August 02, 2025
Local News

After delays, Batman’s Tumbler debuts at Volo Auto Museum

By NORTHWEST HERALD

5027: Paul Sher of Bridgewater, New Jersey, works to complete the finishing touches on a nearly year-long reconstruction of a screen-used Tumbler stunt vehicle. The Volo Auto Museum is adding the amazing car to its Batmobile collection. Originally done in a camo exterior, this 1-ton, 17-by-10-foot behemoth is from "The Dark Knight Rises." Visitors to the museum at 27582 Volo Village Road can view it starting mid-April. 5044: The Volo Auto Museum is adding the amazing Tumbler to its Batmobile collection. This 1-ton, 17-by-10-foot behemoth is reconstructed from the wreckage of a screen-used Tumbler stunt vehicle from "The Dark Knight Rises." Visitors to the museum at 27582 Volo Village Road can view it starting mid-April. Shown with the car are Paul Sher, left, and museum Director Brian Grams. 5049: Paul Sher of New Jersey works on finishing touches to a nearly year-long reconstruction project that will culminate in a new exhibit sure to please "Batman" fans. The latest addition to the Volo Auto Museum's Batmobile collection is a 1-ton, 17-by-10-foot Tumbler constructed from the remains of a wrecked stunt vehicle from "The Dark Knight Rises." Visitors to the museum at 27582 Volo Village Road can view it starting mid-April.

VOLO – Transporting and preparing newly acquired vehicles for museum display is routine ops for the Volo Auto Museum – except when it isn’t.

The Tumbler, a 1-ton, 10-by-17-foot beast driven by Batman in the The Dark Knight Trilogy, sparked the most dramatic entrance for a Volo Auto Museum movie car yet. After nearly a year of renovations and delays, the Tumbler made a last-minute dash from New Jersey and underwent a 72-hour work frenzy to get it ready for a sneak peek for those attending the Princesses and Superheroes event April 2.

“This is rare,” Brian Grams, director of the museum, said in a news release. “Not many people have ever seen a Tumbler in person. And a Tumbler on public view? That doesn’t exist.”

After acquiring the chassis and a few broken exterior panels from the wrecked “The Dark Knight Rises” stunt Tumbler last summer, Grams found a New Jersey man qualified to rebuild it. Originally set for a Labor Day unveiling, the date was pushed back to Halloween, then delayed again after Jay Ohrberg-trained car guru Paul Sher had a heart attack.

Sher recovered and continued his work, recreating and attaching more than 16 exterior panels using pieces of wreckage, visuals gained from screen shots and ingenuity. Although Sher would have liked even more time, Grams declined Sher’s most recent deadline extension request.

“We had let people know it would be here for April [2], so that wasn’t an option,” Grams said. “[Sher] worked on it all day Friday, then drove it here from New Jersey, showed up here at noon Saturday and … we literally pulled it out of the shop with the paint still fresh for the event on Sunday.”

Sher remained on the museum grounds April 5 to add final touches to the tank-like car for its official April 15 introduction. The Tumbler joins two other Batman cars in the museum’s collection, Batmobiles from the 1960s TV series and the late 1980s Tim Burton movies.

The museum, 27582 Volo Village Road, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. It features roughly 400 classic, muscle, Hollywood cars and more. Admission is $15 for adults, $9 for children ages 5 to 12 and free for children 4 and younger. For information, call 815-385-3644 or find Volo Auto Museum on Facebook.