“Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Doc, are you telling me you built a time machine . . . out of a DeLorean?” Marty McFly might as well have been speaking for the entire audience of mystified moviegoers in what has become an iconic scene from Robert Zemeckis’s 1985 hit Back to the Future.
The DeLorean Motor Co., a small Texas-based firm, recently announced that it will restart production of the famous DeLorean DMC-12 sports car. Thanks in large part to the Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act, a new law that, among other things, makes it more financially viable for carmakers to produce small numbers of vintage motor vehicles, the company plans to build and sell 300 new DeLoreans annually for the next four years.
To ensure the cars are as close to the original specifications as possible, DeLorean will use many existing parts—which have spent decades in a warehouse in Belfast, Northern Ireland—though the cassette player and measly 130 horsepower engine won’t make it into the new model. The company has confirmed that the new engine, which will come from a yet-to-be-announced manufacturer, will be “considerably more powerful.” What’s more, the company says the new car will include bigger wheels, a sturdier braking system, and top-of-the-line shock absorbers. In other words, customers will get a near-replica of the original car that has safer, updated technology.
The new DeLoreans, the first produced since 1983, are expected to be finished in 2017, and will be priced around $100,000.
