PEORIA MAGAZINE April 2023

S P O T L I G H T

CENTRAL ILLINOIS’ OWN CAPED CRUSADER John Bisanz of Washington has built his own Batmobile and he loves showing it off

BY PHIL LUCIANO PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

S ome boys want to grow up to be a policeman. Others want to be a fireman. John Bisanz wanted to be Batman. In a way, the real estate agent has achieved his goal. “Realtor by day and Caped Crusader by night,” he says with a laugh. The 61-year-old Washington man doesn’t fight crime like Batman. But he does drive a Batmobile. Bisanz spent the last 10 years and as much as $150,000 creating a re markable facsimile of the centerpiece

vehicle from the campy ‘60s TV show: a 1966 Batmobile. Back then, a young Bisanz was riveted by the program. Not by the crimefighting heroes, not by the crazy villains, but by the car. “The car was always the thing,” he said. Since his teens, Bisanz has been a gearhead. He has a 4,000-square foot-garage that he lovingly calls “my man cave,” though he plans to start calling it, more appropriately, his “bat cave.” There he parks 10 rather non-conventional vehicles, including a Mayberry police cruiser from “The Andy Griffith Show,” a

1969 ambulance, a Dodge Viper and a custom race car. But even as his collection grew over the years, he yearned for that missing piece. “I’ve always been into cars,” he said before correcting himself. “I’ve always been into the weird cars. And there’s nothing weirder than the Batmobile.” But replicas can cost well into six figures. Bisanz never had that much spare cash lying around. “It’s all about time and money,” he said. So more than a decade ago, he started to make plans to assemble a Batmobile piece by piece.

62 APRIL 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE