CARS.COM — A blast from the past is coming back for the future. More than three decades after its ignominious ending, the DeLorean, a gull-winged, stainless-steel sports car — iconic thanks to the "Back to the Future" film series — is returning to the assembly line, albeit on a limited basis.
Related: DeLorean Motor Co. Takes Film Fans 'Back to the Future'
According to the Detroit Free Press, DeLorean Motor Co. will produce about 300 new replicas, about four a month, of the 1982 DMC-12 coupe model, notable for its ahead-of-its-time design elements, stainless-steel body and gull-winged doors. The brand is able to return the rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive car to production thanks to a new low-volume manufacturing bill approved by the federal government, the Free Press reported. The new versions reportedly will cost close to $100,000 and will go on sale in early 2017.
Only 9,200 DeLoreans were built during the car's brief production heyday from 1981 to 1984 before shutting down. In the mid-1990s, the newly formed DeLorean Motor Co., which is unaffiliated with founder John DeLorean's estate, acquired the large stockpiles of parts leftover from the original operation and began refurbishing, repairing and rebuilding DeLoreans for enthusiasts at a cost of as much as $58,000 for a model customized to resemble the film version complete with the "flux capacitor" time-travel device.
Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the release of the beloved film in which Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel through time in a DeLorean DMC-12 coupe with some major aftermarket modifications, as well as the "future" date the characters time hopped to — Oct. 21, 2015 — in the film's first sequel. Meanwhile, Lexus commissioned the development of a hoverboard prototype (that actually hovers), the Chicago Cubs got about as close as anyone might've predicted to the World Series and there's been talk of self-lacing Nikes — all things foretold by the franchise.
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