“Atomic batteries to power! Turbines to speed!”
It’s the checklist Robin calls out to Batman as they fire up the Batmobile, but in a time when Gotham’s gas prices could make any superhero gag, would Batman have to prioritize the kind of crime he fights? Would Batman and Robin even entertain the idea of getting a bus pass and risk being beaten up on the subway, or use their Batfeet and bad knees to get to their next crime-fighting location? Or, …and I hope no evil-doers are tuned-in, would The Caped Crusader consider trading in Gotham’s most famous gas guzzler for an econobox? Holy down-sizing Batman!! – Can you see The Dynamic Duo arriving at a The Joker’s secret hideout in a SMART car?
Like the Hummer parked behind it, is the Batmobile on the road to extinction?
My brother-in-law was filling up his SUV at a gas station in Seattle the other day and as he stood there choking the gas nozzle and listening to the gentle ’dings’ as they counted down the money being sucked from his wallet, he was approached by a man with a plastic gas can asking him if he could spare a few squirts. My brother-in-law, being the affable, pleasant Scotsman he is said something to the effect of, “That’s quite a request at these prices.” And he then obliged the man by sticking his gas nozzle into the man’s can and filling it halfway up.
Welcome to the new normal.
There was a time, back in 1958 at the Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn Michigan, that their gurus, futurists and scientific soothsayers thought we’d all be scooting about in atomic-powered automobiles by now, – mini mobile Chernobyls, zipping around glowing green neighbourhoods, safe and secure in our bright and shiny futures.
The Ford Nucleon was supposed to be what one those cars in our future might look like. A nuclear-powered concept car developed by Ford as an autoshow mock-up in 1958 and looking something like a lowrider pickup truck with a small nuclear reactor in the back, right next to where you’d put your groceries. Unfortunately (or fortunately) no operational models were ever built. The design featured a power capsule suspended between twin booms. The capsule, which would contain the radioactive core (imagine those kind of clean-ups on the DVP) was designed to be ‘easily interchangeable’ (I mean, aren’t they today?) According to Ford’s spec material this core would be changed on a performance needs basis, based on distances that needed to be traveled. …Can’t you see those crazy kids souping up their hot-rods with those big blackmarket nuclear cores. …Kids!
God bless the optimism of those engineering geeks, but just what were those guys on?
Is it any wonder there’s so much hot air floating around the world today?
- Steve Steinbach
Filed under: Batman, Batmobile, comic book heros, history, humor, humour, musings, opinion, perspective | Tagged: Gas prices, Good night Dark Knight
