll fix them up and post it tomorrow.
 
 
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Forum Member
Last Login: 2/21/2009 6:39:31 PM
Posts: 165,
Visits: 188
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DH - didn't it come out? Looked ok here.
It is the same article, but reprinted in HG Nelson's book from a few years ago.
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Forum Member
Last Login: 5/27/2009 11:36:04 PM
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I CANT BELIVE SOMEONE IS TRYING TO TAKE CREDIT FOR JUSTINS WORK AGAIN...YOU NEED TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT .........
COME TO THE MARKSIDE
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You reap what you sow
Last Login: 2/21/2023 10:23:31 AM
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Here's the full article:
THE CALL...
Holy Toledo, revheads, and snooker buffs, this time last year I got a phone call out of the blue round 11:00pm one mid winters night. The moon was up and the dogs were on the howl. It was a call that was to change my life.
I was over the moon when I realised I was talking to Tim Burton, the director of the new look old fashioned, pre Robin Batman movie. I had him on the blower from his Palo Alto hideaway stateside. quite simply, he was ringing to ask the Slaven Nelson Group to design and build the
Batmobile.
THE BRIEF....
The batmobile order as a dream come true. The Group is no stranger to the big jobs but at the time our Lithgow based production line was flat out banging a 1989 slaven range. we halted the line and cleared the decks for Bataction.
My partner in crime, Rampaging Roy Slaven, the man they call the australian Enzo Ferrari downed is tools and assembled the Batteam out back in the shed. We sealed ourselves to secrecy, signing our names to the Bat deed in blood.
We threw on our thinking caps fired up a cheroot, got a couple of large ones poured, locked horns and gave the specs TB had dictated by fax a good hard geek.
As nearly as we could tell from his hand drawn notes and design suggestion faxed to our Lithgow HQ the Batmobile was to be a quiet, unassuming set of wheels. The sort of unit that could follow a suspect through the Gotham City Streets without pulling the head of every passing late mail specialist and track tout, these streets so filled with evil that even your Robin was not allowed to be part of the crime fighting team though so desperately needed in the perennial fight against villains everywhere. Tim wanted or at least our interpretation of his scribble suggested he wanted, something tasty with European lines and a smooth ride that would not shake the camera off it's mounts.
THE BEAST TAKES SHAPE.....
With this as our main objective, we got to work knocking up a design buck that same night to get a feel for the Bat beast.
Straight away Roy set about pushing the edge of the design envelope inside out. The only thing we could find out in the shed to model up the buck with was a dozen frozen mullet that Roy had stashed in the freezer. The mullet, side on, with a couple of whacks from the cold
chisel, become the basic elevation of the Batmobile.
THE THEORY......
I need to outline a little of the groups philosophy concerning the car design caper. There have been many magic moments in automotive design in the last fifty years. Look back over the card yourself, take time to give the history a good hard geek.
The was the full blown genius of the Ford Edsel, the controlled inspiration of the Nissan Cedric, and the eye to the future that informed the creation of Leyland P76.
Roy and myself decided to overlook these high points and follow our own gut feeling about crime , police work and the whole Batman story.
In throwing together the box and dice, the first cab from the rank was a 1962 Valiant. The fins at the rear made a bold, horizontal statement as well as reminding you where to find the spare is every time you look at the boot..
Up front at the business end the B-team settled on a touch of the Tucker. The pointy end of the Batmobile is a tribute to that great individualist - as wall as providing a convenient place for the extra spare when you seek a bit of off road action.
These two designs motifs form an axis over which the rest of the unit is draped.
Roy and I never made any secret of our admiration for the mod motor scooters that cruised Britain in the mid sixties and occasionally bob up in fine Young Cannibal film clips of today. These are dead set inspiration to any designer.
I know I have spoken elsewhere about my life long affection for Enzo Ferrari. He said to me just before he died.. H.G., I wish I had their courage to just keep adding mirrors, lights and nic nacs until the Vespa or Lambretta grinds to a halt under its own weight. Just imagine a fire red Dino with fifty seven head lamps on board." I just nodded knowingly as Enzo passed away, working and creating to the very end.
BACK TO THE BEAST........
Once we had fashioned the mullet back we did extensive testing in the methane driven wind tunnel rigged up in the shed next door to the Lithgow abattoirs. On into the night, week after week, we fiddled with the buck, the wind tunnels and the drawing board, looking for the right
mix of elements with Roy driving us until the team dropped.
We scarcely ate, sleeping at the benches.
One night, we collapsed with exhaustion and as the sun rose the following morning six months after we began our quest, it dawned on us the we had it.
The Batmobile was there melting in our hands. We threw the prototype into the freezer.
The final tunnel tests proved our suspicions. We were looking at the 1989 Batmobile.
We rushed the buck from Lithgow wind tunnels to the Dutch floatation labs that told Benny Lexcen in 1983 he was on the right track when he burst through the doors with the winged keel tucked under his arm, shouting, "Hey blokes, have a scrute at this and tell me if it will float?. "
The tank tests, using the coloured dyes, showed that we had stumbled across a dead set inversion of the normal state of affairs with the Batmoible prototype.
The test proved conclusively that the car could travel greater speeds in reverse than forward, a secret feature that gives Batman the edge in tight situations where the unusual is called for. After all, surprise is the only element that keeps Mister B ahead of the Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin and the dreaded Mr Freeze....
THE WORK BEGINS...
The B team was able to make the step from model mullet buck to full scale fabrication.
Originally Roy and myself had conceived the whole unit as not bigger than a Mini Minor or a Fiat 500. But the film makers were not able to see Batman in a Mini.
Call me old fashioned if you like. But to give them their due this was the only time they did interfere. And I take my hat off to them for that freedom.
Tim Burton, Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson all spoke to us about getting some length into the beast.
We took this on board as a serious request from the artistic coal face. What could I say about my vision, they were paying the bills.
THE CHASSIS...
We began at the bottom with the chassis. We were stuck, we didn't know where to turn. and then we stumbled on a Leyland P76 Targa Florio that just happened to be sitting out front of the works, left there by the disgruntled Slaven Nelson Group's accountant. This gave us length.
We stretched it with an extent ion of 7.6 metres.
The film makers wanted length. We would give them length. The body of the Batmobile is built up from styled Slaven Plank and aerodynamically finished off with heat treatment to smooth away the joins.
To get the required width we laminated the plank in a vertical and horizontal mosaic and stuck it together with a new super glue Kinko Lukinitis.
THE DONK...
It was looking a picture but the real battle had just begun.
What about the Donk..? Roy panted one morning as we pushed the beast up onto the jack to have a go at the tail light wiring.
By this stage the Batmobile was getting so heavy and we needed to work on power pack up from scratch.
Ralph Sarich had offered the project a 16 valve orbital outboard for the beast but somehow the aesthetic line of the design was broken with a couple of big bulges up back. We wanted a nice line that allowed the flow of air to pin the monster to the road. Nissan offered a V12 prototype that was going to be dropped into the 1991 EXA. Toyota rang to insist we use a very new piece of gear from its HiAce dragster that powered the HiAce to the World Van Titles in Sacramento last year. We were not satisfied that any of these could deliver.
We settled on Roy's Brutal 9, a band new turbine driven prototype. This power pack has been well documented in the car mags. A brilliant piece of lateral thinking from the House of Slaven.
The car tooled up with The 9 belongs in the sex second club and when you approach the ton you feel as though you are crashing through the sound barrier, which is a very nice touch. But the principle is quite simple; the fuel mixture is exploded in conventional cylinders in the ceramic, liquid cooled engine block and then through the manifold ducting. The hot gas is forced into a turbine located alongside each wheel The air rushed through the blades of the turbines and directly drives thirty four inch wheels.
The Brutal 9 gives the Batmobile phenomenal poke over the critical first two hundred metres.
The 9 will run on any sort of fuel - two stroke, unleaded, diesel, super, Avgas, solid paraffin mix, Space Shuttle, liquid hydrogen and olive oil. The curious thing is no matter what the fuel is tipped into the tank, economy remains the same point five of a kilometre per litre.
The rearing is simple viscous coupling but in retrospect the power to weight ratio is all wrong, accentuating the hardtops tendency to under steer.
POLISH...
Once we had these central ingredients in place and were confident enough we had the stab to pull the skin off the custard, we were able to satisfy Bruce Wayne's personal touches. Batman wanted leather slip seats to prevent the cape from catching in those quick getaways.
Bruce suggested a higher roof line on the hot rod so as the canopy didn't knock off his ears off when the air ram slammed the lid of the widow maker shut.
Movie fans, this is a pre Robin bag of tricks, there is no room for that cute talk from Dick as soon as the The Cape Crusaders slip in to the conveyance having slid down the Bat Pole.
"Atomic Batteries to power, Turbines to speed, ready to move out"
That is the history of the story that lies before us. When you see the movie try to recall the work of a couple of young Aussie battlers who made their dreams a reality with the Batmobile.
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"Tardmonkey of the Year"
Last Login: 9/6/2011 12:10:05 AM
Posts: 3,367,
Visits: 4,625
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Mark, I am going to hope that was a lighthearted jab and not get offended by it. What I WILL get offended by is this bastard stealing my thunder!  PS - Mark, you never told me where to send the shirt.
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Yipee-ki-yay...
Last Login: 8/14/2013 8:15:11 PM
Posts: 3,607,
Visits: 3,397
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Did he ever tell you where to put the shirt?
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"Tardmonkey of the Year"
Last Login: 9/6/2011 12:10:05 AM
Posts: 3,367,
Visits: 4,625
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------------------------
Design and sell your own custom t-shirts, on your existing MySpace page, for free! Download the AP Product Labs app from the app gallery, today.
http://www.myspace.com/approductlabs
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