1981 DeLorean DMC from Back to the Future

I liked Back to the Future (1985) on so many levels.  Funny, memorable, and highly entertaining, it has near flawless time travel story, at least one that didn't leave a gaping plot hole to ponder with.  It had quirky and goofy characters in George McFly, Biff, and Doc Brown.  Great music.  And, of course, the coolest time machine ever - a De Lorean!

Doc Brown invented time travel in 1985 and built the time machine using a De Lorean.  And according to him, "[I]f you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"  This gave Doc Brown instant street cred for taste.  Not so much for fashion, but taste in cars and gadgets.


Deloreans looked cool and futuristic even by today's standard and Back to the Future was made over 20 years ago.  Sleek aerodynamic body with distinctive pop-up gull wing doors.  The scene at the barn made it look like an alien spaceship, especially since Marty walked out wearing a radiation suit.  Imagine the shock of 1950's farmers when something like this show up on their farm.

The car used in the movie was a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 model, "with a 6-cylinder PRV (Peugeot / Renault / Volvo) engine. The base for the nuclear-reactor was made from the hubcap from a Dodge Polaris. In the 2002 Special-Edition DVD of the BTTF Trilogy, it is incorrectly stated that the DeLorean had a standard 4-cylinder engine." source: IMDB  Later version of the Deloeran in the sequels flew like hovercrafts.

I remember two things for time travel in a 1981 De Lorean DMC:

1. the flux capacitor, the device making time travel possible, needed 1.21 gigawatts (pronounced jigowatts) to work, and
2. the car had to reach 88 mph.
   

Back to the Future was actually a pretty good movie for cars.  It's a retro movie to the 1950's and kids back then were crazy about cars, too.  So there were plenty of vintage cars to be seen.  1940 Ford F-5, 1953 Kaiser Manhattan, 1954 Mercury Monterey, to name a few.

Pictures of Deloreans and their happy owners