To the Batmobile and beyond for something special

Motorists need an extraordinary set of wheels to stand out on the road these days

The 1934 Rolls-Royce PII Continental Roadster is up for grabs. Picture: Worldwide Auctioneers.

Motorists need an extraordinary set of wheels to stand out on the road these days

ART is dead. Just remember where you read it first. Now it's all about brands and personalities. It used to be the song was important. Now it's the singer. Who cares about the song as long as it's sung by Rihanna, Lady Gaga or Beyonce? Or, better still, Lady Gaga and Beyonce together.

It used to be that an artist was judged by their work. Now we judge a work by the artist. Britain's Damien Hirst is the world's richest artist and he's not even dead. Dying used to be the only way artists made money but Hirst is only 45.

He made himself famous by putting a (dead) 4.3m tiger shark in formaldehyde, then displaying it in a glass case. His first animal exhibit was in 1990, when he placed maggots and flies feeding off a rotting cow's head inside another glass case. Two years ago he decided to bypass the middleman and auctioned off his own works for $220 million.

The same thing has happened to the car industry. We drive Ford, Holden, Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen. The brand is what counts. It doesn't matter that Toyota makes 250 models, not counting the Lexus, Scion, Hino and Daihatsu ranges. Like many large manufacturers, it makes or assembles cars in many countries, from Australia to Argentina, from Egypt to China. So there is no one Toyota. This is not to forget the company has made and continues to make some of the best quality cars in the market, just that no one really drives "a Toyota".

When Rolls-Royce was independent, the same craftsmen made a few cars at the same factory with the occasional body-builder adding the top bit. So you did drive a Rolls-Royce. It's the same for Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Saab, Volvo and so on.

Today, only a few car companies are independent and make their own cars. Morgan hand-builds about 600 cars a year for architects, medical specialists and other eccentrics. While not completely independent, Ferrari makes a few thousand cars a year for drug dealers, property developers and fanatics.

So let me help you find an authentic means of transport. John Kruse from Worldwide Auctioneers is putting on a veritable smorgasbord of uniqueness in Houston in a few weeks. First up is one of only two 1934 Rolls-Royce PII Continental Roadsters built. Actor Tyrone Power (the Russell Crowe of his day) was the fourth owner when he bought the car in the 1950s. It was then bought by the Buess family in 1958. Fred Buess is a classic car restorer and this car, which has been driven by three generations of the family, is as new. Auctioneers RM sold a 1933 PII Continental earlier this year for about $550,000.

Now although Fred Buess may have a serious car collection, no one can beat the small but perfectly formed transport modes owned by Gotham City collector Bruce Wayne. Worldwide is offering some of Wayne's best, plus a car owned by that forerunner to bank chief executives, the Penguin.

One is the 1989 190kW Batmobile. Unfortunately, you won't be catching too many bad guys in this. Based on a GM station wagon chassis, its top speed is about 60km/h. But at a time when style is much more important than substance, it sounds like a monster when the exhaust note is piped through the four exhaust tips. As Kruse says: "Whether shown to a crowd of adults or children, it will cause squeals of excitement to all who view it." Good one, John!

You may remember that, early in his career, Wayne used the Batboat to investigate arms dealers operating along the wharves of Gotham City's Chinatown district. This later version, the Batskiboat, is a darker version of the Batboat. In the movie Batman Returns, Wayne drives the jet-powered hydrofoil through Gotham's sewer system towards the Penguin's lair. The boat comes complete with torpedo launchers, radar and sleek black paint. Perfect for any New Year's Eve on Sydney Harbour.

Finally, Wayne is selling the Batduck, which was one of the Penguin's vehicles before our hero snaffled it. More than 3m tall, the Batduck has six-wheels, with the all important manual side-to-side control of the head.

So the next time friends ask what you drive, step out proudly and say: "The Batduck bro."