Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Lincoln Futura
The Lincoln Futura was never a production model, but was instead a concept car designed by the Lincoln division of Ford Motor Company. It was built by Ghia in Italy and displayed on the auto show circuit in 1955.
Futura's styling was extravagantly impractical even by the standards of the 50s, with a double, clear-plastic canopy top, exaggerated hooded headlight pods, and very large, outward-canted tailfins. Nevertheless, the Futura had a complete powertrain and was fully drivable, in contrast to many show cars then and now, which are nothing more than rolling shells. Its original color was white.
The Futura was a success as a show car, garnering a great deal of favorable publicity for Ford. It was released as a model kit and a toy, and in a much more subdued form its headlight and tailfin motifs would appear on production Lincolns for 1956 and 1957. It even played a prominent part in a movie, 1959's It Started with a Kiss, starring Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford. For the movie, it was painted red.
After that, though, the car would logically have been forgotten and perhaps destroyed, as most show cars of that time were. However, it was somehow sold into the hands of George Barris, one of the greatest auto customizers, and he preserved it in his collection for several years.
When in 1966 he was requested to design a theme car for the Batman television series on short notice, he thought at once of the Futura, and decided that its unusual winged shape would be an ideal starting point. He accordingly gave the car a makeover, with black paint and bat-themed trim, and then built several more identical vehicles as needed for filming. The series was a hit, and the Futura/Batmobile passed immediately into popular culture history. Barris has retained ownership of the original car, and at least one of the replicas survives at the Volo Auto Museum in Illinois.
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