Up to 15 per cent of the parts on the Batmobile replica are from the movies, with the remainder custom built. Photo: Batmobile Australia, Instagram.
It seemed a fairly simple job for Zac Mihajlovic – pick up a kid from Sea World and drive them to Movie World and in the process, fulfil the wish of a lifetime.
But in those 21 minutes, a news helicopter along the motorway had spotted him and phoned police which meant that when he arrived at Movie World, it was to a bustling welcoming party of uniforms, radios, microphones and cameras.
“They thought I’d somehow stolen the car from Sea World and they’d chased me all the way,” Zac says.
It’s easy to see why. It’s a Batmobile. A fully-functioning, custom-built-with-actual-props-from-the-movies Batmobile.
And it’s coming to Canberra this weekend as one of the star cars for the 2025 Canberra Festival of Speed at Thoroughbred Park, where there’ll also be the chance for one lucky visitor to score a ride around the site’s 750-metre show circuit.
Zac lives in Camden in Sydney, but can often be found at his beef cattle farm in Berry on the South Coast, tinkering in the workshop.
He started doing it alongside his grandfather, straight out of school, crafting whatever they could from stuff around the farm. Their first big project together was restoring an old Ferrari Dino, and it “just got more and more serious” from there.
His new stepdad, Scott Cox, is also his business partner now, and together they’ve made a number of custom motorbikes, an F1 car (complete with a Ferrari V12), and they’re now working on a replica of the ‘Tumbler’ bike from The Dark Knight.
Zac Mihajlovic loves the anonymity the Batman suit provides. Photo: Batmobile Australia, Instagram.
The Batman obsession started with a desire to “give back” what he’d inherited from his grandfather.
“I’d see people who could never do enough for my grandfather and I’d find out he’d helped that person buy a house, or someone in their family had been lost once and he’d covered the money for the search party to keep going – things like that,” Zac explains.
“He’s an incredible guy … and I wanted to have something I could use to give back with hospital visits to kids and that sort of thing.”
One of the motorbikes he and Scott had built passed as Batman-themed – even if it wasn’t from any particular movie – but in 2006, while scouring the internet for a better Batman costume, Zac came across an auction of props used in the 1989 Batman and 1992 Batman Returns films.
One of Zac’s other custom builds, the Ascari F1 car, complete with a Ferrari V12. Photo: Zac Mihajlovic.
“Things like a bat wing are now worth half a million bucks, but I just got in at the right time, when the studios were just tyring to get rid of stuff in storage,” Zac says.
All up, 15 per cent of the parts on his Batmobile replica were from the film, which he describes as “highly stressful”.
“You can’t replace this stuff, and I’m no longer allowed to make another Batmobile because of licensing laws.”
Underneath the skin is a Chevrolet LS3 V8 engine with twin turbochargers and the ability to spit a seven-metre-long flame out the back. It’s all certified to drive on Australian roads, but because of the strain the bodywork and massive tyres put on the drivetrain, it requires fairly major maintenance work every few years.
“I mainly use it for charity work, so any money I make out of it is used to cover the running of the car and then the rest is donated,” he says.
“I’ve done a couple hundred Make-A-Wish runs, and raised well over one million dollars with different charities.”
It’s no different for the upcoming Canberra Festival of Speed. Visitors will be able to bid for a ride in the Batmobile, with the money going to the event’s charity partner, Hands Across Canberra. Hands Across Canberra raises funds for 350 local charities across the ACT.
And the best part?
“No one knows me – it’s brilliant,” he says.
The Batmobile draws a crowd wherever it goes. Photo: Batmobile Australia, Instagram.
“I’ve sort of developed this alter ego where I can deal with things as Batman that I can’t personally. Like, there are some kids at the hospital where the parents are singing their last every happy birthday, and as Batman, I can handle it. But, as a person, it would just destroy me.”
The Canberra Festival of Speed will showcase more than 200 custom and exotic cars over Saturday, 25 January and Sunday, 26 January at Thoroughbred Park in Lyneham.
Visitors are also able to bid for hot laps in a Toyota GR Yaris rally car with Harry Bates and a touring car with John Bowe.
Buy tickets to the Canberra Festival of Speed here. Bid for a ride in the Batmobile here.
Loading ...
