DeLorean Motor Co. mechanic Danny Botkin has built six movie replica cars so far, relying on photos he took when he helped restored the original “Back to the Future” car.
“‘Back to the Future’ is getting bigger and bigger, especially among kids who watched the movie in 1985 and now have enough money to own a piece of it,” Botkin said.
Each replica costs about $45,000. Passengers can punch in a “destination time” on the control panel and pull a lever to activate the pulsing lights of the time circuit. The parts are recreated using military surplus and other equipment, such as a jet engine oil cooler.
“We’ve never advertised that we build these,” Botkin said. “It’s just been a side thing we do. If people ask us to do it, we’ll do it.”
The current DeLorean Motor Co. was started by Wynne’s father, Stephen Wynne.
He bought the original company’s remaining parts. The parts, including 1,000 gullwing doors, fill 40,000 square feet (3,700 square meters) of warehouse space in Houston, Cameron Wynne said.
Seven years ago, DeLorean began re-manufacturing the sports car using donor cars that are stripped and fitted with remaining or remanufactured parts.
“We constantly have customers calling us that have had their cars in storage for 10, 20, 30 years, and they want to get rid of it,” Cameron Wynne said.
But the DeLorean isn’t resting on its laurels. The company, which has a handful of locations nationwide and one in the Netherlands, is working on an all-electric version. The company wants it to travel 100 miles (160 kilometers) on a charge and accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (0 to 96 kph) in under 5 seconds.
However, it won’t need the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity required by Doc Brown’s version.
source: business.inquirer.net
