Hi Misfits,

today it's all about the DeLorean. A short-lived car, but thanks to Back To The Future still a worldwide known manufacturer. And the DeLorean isn't dead. All about this and more here with the story and facts. Also lots about the movie car. If you just enjoy pics, feel free to skip all these following lines.

The story of the DeLorean DMC-12 is one of the most fascinating ones in automotive history. It begins with John Zachary DeLorean. By the late 1960s, he was a rising star credited with creating the legendary Pontiac GTO, which effectively launched the American "muscle car" era.
In 1973 DeLorean walked away from GM. In 1975, he founded the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) to build an "ethical," safe, durable, and unique sports car.
Italian master designer Giorgetto Giugiaro penned the iconic, raked wedge shape. It featured unpainted, brushed stainless-steel body panels and dramatic gull-wing doors. DMC partnered with Colin Chapman, the legendary founder of Lotus, to engineer the car’s backbone chassis and suspension. Finding the right powerplant proved difficult. DMC ultimately settled on a 2.85-litre PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) V6 engine mounted in the rear. Sadly a pretty weak engine with only just about 130hp output. The same engine in e.g. the Renault Alpine had much better specs.

DMC built a state-of-the-art factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, just outside Belfast. The first production DeLorean rolled off the assembly line on January 21, 1981. However, trouble mounted immediately:

Quality Issues: The factory workforce was largely inexperienced, leading to early issues with panel alignment, electrical glitches, and build quality.
Underwhelming Performance
Price Inflation: Originally named the DMC-12 because it was intended to cost $12,000, delays and inflation pushed the final retail price to $25,000. This made it more expensive than a Porsche 911 or a Corvette at the time.
By late 1981, DMC had manufactured 7,500 cars but only sold roughly 3,000.

In 1982, the company was placed into receivership. In October 1982, the British government announced it was shutting down the Dunmurry plant. Just one day later, a desperate John DeLorean was arrested by the FBI in a Los Angeles hotel room. He was videotaped agreeing to bankroll a $24 million cocaine trafficking ring in a last-ditch effort to secure cash to save his company.
Though DeLorean was later acquitted in 1984, but his reputation was completely destroyed. The DeLorean Motor Company filed for bankruptcy in late 1982. In total, only about 9,000 DeLoreans were ever produced.

The factory was closed and the company dead, but the car’s true legacy was about to begin. In 1985, Universal Pictures released Back to the Future. Director Robert Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale chose the DeLorean to serve as Doc Brown's time machine because its futuristic design made it look like an alien spaceship to people in 1955.

Some fun facts about the Back to the Future movie car:

The Fusion Reactor: The "Mr. Fusion" home energy reactor added to the back of the car at the end of the first movie was actually made from a Krups Coffina coffee grinder.
The Cooling Vents: The massive, smoking exhaust vents on the back of the car were constructed using industrial aircraft parts and surplus equipment found by the special effects team. [
The Lights: The bright blue neon-style lights used during the time-travel sequences were actually made from electroluminescent sheets that had to be carefully wired around the car's body panels.
The Speedometer: In the movie, Marty McFly has to hit exactly 88 mph to travel through time. However, a standard 1981 DeLorean only had a factory speedometer that went up to 85 mph.
Engine Swap: The stock 130-horsepower engine was far too slow for the fast-paced stunt driving, so the special effects team swapped out the original engine in one of the cars and replaced it with a powerful V8 engine taken from a Ford Mustang.
The Sound Illusion: The real DeLorean engine sounded quite weak and high-pitched, so they completely dubbed over the car's audio tracks using the deep, aggressive roar of a Porsche 928 V8 engine.
Dodge Polaris Hubcaps: The distinct nuclear reactor core/vents seen inside the plutonium chamber in the first movie were made from flipped-over 1960s hubcaps.
Medical Equipment Box: The silver "Plutonium Case" Marty loads into the car was a recycled military-grade medical supply box fitted with custom plastic cylinder inserts.
Torque Tubes and Jet Engine Parts: Many of the pipes and tubes snaking around the sides of the car were discarded hydraulic lines from old passenger jets. The thick black cables running along the exterior of the car's stainless steel panels were standard welding cables held down by industrial suction cups and kitchen-sink plumbing brackets.
Radio Shack Calculators: The "Time Circuits" display on the dashboard used early LED numeric displays, and the housing unit itself was built using parts from consumer calculator cases and electronic project boxes.

Building a Back to the Future Time Machine replica requires a significant financial investment, with the total cost generally ranging between $125,000 and $200,000 if you hire professionals.

Prices just for the car:

Project Cars ($30,000 – $40,000)
Good "Driver" Condition ($55,000 – $70,000)
DMC Factory Refurbished ($100,000+)
Professional Turnkey Builders ($65,000 – $100,000)
The DIY Route ($15,000 – $25,000 in parts)
High-quality, fully finished BTTF Time Machine replicas regularly sell for $150,000 to $220,000.

The Controversial Modern EV Startup

There is a completely separate company called DeLorean Motors Reimagined (also based in Texas) that owns the modern trademark rights. They made massive global headlines by announcing the DeLorean Alpha5—a highly anticipated, sleek, all-electric luxury sports car with gull-wing doors. They promised a futuristic EV with a 300-mile range that could hit 0-88 mph in just over 4 seconds. The company has faced major lawsuits over intellectual property, struggled to secure manufacturing deals, and underwent sudden executive changes. Production has faced severe delays, leaving many buyers who paid thousands to reserve a vehicle frustrated.

But the DeLorean still lived on. Here are some noteable revivals, restomods and manufacturers:

DNG Motors (DeLorean Next Generation)
Spearheaded by Kathryn DeLorean, the daughter of the original company's founder, John DeLorean. The Concept: Operating as DeLorean Next Generation (DNG Motors), this company is building a brand-new sports car meant to finish her father’s legacy. The Engine: DNG partnered with General Motors to base their new vehicle on the mid-engine C8 Chevrolet Corvette chassis and architecture. It features a roaring 6.2L LT1 V8 engine pushing out 490 to 495 horsepower. DNG also plans for the Model JZD to feature a fully electric drivetrain

Lynx Motors (DMC-EV)
The Concept: Lynx takes original or newly manufactured chassis components to create an officially licensed electric restomod with four independent, in-wheel electric motors providing an aggressive all-wheel-drive system. With a heavy price tag: these limited-run factory builds start at $249,999.

Plug-and-Play EV Factory: Electrogenic & Classic DMC
The official Classic DMC factory in Texas works directly with EV engineering firms like Electrogenic to offer official drop-in powertrain conversions. The Concept: You purchase a restored classic chassis from Classic DMC, and they install a pre-engineered, drop-in electric crate motor system. This conversion bumps the power output up to 215 horsepower and 229 lb-ft of torque.

John DeLorean and his creation

With Designer Giorgetto Giugiaro

The 2.85 Litre PRV Engine

1981 DMC-12

1982 DMC-12

European Right-hand drive DMC-12

black paintjob

red paintjob

24-Carat American Express Edition (2x sold)

BTTF 1

BTTF 1 - cold with ice after the time jump

Where we're going we don't need....roads!

BTTF 2

Mr. Fusion

Mr. Fusion - a Krups coffee maker

also used on the Nostromo from "Alien"

BTTF 3

BTTF 3

The engine sound you've heard in BTTF:

Factory Twin Turbo Prototype

Twin Turbo Engine

DNG Motors

DNG Motors

DNG Motors

DNG Motors C8 based DeLorean

LYNX DMC-EV

Plug-and-Play EV Factory: Electrogenic & Classic DMC

DeLorean Alpha5

Factory in Humble, TX

Factory in Humble, TX

Troy McClures DMC in the Simpsons

in American Dad

The Wedding Singer

Ready Player One

One Million Ways To Die In The West (great little scene!!)

Monster Truck

6-Door

Hovercraft

German EV Concept

Will.I.Ams IAMAUTO

700hp Twin Turbo Widebody

Custom

V8 Swap

Retro paintjob

Widebody Turbo

Time-Machine Cab

Restomod

Notable DeLorean owner are/were: Johny Carson, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Varney (Ernest!!), Patrick Swayze, David Prowse and Kenny Rogers!

A quick throwback to the recent Lotus-Gallery:

By 1978, the development of the DeLorean was in severe jeopardy. The original chief engineer, Bill Collins, had planned to build the car using an experimental plastic fabrication method called Elastic Reservoir Moulding (ERM). When ERM proved entirely unsuitable for mass production, Lotus took over the engineering and completely overhauled the design.

The Chassis: Lotus scrapped the unworkable plastic body structure. In its place, they implemented a steel backbone chassis. This setup was heavily borrowed and adapted directly from the iconic Lotus Esprit.
The Suspension: Lotus completely designed the independent four-wheel suspension. They utilised a double-wishbone setup at the front and a multi-link layout at the rear, fine-tuning it to give the car its praised ride comfort and handling traits.
Testing & Prototyping: Lotus built several pre-production fiberglass test mules—known in the factory as "black cars"—at their facilities in Hethel to iron out the car's driving dynamics.

For our gamers out there (I am - since more than 40 years, starting with the VCS2600), here's a PS5 title that's coming soon. A feast for car-lovers. The former "Stuntman" game on the PS2 was one of the hardest games ever, but what a joy to play through. Besides others, the Time Machine will be a part of it:

And Sean Bean "owned" one in Mobys "We Are All Made Of Stars" music video (at least he didn't die here....):