Back To The Future Trilogy: Top 30 Vehicles

#1- 1981 DeLorean DMC-12

“…If you’re gonna build a time machine, why not do it with some style.

Appeared in: Back to the Future I, II and III

There’s only one vehicle that can hold title as number one and it’s Dr. Emmet Brown’s 1981 DeLorean DMC-12. There’s hardly a vehicle in the history of movies that can hold a candle to the popularity of the DeLorean except maybe for the Aston Martin DB-5. They only made around 1,023 units of the Aston and more than 9000 units of the DeLorean so you’re more likely to come across a DeLorean then a DB-5 in your lifetime.

The DeLorean was built between 1981-1983 and was characterized by its stainless steel body, design by Giorgetto Giugiaro, its 2.85 liter V6 derived from Renault and its Gull wing doors. The doors as a matter of fact were one of the main reasons that the producers chose the DeLorean in the first place thanks to its futuristic looks.  At first, producers were going to choose a refrigerator as Doc’s time machine but that was scrapped as the producer didn’t want children replicating the stunt in real life. After the DeLorean was chosen due to its radical design, the first sketch was thrown out the window for what Doc’s DeLorean would look like for being to clean. The producers wanted something that looked like it was built in the Doc’s garage.  One vent was initially put on to mimic a nuclear reactor stack with a second vent added to even things out.

The DeLorean in reality has a top speed of 135 MPH and has the capabilities to reach 60 MPH in 8.8 seconds. As for why 88 MPH was chosen, there really isn’t an official response from Universal Studios. Some fan theories think that 88 MPH just happened to fill in a digital display quite nicely while other theories are a bit more complicated.

All in all, seven DeLoreans were used in the film.

"Ultimately, five real DeLoreans were used in the filming of the trilogy, plus one “process” car built for interior shots. In the off-road scenes in the third film, a modified-for-off-road VW Beetle frame was fitted to the DeLorean with the whitewall tires and baby moon hubcaps.A seventh DeLorean was also used in the filming; however, this one was merely a full-sized, fiberglass model used for exterior shots where the vehicle hovers above the set as well as when the actors interact with the vehicle."