Autoblog

The seller states he's not really sure what this car is worth. Here's our estimate: it's worth even less than a regular '89 Scirocco with 123,000 miles. Why? Because it's been molested into a Delorean imposter. Not just any Delorean, either, but the Back To The Future Delorean, which so many people feel compelled to recreate as a rolling manifestation of their overdeveloped love for a movie prop. Don't get us wrong, the BTTF DMC's masterful design has had astounding resonance with the public, becoming a real icon of its time. It's just that while the original design by Andrew Probert and Ron Cobb was something new, rehashing it endlessly for twenty-five years has gotten tiresome.

With that out of our system, let's go on to say that the seller has a sense of humor about this car. It was used to promote a primary school play, +1 for kickin' it with the kiddies, and there's obviously a lot of effort here. It's also heartwarming that the mods were perpetrated on a somewhat more common Scirocco, versus a rarer Delorean. The Flux capacitor and time circuits have not been tested, according to the seller, so caveat emptor. If it actually works, we'd love to go back and whisper in VW's ear to build more Sciroccos, and do likewise with Johnny Z, too. Bids currently stand at £156 with the reserve not met, so you're not yet OUTATIME. Thanks for the tip, Tim!


[Source: eBay]

Kobe Bryant showed up at UNDFTD this week to kick off the release of Nike's new McFly Hyperdunks. The McFlys are Back to the Future-themed basketball shoes, with a color scheme inspired by the shoes Michael J. Fox wore in Back to the Future II. They come complete with "2015" emblazoned on the right shoe's tongue, while the left one features the BTTF arrow logos. Kobe showed up at the completely-mobbed event in -- what else -- a DeLorean done up just like Doc Brown's movie car. The perennial All-Star posed for pics and signed shoes for the first 10 fans lucky enough to score a pair. Lest you think a special-edition sneaker launch like this is no big thing, know that there were people lined up outside the joint for as long as 24 hours. Nike's missing the boat if we don't get a viral of Kobe jumping over that DeLorean as a sequel to the Aston video. I mean, he's got big ups, but clearing that Mr. Fusion won't be easy. Follow the jump for a short clip of Marty putting on the shoes that started this madness some 19 years ago. Thanks for the heads-up, Steve.

[Hypebeast via Autofiends]

Judging from how a generation of thirty-somethings have images of a flying, fusion-powered DeLorean imprinted in their DNA, we'd say that Back To The Future has left its mark. Likewise, Highland Green '68 Mustang fastbacks only look appropriate wearing American Racing Torq-Thrust Ds and flying through the air. Bullitt might not have quite as broad an influence since it wasn't a comedy, but it's touched at least two generations of car nuts and sparked two commemorative edition cars. Because of the cultural significance of these films, they've been named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for preservation in perpetuity.

BTTF and Bullitt are but two of a total of 25 great films that the National Film Preservation Board and the Librarian of Congress have chosen as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant." The list this year includes greats from a variety of genres, though it's still a little strange to think of Marty McFly's character being as deep as Humphrey Bogart's lead in fellow nominee "In a Lonely Place." Bullitt's 11-minute car chase was certainly the most talked about aspect of the film, but the tense cop drama was also well acted and has a superb score. Back To The Future's special effects really pushed the envelope, while the underlying story proved portable through two sequels sharing the same basic plot. It's quite a gift to car guys and children of the '80s who've wanted to have a badass green Mustang and a sleek (if not fast) DeLorean parked next to each other in the garage to see these two films topping the list, but the 23 other films named to the register are just as worthwhile. Our Saturday nights will be wrapped up for a while working through the movies named. We'll start with Bullitt, though.

[Source: Library of Congress]

Okay, let's get this straight. Back to the Future movies: cool. Making your DeLorean into a replica of the movie car: incredibly lame. Halfway between would be a reproduction flux capacitor. If you did buy this thing, you could certainly attain full lameness by installing in in your non-DeLorean.

There were talented people working in the entertainment industry to dream up those iconic vehicles of the 1980s like KITT, the BTF DeLorean and the A-Team van. Those cars have staying power with a generation of enthusiasts, but dressing up your car to match a prop is akin to putting on your C-3PO finery to go see Episode III. If you must have it for your '96 Neon, climb the stairs from your basement lair and ask your mom for $220 for what equates to a couple of lights in a box. Hey, Christmas is coming, if you jump up and down and stomp like you did in '85, you'll find this thing under the tree.

[Source: Engadget]

There's still a Delorean Motor Company, but it's not in the business of building new vehicles. At least not yet. The Texas-based firm purchased a lot of the assets of John DeLorean's original entity when it went belly-up, and it, along with its regional affiliates, does a brisk business keeping the dream alive. There are about 6,500 of the 9,000 DeLoreans produced still out there, but stocks of viable restoration candidates are petering out. Every time some child of the 1980s builds a replica of the Back To The Future time machine, we lose another candidate to stupidity. The recreations do serve to keep the popularity of the gullwing GTs up, we suppose, but the modifications required end up making a car that is more conspicuous than a bright red Maybach in Amish country.

My overbearing opinion out of the way, the crux of the biscuit is that DeLorean Motor Company may soon start building new DeLoreans. They'll be produced as kit cars, side-stepping the tighter restrictions placed on truly serial-produced cars. Once DeLorean Motor Company has cleared its plate of restoration work, likely by March or April 2008, it'll start on the new cars. We'll be keeping our eye on what materializes on the DMC front – being old enough to have seen BTF in the theatres, of course we've got a lust to have a DMC-12 sitting in our driveway, whether or not we have the optional Mr. Fusion installed.

Thanks to tipster Doug.

[Source: LA Times]

While perusing Autoblog Latino and brushing up on my Spanglish, I noticed this post that led me to a site called Paper Inside. Its simple tagline – Paper Models are Paper Inside – hints at what you'll find below the fold. The site offers numerous free downloads of paper models that arrive in your printer tray as 2D sheets awaiting entry into the third dimension. We chose the Ecto 1 model to highlight above because it's pretty intricate, but you'll also find the DeLorean from Back to the Future, the General Lee, Speed Racer's Mach-5, the Tumbler from Batman Begins, Mad Max's Interceptor and a McLaren MP4-22 race car. That's not to mention the numerous crafts from Star Wars and Start Trek that are also available. If you poke around, you'll also find links out to other paper model sites where even more vehicles are available.

We downloaded a few models in PDF, and were immediately stumped. The assembly instructions for most consist of dozens of pictures, each lacking any verbiage save for the name of a particular paper piece and an arrow showing where it goes. We'll sit down soon with a pair of child-proof scissors and see if we can't crank one out, but we expect this project will quickly turn into a contest of whose paper airplane can fly the farthest.

[Source: Paper Inside via Autoblog Latino]

This is what happens when you don't get those 1.21 Jigowatts of power flowing cleanly. One unfortunate Delorean owner recently had a bit of a meltdown, but we don't think Doc Brown was anywhere in the immediate vicinity. An instant classic after its appearance in the "Back To The Future" movies, the Delorean was one of those "could have been" cars that captured a lot of people's imaginations. Among them is director Robert Zemeckis, who cast the Irish-built, French-powered, stainless-steel wonder in his films. The gullwing doors, naked stainless body and overall rakish shape promised so much more than the Renault V6 delivered, but the car still had quite a following.

The DeLorean still does have a following, as a matter of fact. Some people even use them as their daily drivers. This particular example was found near a pawn shop, and photographed for posterity. We see no evidence of a Flux Capacitor, so we can only guess that those modifications burned away during this sample's untimely demise. With nearly 130 years of wear and tear on it, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that it might have had a few mechanical issues. It did manage to succeed in traveling from 1985 to 1955 and back again, with stops in 2015 and 1885 along the way, after all.

Thanks for the tip, aL!

[Source: Chalkline]

The DeLorean Motor Company owes a lot to the Back to the Future franchise for its reverred place in pop culture history. While the original DeLorean Motor Company has ceased to exist, a different DeLorean Motor Company is now operating that does everything for the DMC-12, including full restores and offering original factory replacement parts. The new DMC also has a sense of humor, as the Digg.com community learned last night.

Someone noticed that if you typed "flux" into DMC's online store search, the results would come up with a Flux Capacitor (part #18851985 - nice) for $5,995. This led to other Digg members trying out different searches, and it wasn't long before a Hover Conversion was also found (part #19852015) for $12,995. Needless to say, the Digg community went crazy, voted the submission to up over 3,000 diggs, and inundated DMC's website traffic. Some people actually went so far as to the order the fictitious parts, which required them to enter their credit card numbers, and in turn they received an actual order confirmation.



Last night around 11PM EST, however, DMC decided it had had enough fun and took the items out of its inventory. Thankfully, they're good sports and reinserted the items today, this time without prices. So, if you've got a DeLorean, you can now get your flux capacitor and hover conversion, too. Then all you'll need is 1.21 gigawatts!

[Source: Digg]

On the heels of yet another movie promotion for Pixar's Cars, Cars.com (natch) has gone and selected what it considered the ten best movie cars of all time, along with five it figures should've been earmarked for the compactor.

The envelope, please ...

Best:

1. 1981 DeLorean DMC-12, "Back to the Future"
2. 1961 Ferrari 250 GT, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (for completists, that's a 250 GT California Spyder SWB, guys)
3. 1974 Dodge Monaco, "The Blues Brothers"
4. 1964 Aston Martin DB5, "Goldfinger"
5. Batmobile Tumbler, "Batman Begins"
6. 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390, "Bullitt"
7. 1959 Cadillac Ambulance, "Ghostbusters"
8. 1958 Plymouth Fury, "Christine"
9. 1973 Ford Falcon, "The Road Warrior" (pictured)
10. 2003 Mini Cooper S, "The Italian Job"

Worst:

1. 1983 Ford LTD Country Squire, "National Lampoon's Vacation"
2. 1974 Dodge Tradesman, "Napoleon Dynamite"
3. Winnebago Chieftain, "Spaceballs"
4. 1984 Ford Econoline, "Dumb and Dumber"
5. 1963 Volkswagen Beetle, "Herbie: Fully Loaded"

Technical details, unique features and an explanation as to how they ranked the vehicles are at the link. Apparently, we've got more love for the Griswold's metallic pea-soup Wagonqueen Family Truckster than the folks at Cars.com. C'mon... where's your sense of humor, guys?

[Source: Cars.com]

Great Scott! An incredible replica of Doc Brown's DeLorean from the Back to the Future movies is up on the auction block via everybody's favorite internet auction place, Ebay. We're used to amenities such as flight and time travel capability, but the vehicle also sports a cassette player, leather seats, power windows and locks, and air-conditioning. The reserve hasn't been met yet at time of press, despite the current $45K price tag. The replica even has a "working" flux capacitor, realistic exterior lighting, and other parts cast from the original.

[Source: Ebay]

(Thanks to Tim for the tip)