BATMAN’S iconic Batmobile has been reimagined, in monster truck-form, by a custom car genius in Colorado. Zack Loffert, of Littleton, Colorado, built what he calls the ‘Big Batmobile’ using the body of a 1973 El Camino, the frame of a 1976 Chevrolet K10 truck, and massive 44-inch tyres. He now uses the car, which took three years to build, for charity and to drive to children in hospital who need a special visit from “Batman”. Zack told FutureStudiosCars: “When I’m driving it, I watch people’s mouths and they say, ‘Holy cow’, or ‘Look at that’. Zack is currently focused on building a super hero-themed playground that will be the first handicap-accessible playground in the state of Colorado.
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MotorTranscript
00:00When I'm driving it, I can watch people's mouth and they say, you know, holy cow.
00:26My name is Zach Laffert, I'm the owner and builder of Big Batmobile Colorado.
00:32I supply hot rods and classics for movies, commercials, film, photo shoots.
00:37I get to play with grown up Hot Wheels all day long.
00:50My favorite thing to build by far has been Big.
00:53The reactions that this thing gets, and people know it from Colorado to New Zealand.
00:58I get messages every day from people all over the world, mostly asking for birthday parties,
01:05but that's probably my favorite build by far.
01:16This is where we keep all the cool toys.
01:19We supply them for movies, commercials, photo shoots, music videos, weddings, and all kinds
01:26of crazy stuff.
01:27We do a lot of charity events.
01:29We're currently trying to build a superhero playground, and we use it to raise awareness
01:34for that.
01:39The engine is a 350 76 Chevy block, matted to an automatic transmission.
01:44The B&M is a ratchet shifter, that's what kicks it into gear.
01:48The top speed on Big, if you're downhill, is probably 70 miles an hour.
01:53I've had a passion for cars since I was a kid.
01:55I didn't go to daycare.
01:56I went to auto shops, and I've been around them since I could walk.
02:01The car before it turned into Big Batmobile was a 73 El Camino.
02:06The biggest thing that people notice on Big Batmobile is the 44 inch tires.
02:11Second thing that people see on Big is the texture of the paint job.
02:17This is all Rhino liner, like a giant tank.
02:19Of course, you have your Batman decals all over.
02:25We wanted to make it a monster truck, but also be able to drive it to every location,
02:29and that's part of the fun.
02:32From start to finish, Big took three years.
02:36The best part about Big is when Batman suits up and he goes inside Children's Hospital,
02:40it's just an unreal feeling.
02:42Seeing that is amazing.
02:45So if you come around the back, you can see the additional seats that the kids love to
02:49ride in.
02:52The idea came from a Subaru Brat.
02:54The cool thing is with these big 44 inch tires, they work as a ladder, so you can just step
02:58right here, come up, sit down.
03:03You have a great advantage view.
03:05You have seatbelts for safety, locked in, and you're good to go.
03:11Once we go in the Big, you can see the doors are customized.
03:17Batman sits here.
03:18He's got his roll cage for safety.
03:20This was actually the toy that started this design.
03:24And then, of course, his trusty keychain, so he knows which Batmobile to grab.
03:33So now we're going to take it for a drive.
03:35All right, let's start her up.
03:38Oh, we got to get the wheel locked.
03:41It's wheel locked on this side.
03:45Does Batman ever have this problem?
03:48Batman always has this problem.
03:51All right, let's start her up.
03:57I've got a couple other designs for new Batmobiles in the future, but right now we're focused
04:02on the playground.
04:05The total cost of building it, I just didn't want to keep the receipts.
04:10It's better not to know than to keep track.
04:12I had a dream and it wasn't going to stop me to what it would take to build it.