Need a New Time Machine?

Do you ever wish you could just hop in a time machine and travel “back to the future”? Does that time machine have stainless steel paneling, upward opening gull-wing doors and a flux capacitor that will plunge you into the depths of time when the speedometer reaches 88 mph?

Well, dream on because that's mostly science fiction. In fact, until recently, it was completely science fiction.

The car made famous by Marty McFly and Doc Brown in “Back to the Future” was lost in time since the DeLorean Motor Company folded in 1982. But the forgotten DeLorean DMC-12 has reemerged—in the present.

The 135-hp V6 time machine was only in production from 1981-82, with only around 9,000 cars manufactured out of DMC's factory in Northern Ireland. At a base price of around $25,000 (approximately $55,000 in today's dollars), the DMC-12 was on the steep side for John DeLorean's pride and joy. The cars came in one color: unpainted stainless steel. This little piece of history was short lived and—without the help of Universal Studios—would be forgotten.

That was another period in time, though. In 1997, a private buyer from Texas purchased the company and factory stock with plans to reproduce the lost relic. As of 2008, DMC Houston began selling a limited quantity of freshly manufactured (using 80% original materials) DMC-12's.

The “future” models, or rather the newly built cars of the present, still have the same look and feel of the original (yes, the gull-wing doors are still there) but with a few “futuristic” add-ons. Inside you won't find a flux capacitor, but you can fork over some extra dough to get your DMC-12 modernized with XM satellite radio, GPS, backup camera, heated seats and a built-in iPod interface; a handful of things “Doc” never thought to install when he was cruising into the year 2015.

And don't forget the engine upgrade. The original DMC-12 didn't quite satisfy sports car enthusiasts with it's piddly 135-hp engine (about the same as a new Toyota Corolla), and that was the early '80s. With a $5,750 upgrade package, DMC will replace the original engine with a high performance 197-hp engine. But you might as well call it $6,000 with the 140 mph speedometer option.

The DMC site will let you custom-build your DMC-12 to make it your dream car. My custom DeLorean (5-speed manual transmission with the engine upgrade, speedometer, iPod interface, and a stainless steel “DMC” shift knob) comes out to $63,733 before tax and fees. This leaves you with the ultimate question: is buying a new DMC-12 worth dipping deep into your bank account of the future?

When you break it down and make a few comparisons to other new cars in the same price range, it makes you wonder if you should just wait five years for a hoverboard. Keeping in that $64,000 price range, let's see what our other options are: 

You could buy two brand new 2010 Dodge Challenger R/Ts with 250-hp V6 engines and still have about six grand left over...

Another route would be a 2010 Porsche Cayman S with 265-hp and all the bells and whistles you could imagine (minus that flux capacitor, of course). So before you go buy those Nikes, the denim jacket and the orange vest, think again.

But who's to say you have to buy a (mostly) brand new DMC-12 for Porsche prices when you can buy a refurbished or used model for anywhere between $10,000-30,000? Just don't let a new model run into a past version of itself when traveling back in time, or else...

Okay, now you can go buy your Marty McFly attire.