Lincoln Futura

Vehicle Overview

The style of the Lincoln Futura was extravagant and excessive even for the canons of American cars of the fifties. Built in Turin, Italy by Carrozzeria Ghia, the cockpit was covered by two transparent plastic canopies, the headlight assemblies were mounted on two huge pods and two large outwardly tilted fins stood out at the rear. The car, unlike other concept cars, was fully functional and could be driven. The original color of the car was white. The Lincoln Futura was a very successful show car and this meant a great advertising return for Ford. There were many models and toy cars made on the Futura. In addition, some of its peculiarities, such as the large front pods and rear fins, were used, albeit in more contained forms, on the Lincoln production cars of 1956 and 1957. The car also played an important role in the 1959 film “It started with a kiss“, with Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford. For the occasion, the car was painted red. After this latest appearance, all traces of the car were lost and it was supposed to have been scrapped, a common fate of many concept cars of the time. Instead, somehow, it ended up in the hands of George Barris, one of the greatest car customizers, who kept it in his collection for several years. George Barris later modified the Lincoln Futura to get the Batmobile that appears in the Batman television series produced between 1966 and 1968, also making two other fiberglass copies. In fact, he was commissioned to build, in the shortest possible time, the car of the “dynamic duo” and he used the Lincoln Futura for its unusual winged shape. The Batmobile was built in just 6 weeks.