EPISODE NUMBER: 31, Production Code 305

PLOT SUMMARY:

The Gotham City Speedway holds a race in downtown Gotham, with each racer driving for the charity of their choice, and Bruce has entered as the only non-professional driver. An unregistered vehicle enters into the race as Commissioner Gordon and his daughter Barbara look on, and the new entrant quickly pulls ahead of the other drivers, including Bruce. The press move in and the driver emerges – a costumed figure with a cybernetic arm. He introduces himself as Gearhead and uses an extendible arm from his car to steal the charity money.

As the police close in, Gearhead races off and quickly evades the pursuit. Later Bruce reviews the tapes and concludes he’s in it for the thrills, not the money. Bruce gets a Batwave signal of another crime and leaves as Gearhead intercepts an armored car. He fires a missile that injects nanoviruses to takes control of the armored car by remote, but is interrupted by Batman’s arrival. Batman pursue Gearhead past Barbara, who is taking a driving school curse. She gives pursuit, much to the astonishment of her instructor, but quickly drops out of the “race” when she skids out. Batman continues his pursuit but Gearhead starts endangering other drivers and pedestrians, and Batman goes off the road and off a cliff. He manages to eject just in time as the Batmobile plummets into a ravine and is destroyed.

Bruce hauls the wrecked Batmobile to the Batcave and goes to work retooling one of his prototypes into a new improved Batmobile. Using Wayne Enterprise research and resources, he begins the process of rebuilding with Alfred’s help. He installs a power core that is unstable at high speeds, while working with a sample of Gearhead’s nanoviruses to make the Batmobile immune to it. At home, the Commissioner is less than enthused about Barbara’s driving problems and after he leaves, she heads out into the streets. Bruce gets a Batwave of a new Gearhead crime and with the power core not fully charged, needs another vehicle.

Gearhead intercepts the Gotham bullet train while Batman arrives on the Batcycle and disables Gearhead’s grappling arm. Batman switches on the autopilot then boards Gearhead’s vehicle as Batgirl arrives. She spots the Batcycle and boards it, then switches it off of auto-pilot and heads off in pursuit. Batman manages to damage Gearhead’s car and he’s forced to eject, leaving it to crash as Batman swings clear just in time. But the vehicle reverts to a normal car while Gearhead takes a nearby scooter and converts it into a souped up version – he can inject his nano-technology into any vehicle, converting it to his needs.

Batman gives pursuit and summons the Batcycle, but realizes it’s under Batgirl’s control. He calls Alfred who informs him the power core charging is complete, and Alfred prepares it for departure. Batman summons it by remote while Batgirl follows Gearhead into a junkyard. He injects it with a nano-virus missile that takes it over and destroys it, and then she engages him in combat. She activates a crane magnet and attracts him to it, but he takes it over and has it extend cables to grab her. He then grows a pair of cybernetic claws, but they’re interrupted by Batman’s arrival in his new Batmobile. Gearhead calls rematch and augments a junker into his new vehicle while Batgirl gets on board with Batman.

Gearhead takes off with Batman in hot pursuit and the Caped Crusader is able to keep up thanks to the augmented power core. Batman knocks Gearhead’s vehicle down a hill where he’s forced to abandon ship, then attacks the Batmobile with his cybernetic arm. Batman emerges to engage in a little hand-to-hand, and Gearhead makes a grab fro the Batmobile. He tries to take it over but Batman uses his counter-nano-technology to immobilize him then shock him into unconsciousness.

Later in the Batcave, Bruce manages to stabilize the power core and he decides he’ll be keeping it, and decides to take it out for a spin.

WRITTEN BY: Christopher Yost

DIRECTED BY: Christopher Berkley

CAST:
Rino Romano (Bruce Wayne / Batman)
Danielle Judovits (Barbara Gordon / Batgirl)
Alastair Duncan (Alfred Pennyworth)
Mitch Pileggi (Commissioner James Gordon)
Will Friedle (Gearhead)
Fred Willard (Speedway Announcer)

QUOTES:
Gearhead: "I won your little race, so I'm taking the prize money and giving it to my favorite charity: me, Gearhead!"

Alfred: (to the new Batmobile) "Come back in one piece, won't you?"

INTERESTING NOTES:
- Will Friedle, voice of Gearhead, played Terry McGinnis / Batman on Batman Beyond.
- Joker asks how many rounds Batgirl can go with "Sugar Ray Joker." This is a reference to the boxer Sugar Ray Leonard who won multiple boxing titles in the 1980s.
- Gearhead first appeared in Detective Comics #712 (August 1997).
- The title is making reference to Revolutions Per Minute, the speed of movement of a wheel.
- One of Bruce Wayne's Batmobile prototypes is the Batmobile from the Tim Burton films. View The Pic!

SCREEN GRABS: