Neither Tim Neil, his vehicle, or BlackBerry are licensed by, endorsed by, sponsored by or affiliated with DC Comics or the owners of the “Batman” properties.
Wrenching on cars is my version of Yoga. It’s where I escape and the rest of the world melts away. I’m able to think about the task at hand and be as creative as I want. I’ve realized that one of the things that drives me and makes me happy is creating “things”. Whether it’s software at work, working on home improvement projects or wrenching on my car.
One of “the most” screen accurate builds with an extreme attention to detail documented since day one!
This blog will follow my goal to build the ultimate smartphone accessory. This involves the vehicle’s auxiliary systems being powered and controlled by open source single board computers along with a remote application running on my smartphone.
So sit back and enjoy the ride 🙂
Vehicle Features
- Stretched chassis from a 1994 Chevrolet Caprice
- Engine mounts moved back 2′ and lowered for better balance and cooling
- Steel tube supporting chassis
- 1/8″ plate steel floor boards
- All steel structures seam welded for strength
- Constructed to fit small block Chevy engines
- Functional dual exhaust
- Front disc and rear drum brakes
- “PURE MUSCLE” upper and lower trailing arms from PMT Fabrication
- Brand new driveshaft and front upper and lower A-arms
- Light weight replica fiberglass body
- Motorized canopy
- Motorized replica 30Cal machine guns
- Motorized bat-disc doors
- Computer controlled RideTech RidePro air suspension
- Computerized systems controlled from your smartphone
- Realistic sound effects for afterburner and machine guns connected to screen accurate WWII TMB Avenger throttle quadrant
- Throttle quadrant configured as automatic transmission gear selector
- Screen accurate interior
- Authentic headlights and tail lights
- Screen accurate side mechanics
- Side and rear view (wide angle, night vision equipped) cameras feeding three ceiling mounted LCD displays
- One of “the most” screen accurate builds with an extreme attention to detail documented from day one.
- The vehicle is currently 90% completed, see the TODO List for included parts and remaining work.
Media Coverage:
Building The BatBerry 
Hey good to see another 89 in the works. I know we have been communicating through CLTC but I thought I’d go direct. Good to hear you are dealing with Doug he’s an upstanding guy. I’ve ordered parts from him. All the parts have come to me better than I expected. Looks like your in Canada and I’m in Northern California. Good luck with your project. I think the color you have chosen is better than the flat black because you pick up the shadow lines of the body. I didn’t know if you knew but the 89 was repainted gray for the Onstar ads for that very reason…. BWD
Thanks Dave,
Yeah I actually had the chance to check out the Onstar Batmobile in person when it was doing the car show scene. I was living in Windsor at the time and popped over the border to the Detroit International Auto Show and I was able to snap some pictures. My “Graphite” color is somewhere between black and the onstar color.
Hey Tim,
I work for DC Comics in their So Cal offices. Here is a link to a very cool historical perspective on the Batmobile. Let me know if you need any Batman Comics.
http://www.autoblog.com/photos/the-history-of-the-batmobile/full/#3749576
Awesome!! Thanks Howard. I’ll actually be down in San Francisco during the first week of February
Hi Tim, I like the “my version of Yoga” 🙂
cu, Wolfram
LOL.. It is pretty much the only way I can explain it 🙂
Hello Tim!
I too have a love for the Batman! He has been my hero since I was a kid! And I have a love for my BB Storm 2! My wife says I have it in y hand way too much. I think it would be cool if in the next film Batman sports a BB and a playbook
I agree.. it would be AWESOME if Batman was using a BB and a PlayBook in the next movie!! Ever since I watched the original Keaton batman in 89 I was hooked 🙂
Hello Tim, I think it is an excellent idea/project you have embarked on. We all love Batman, the products by BlackBerry, and to bring both together will mean a lot of to all Batman/BlackBerry fans the world over. I hope to be a regular on this blog for more updates on this ambitious project.
I think its a very cool project. I am also in development (web) and am a big car enthusiast, and can appreciate your passion for both. I saw your post on NASIOC and decided to follow. Good Luck!!!!
hey tim, long time no talk!
you might not remember me, i used to be a regular on tsc – we even met up a couple times, you gave me your old GD fog covers (sans bolts ;)!
i just saw the jalopnik story about some guy named tim who works for RIM and loves batman, and thought – NO WAY!!!!
i’ve been out of the TSC loop for a while, and am glad to hear/see you finished up the wrx – looks great!
if this project comes out anything like the wrx, it’ll be amazing – keep up the good work!
Thanks dylan,
I just hope this one doesn’t take me the 6-7 years that my Scooby did 🙂 Hopefully I learned all the “what not to do” on that project.
Hey,
Is it possible that you live or near Los Angeles? I am also a Batman Lover, BB Lover, and like working on cars. If i could i would love to help you out, no pay required, just be your assistant and get things moving faster. If this could be possible add me on BBM, 32227049
I’m actually located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada… I’m always open for help, but it may be a bit of a long commute 🙂
Totally cool project. Working on a similar (mounting PlayBook) one with new Dodge Charger, no Batman, but yes to lights, sirens and cameras.
“The plans are to have the car’s auxiliary systems powered and controlled by a BlackBerry WebWorks application running on both the BlackBerry PlayBook and a BlackBerry smartphone.”
That’s the preferred hardware combo. At present we have to go out to some intermediate gear to get to RS232 and RS422/485 controllers. NDK/Webworks doing it all will be brilliant. Maybe we can lure you up to Bolton some day for an idea swap.
That sounds like you have a cool project on your hands as well. I’m always up for collaborating 🙂
Bolton’s not too far, maybe we could set something up
Hey Tim,
I’m not sure what you’re position is at RIM, but you should talk to marketing about approaching Marvel about a Batman edition of the BB Playbook. Flat black with the batman logo on the back would be stellar
Marvel owns Batman now??? I am not sure. I think it’s still DC Comics isn’t it?
DC comics owns Batman and Warner Brothers owns DC comics 🙂
Happy Festivus, anyways, I’m actually going to look at a kit on Saturday, I’ve been scrounging the web for about a week trying to gleen any info I can, I only stumbled across your site just before heading to work, So in the five minutes I had to scour your blog of the last year, you seem like the guy to ask, ANY SUGGESTIONS , Keeping in mind I know it’s going to be alot of hard work blood and sweat, So after a year + working on this would you trade any of that time back again, or are you loving every second you put into it? Would you do it again? and is it possible to get this actually street legal in Ontario or just a labor of love…..(again I haven’t read the whole site yet but I will)
Thanks
333 HALF EVIL
Hi Adam,
A good place for information is http://www.chickslovethecar.com
This has been my dream car that I’ve been obsessing over for more than 15 years and nope I wouldn’t trade the time 🙂
I made sure that I learned how to do a lot of the things that were needed for the build over the last few years.
It’s hard for a lot of people to understand that it’s the trial and error and creative process of doing a car build that I love, and will actually be a bit sad once it’s done… but the car won’t be done done for years even though I hope to have it road worthy this summer.
Just make sure you are passionate about the build before starting. It’s a huge commitment. One thing that you will have to come to terms with are the rules of car building that I have learned over the years….
Nothing will work right the first time, and rarely will they work the second time. Everything will take at least twice as long as you expect and everything will cost at least twice as much as you expect 🙂
Oh, and yes it will be street legal in Ontario 🙂
Thank you sir,
I have no illusions that i might ever finish the car, but it seems to be one of those things where I owe it to myself to actually try, And yea love the car , I think just the learning experience alone is worth the price of admission, Leaving in an hour to check out the kit, It’s supposed to be from Gotham Cruisers unfortunately he has to sell it, I kinda feel bad for him that he has to give this up, But it will go to a good home should I decide to buy it. Nice 2 hour drive from Scarborough ,
Ps I found you through CLTC great site, seem to be allot of help full people on the site, and some not so helpfull like it’s a closely guarded secret or something , but rest assured when it comes for me to begin my undertaking and I have commited your site to memory I may have questions not many but a few if I can’t find the answers in your build log,
Thanks in advance
Adam B
I also have 14 different Batmobiles and 25+ Batman Statues, one will be 6’2″ when I finish it Bwa hahahahahahaha. Geek room is getting a little crowded, time to shift things outside..
333 HALF EVIL
Looks like your doing an amazing job on what looks to be a fantastic project…
10years planning is some scoping time…lol…
Wish you all the best and I’ll be watching for your updates
Andy
Nottinghamshire, UK
I saw you post on TSC ( I am Cassimode on that site) and came here to get a better perspective of what your doing and I think its inspiring to say the least. Your love affair for Batman is strong and I too am a Fan especially to Nolan’s Trilogy. I listen the OST’s quite a bit which helps me generate new ideas for Automotive photo shoots… kinda a weird way but it shows in some ways. Looking forward to new progress on this.
Tim, loved reading about the BatBerry in this past Friday’s Post Driving. i run the Yorkville Exotic Car Show, a charity event we have been running for 3 years and we are now entering our 4th. Last year we had 45,000 visitors and raised $30,000.00 for Prostate Cancer Canada. i’d love to have you attend this year’s event on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 16, 2013 from noon to 5PM, if you can make it. Please contact me directly and i’ll be happy to share our vision for the 2013 event. Cheers, Phil Downe
Hi Phil, I’m glad you enjoyed the article. The event sounds like fun, the tricky part is that I don’t think I’ll have the car on the road by that time. The last show that it went to it had to be taken there on a flatbed
We can work that out. We usually have 3 or 4 cars that arrive by flatbed. Race cars, etc.
Cool… I’ll keep working on the car to get it closer to being “done”.. whatever that means. We all know our projects are never “done” 🙂
Hi Tim, Would love to connect for a feature for The Record. If you’re interested, message me and we’ll set something up!
Hi Ryan,
That sounds like fun.. let me know what you have in mind. You can email me using tneil at blackberry dot com
Hey, I love the idea! Huge BlackBerry fan since my my curve 8350, all the way up to my 10. A BBM Channel about this car is something I, and I’m sure a lot of people would be interested in! Best of luck.
Thanks Chris… already ahead of you on the channel, my channel pin is C00121FC2… enjoy 🙂
Do you have a donation site, like a Paypal account or anything like that? It’d be great to be somewhat involved in anyway I can if I can’t physically be there to turn wrenches. Every little bit helps I’m sure.
Well that is very generous of you! I don’t really accept donations for the project, but there’s a forum that helps all of us Batmobile builders keep in touch and learn from each other. That site always welcomes donations to help keep it alive for others who take on the challenge of building one of these cars.
If you would like to donate there it would help all of us who are building our dream Batmobile or Batpod 🙂
http://www.chickslovethecar.com/Default.aspx