When the original Batmobile rolled across the auction block at last year’s Barrett-Jackson auction, there was a familiar, gold bespectacled face on the stage to help sell the iconic ride. It was George Barris, who took over construction of the original car from Dean Jeffries in 1965. With all that cash, and with all the legitimate credits to his name – the Voxmobile, the Batmobile, the Beverly Hillbillies’ jalopy and hundreds of other cars – what would possess a guy to tarnish his own reputation by reinventing history, taking credit for things he never built? There’s some pathological need to be involved with every automotive creation in the last 50 years that defies explanation.
The Black Beauty
Dean Jeffries designed and built the Black Beauty for the TV show The Green Hornet. According to Karl Kirchner, who owns one of the two Black Beauty cars built for the show and runs … More