Holy catastrophe Batman! A vintage car specialist was saved by his very own Caped Crusader while restoring the Batmobile in an Upper Norwood workshop.

Bob Threader feared he would be labelled The Joker when he realised a rare engine part was the only thing stopping him from reconstructing the famous Batmobile before an auction in London last night.

But, POW! after putting out a Bat-signal, a superhero arrived the form of Barnsley man Steve Woolhouse, who drove 200-miles from South Yorkshire in heavy snow to deliver the elusive water pump to Thomson Garage in Beulah Hill.

Once there, boy wonders Bruce Thompson and son Ollie got to work on restoring the modified 1957 Lincoln Continental, which fetched £120,000 at the auction.

Bob Threader, who runs a business from Bensham Lane, Croydon, said: "Steve really saved our bacon. I do up a lot of old cars for auction and couldn't believe it when I was asked to recommission the Batmobile after long museum storage in Cumbria.

"I had very little space and time before the auction so I sub-contracted it to Thompson Garages. We were having a bit of trouble getting a part and started to panic."

Steve, an American auto part specialist, agreed to drive down to London with the rare water pump on February 8 - braving heavy snow and treacherous driving conditions.

Bob added: "As luck would have it he was a massive Batman fan, as was his little grandson Reece. The pair of them left at 4am, driving through blizzards to deliver the part."

However, BAM! Steve suffered a setback when he realised he had brought the wrong pump.

"We all looked at each other, stunned," added Bob. "But Steve, undeterred, got back into his car and drove back to up Barnsley. He worked through the night to make up the pump specifications and got it to us at the last minute.

"I work with a lot of very interesting historic cars, but when someone asks you to work on the Batmobile it's a bit different. When you drive a £1million Bentley down the road, no one bats an eyelid. But it's a different story when it's the Batmobile."

The vehicle is one of six Batmobile's made for the original cult 1960s TV series, starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as his youthful sidekick, Robin.