OK. About a year ago I got into a hobby of doing up renderings of cars using a copy of CorelDraw I had laying around. It's sorta like regressing to being 12, and drawing cool cars on your notebook before you've maybe discovered girls. But I digress. Anyhow, it got started because of my rage and frustration with Detroit for their ineptitude at reworking classic muscle cars (well, all except Ford, that is) and my first project was my take on a modern Dodge Charger. Next I did a Pontiac GTO and later my take on the Dodge Avenger. (That never wound up posted here and wasn't particularly noteworthy.) After that, I started doing stuff of my own. I did a big coupe that was somewhat inspired by the "Black Beauty" from the "Green Hornet" TV show and a fastback coupe of my own design (that ultimately wound up looking a lot like a 1970s Australian muscle car). One thing I've held off on--but always wanted to do was the Batmobile. The Batmobile is a challenging car. It has to have enough fanciful design elements to look like a superhero car, but it's a hard thing to pull off tailfins without crossing over into Joel Schumacher territory. So I've held off until now. That said, I'm working on the bugger and I'm stumped. On one hand, a front engine design allows some interesting functional elements including from a long hood and exhaust pipes and helps you come up with an excuse for a "bat" shape to the front. From a practical standpoint, it also puts a lot of metal in front of the driver for things like battering through a brick wall. (I've already ruled out a Burtonesque jet turbine engine.) On the other hand, everything I've looked at for inspiration--from the Ford GT350 to the Lamborgini Diablo to even the M1 Abrams tank--has a rear engine. And I gotta admit, the rear engine gives you an excuse for vents and stuff on the back that get you into justifying some tailfinlike effects. Really gives you more of the classic Batmobile shape too. Eh, I dunno. Just ruminating.
