This week we are going Back to the Future with the 1981 DeLorean DMC-12. This car first was seen in the movie Back to the Future where Marty Mcfly and Doc meet at a shopping mall one night and Doc explains to Marty what he has been working on.

It was a modified DeLorean DMC-12. The vehicle is powered by plutonium which supplies 1.21 Gigawatts of power to a device Doc calls the “Flux Capacitor.” Unfortunately the Libyan terrorists show up (the ones Doc stole the plutonium from) so Marty jumps into the car after watching Doc get shot and takes off hitting the infamous 88 MPH on the way the Delorean takes off on a wild trip to the past!

For obvious reasons the Delorean was modified to make it look more like a time machine. The car had its 6 cylinder sluggish motor replaced with a Porsche 8 Cylinder engine to help the car hit its 88 MPH mark to time travel. The base of the DeLorean’s nuclear reactor was constructed from a hubcap taken from a Dodge Polara. Aircraft parts and blinking lights were added for additional effects. In later movies the Delorean would turn into a transforming flying car, that could fly and drive. This of course was also powered by Mr. Fusion, the unit that hangs on the back of the car.

As we all know the Delorean was a huge flop and did not sell well at all. There is a ton of history on the car and the original run produced only 8,583 cars. The first prototype appeared in October of 1976, and the production began in 1981 in Dunmurry, Ireland. During the production several changes were made like the hood, wheels, and interior. Production was halted in 1983. The Delorean sported gull-wing doors, unpainted stainless steel body panels, and a rear-mounted engine. The engine is a Peugeot Renault Volvo (PRV) 2.85 Litre V6 which was design and built under special contract with the DMC Company. The price was $12,000 for one of these puppies back in the day which now equates to $64,852 in 2013. The Delorean had horrible build quality and that pretty much ended the life of this car.

Thank God for Back to the Future so we can always take a trip back to remember this great Iconic movie car. I grew up always watching these movies and wanting a Delorean of my own. As I got older I looked into these cars in more detail and found the horrors of what the Delorean was. All the doors leaked, the cars were incredibly slow (nothing like what the film portrayed) and at the time it was very hard to find parts for it. However, now there is a new company in Texas that has obtained a lot of the left over parts from the original company that had gone into liquidation when it closed years ago.