Whether heading to work or running errands, Tom Ziegelbauer turns heads.

“No way,” some remark. Others pull out their phones to snap a pic. But for Brighton-based Ziegelbauer, it’s just a normal day — a normal day driving the Batmobile, that is.

“People are really shocked that its my daily driver,” he said. “I always say, ‘If you could drive the Batmobile on a daily basis, wouldn’t you?”

The Corvette C7 Stingray boasts custom-printed Bat logos, sleek red lining, a speech system, a front bumper grill and the mysterious aura of the Dark Knight himself.

It’s no surprise that Ziegelbauer helped found the Geek Garage, an ever-growing registry of themed vehicles, back in 2019 with his wife, Stacey, Aurora-based Rob Penna and L.A.-based Michael Johns. While three of the four founders are from Colorado — and many of the listed automobiles are from the Centennial State — the Geek Garage is the largest international directory of themed cars.

With cars likes the iconic Jurassic Park Jeep, unique renditions of the Ecto-1 and the Green Hornet’s Black Beauty, the space features vehicles from Orlando, Fla., to Fruitvale, Canada.

“We thought, why make something that is regionally based — let’s make this something that’s international,” Tom said.

His current Batmobile was born out of years of work — in fact, it’s the third version he has completed.

The pursuit started more than a decade ago in Minnesota, when Tom went to a Halloween party as Batman. To complete the role, he cut out a white bat symbol and taped it to his black BMW at the time.

From there, he was inspired. Once the couple moved to Colorado in 2011, Tom began working on his first version of the Batmobile.

“As I was starting on my first project, my wife said, ‘Well, sure you can do this one — as long as we turn your old car into a Wonder Woman-themed car for me,’” he said. And he did. Stacey is now on version two of her Wonder Woman-themed car, named “Wonder Mini.” Stacey chose the Justice League character for her wits and independence, she said.

“She’s just my favorite character. She’s independent and she uses her mind and she’s respected for it. Not every woman gets to do those things,” Stacey said. “I wasn’t even really into comics until we moved to Colorado. I just knew that if Tom was gonna be Batman, it was a logical step for me to be Wonder Woman.”

The pair had always been into car culture, but, it wasn’t until the pair moved to Colorado that they fully embraced their more geeky sides.

“We just finally felt like we had found a home,” Stacey said. “The whole car culture that we had already been exposed to merged with the geek culture that we finally felt we could embrace.”

Each member has their own reason behind the theme of their cars. For Stacey, it’s been a fun way to inspire young girls.

“It’s really nice to see little girls get excited because Wonder Woman, even though she’s had two movies, it’s still not as mainstream as like Batman or Superman,” Stacey said. “It’s super fun to see young girls and women get excited to see a vehicle that represents a female character.”

For Penna, who drives “JP36” inspired by the ’92 Jeep Wranglers seen in “Jurassic Park”, it’s about sharing fun memories of the movies people grew up with.

“That was one of my favorite movies when I was growing up, and one of those things that I said was, ‘Man, I really would love to have one of those cars,’” Penna said. “It’s just kind of a fun, different thing to see people react to. We bring people back to good memories where they saw those films or those TV shows and what it meant to them.”

While Tom drives the Batmobile daily, Penna only fires up the Jeep on occasion. The Geek Garage presents their cars at events around the state and country, from different pop culture cons and car shows to charity events, which they do free of charge.

“From a mission standpoint, these aren’t vehicles that are sitting in a museum somewhere. We want people to experience the vehicle and to receive the same type of joy that we had building them, so we do a lot of events,” Tom said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the drivers set up parades.

“The pandemic was the period of car parades, trying to bring joy to people when they’re stuck in their homes not feeling well, and we did lots and lots of parades together throughout that period just trying to bring joy to other people in a safe way,” Penna said. “That’s something that we continue to this day, just trying to brighten people’s day wherever we can.”

Sharing their passion with others, especially those who might be new to the community, is a big part of the Geek Garage.

“It’s just a great conversation starter for people. I’m a people person. I love finding out about people,” Tom said.

“It’s fun to be able to express yourself in the vehicle that you drive,” Stacey added. “It’s a way to meet new people and share a little brightness with them.”

Details are key, from custom paint jobs to creative interior features. The group is constantly sharing new ideas and collaborating, especially with tech-involved projects such as speaker systems and lighting effects.

“It’s not necessarily the same genres or things that we’re interested in. However, we’re always picking up from each other,” Tom said.

The drivers seem to agree on one thing about their cars: it’s always a work in progress. Stacey described her vehicle as a “constantly shifting piece of art.”

“It’s never done. It’s something that I’m still trying to get as accurate as I can and as close to the movies as I can and searching for these parts that haven’t been made in 30 years,” Penna said.

But the cars wouldn’t nearly be as fun without the community.

“I think that nerds and geeks and people like us, we kind of grew up in that space where we were maybe the outsiders. So when you find a community of like-minded people, it feels like home,” Penna said.