By Alex Morales

Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- A shopper with 119,000 pounds ($233,000) to spare went away with a vehicle fit for a superhero when a Batmobile from the 1960s television series ``Batman'' was sold at auction yesterday.

The car was the sixth of an unspecified number built for the 120-episode ABC series based on the DC Comics hero, according to Coys auctioneers in London. Four or five bidders helped drive its price more than 50 percent above the upper estimate, said Chris Routledge, an auctioneer at Coys.

The car, which is almost 6 meters (20 feet) long, is black with scarlet lines to highlight its contours and winged chassis.

``It's a fantastically iconic piece of machinery -- the Batman appeal spans more than 30 years,'' Anthony Godin, auction manager at Coys, said yesterday in a telephone interview prior to the sale. ``It's the Batmobile! Who wouldn't want to own it?''

Coys declined to identify the seller, a private collector. The winning bid came from a private museum based in the Cayman Islands, Routledge said late yesterday in a telephone interview.

The Batmobile was the 144th of 163 lots, and had a lot number of 241. The sale included vintage cars and automobile memorabilia such as posters and branded souvenirs, and ran until past 9 p.m. London time yesterday.

One of the lots, a Reliant Regal three-wheel van used by the Trotter brothers in the British Broadcasting Corp. comedy ``Only Fools and Horses,'' attracted at least eight bidders in the auction house and several telephone buyers, said David Barzilay, a spokesman for Coys. They pushed the price to almost 45,000 pounds, more than double the estimate.

`Knight Rider'

``The bidding war for the Batmobile was international; the bidding war for the Trotter van was local,'' Barzilay said in a telephone interview. The show was voted the best British situation comedy in a BBC telephone and e-mail poll that began in 2004.

The first Batmobile was built by George Barris on three weeks' notice after ABC decided in 1965 to serialize Batman, according to the Coys catalog. The television series ran from 1966 to 1968. Barris, described by Coys as ``the greatest custom car builder of all time,'' modified a Ford Motor Co. Lincoln Futura car for the original.

Because of the needs of filming and promotional tours, a number of copies were made, Godin said. While four were made of fiberglass, the model for sale yesterday is made from steel and is a functioning car with a Ford V8 engine, he said. It was built by Jay Ohrberg, a colleague of Barris and builder of KITT, the car in the ``Knight Rider'' TV series, he said.

The original Batmobile, which Godin said is valued at more than $1 million, is on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

Coys had estimated the Batmobile for sale yesterday would fetch 50-75,000 pounds. The final sale price included commission of 14,000 pounds, Routledge said.

``These guys just had to have it,'' he said. ``It was a `Kapow!' moment.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net .

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