The DeLorean DMC-12 was only in production for two years, but it has loomed large in popular culture thanks in part to its prominent role in Robert Zemeckis’ Back To The Future series. The unusual-looking sports car with stainless-steel body panels and gull-wing doors dropped off the market in 1983, shortly after its creator John DeLorean was arrested on charges of drug trafficking—for which he was later found not guilty—and his DeLorean Motor Company went bankrupt. Now, more than three decades later, newly built DeLoreans will be rolling off the production line and onto U.S. highways once again.
Thanks to the recently approved “Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act of 2015,” British mechanic Stephen Wynne, CEO of the reincarnated DeLorean Motor Company, has the go-ahead to begin building replica 1982 DMC-12s. “It’s fantastic. It is a game-changer for us. We’ve been wanting this to happen,” Wynne told Click2Houston. “That was a green light to go back into production. That was prohibited. It was against the law to do it.”
Wynne was able to get his hands on the remaining parts inventory from the defunct DMC back in 1997, and has since been refurbishing old DeLoreans in his Humble, Texas facility and selling them for somewhere between $45,000 and $55,000. He’ll now be able to build about 300 brand-new cars from the parts he has in stock; they’ll be available beginning in early 2017 for an undetermined price (hopefully under $100,000). Unsurprisingly, these new DeLoreans will look very much the way you probably remember them—sans flux capacitor, of course. “There’s no reason to change the appearance of the car,” Wynne said. “As we go into the program, we’ll decide what areas need to be freshened up.”
[h/t Coming Soon]