Illustration Back To The Future 1981 DeLorean

Back To The Future 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 Austenitic Stainless Steel

The DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future is one of the most iconic movie cars ever created. The car that featured in the Back to the Future trilogy, is a modified DMC DeLorean equipped with a flux capacitor that enables time travel, both to the past and the future. To journey through time, the car must reach 88 miles per hour and be powered by 1.21 gigawatts of electricity, as seen in the films, this can be plutonium, lightning or later a Mr Fusion running on household rubbish.

The production team purchased three 1981 DeLorean DMC-12’s for the movie, A, B and C. The A-car was the “hero” car, and remained completely assembled with all exterior and interior props for beauty shots and close-ups. The B-car was used for stunt driving scenes and was just the exterior of the A-car, whilst the inside remained a regular DMC-12. The C-car was just for interior shots. The cramped interior made things difficult for the film crew and their large cameras, so they replicated the A-car’s interior perfectly, but the “frunk” was cut out so that the large film cameras could be mounted to shoot interior scenes. The back half was also cut off to mount additional equipment to power the cameras, lights, and the interior practical effects.

One other alteration was the speedometer. Most cars back in 1981 didn’t have a speedometer that read past 85 mph, so the production team created a fake speedometer template that went up to 95 mph, just so they could get a dramatic shot of the needle continuing to move as the car gained speed.

Also available in a version with wheels up and/or a famous film quote.