The return of the DeLorean

I'll spare you all the tedious "Back to the Future" jokes and simply note that the DeLorean will be back in 2008, and what's more they'll be manufactured locally.

We sat down with James Espey, veep of the DeLorean Motor Company, one of a large corporate contingent in Detroit on Saturday for the Woodward Dream Cruise. They were there to cater to the large number of DeLorean enthusiasts in town to cruise their classic flux-capacitor-carrying time machines. The burning question we had was whether the AP story was correct in hinting that DMC would again be building DeLoreans. His response was absolutely clear:

"Job one will begin the third quarter of this year, with delivery by Q1 of 2008. We're aiming for $57,500 as the sale price."

And yes, we're also told it will look like a DeLorean -- square nose, gull-wings and all. This time, instead of attempting to mass produce the cars, the DeLorean folks will be building them by hand at their assembly plant in the li'l town of Humble, Texas. No word yet on issues regarding EPA testing or production numbers (we didn't think to ask), but the Detroit News is claiming it'll be one or two a month.

Pretty cool. There's pictures to ooh and aah over if you're excited by this. Link via Gizmodo and O-Dub.

Now here's a question, since I brought up the movie. If "Back to the Future" were a 2005 release instead of a 1985 release, what kind of car do you think Doc Brown would have put the time machine in to give it the requisite coolness factor? DeLoreans would have been in pretty short supply, so what would have stood in for them? Leave your substitutions in the comments.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on August 25, 2007 to Bidness