16.12.08

Genuine Imitation: Order a brand-new, custom-made 007 classic re-creation thingy...Or "I'm ordering a Batboat!"








A company called "Fiber Classic" started taking orders for a brand-new, re-created, classic 007 Bond boat, from "Live and Let Die." If they're building James Bond re-makes, why not an even cooler Glastron: The Batboat?!
Check out the video for a bit of a background, and weigh-in if you think it may be the best "Bond" song ever, as well. Short of the theme, of course. (Don't want any 007 fans to shoot me with a fake pen at a convention anytime.) 
The soundtrack morphs into the re-make by Guns and Roses, and then shows how to get a "New" old boat:



Yes, you can now get a fresh off the shelf, brand-new, fake, recreated-from-scratch version of one of the coolest boats ever made: The Glastron GT-150. This is one of the first "muscle boats" for everyman. It was affordable, solid, fun and most importantly, light. With a 50-horse on the tail, it could pull two skiers and get on plane in ten seconds. With an 85-horse, it could beat almost anything on the lake and pull a (dropped-ski) bare-footer. With a 115-horse? It ruled the lake. There are plenty of stories of folks who bought a GT-150, and then went to another dealer and ordered a big ass Mercury 150-horse "tallboy" and "re-stickered" it to look like a 115, for insurance purposes. A few dealers had an extra 115-hp sitting around, and probably made out pretty well. The boats would do over 65-mph with the right prop, trim and lightened up. Tweaked and "greased" - a way of waxing the hull - it pushed 70-mph and beyond. That's cooking on the water!



Why a Glastron for James Bond? It sure helped that Glastron previously got the call for one of the most visible boats in all of media: The famous "Batboat."
The Batboat is seen here undergoing initial break-out runs, with creator and chief engineer Mel Whitley at the helm. It is a fascinating story behind the machine(s) and their fate is chronicled very closely at the site. Unfortunately, one of the true original Batboats was turned into a, gasp, CAR! (No, I don't get it either.)






While the other original apparently got lost along the way, and was believed to have ended up in South America.




I can see it now: Kathleen Turner, (now ACTUALLY a horse-voiced, semi-retired, former vixen wannabe romance novelist) who while on "holiday," gets tangled up with a Drug Cartel kingpin. (I hate when that happens on vacation! ) Her old friend Michael Douglas happens to be in nearby Columbia, (undergoing hyper-baric chamber treatments to prolong his life, and allow him to keep up with wife Catherine Zeta-Jones) when he gets the call from Turner. (Squeeze your throat with a belt while mumbling) "Michael, dahling, I'm in it up to my ahm-pits with a silly older fella. Please assist." Then they meet the Drug Lord (portrayed by, hmm, someone lost to time, maybe a slurry-speeched Dick Clark?) Who later tries to outrun "The Federales," and takes them on an exotic river run in the original Batboat, which he hides in a camo shed along the banks. He bought the rare classic with crack money at an auction in Bogotta. As he launches the classic into the Amazon, the bat-theme plays and Turner and Douglas must be stuffed into "lil buddy" Robin's chair. It's an uncomfortable and highly-sexually charged moment for our stars. Then the drug lord proclaims "Say hello to my yill bat-friend!"




No quote yet on my Batboat, I'm guessing twenty large, plus licensing fees. (Of course, I could find a tattered Glastron V-174 on e-Bay in Missouri for $400, drive a 12-mpg pickup down for a delivery, and get into all kinds of adventures along the way...)


1 comment:

FiberClassic said...

Hey, thanks for the "write up" on us! We just love building the old style classic boats!

We want to build the Bat Boat too!
If anyone is willing to help with the funds to create a new mold to produce it; get in touch with us!

Yours truly,
FiberClassic Boat Manufacturing