The car's official public debut was on January 8, 1955 at the Chicago Auto Show; it had been shown to the press at the city's Congress Hotel on January 5. While being displayed elsewhere in the U.S. that spring, the Futura was seen by the country's television audience on Today on March 3, 1955. The Futura's styling was original by 1950s standards — 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 operable, in contrast to many show cars. Its original color was white, and was one of the first pearlescent color treatments, using ground pearl to achieve the paint effect. The Futura was powered by a 368 cubic inch Lincoln engine and powertrain; the chassis derived from a Continental Mark II. The Futura was a success as a show car, garnering 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, such as the Lincoln Premiere and Lincoln Capri. The concave front grille inspired the grille on the 1960 Mercury Monterey and the 1960 Ford Galaxie.
Media appearances
The Futura played a prominent part in the 1959 movie It Started with a Kiss, starring Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford. For the movie, it was painted red, as the white pearlescent finish did not photograph well. The red-painted car is also seen in Ford's 1961 promotional film "The Secret Door." The film's looking inside Ford's Styling Center includes footage of the Futura on the test track and in the wind tunnel. The concept car was subsequently sold to auto customizer George Barris. Having originally cost $250,000, the Futura was sold to Barris for $1.00 and "other valuable consideration" by Ford Motor Company. As the car was never titled and was therefore uninsurable, it was parked behind Barris' shop, sitting idle and deteriorating for several years. The Lincoln Futura was also included in DLC: Vegas Pack of Mafia II as "Jefferson Futura". The 1994 NBC TV series VIPER featured a red 1955 Lincoln Futura called "The Baxley". Season 1 Episode 8. The cars creator stole it after it was recovered by construction workers. There was quite a bit of film featuring the vehicle. Even a chase between the VIPER Defender and the Futura. There is a youtube video available of the chase.
Batmobile
In 1966 Barris was asked to design a theme car for the Batman television series. Originally the auto stylistDean Jeffries was contracted to build the car for the show in late 1965, but when the studio wanted the car sooner than he could deliver, the project was given to Barris. With the short notice, Barris thought the Futura might work well, and using Jeffries's initial car, decided that its unusual winged shape would be an ideal starting point for the Batmobile. Barris hired Bill Cushenberry to modify the car's metalwork. Barris went on to build three fiberglass replicas using the frames and running gear from 1966 Ford Galaxie cars for the show circuit. Barris later acquired a fourth replica, a metal car built on a 1958 Ford Thunderbird. Barris retained ownership of the car after its conversion to the Batmobile, leasing it to the TV studio for filming. After production of the TV series ended, it was displayed in Barris' own museum in California. It has also been displayed in the Cayman Motor Museum on Grand Cayman Island. Barris sold the Batmobile to Rick Champagne at the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction on Saturday, January 19, 2013 in Scottsdale, Arizona for US $4.62 million dollars.
Replica
In the 1990s, Bob Butts made replicas of the Batmobile, using a mold of one of the Barris-built replicas. Based on pictures from when the Futura was shown in the 1950s, he reskinned an existing Batmobile replica back into a Lincoln Futura replica. He only created one copy. The original fiberglas copy shell of the Futura made by Bob Butts was later found by Gotham garage owner Mark Towle and his friend and actor Shawn Pilot and rebuild as an original copy of the Lincoln Futura together with his team in their shop in Temecula, California, as seen in the Netflix series . After finishing the car the Futura was eventually sold at “The Grand National Roadster Show” at Pomona for approximately $90,000 to Keith Dean whose father Dick Dean worked with George Barris. In this deal Mark also sold his just finished International COE Car transport truck for $90,000 and got a 1936 Ford with it from Keith Dean that was also part of the deal. The money they ended up with was $170,000. The Ford's value was around $10,000 without any changes, and with modifications the Ford's value would easy be around the $70,000-80,000.
