I've been in love with this car since before I was born when the movie first came out. When I finally stumbled across the DeLorean Motor Company shop in Orange County, the first thing out of my mouth was, “What do I need to do to buy one of these cars?” Mine was the only one in its price range that was still running, and when I say still running I mean barely still running. It had one functioning brake. The engine was tired. The interior was shot. Over the years I’ve just been building it back together piece by piece. Restoring the car hasn’t been as much of a headache as you might think--they just take the parts right off the shelf. When they first put these into production, there were enough parts to make 30,000 cars, but they only ended up making about 10,000. The parts for the rest of the remaining 20,000 cars now just service the cars that already exist.
People stop me all the time when I’ve driving this car. I could just be going to the gas station and someone will mention Back to the Future. Even driving down the street, people honk and give me the thumbs up. Nobody ever looks at me in a snobby way. I always get a smile--people are happy to see it. When someone shares stories of how much they loved the movies or how much they loved the car or that they'd never seen one in person before, I always tell them that they have to sit in it, just to experience it for themselves. They have to close the door, they have to open the door. They take pictures. When I was younger some guy did that same thing for me. He saw I was crazy about the car and goes, “Here, sit in it!” That changed my life. It was “oh my God” awesome. So now I feel like I have to pass that on.
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