Page’s Restaurant normally is crowded Sunday mornings, but this week the crowd was outside the restaurant as Hinsdale resident and regular customer Marv Tazelaar drove up in his replica of the Batmobile from the 1960s television series.
Tazelaar, who bought the car at auction this summer, drove it from the Naperville garage where he keeps it to Pages.
“I kept up nicely with traffic,” Tazelaar said, but did not try any stunts on Interstates 88 and 294 that Batman might have done.
He said the brakes are somewhat difficult from the 1966 Lincoln, on which the black and red armored vehicle is based.
The car also has no rearview or sideview mirrors. Batman, Tazelaar said, drove fast and had a siren, so didn’t worry about people passing him.
Tazelaar found sideview mirrors in a box in the car’s truck and used GoPro suction cup mounts to attach them for his drive to Hinsdale.
He noticed other cars on the highway speeding by until the drivers noticed the Batmobile, with bat wing tailfins and a red Batman logo on the side doors and hubcaps.
“Then they would slow down to let me pass and then get even with mine often with a camera in their hand,” Tazelaar said.
Many of the visitors were adults, who grew up watching the TV series, and brought their children, most of whom had never seen the TV show.
An exception was Ceasar Caceres, who shared that his son had a miniature Batmobile his uncle gave him when he was 2.
“I said ‘don’t take it out of the box.'”
Orion Caceres did take it from the box and played with the toy, which had movable wheels, doors that opened and an antenna that went up, similar to the TV version.
Orion brought his own Batman mask for photos, but Tazelaar had a cape and cowl on hand for people to wear for photos. The costume came with the car.
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Tazelaar explained there were several versions of the Batmobile made for the series, with two or three used for distance shots of the car driving, but those didn’t have all of the details inside such as a Batphone. Another had all the fixings but was used more for close-up shots, sometimes with a fake background to show movement.
Tazelaar was told his version was used in stunts during the actual TV series, but said there is doubt if that was true as several replicas were made in later years.
He did start up the car at one point, with it stalling out the first time before he revved the engine on the second try. But he did not jump in quickly as Adam West appeared to do on the TV series.
“If you get in too quickly you end up knocking your shin on the steering wheel,” Tazelaar said.