Great Scott! It’s back, but there doesn’t look to be a V6 engine or flux capacitor in sight.
DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) has teased its reimagined DeLorean sports car in a short video ahead of its global reveal in 2022.
UPDATE, 01/03/2022 – ItalDesign has confirmed on Facebook that DeLorean will officially reveal its reimagined DeLorean electric sports car at the 2022 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on August 21st.
“We are very excited that the next evolution of the DeLorean brand will be represented by our storied partnership with ItalDesign,” said DeLorean CMO Troy Beetz.
“[It’ll be] a vehicle that will showcase our vision of the future.”
DMC is remaining very tight-lipped about this new model, but in the hashtags accompanying the social media post it reads “#ElectricVehicle”.
It’s unclear what power and torque outputs the new DeLorean will make at this stage, nor how many electric motors it’ll have.
Not to be confused with the original company founded by John Z. DeLorean, this new version of DMC was founded by British-born mechanic Stephen Wynne in 1995 when he acquired the original company’s name, logo trademark and remaining parts inventory.
DMC is based in Humble, Texas and for the past 15 years has been producing refurbished DeLorean models and new parts. It also later introduced merchandise.
In classic teaser fashion, the short video is entirely in black and white and the reimagined DeLorean is only seen for a brief moment.
During its time in frame, the vehicle can be seen opening its gullwing doors, an iconic DeLorean feature.
There’s also a moment where two different V-shaped beams of light sweep across the car.
Coincidentally, this is extremely similar to the lighting signature that Vietnamese automaker VinFast uses across its vehicle line-up.
DMC first announced the original DeLorean, the DMC-12, in the mid-1970s and it made it to production in 1981.
Pictured: Original DeLorean
Originally intended to have a mid-mounted Wankel rotary engine, the DeLorean in the end came with a rear-mounted 2.85-litre naturally-aspirated Peugeot-Renault-Volvo V6 engine that produced 97kW of power and 207Nm of torque.
This was mated to either a five-speed manual or a three-speed automatic that sent power to the rear wheels.
The original DeLorean was designed by world-renowned car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro who founded ItalDesign.
Giugiaro is best known for designing the original Volkswagen Golf, Lotus Esprit S1, Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta SWB Speciale, first-generation Maserati Ghibli, and the Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT, among countless others.
ItalDesign posted a teaser image itself in January 2021, where it showed a very similar design sketch to the one seen in the DMC teaser video.
It’s unclear if the stainless steel body panels will return.
The original DeLorean was only sold over three model years, with its final model year being 1983. This was primarily due to poor build quality and a steep asking price.
Instead of disappearing into obscurity like a Bricklin SV-1, the DeLorean was popularised due to its role in the Back to the Future movie franchise.
DMC has said it plans to reveal the reimagined DeLorean in 2022. It hasn’t provided a clear date yet but it’s expected to be towards the end of the year.
The reason for this is because when you sign up to the email newletter, DMC indicates that it’ll send out “curated history” over the next several months leading up to the reveal.
DMC isn’t alone in bringing back an iconic nameplate and reimagining it in a modern context.
Pictured: Countach LPI 800 -4 and Countach LP 400
Lamborghini revealed its now sold-out Countach LPI 800-4 in August 2021, which cloaked a modern hybrid setup under an angular body inspired by the legendary Countach supercar.
Just 112 of these new Countach models will be built, with each of them having a price tag somewhere around the A$5 million mark.
For now, we’ll have to wait and see what DMC has in store for the reimagined DeLorean sports car.
