DeLorean DMC-12, The Back To The Future Car
The DeLorean Story is Full of Intrigue, Just Like the Movie...
The Back To The Future trilogies featured a much modified DeLorean DMC-12 which, according to the movie, under certain atmospheric conditions could travel in time.
When John DeLorean commissioned Formula One design innovator Colin Chapman of Lotus cars in England to design a world class sports car in 1979, little did he know that the car would become one of the most famous movie cars.
For the movie car, it all started in 1981. About to make a movie about a car that will travel through time, director Robert Zemeckis needed an exotic sports car to take the lead role, at least as far as the props go! The solution? A DMC-12 DeLorean.
Original DeLorean
Manufacture of the original DeLoreans began in 1981 at a factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland. The company was funded by the British government to bring employment to a recession-hit area of the UK. But the company only lasted a little over a year, producing around 8,500 DMC-12 cars in that time. The car proved to be quite popular in the US, and has a large following to this day – partly because of the movie.
The standard street car had many unique features, including an unpainted stainless steel body which was overlaid onto a fiberglass body, and gull-winged doors. The engine was a 2.8 liter V6 PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo). But none of these features could match the movie version. With its “flux capacitor” the car simply had to travel at exactly 88 mph and ….
Time Travel Conversions
So popular was the movie that fans have converted all sorts of cars (and trucks!) to look like the iconic machine, even going to the trouble of buying Krups® Coffina Super coffee grinders; these were modified then used for the exhausts on the DeLorean in the movie. There are websites dedicated to the movie, sites offering collectables and many forums.
Interestingly, the original script had Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) traveling through time in a refrigerator! That is until Steven Spielberg (the executive producer) pointed out that children may imitate the movie and lock themselves in a refrigerator to go back in time.
The End for DeLorean Cars
So what happened to the car company, DeLorean? Of the £20 million invested by the UK government, £17.5 million went to a Panamanian company, theoretically to pay Lotus and other creditors. An investigation was launched by the UK government and owner/founder John DeLorean was eventually arrested on drug trafficking charges, but the case was dismissed on a technicality. Chaos subsequently enveloped the company and it was eventually closed.
Today, there are DeLorean car clubs all over the world and a Texas-based company also offers new – reproduced – DeLoreans.
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