Humble, Texas - Stephen Wynne has waited a long time to revive the DMC-12 sports car that was made famous in the 1980s by the movie Back to the Future.
After starting his own business to restore the sports cars 25 years ago, Wynne eventually bought the rights to the DeLorean brand as well as a huge stash of parts from the factory that shut its doors in 1983, and in 2016 he announced a plan to produce new DMC-12s in limited volumes.
Unfortunately that plan hit a roadblock as it depended on a new law called the Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act which would exempt it from modern safety and emissions standards in the US. However, the implementation of that act was stalled after the last presidential election and it has taken a lawsuit from The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) to get it back on track.
That of course, opens the door to those new DeLoreans, and now its vice president James Espey has confirmed to US publication
that the company is getting ready for low-volume production, although it is not opening the order book just yet as the US regulations are still awaiting final approval.
The cars will be made from a mixture of unused parts from the original factory as well as newly made components, Hagerty reports, and they will of course still feature stainless steel body panels and gullwing doors. The 'new' DeLoreans will be upgraded to modern standards in some ways though, with the cars reportedly set to receive a more modern cabin with the latest electronics as well as a much-needed engine upgrade. The original sports cars were powered by a 2.8-litre V6 Renault-Peugeot engine that produced less than 100kW, but Epsey says the new DMC-12s will receive a 260kW engine, although he did not specify exactly where it would be sourced from.
The original DeLorean car company was based in Ireland and it launched its first and only car in 1981 but it failed to set the sales charts alive, with less than 9000 produced before chief executive John DeLorean became embroiled in a financial scandal.
But this is how most of us will remember the DMC-12: