Women + DeLorean = Hot

Came across this article while researching my book:

Ask Me About My Flux Capacitor - New York Times

Photo Credit: Mark Rabiner for The New York Times

By RICHARD S. CHANG

Published: April 6, 2008

THINGS happen when you own a DeLorean, the sports car turned ultimate time machine in the “Back to the Future” films.
[...]
“Having a DeLorean is like 5 percent being a rock star,” said Lauren J. Reilly, a bubbly 31-year-old producer at the Deutsch advertising agency who owns a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 — the only model DeLorean built (and for just two years).
[...]
“One time I was down in Philly, and behind me I hear this megaphone from the cops,” she said. “They’re like, ‘Pull over!’ ”Before Ms. Reilly could comprehend her violation, an officer delivered one of the film’s famous quotes over the police car’s loudspeaker: “One point twenty-one gigawatts!” (She also gets a lot of “88 miles per hour!”) The officers watched her car while she and a friend got cheesesteaks.

It's funny but it's true. That car was such a huge hassle but it got everyone's attention. When we finally got to use the DeLorean for the Doc Brown show, my director and I joked that we wouldn't even need a script. (Sadly, what we ended up writing would really put that theory to the test.)

I was only 7 when DeLorean (the car) started being produced and not much older when DeLorean (the man) was arrested. Since cars, drugs and bankruptcy were at the bottom of my list of interests at that age, these events passed without my knowledge.

It wasn't until I was 11 when “Back to the Future” came out that I got my first glimpse of the DMC-12. From that moment on, as far as I knew, that was what a time machine looked like. Aside from in movies, I'd never seen that kind of car anywhere else. To this day, I've seen maybe two that weren't owned by Universal Studios and I don't think I've ever seen one on the highway. That car really does have a mythic quality to it.

There were only 8563 built. One of them was cut in half for the production of "Back to the Future". One sits at Universal Studios in California. One in Florida. One in Japan. And one, I got to drive for a living.

It was like hanging out with a movie star.

[Special thanks to Ken T. for having the foresight to take such a cool picture of the VIN plate.]