Image via Chick-fil-A Cookeville/Facebook
Truett Cathy, founder of Chic-fil-A, might be known to many as the man who made the chicken sandwich a rock star, but to many gearheads he was a brother. The man used part of his vas fortune to acquire quite the collection of rides, including one of the Batmobiles used in the filming of Batman Returns.
Check out Clint Eastwood’s impressive car collection.
In fact, the Chick-fil-A founder showed up to work one day driving the Batmobile. He even dressed up as Batman, all in the name of making work a little entertaining.
Cathy’s automotive roots run deep, dating to back before he opened that first chicken sandwich shop. He used to work at a Ford assembly plant in Atlanta, which helped feed his hobby. But once he became a billionaire, the man could really get to work amassing a collection using his discerning eye.
Not only are many of the rides in Cathy’s collection expensive and rare, they hold deep historical significance. Among the many cars is George Glaze’s Brewster 8 Town Car, Mike Tyson’s custom-built six-wheeled 1992 Range Rover, movie star Eva Gabor’s 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II, former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert’s 1937 Lincoln Continental.
Sitting in the collection is a pristine 1983 Lamborghini Countach LP500 S, an icon from the 80s which helped recruit a whole generation of gearheads to the hobby.
But not everyone Cathy acquired was a deep history lesson. He also loved pop culture, in particular movies, so he bought a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 with a mere 634 miles on the clock as a tribute to the Back to the Future series.
The oldest car in Cathy’s collection, which is still housed at the Chick-fil-A headquarters, is a 1900 Packard Model B. Among the historically significant features on the classic is the first glovebox, a feature which later would become standard in virtually every vehicle.
Truett Cathy was quite the gearhead, even if most remember him for his venerable chicken sandwiches.
Images via Chick-fil-A Cookeville/Facebook
