The 'Back to the Future' Delorean was Originally Going to Be a Different Car
Discover how the famed DeLorean from “Back to the Future” almost didn’t make the cut.
Written by Alex Reale
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
Los Angeles is a dazzlingly multifaceted place, but it’s often reduced down to two things: Hollywood, and driving constantly.
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Tinseltown churns out a lot of movies about cars. For fans of the “Fast & Furious” franchise, it’s all about a certain orange Toyota Supra, and anyone familiar with Lindsay Lohan’s body of work knows and loves her Herbie reboot. There are lots of
iconic cars
in the history of movies, but only one that could take a teen from the ‘80s to the ‘50s. Read on to discover how the famed DeLorean from “Back to the Future” almost didn’t make the cut.
A flash in the pan
Though the DeLorean is now a household name, it was once just another promising novice in the American car market. The founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, John Z. DeLorean, was a star executive at General Motors who left the firm in the 1970s to work on his own designs. His efforts yielded the DMC-12, or the DeLorean, a stainless steel sports car whose doors famously opened up, not out.
The vehicle was a bit gimmicky, and combined with its comparatively slow 0-to-60 capabilities (eight seconds) and high-for-the-time $25,000 price tag, it did not sell particularly well. The DeLorean, notes
History.com
, couldn’t quite get its financial footing, and after its helmsman was discovered at the center of an unfortunate cocaine scandal, it appeared to be doomed.Let Jerry find your price in only 45 seconds
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Luckily for the DeLorean’s legacy, screenwriter Bob Gale was a fan. Several drafts of “Back to the Future” were written with a refrigerator as the time-traveling device, but after producer Steven Spielberg
voiced concerns
about kids climbing into fridges to imitate the movie, it was determined that a car would take its place.But which car would take center stage? Doc Brown very nearly owned a Ford Mustang, which would have come with a nice chunk of change for the sponsor spot.
But Bob Gale felt strongly that the eccentric Doc would not drive a Mustang, notes
YesAuto
. For an off-beat character, they needed an off-beat car, and the scandal-beset, wing-doored, not-painted DeLorean looked like the perfect match. Nearly 40 years after the movie hit theaters, it looks like Mr. Gale was right.A legacy for the DeLorean
“Back to the Future” is a movie of near-misses: they almost didn’t get Michael J. Fox, they almost didn’t get a car in the mix, and for that car they almost didn’t nab a DeLorean. Luckily for movie fans, all these details finally fell into place, and “Back to the Future” secured its place in film history as the ultimate time travel movie.
And luckily for car fans, an unusual offering from a short-lived company will never be forgotten. Perhaps it was Doc Brown himself who turned the DeLorean into a classic with this iconic line: “If you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?”
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