The Gotham Garage Concept Car: What Happened?

Much like MTV’s Pimp My Ride or Discovery’s Fast n’ Loud, Netflix’s car-building show Car Masters: Rust to Riches was heavily tainted by controversy, and one of its most famous vehicles only added to that perception. We’re talking about the automotive restoration shop’s unique concept car that was built to be Gotham Garage’s meal ticket and instead became a thorn in the side of the entire team. At least, that’s how it looked on the show.

The concept car is only one half of the project, with a superbike rebuilt to match the car’s extremism, so we must explore this vehicle’s life too. The concept car and bike duo had looks that Gotham Garage owner Mark Towle imagined himself over the course of two decades, but sadly, the story of the Gotham Garage concept car and bike is not so much one of a dream being realized and more one of questionable assertions.

So what happened to it? Did Gotham Garage sell the car in the end, as intended, or was it destroyed?

What Is The Gotham Garage Concept Car?

The Gotham Garage Concept Car is the brainchild of Gotham Garage owner Mark Towle, who had been refining his ideas for a totally unique supercar-style build for 20 years. During working hours, he helps turn old cars into one-of-a-kind creations. As a result, his own idea is totally unlike anything else on the road, and it was exclusively paired with a custom Suzuki Hayabusa superbike that turns just as many heads.

The basis of the four-wheeler is a 1993 C4 Chevrolet Corvette, which produced 405 horsepower and 385 lb-ft of torque when new. According to the show, GG only paid $18,000 for the donor car, and it was in pretty good shape.

As mentioned, the styling was penned by Mark, but the body itself was built by Starr Creations, which specializes in fiberglass bodies. The company supplies wild bodies for competitive monster trucks, so it’s no stranger to bringing the unusual styling of the most vivid imaginations to life.

Open the dihedral Koenigsegg-style doors, and you’ll find the “hand-stitched” custom interior is comprised of brown leather, with new gauges scattered along the center dash console. The seats are Braum units that have been reupholstered, but we hardly see the cabin throughout the show (probably not a bad thing). The wheels are also unique with custom brass inserts, which the crotch rocket replicates in its own two-wheeled way.

The bike has a longer, wider swingarm to accommodate a 300-millimeter rear tire, while the body is constructed of steel. Anybody who has ever experienced a Hayabusa – any Hayabusa – knows that its acceleration is frankly frightening, so in this case, adding weight may have been a good thing.

This beautiful, unmolested Suzuki Hayabusa was apparently acquired in a direct swap for a modified Toyota Prius, and it’s one of the nastiest cars we’ve ever seen. Classic Corvette (front grille) and Ford (taillights) elements are horrendous here, and the fighter jet-style vinyl wrap is no better. We could go on, but you get the idea that this hybrid could only do communities a service by heading straight for the crusher.

An Attempted Online Auction

Once the Gotham Garage concept car was complete, an online auction was staged with six potential bidders appearing via video call to place bids on the car. At the time, the COVID pandemic was making life unpredictable, so the crew figured that the only viable means of making a sale was to approach several well-off collectors in a bid to get them to compete with each other for the privilege of owning the car. Would it sell?

Bidding between the six prospective buyers started at $100,000 and eventually reached $190,000, but Mark Towle wouldn’t accept it. The man who made the final bid decided to stay on the call after bidding was closed to see if he could acquire the concept car and bike duo without the other bidders getting involved. He raised his bid to $205k, then $215k, and finally $225,000.

Sounds like a pretty healthy return on investment, right? Apparently not, and Season 3 of the show ends with the car unsold; Mark wanted at least $250,000, something the rest of the group felt was a tad ambitious.

A Private Sale

The fourth season of the show gives avid viewers some closure in Episode 3, where Nick Smith comes to Gotham Garage on behalf of a mystery party. Nick owns classicavenue.com, a site that helps buyers find unusual vehicles, and he claimed to have a private buyer who had seen the car on the show and become intrigued by it.

Nick offers Mark over $200,000 for the car, but he wouldn’t budge because he knew others had already offered a few grand more. In the process of haggling over the price, we learn that Mark and his team are no longer hoping to get at least $250,000 and instead have set their sights on letting the combo sell for as much as $315,000, an absolutely ludicrous sum.

Finally, a deal is struck at $285,000, and the search for a buyer comes to an end. Big bucks, but were they well-spent?

On Wednesday, April 24, 2024, a source submitted spy photos of the Concept Car to our sister site, HotCars. The Concept Car sported a completely different paint job from the one before, trading in its orange for white and green.

Is The Gotham Garage Concept Car Combo Really Worth $285,000?

In a word, no. In fact, scratch that. Hell no. Like the other motoring-themed shows mentioned at the outset, many of the scenarios in these “reality shows” are staged, including purchase and sale prices, buyer interactions, and even the process of restoring the car. It’s a familiar recipe intended to increase the drama, but for true gearheads, none of these figures add up. We can see the truth right on our screens.

First of all, the fit and finish of both vehicles is shocking, even for a freshman college student who has never even touched a can of Bondo. The stitching doesn’t line up, the leather itself is sagging despite being brand new, the body panels have gaps big enough to lose entire families in, the paint finish is riddled with orange peel, and the entire drivetrain is underwhelming. After 30 years, the C4 Corvette is not exactly a supercar slayer, and these looks belie that. Even the bike, which should have been easy to get right, is poorly finished, and the so-called carbon fiber elements are quite clearly no more than a chintzy wrap. And a poorly applied one at that. The Gotham Garage concept car sale price is almost certainly a lie.

Our Take

Nick, the supposed expert from the classic car sale site, is filmed showing appreciation for the smorgasbord of styling elements found on the concept car, claiming that it is a well-made, handcrafted supercar. Bullsh*t. He points out similarities to epic machines like the McLaren F1, the Spyker C8, and other true supercars, but we’re not buying it.

A true car enthusiast – never mind a classic car expert – would take one distant look at the car and bolt in the opposite direction. No self-respecting intermediary would take a first in-person look at this monstrosity and offer $285,000 on a trusted client’s behalf. People with that kind of cash like unique cars, but they don’t like poor build quality, and both elements of this project are the personification of a cash grab – assuming the sale ever even took place.

Garage crew members claim that they needed at least $250,000 for the car and bike duo to be successful, suggesting that a lot of money had been poured into the project. But with the ‘Vette only costing 18 grand and the bike acquired for similar or less money, not to mention the quality of the work being of a low standard, and the fact that this is a dramatized show, we think it would have been astonishing if the total cost to the Gotham Garage crew exceeded $100,000.

Mark’s suggestion that selling the car too cheaply would dilute the image of the garage makes more sense, but true collectors are a tight-knit bunch, and they talk. If somebody truly paid $285k for the combo, they’d surely tell their peers about it or show it to them in person. That would have been the end of the garage’s reputation among high-end collectors anyway.

The Gotham Garage Lawsuit

As controversial as the story of the concept may have been, it pales in comparison with the situation the crew faced after it built a Batmobile replica. As per The Hollywood Reporter, this was a battle Mark and his crew would not win.

Warner Bros. took Mark to court for violating trademarks and disregarding the copyright protection that the studio felt the Batmobile should enjoy. According to the complainants, the Batmobile is not just a vehicle – it’s a character, and that’s what got Mark on the hook. This started a furious dispute about when a car’s design can and can’t be copyrighted, but the long and the short of it is that those who owned the rights to Speed Racer’s Mach 5 were cool with Mark building replicas, and those behind the Batmobile were not.

Happily for the team, Warner Bros. only sued for $20,000, which is a relatively small sum when you think of how much the garage must have made from the concept. The two Batmobile replicas made reportedly sold for $90,000 each.

What Happened To Gotham Garage?

Is Gotham Garage still open? Yes, and Mark has just announced that Season 5 of Rust to Riches is on the way. That means you can expect to see a lot more wacky and wonderful vehicles finding new life, and if you like that kind of stuff, this show won’t disappoint; we’re sure the team will continue to push the boundaries of style. But if you’re interested in classic automobiles in the best possible market condition, you’d be better off trawling Bring a Trailer.